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.
Underutilized
The change in work assignments made me feel marginalized, demoralized, under-utilized and I felt that I had been put into a dead-end job that more than doubled my daily commute.
I was groomed to ascend to executive status in a fast track management program for an international financial institution.
When I interviewed with this pharmaceutical company, the human resources representative told me that I was being hired to sell to the black physicians.
Black associates in the litigation department had it worse than me. They were always staffed on document review, which is essentially the grunt work of litigation.
My previous job was with a consulting firm. I was there for about six years. I left because the company I was consulting for was going through reductions and consultants were going to be the first cut.
When I left the second financial services firm, I had a doubled-edged situation. My numbers were so high that they couldn't deny that. I wrote a report and my boss said to me, "You wrote this?" She was surprised that I could do it.
I joined the technology company in the mid-80s. They wanted to be become a market-driven company, rather than an engineering-driven company. They recruited me because I had been at a large competitor and had been quite successful.
The company started recognizing that they needed to retain and attract minority women. I became part of their advisory board. I had a lot of exposure to senior level officers and I think a lot of them recognized the importance of diversity.
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.
The first law firm I left specialized in environmental law and had about 40 to 50 attorneys. I left the firm because I wasn't getting the training I wanted. I wasn't getting the experience I needed. When I started comparing notes with people who graduated with me from law school and with associates at the firm, I realized the kind of assignments I was getting were completely different.
