Today’s Daily Journal [subscription] includes an excerpt of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s contribution to the recently published book, “What I Told My Daughter.” In the book, a diverse group of dozens of powerful women — Mia Hamm, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Laura Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolores Huerta, to name a few — share advice they’ve given their daughters.
Among other things, the Chief Justice explains how life is like basketball. A former 
hoopster herself, she told her daughters when they played that the rules could be followed strategically. If they were being kicked around on the court without consequence, her daughters were told to use four of their five fouls. “Use the rules to your advantage; don’t waste opportunities,” is her advice.
The Chief Justice also reflects on career paths, which, she says, should have no rules. She did not have a master plan to become chief justice, or to be appointed to any of her three previous judicial positions. Instead, she explains, “I met lawyers who saw the future of the bench and bar as something other than patrilineal institutions” and “who saw the future and me in it.”