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.
Diversity Policy
I did have frustrations with the diversity committee. It often seemed that they did not consider LGBT individuals to be minorities.
When the new Vice President of Diversity was brought on I was hopeful that she would be supportive of the LGBT community.
As a summer associate, I was assigned a partner-mentor and one afternoon, I sat in on a client conference call with her.
