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
When I started my company, we had one of the most diverse management teams ever. In my years in corporations, I never heard diversity talked about.
Within my 31 years at the company, because it was in California, slowly some of my bosses started to look like me. I worked for an Asian woman. She was a nightmare to work with. But she did move the initiative of getting more women in the workplace forward.
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.
