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.
Invisible
I couldn't have stayed at the company and stayed in California. Every single person from my director to the VP was gone. Everyone who knew Donatella Ferrer and what I had done in 27 was gone. I stayed
I was fortunate. I had an ally in my boss. While the board president was a woman who didn't always trust my abilities, my boss, a man, knew what I could do. We didn't have a managing director for a year, so he let me do it.
I was working with a person who was selling the company something. He came to the corporate office to sell me something and he called me to meet him in the lobby. I came downstairs and he was standing there looking like he was thinking, "Where is she?" I walked up to him and he was like, "Jory? Jory?" I could tell by the look on his face that something in his head wasn't lining up.
I had finished a long week finishing a photo shoot up in Seattle. It was cold, snowing. I was waiting to be picked up by a town car to take me to the airport. The limo driver walked right by me and asked the guy at the desk, "Where is Ms.
