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Dec
12
Nneka Ukpai Scores Victory for Client and the System
Filed Under: Law School News, Social Engineer, The Profession • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
Dehlia Umunna, Esq., Kenyatta Little, and Nneka Ukpai
While in Boston for the Harvard BLSA Spring Conference, I stopped by the Roxbury Court House where my Georgetown Law classmate, Judge Shannon Frison, was presiding over a trial. At the defense table sat a petite teenager in a Sunday dress charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer.
With her future hanging in the balance, Kenyatta Little, had elected to have counsel provided by Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute. Kenyatta’s team consisted of HSL 3L, Nneka Ukpai, and her HLS instructor, Dehlia Umunna, Esq. The program allows HLS students to try cases under the close supervision of a licensed attorney. According to HLS:
Fighting for their criminal clients is the hallmark of the HLS Criminal Justice Institute, a curriculum-based legal clinic founded in 1990 by HLS Professor Charles Ogletree ’78. Through the Institute, which is currently directed by Clinical Professor Ronald Sullivan’94, third-year HLS students have the opportunity to represent indigent criminal defendants and juveniles in Boston-area district and juvenile courts, all under the supervision of expert clinical faculty members.
While simultaneously enrolled in a clinical course, CJI students are assigned five or six criminal cases each semester and handle everything from arraignment through trial, including interviewing witnesses, investigation, motions practice, developing case theories, and preparing and conducting witness examinations and argument.
When I entered the courtroom, Ms. Ukpai was delivering her closing argument. In a manner both composed and compassionate, the future litigator assembled the evidentiary pieces of the case–her client was an active high school student, who rather than disturbing the peace, had only been trying to calm the uproar of others; the police officers gave conflicting accounts of the evening; and one officer’s assertion that he was hit in the chest by the half-pint defendant seemed to defy common sense. At her conclusion she’d painted a convincing portrait of innocence.
While the prosecutor fumbled with papers and repeated himself before abruptly ending his closing statement, Ms. Ukpai knew the case cold. The only time she consulted a notepad was to read verbatim testimony damning to the state’s case. As I listened to Ms. Ukpai, my eyes scanned the courtroom for Kenyatta’s support system–a family member, a classmate, a community activist, a minister, even a member of the black press. I saw no one. (A quick google search revealed that aside from a brief arrest mention in a local blog, no one had bothered to even report on how such a case ended up going to trial). I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone cared about this young woman. My answer came an hour later when the jury returned with its verdicts. As the first charge was read, Dehlia Umunna, Esq. draped her arm around her trembling client, who with each “Not Guilty” regained a little more of her life which had hung in the balance for nearly a year.
This was Ms. Ukpai’s first trial. Attorney Umunna has likely tried hundreds of cases. Their obvious preparation and genuine concern made them both look like pros. The Institute’s website states:
The mission of the Criminal Justice Institute is to educate Harvard Law School students in becoming effective, ethical and zealous criminal defense lawyer-advocates through practice in representing indigent individuals involved in the Massachusetts court system as well as to research and present issues and debates about the criminal and juvenile justice systems in order to effect local and national reform.
Mission accomplished!
Dec
8
5 Things Black Prospective Law Students Should Consider
Filed Under: Law School News, The Profession • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
US News & World Reports released its law school rankings earlier this week, and OBABL would like to weigh in. We often hear that black perspective law students rely on US News when choosing which law school to attend. This is a HUGE mistake. Frankly, it’s a mistake for all students, but it is especially damning for future black lawyers. To begin with, many of the things that US News takes into account are anachronistic. What does it matter how many volumes are in the law school library when research is increasingly done online. A whopping 40% of the ranking score is based on the subjective measure of a law school’s reputation. Perhaps something could be gained from a reporting of the number of judges, general counsel, and biglaw partners hailing from particular law schools since it is reasonable to assume that these distinguished alumni would favor graduates of their law schools, but that’s NOT how the figure is calculated. US News takes the “opinion” of people from OTHER law schools. What does a Vermont Law School dean know about Mercer Law School in Macon, Ga? Probably, not much.
The biggest misconception lies in prospective law students’ belief that a direct correlation exists between a graduate’s law school rank and her first job’s salary and prestige. With few exceptions, this is not the case. Many T-14 graduates find themselves unemployed or in low-paying legal jobs following law school. There are few jobs more prestigious than a federal appeals court clerkship, and according to Law Clerk Addict, a graduate of the perennially fourth tier Southern University Law School clerked for a 5th Circuit judge last year. Only two employers are obsessed with law school rankings—the largest 250 (out of over 40,000) law firms and law school faculty, which, as you can see from OBABL’s pie chart, make up a very small fraction of legal jobs.
Here are the five things black prospective law students SHOULD consider when deciding on a law school.
1. The financial cost to you – This is the single most important factor to weigh before deciding on a law school. We’ve reported here on studies showing that minorities have more law school debt than their while peers. This is debt that can’t be extinguished in a bankruptcy and could call your bar into question, so take it seriously. Now how you should factor the cost will vary depending on where the money is coming from. If no law school is offering you a scholarship, the cost analysis is as simple as calculating the tuition and living expenses. Schools offering scholarships should be given added consideration because those institutions are showing you the love and are likely to look out for you more once you’re there. They are also betting on you to be successful there. Schools not offering you money are placing their bets elsewhere.
2. Size and influence of the law school’s black alumni – Identity politics are alive and well in ever corner of this nation. People tend to gravitate and bond with people they identify with, which is more often than not people who look like them. Chances are your most effective networking will be with BLSA alumni. If that network is small or nonexistent, you’re on your own, kid.
3. BLSA size and involvement level – Students are always anxious to find mentors and build relationships with people they admire. Overtime one comes to understand that your strongest relationships are usually with your peers. One of a law school’s greatest assets is its student body. Your greatest asset then is the BLSA student body. (See #2 for more explanation).
4. Black faculty to black law student ratio – We hate to harp on this identify politics thing, but it’s real, people. Law students need faculty for guidance, as well as, job leads, research advice, letters of recommendation, and campus fellowships. Black faculty members do the best they can to help everyone who needs it, but there are a finite number of waking hours in a day, and with teaching, publishing, and committee commitments, they are often over extended. If in a crunch something has to give, that something will likely be you.
5. Graduate employment rate of black students – this factor would’ve been higher on our list if there was any real way to verify this figure. As we stated earlier, the number reported are a bit unreliable. We do suggest getting in touch with the BLSA chapters at schools you’re considering. They will have a general sense of how the job market is shaking out for their community. Besides, if you’ve followed the advice laid out in 1 thru 4, you’re already ahead of the game.
Dec
7
Lesson 7: Five Ways To Make Partner
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Profession, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Yesterday, several classmates shared their Big Law horror stories. Today, for those of you who dream of making partner, I bring you happy endings. Five black attorneys from Georgetown Law’s class of 1995 have made partner in firms with 100 or more attorneys. This represents nearly 10 percent of our class, which seems in keeping with the averages of other groups (though there is little way of knowing since law school job placement records are incomplete and inaccurate). Interestingly, though women represented about half of our class, only one woman made partner. Only one of the five partners has spent his entire career at one firm. So enough with the stalling, you want to run with wolves? Here’s how you do it.
Be the best.
Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP: Darren Skinner is a partner resident in the Washington, DC office, where he focuses his practice on corporate and securities matters. He has participated in the firm’s representation of private and sovereign clients in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia in connection with a variety of transactions that include capital markets offerings and private placements (including private equity and venture capital investments), mergers and acquisitions, project financings, debt restructurings, and investment fund and new venture formations.
Darren Skinner was one of only two black law students to graduate with an honor’s distinction. As I mentioned earlier, the other cum laude graduate did not find success in the law firm environment, so by graduating at the top of your class, ones chances of making partner are about 50/50. Darren’s family is from the Caribbean, and he seemed to bring a level of seriousness and formality to his study and career that harkens back to a bygone era. When training the group of lawyers who would change the course of history for African Americans, Charles Hamilton Houston would tell them, “You’ve got to be twice as good as the white, or you will lose.” Generations later, Darren seems to have taken this to heart. He arrived at Georgetown Law already holding Master of Laws degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard.
Darren represents a rarity among black partners. He is homegrown, nurtured by Arnold & Porter LLP since his time there as a summer associate. He was the first of many to speak of how, even with his academic accomplishments, he would not have made it at his firm without supportive co-workers and good mentors. It is clear Darren enjoys the practice of law and likely doesn’t mind a little shop talk over the kitchen table—his wife is an attorney also.
Four more partners after the jump…
Dec
6
Lesson 6: Think of the Law Firm as Finishing School
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Profession, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Ken Gibson is the kind of guy you might find in a John Grisham novel. Tall with a long distance runner’s lean body, he’s got a smile that often breaks into a grin. His career and personal life—West Point, Gulf War, a wife, and three kids—speak to his intelligence, integrity and loyalty. If all that weren’t appealing enough to law firms, Ken knows people. His father, William Gibson, was the longtime chair of the NAACP and civil rights leaders, Julian Bond and Rev. Jesse L. Jackson spoke at his funeral. Yet at three law firms, one a large international firm and two large regional firms, he found himself shut out.
He tries in his thick Carolina accent to explain. “People aren’t consciously racist. They are drawn to and more empathetic towards people who are like them. If an associate, who reminds them of a daughter or son, makes a few minor mistakes, it might be assumed that they’ve got too much work and quickly forgotten. If I make such a mistake, it reinforces the stereotype that blacks can’t do the work, and I may never get the chance to prove otherwise.”
To Ken’s point, a sizable number of law students from our class, secured associate positions at large law firms; however, most left after only a few years. Many shared Ken’s belief that there was a double standard. Some offered anecdotal proof—the white person junior to them getting better work or more client face time; the highly skilled black attorney who is repeatedly pushed out of firms while whites with less stellar credentials get fast tracked to partner. Said one former associate, “[Someone at the firm] came to me and said, ‘You will not work for that partner because you do not look like him.’ Later it was confirmed when a less senior associate mentioned that he’d met with [his] client.”
Dec
5
Lesson 5: Make Yours A Small World
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Monday: You Make You
Tuesday: The Legal Profession Is Not For Everyone
Wednesday: Dream a New Dream
Thursday: Live Within Your Means
Friday: Make Yours a Small World
We don’t want nobody that nobody sent
-Judge Abner Mikva giving a lesson in Chicago politics to Barack Obama.
The story Judge Mikva told Barack Obama to highlight the cronyism in Chicago politics has been retold countless times as if this philosophy is unique to Chicago. In truth, it is a truism the world over. In DC the inquiry is made this way, “Now, how do I know you?” In the South, they ask, “Who your people?” On the East Coast they ask, “Where did you go to school?” In L.A., they simply ignore people they don’t know.
In a world where building contacts and making connections are a click away, I was surprised to discover that some of my classmates were hard to track down. Even when I knew where to find them, email replies and call returns were equally hard to come by. They seemed to not want to be found.
I did not find this to be the case with Don Graves. On his Facebook page, he provides three email addresses and his cell phone number. This is a man who understands the value of keeping in touch. And why shouldn’t he? As Director of Public Policy for the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 12 million employees, Don interacted with the most influential business men in the world, including then African American CEOs, Richard Parsons, E. Stanley O’Neal, and Kenneth Chenault.
In his present position as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development and Housing Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, he is in the room when The President signs bills into laws. One doesn’t secure such a position by filling out an online application at USAJobs.gov.
To discern Don’s approach to career and business building, I read his statements in Congressional transcripts, New York Times articles, and his company bio. A three-prong principal emerged: Build networks. Nurture relationships. Forge partnerships.
Dec
4
Lesson 4: Live Within Your Means
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Monday: You Make You
Tuesday: The Legal Profession Is Not For Everyone
Wednesday: Dream a New Dream
Thursday: Live Within Your Means
Friday: Make Yours a Small World
Poor, uneducated people where I’m from use the expression “educated fool” to identify those for whom education has choked off commonsense–the public official always sticking his foot in his mouth and the dentist who allows his kids to talk back and run wild in the receptionist area are referred to as such. Most often, this moniker is used to describe educated folks, who parlayed their education into good paying jobs but are unable to manage their money.
When Elie over at Above The Law goes on his rant about how earning $250,000 a year doesn’t make you rich or equip to pay off student loans, I hear my grandmother ask: What’s that you say, chil’? How is it that you earn more money than anyone in this family, but you can’t afford to buy a house or pay your bills? Did you not see the zeros behind the promissory notes you signed?
We both know the answer to that question.
Georgetown Law is an elite institution with enviable facilities—the third largest academic law library in the nation; a high-tech, spa like fitness center; a gourmet cafeteria, and a 5-star dormitory with a concierge service. It’s a school for people with “names.” A Pelosi, a Koppel, and a Barcardi matriculated there during my tenure.
We tell ourselves that because we’ve attained the same degree, we are entitled to the same lifestyle. In doing so, we overlook the thing that distinguishes us. They are the scions of wealth. We are the descendants of workers. Some worked in factories. Others worked in offices, but only one classmate spoke of a trust fund and hers came by way of her husband.
“My husband is French Canadian, and his family has money. [His] grandfather was a miner and found wealth there in the 1940’s. My husband has an inheritance, so now I understand that a lot of white people keep money because they are responsible with it. [For example], we’ve been to Europe with the kids, but it is not something we do all the time; otherwise, we spend money on what we need.”
She adds, “There are two ways we can go. We can say, ‘I’ve got money. I’ve earned it. I’m just like the next person, and I’m gonna live it up.’ [People with that philosophy] are living for the now. The other side is making sure [you’re] secure longterm, remembering that you have an obligation to [your] family and the next generation.”
I can recall the wedding of my friend, Reeves Carter. His New York Times wedding announcement was far more impressive than that of Karen Barcardi’s. It read like a movie script: The couple met in court. She had the sexy tattoo and the coveted Ivy League degrees. He was good-looking, smart and ambitious. There was mention of the celebrity floral designer, the TriBeCa reception and travels to Katmandu and the Himalayas. They were perched to soar, and so they lived sky-high. He wore Pink shirts, and she carried Kate Spade bags. They both wore Prada shoes. That period was magical—they rented an expensive apartment in hip DUMBO and summered on Fire Island. Eventually, there was a landing. Reeves tells it this way:
Dec
3
Lesson 3: Dream a New Dream
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • 1 Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Monday: You Make You
Tuesday: The Legal Profession Is Not For Everyone
Wednesday: Dream a New Dream
Thursday: Live Within Your Means
Friday: Make Yours a Small World
On a Saturday morning in May not long past, Oprah Winfrey said in her commencement address to a crowd at Howard University: “All you need to do is know who you are. And I know you know who you are. Because I have, as a part of my Harpo production team [1994 Howard graduate] Teri Mitchell…who came with me today.”
Not everyone can claim a shoutout from Oprah! But Teri, who just also happens to be a part of Georgetown Law Class of 1995, can. After graduating she took a job as an assistant at a news station. From there she did stints at “Dateline NBC” and CNN’s “American Morning.” These positions prepared her primetime with the Oprah Winfrey Show and her triumphant return to the “Mecca.”
When I asked Teri some years ago what gave her the gumption to take a job as a glorified receptionist when many of her peers had their own offices, I remember her saying rather matter-of-factly, “I never worry about what other people are doing.”
Colette Shelton took a similar route. The Fox Broadcasting Company Vice President of Brand Integration joined the company after working her way up to Vice President of Reality Programming at Lifetime Television. Neither Teri nor Colette commented for this piece, but Colette’s Q. & A. with The Georgetown Media and Entertainment Alliance offers some insight.
“When I graduated, I had a six-figure offer from a law firm which I turned down and begged my way into a job as a TV news reporter in Las Vegas that paid under $20,000 a year! My parents thought I was crazy but I knew I wanted to build my career in media and I learned so much in that job.”
Teri and Colette believe in themselves. Such self-assurance should be second nature to all of us, but in fact, is rare. To be sure, it is a bit daunting to realize that you’ve just invested (in some instances) hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a lawyer, but must now consider the possibility of living under a bridge in a box papered with Sallie Mae mailing envelops if Plan B does not pan out. It may, however, be well worth the risk.
Consider Allyson Tucker-Mitchell, who did something overachievers are not often willing to do. She quit law school during our first year. The Brown University graduate wasn’t having problems competing in law school, but she did question whether this was what she was meant to do. She made the decision to follow her dream and headed back to the lights on Broadway. Today she’s got Playbills and a fabulous life to show for it. Over the years, I’ve seen the dancer, who is married to Hillary’s boyfriend on the Fresh Prince the Tony Award-winning performer, Brian Stokes Mitchell, pictured with movie stars, New York doyennes, and President Barack Obama.
Boldness wasn’t reserved solely to those pursuing careers in entertainment…
Dec
2
Lesson 2: The Legal Profession Is Not For Everyone
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Monday: You Make You
Tuesday: The Legal Profession Is Not For Everyone
Wednesday: Dream a New Dream
Thursday: Live Within Your Means
Friday: Make Yours a Small World
Within the black community there are a good number of noble professions. Teachers, doctors, accountants, engineers and preachers have all historically been looked upon with esteem. The black lawyer, however, has always been set apart for while the minister can save those in his congregation and the doctor can save his patients, it is the lawyer, one particular lawyer really, who is credited with saving our entire race. Just as Christians have Jesus, Jews have Abraham, and Muslims have Muhammad, black lawyers have Justice Marshall. So many of my classmates identified him as the reason they decided to become lawyers that I stopped asking the question.
When a black child gets in his mind that he wants to be a lawyer, it doesn’t feel like choosing a career. It feels like a calling. It is also something that your family and community can get behind. Sometimes one might get a spark to do something else, but it feels trite, unrealistic, like a betrayal even, so throughout high school, college and law school, we remain steadfast. Unwilling to consider career alternatives, we can end up, to a certain extent, betraying ourselves.
One classmate, a tastemaker who foresaw the HGTV boom and for a while, toyed with the idea of designing bedding, put it this way, “I went to law school because it was the easiest thing in the world to do without really knowing what that was about. 85% of what being a lawyer is about is not interesting. There was no way for him to know what being a lawyer was like. He like most in our class was a first generation lawyer. We made assumptions based on what we saw of Marshall in “Eyes on the Prize” or worse, television shows that hardly showcased black lawyers.
Another classmate offered this warning, “What you see on TV—“Boston Legal” and “The Firm”—erased that from your memory because it’s not glamorous or sexy.”
This lack of knowledge cost the tastemaker. His career stalled then purred and now pitters. He sold mobile phones for a year after graduating before securing an associate position at a Silicon Valley firm. He was laid off after a few years and has worked as a contract attorney since. When the vision of what we expected—important cases, substantial income, peer admiration—doesn’t materialize, it feels a bit like losing ones religion, losing faith. Sometimes we are left not knowing what to do.
Dec
1
The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: Lesson 1–You Make You
Filed Under: Georgetown Law c/o 1995, The Story of a Georgetown Law Class • Leave a Comment
OBABL Year In Review: The Year’s Most Popular Stories
OBABL continues the series The Story of a Georgetown Law Class: The Lessons. Yolanda Young located the nearly 60 black graduates from her 1995 GULC class. Among them: A judge, big law partners, bureaucrats, an Oprah Show producer, two doctors, a middle school principal, and a stay-at-home dad. With few exceptions (the former congressional aide to William Jefferson who vanished following her involvement in his corruption trial; the Fox Network VP who declined to share her experience; and the beloved classmate who died prematurely), they were interviewed and surveyed. Everyday for the next three weeks leading up to her 15th class reunion, we’ll share lessons from their stories.
Monday: You Make You
Tuesday: The Legal Profession Is Not For Everyone
Wednesday: Consider What’s Outside The Law
Thursday: Live Within Your Means
Friday: Make Yours a Small World
Judge Shannon Frison: GULC ‘95; Harvard ‘92
Last December, Massachusetts’s governor, Deval Patrick, swore in Shannon Frison as an Associate Justice of the Roxbury Division of the Boston Municipal Court, making her the youngest judge in commonwealth and the youngest ever to be appointed by a governor. Shannon’s pedigree—she matriculated at Harvard University before joining Georgetown’s law community–might make her recent judicial appointment seem preordained. To the contrary, Shannon’s rise was unconventional.
For starters, Shannon did not have any of the contacts that one gathers while vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard. Her summer home is in Mississippi where her mother, a single parent for most of Shannon’s childhood, now lives.
I grew up in a two-bedroom apartment on South Shore Drive on the South Side of Chicago.
A product of public schools, Shannon was valedictorian of the mostly black Hyde Park Career Academy, where a student was as likely to be involved in a carjacking as heading to college.
By the time Shannon arrived at Georgetown, she was there to fulfill a lifelong ambition to be a lawyer. Georgetown Law was attractive because of its state of the art facilities, location in the nation’s capital, and large faculty. In other words, Georgetown was a school that could give her the tools to make herself.
You can never say it is the school [that makes you]. The reputation of your school can open a door or two, but not much more than that, especially if you’re black. In fact, people at my level—judges or those known for being legal movers and shakers—are not from the Ivy League.
The law school you attended is useful in securing that first law firm job, but it doesn’t matter as much in other settings.
Shannon didn’t even bother cashing in on Big Law. While most of her classmates were trying to secure jobs with law firms or the Department of Justice’s Honor’s Program, Shannon went to Officer Candidates School and became an officer in the Marines.
The rest of Shannon’s story and video footage of her swearing in after the jump.
Sep
28
Wintta Woldemariam, Former NBLSA President Loop21 Q & A
Filed Under: Congressional Black Caucus, Politics • Leave a Comment
Before working behind the scenes in Congress, Wintta Woldemariam had a bit of a political career of her own. While in law school at the University of Texas she served as the National Chair of the National Black Law Students Association representing the interests of nearly 6,000 black law students from around the country. Very much inspired by the political process, Woldemariam, who studied political science and African-American studies at Duke, took her skills to Capitol Hill, where she now works as a legislative assistant for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Previously she served as counsel to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Despite charges that Capitol Hill is too white, she stands out as one of the growing numbers of black faces occupying powerful roles and impacting the way the political process works for the American public. As hundreds network at the Congressional Black Caucus’s Annual Legislative Conference, it’s important not just to recognize the black members of Congress, but the black staffers who help keep Washington and the country running.
