Browse Stories
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. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
Desiree Davidson's Experiences
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.
As a summer associate, I was assigned a partner-mentor and one afternoon, I sat in on a client conference call with her.
There was one associate who was so rude and brushed me aside because he assumed I was an overly friendly secretary.
When I was getting ready to quit the law firm I was working at, I started interviewing at other firms.
I worked with a particular senior attorney for years and one morning I went into his office to talk to him.
Black associates in the litigation department had it worse than me. They were always staffed on document review, which is essentially the grunt work of litigation.