Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were They Afraid We Were Planning a Coup D'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing.
Sabina Clark's Experience
The review is always the first thing. People are scared to talk to you and be honest with you. For example, I teach legal writing and one of my students was a clerk at a large law firm. Right before she left to study for the bar she got a really bad review.
Part of the reason I think about staying is that I feel loyal to my region. One of the good things my firm has done is to get me on the board of a prestigious community organization. I did it reluctantly because I didn't think I'd have time for it, but on the board I'm in an environment with African-American professional business people.
I'm going to put together a proposal because I realize that we don't have a diversity policy at this firm. Let's take a look at what is going on. At this firm the last three associates that have left have been associates of color.
In my current job, one of the partners took me to a business meeting just to get more black people there. Because of that, another attorney said to me, "Well, yeah, you know this particular partner really likes working with you, really likes toting you around.
It wasn't news to anyone that my supervisor was vicious. I would get cut off when I tried to talk about it because nobody wanted to deal with it. I think they let her stay because of money. She is really smart.
I remember one conversation I had with an African-American partner about Venus and Serena Williams. The partner knew about their history and how they had grown up in Compton and how it must have been for them and their dad.
Having other African-Americans to work with there would be a different dynamic. Something as simple as the attorney's lunch that would happen every Friday. We would experiment to see how we could shift the environment.
One thing that was different at the second firm I joined is that the partner I worked with, my boss, was an African-American man. In addition to about 35 associate attorneys in the office, there were two black partners and four African-American female associates.
I wanted to get more experience than my previous firm was giving me so I picked the biggest, baddest New York firm I could find. It's an environment where the work is so expensive and the clients expect so much and the demands are so high that there isn't time for anyone to be concerned with whether you are black, white or pin-striped or a woman.
Sometimes somebody would get the African-American women in the office confused, and I would get another African-American woman's documents delivered to me. I'd be walking down the hall and someone would say, "Oh Tamika, I put those documents on your chair." I'm not Tamika, she's another African American female attorney.