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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.
They placed me in affordable housing
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Law Firm
- In-House Counsel
- Advancement
- Assignments
- Broken Promises
- Stereotyping
- Stifled Growth
- Underutilized
When I first got the job offer, I was going to be in the business division. After I started working, however, they placed me in the affordable housing division. There had been another African-American man in affordable housing, but then he left. I didn't want to do it because it was a narrow field and I wanted to get more exposure to commercial real estate in general. I was trying to be a team player, but in terms of steering my career in a direction so that I could obtain more upward mobility professionally, I wanted a wider scope.