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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (100219)	2/14/2005 4:50:54 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793817

they're testing whether you can "think like a lawyer", which is what I think you mean by style of expression. We were discussing why black students might do less well on law school exams. My suggestion is that they might not be plugged into the Old Boy network as well, so might not realize that merely getting the answer right is not sufficient to excel. As an example, on a torts exam - not one of mine, but one taught by another professor - there was a products liability issue involving a condom which ruptured. The guy who got the highest score brought in issues like the size of the man's penis and the wetness of the woman's vagina and the vigorousness of the coupling, none of which I would call "legal issues." Most law school professors go straight from law review to clerking for judges to teaching law school with very little experience in the real world. They aren't testing whether you "think like a lawyer." They're testing whether you think like one of them. They've never actually been lawyers and wouldn't know how to be one if thrown into the real world with a shingle and told to get on with it. My own grades, for the most part, were very good. Top 10% first year, top 25% overall, #1 in my class for my LL.M. The "C" rankled, and still rankles, because, had it been a C+ or a B I would have made law review. The only time in my life I got a "C" when I answered every question correctly. If I had made law review, maybe I could have gotten one of those elusive big firm jobs. Maybe not, though, I had plenty of interviews. Being older, female, overweight, and not into acting "feminine" is probably the real reason I've had to make it on my own instead of selling my soul for 2500 billable hours a year. I got lucky, though. After beating my brains out trying to get a job with a big firm, the placement officer at my law school sent me to an interview with a plaintiff's attorney, and I found my niche wasn't in the corporate world at all. In retrospect, I do enjoy the freedom and the autonomy. I have my own clients, real human beings, who rely on me and trust me. That's pretty cool. Anyway, I generalize from my own experiences when thinking about why black students don't do as well as white students in law school. I think a lot of it is just the culture in law school. The Old Boy network really matters. That's why I am active in the Virginia Women Attorney's Association. I can't join the Old Boys but I can join the Old Girls. The black bar association is pretty powerful, too. Not as powerful as the Old Boys network but not to be dismissed.

To: D. Long who wrote (100219)	2/14/2005 5:25:19 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793817

Another thought about black lawyers. In my experience with black judges -- none of them are coruscatingly brilliant - and none of them are horse's asses. Judges being human beings are variable, and some are just horrible people, so horrible that when you draw one of them you despair. None of the black judges I have been before, and I mean this literally, NONE, is horrible. In fact, they're all decent, well-meaning, hard-working, smart, perceptive, honest, with the human touch. I've never been in front of a horrible woman judge, either. The few horrible judges I've known are all white men, probably ones who got ahead due to the Old Boys network, maybe the college roommate of the man who was in charge of the judiciary committee. The Peter Principle in action. I guess I should edit and say that the great majority of white male judges I've appeared before have been excellent. The percentage of horrible ones is small, less than 10%. Maybe 5%. I've never even seen Asian judges or Hispanic judges.