The S Ct long ago ruled exactly the opposite of what you just said and shook your head about. Gosh are you dumb. |
As opposed being mediocre and propped up by affirmative action? |
That's a nice but of fantasy you're writing for yourself. |
I'm a black female mom in big law. This is all true in my experience and super depressing. No one ever admits this except here, in an anonymous forum. |
Citation? |
This thread is interesting.
I am a POC who started my career in Big Law. At the time, there was only one POC partner and he wielded significant power because he had been high up at DOJ and was a tremendous rainmaker. While I was there, I was told a number of negative things about my ability and my future – one partner was especially nasty. It was demoralizing. Well POC partner told me that he learned early on that POC cannot make partner like others make partner. There are too many minefields for most associates, but especially women and POC, to come up through the ranks. We need to do some time in BigLaw, go elsewhere (government or in-house), forge relationships and come back with our books in tow. Well, I did my time there and moved on. I am now the Dep GC at a medium/large company and I control a $30 million outside counsel budget – nothing huge but enough to get some attention from Big Law partners. My internal clients are diverse and very smart – a legal team that is not diverse would not be an easy sell. I do not “insist” on diversity with respect to my outside counsel but I do ask if I do not see any. If I get a BS answer, it is likely that the firm will not get my business. Having been where I have been and working with diverse clients, I KNOW that the definition of “qualified” is not a static definition. I also know that there are a lot of qualified lawyers who do not fit the Big Law mold. |
http://www.lawfficespace.com/2013/12/yes-white-males-are-protected-class.html OP again. Supreme Court cases cited in link. Yep, I am a lawyer (I'm not the poster above who called you dumb). I appreciate and am learning from all of the comments. Thank you! |
Are you kidding? Look at the language of Title VII. It says "race" and "sex". It does not say "black race" or "female sex." |
Good for you. (Another POC attorney, in-house here). |
I wish this message was clearer to me when I was a younger black big law associate. I wouldn't have taken the criticism so hard and blamed myself. I did everything I could to make it work, billed tons of hours, wrote briefs, was the first in my class to take a deposition for a paying client, but I got the bad review during my 4th year that I "lacked attention to detail" and would need to find another job. No negative feedback from the partners and my firm had a policy that we couldn't read the reviews because the partners wouldn't be candid. It was a big firm in Chicago. It was the only thing I've ever "failed" at achieving. To law school, law review, etc. Ironically, it was for the best, because like y'all, I went into the government (clerking then SEC), worked my way up, and am an in-house attorney who's doing incredibly well (7 years in house). It was a difficult few years and it took time to get my confidence back. I'll never forget during my last day I demanded and made copies of my reviews. They were full of things I've never heard about, events I was never involved in...just lies. I didn't fight it, but left, clerked, and realized that even if I did something, the negative attention would be career suicide and firms aren't dumb...there's plenty of ways to meet their burden to beat off a discrimination complaint through endless papering of files. I wish we were more honest. |
NP. Have you read any of the recent posts?? Time and again people have experienced first-hand or noticed minorities and women being pushed to the sidelines or forced out entirely. I don't think anyone here is advocating for diversity simply for the sake of diversity. The point is that there are plenty of minority and women attorneys who kick ass but are not as valued and are not provided the same opportunities as white men at their firms. Clients know this and are rightfully beginning to insist that these ass-kicking women and minorities - who are often doing important work behind-the-scenes - be included as a visible, meaningful member of the team. There is absolutely nothing discriminatory about that. |
Thanks so much for posting this! I'm the PP black female mom in big law and really needed this. I'm in the midst of the storm right now and am glad to hear that you landed very well. I'm looking for my next opportunity now (in-house or gov) and this gives me hope. |
PP here. If you can swing it, clerking is a fantastic bridge. I used my severance to help deal with the pay cut and get adjusted to the lower salary. I've spent several years in the 100-125K range until I went in house. I now am in the 250K-300K range about 15 years in. I obviously took a hit for about 10 years where I wasn't making much. But I did actually have the time to fall in love (an impossibility when I was working 70 hour weeks and traveling tons at biglaw), have two kids, and build my life up. In a strange way, I found my way to a great life. But I won't lie, it was a hard year. I spent a lot of my clerkship year working with a therapist to move forward in a healthy way. Good luck, PP. |
I want you to be my mentor! LOL!! I clerked at the district court level straight out of law school. An appellate clerkship may be awkward at this point (I'm 9 years out). I've wrapped my mind around the pay cut and have a very healthy personal life outside of the firm. But the firm has really played a Jedi mind trick with me professionally and I feel like shit. Not to totally derail this thread, but therapy is a good idea. What kind of therapist did you contact? If you want to start a new thread, I'll look out for it on this board. THANKS! |
I had a great CBT therapist. I got some "free coaching" as part of my severance, but I didn't find it all that helpful. Through my federal insurance, I was able to find a good CBT to change my own mindset and to try to become more mindful of who I am and what I want instead of trying to achieve for the sake of achieving. I wouldn't worry about clerking as a more senior attorney. My judge actually preferred it! Look for new judges, they are often in a rush to staff. I got lucky that way. |