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.
I saw the stark difference between a supportive environment and an unwelcome environment
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Asian
- Law Firm
- Law Firm
- Development
- Mentors
- Positive Experience
- Stifled Growth
I was lucky when I graduated from law school that my first job was with an Asian non-profit legal organization. It was an Asian dominated environment and a woman dominated environment. What I realized going from that environment into a different environment was that having a woman nurturing my skills created opportunities for me and allowed me to ask for mentorship, which made it easy to be at the skill level I am at now. When I was at the immigration firm it was quite the opposite. I saw some of the women's skills not progressing because the environment was such that they couldn't create those opportunities. I saw the stark difference.