The Unexamined Crisis of Race, Social Class and the American Law Firm

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The Unexamined Crisis of Race,
Social Class and the American
Law Firm

Summary:
There is a major crisis facing American
law firms that has been largely ignored
by the legal profession. Find out what it
is in this article.
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When the British arrived on the Fijian Islands, they had an impossible time getting the
native Fijians to work. The Fijians' lives had always been simple and did not require
hard work. If they needed something to eat, they picked up a coconut or speared a fish.
Then it was time for a nap.
Fed up with the differences in work culture, the British brought over all sorts of Indians
to work. The Indians quickly set up shops and worked hard, showing they had the work
ethic and drive to get things done. Many hard-working people of Indian descent still
call the South Pacific home.
What is interesting about this, of course, is that the British (who we might term "the
upper class") certainly did not do the work. They wanted to live off the fruits of others'
work. Simultaneously the local Fijians (whom we might term "lower class") did not
want to do the work either. They wanted to live off the fruits of nature's work instead.
So the British went searching for people who wanted to be middle class and do the
work.
Society has always struggled to find people to do the work. When I was in college I had
a profound interest in helping people from the inner city of Detroit integrate into the
larger society.
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Back then Detroit was nearly 100% black and surrounded by nearly 100% white
suburbs. Being born there was likely to doom anyone to a life of poverty, drugs and an
early death. Babies out of wedlock were the norm for women and nearly all men
ended up in prison. I operated a business in Detroit hiring black, recovering addicts out
of a drug rehabilitation center and trying to help them learn the skills to be successful
in society. I was trying to teach them middle class values.
I believe I got interested in this because my mother spent her career working for the
Michigan Department of Civil Rights in Detroit and she took it seriously. I watched her
working on files and talking on the phone most weekends and evenings, and saw just
how badly people were treated and discriminated against. Most of the people filing
complaints were from lower and working class backgrounds but were trying to hold
onto middle class jobs. Because of the racial make-up of Detroit, the petitioners tended
to be blacks trying to work in white-owned businesses.
My mom quickly came to believe the main reason people were failing and filing
complaints was not overt racism, but rather they lacked the work ethics and habits to
succeed in a middle class environment. My mom is extremely liberal; she was given her
position by a black state senator she worked for previously, and could certainly be
described as a socialist.
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Her conclusion, however, was that class-based discrimination was more prevalent than
straight-up racial discrimination. Lower to working class people did not understand
how to do middle class jobs.
Something I learned long ago-I am not sure where-is that the upper and lower classes
are more like each other than either is like the middle class. Being an attorney is about
the most middle class job you can have and requires middle class values of hard work,
consistency, predictability, education (and educational accomplishment) and working
for the rich (or in some cases, the poor). One of the greatest problems in the legal
profession comes when people from lower class and upper class (or, for our purposes,
"very wealthy" backgrounds) try to enter the legal profession-especially prestigious law
firms. It is generally a recipe for disaster.
Paradoxically-and this bears notice-two of the most successful attorneys of our
generation were both out of lower and/or working class backgrounds: Barack Obama
and Bill Clinton. Clinton was an outstanding student and advanced despite his social
class. Barack Obama was also from a lower and/or working class background. We do
not know what sort of student Barack was because no one has ever seen his grades
and he refuses to release them. What we do know about these two, though, is they
never practiced law. They both became professors where they could think, write,
organize communities and be politicians. BCG ATTORNEY SEARCH

Who knows what would have happened to them had they practiced law. My guess is
they would have failed. I am almost certain of it. It is one thing to pontificate about
Constitutional Law from a lectern or socialize with a bunch of people. It must be nice
sitting around reading, writing theoretical papers and holding office hours with 23-year
old students in Arkansas-I can only imagine. Most attorneys in major law firms would
not have the patience for that sort of stuff, and they certainly would not believe it
could lead to being the President of the United States.
It is an entirely different set of skills to put your head down in a New York law firm and
work 3,000 hours a year with the expectation that you will turn in impeccable work day
after day.
I highly doubt either of the George Bush presidents would have had the patience or
work ethic to succeed in a large law firm if they were attorneys. Upper class people do
not have that sort of work ethic and most lower class people never learn this work
ethic either.
And this is what this article is about. This "ethic" is everything if an attorney ever
expects to work and succeed in a large law firm.
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The problem is that people from the upper class and the lower class often do not
understand the value of hard work. Without the ability to discern the value of hard
work, people from the upper and lower classes are unable to fit into middle class
institutions like law firms. Of course this is not always the case. Like all generalizations
there are lots of exceptions to this rule. On a global level, though, what makes people
succeed in law firms is diligence and understanding the value of hard work.
I have named four American Presidents already (two lower class, two upper class) who
I am 100% confident could never hack it in a large law firm. This is hard business and
work. Upper and lower class people are both TRAPPED by the ways they think and
approach work and this is something that keeps them from succeeding and advancing
in the legal world. Ultimately my experience has taught me the following:
Black people from lower class backgrounds almost always fail in large law firms.
Upper class people from any racial background almost always fail too.
Middle class people also fail because of their attitude toward work-but less often.
It is about a person's attitude toward work and nothing more. If you are from either of
these last two backgrounds and trying to get ahead this could be the most important
article you ever read.
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If you are from a middle class background and see yourself wavering in terms of your
career, it is almost certainly due to your attitude towards work. How you see yourself in
relationship to your job and work will ultimately determine what happens to you and
your career-how you live, how your family lives, your self-esteem and the legacy your
career leaves to the world.
Whether it is in high school, college, law school, or a law firm, at some point along the
line most people throw in the towel and say, "This is not worth it." What they are really
saying is that they are not willing to do the hard work the job requires to get ahead.
Unwilling to do this hard work, they fail. Middle class people who want to get ahead-
and have never known any other option than hard work-trust the system and generally
keep working as long as it takes to get ahead. They succeed based on their will and
faith in the system.
Regardless of affirmative action, money or reduced admissions standards for people of
certain backgrounds, people who don't understand the value of hard work won't fit
into a middle class institution like a law firm and succeed there.
What is so astonishing is that people offer their "assistance" to the rich and the
downtrodden.
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The rich are admitted to great institutions they have no business being at, and certain
ethnic groups are also given massive preferences. There are reasons for this, which I
am not advocating one way or another. What I am saying is no one teaches anyone the
value of hard work. Without understanding the value of hard work and the necessity of
hard work no one is likely to succeed.
Problems come for the upper and lower classes when they are advanced and pushed
along the conveyer belt of high achievement without regards to their skill.
A conversation that I have again and again-week after week-is with attorneys of African
American backgrounds who are having issues with their current employer. This is a very
sensitive subject and I certainly risk being called "racist" and "insensitive" for getting
into it, but I am going to address it because it is enormously important and deserves to
be brought out in the open to help both African Americans and law firms. As an aside, I
co-taught a class in race relations when I was at the University of Chicago, wrote an
(unpublished) book, and have a lot of interest in this so my observations are not racist.
They are the informed opinions of a legal recruiter and someone with a long-standing
academic interest in this subject matter who has taught classes and studied the issue at
a high level.
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We are in such a paranoid time that commenting about race-related matters could be
compared to walking on pins and needles during the McCarthy-era when people were
afraid of being called communist. Making observations about the state of workers'
rights 50 years ago might make someone a communist. Similarly, stating that certain
racial groups are hurt by preferential treatment may subject someone to being called a
racist today.
I went to the University of Virginia Law School and made it my first choice law school
because it was the cheapest school there was. Other kids I knew from middle class
backgrounds also wanted to go there because it was the cheapest.
Some of my older friends in college who wanted to go to Virginia got into top Ivy
League law schools and not into Virginia, so I assumed it must be a great school. Others
got into great Ivy League law schools but chose Virginia because it was (back then)
about half the price of every other law school and had a good reputation.
Middle class people want to save money and get the best value they can afford. These
were some of the reasons I was so motivated to go to Virginia. Plus I assumed it was
pretty difficult to get into.
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When I was applying to law schools my mentor asked me which one was my first choice
and I asked him "Why?" He said, "If you want to go there I can call them up, put my
credibility on the line and promise you will go there and say good things about you to
them. It will be a lot of work and it reflects on me. I'm not going to do that for every
school."
I told him I was set on Virginia and that is where I ended up going. Incidentally it was
excellent training for later becoming a legal recruiter!
When I met my current wife and she found out where I had gone to law school she was
not impressed. "That's a horrible school," she said. "One of the dumbest girls I knew in
college got in there. She had like a B- grade point average and horrible LSATs. She chose
to go to Penn State because they gave her more money."
My wife was not well versed in law school rankings at the time, but she had a point.
The girl that was admitted to the University of Virginia Law School was black and that
school traditionally had a difficult time recruiting minorities. It is not a racist comment
to state that law schools often admit people and give them preferential treatment due
to the color of their skin-they do. When I got to University of Virginia Law School, the
black students had already been there over a week.
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The school organized special groups for them to show them how to study, take tests
and more. I never had anything like that (and wish I did).
If a law school is having difficulty finding someone from a certain background the
school will make drastic exceptions to let them in. The same logic applies to athletes
applying to colleges. Many athletes at top schools have no business being at the
University of Michigan, for example, but are let in because of their athletic abilities.
Schools do this with people whether they are black or white. Schools even have special
"academic tracks" for athletes where they give them special tutoring and classes that
allow them to draw on "life experiences" so they can get by.
When I am working with minority attorneys as a legal recruiter, I often see the results
of this racial preference playing itself out. African Americans often get jobs in law firms
without the grades that would normally be expected of them in order to get into large
law firms. Moreover, there are some very strange things I see that are upsetting to me.
"You got 'C's' in legal writing and barely made it through law school and now you are a
litigator at one of the top litigation law firms in the country?“
"Yes, I am not a great writer. I need to work on that."
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What happens to these attorneys is that they start doing work and make so many
errors that the partners in the law firms stop giving them assignments. They stop giving
them work because the associates' skills are not up to par and they do not want to
train them. When they don't receive training and integration, the attorneys do not
advance and get discouraged.
As a legal recruiter, I am faced with seeing an attorney who graduated from a top
American law school, who is working at a top law firm and looks on the surface to be
marketable but does not have the understanding of what it takes to be good at his or
her job. The attorney could be from Harvard or some other top law school, but she
cannot do the work and has been advanced up the system too far and too fast. The
firm has advanced her without the attorney first demonstrating she understands the
value of hard work.
I have also seen this with American Indians and people of other ethnic groups. One of
my first placements was of an attorney who went to Harvard Law School and then got a
position at a major American law firm. She was ill-equipped to do the work and was
getting horrible reviews. Within months she had turned into a crystal meth addict and
had all sorts of problems. She did not have the ability to do the work at such a high
level and there was little reason she should have been advanced that far.
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She spent years cleaning herself up and is now working as a criminal defense attorney
on an Indian reservation.
I know of a federal judge who hired an African American woman out of Harvard Law
School. The quality of her work was so poor that, to avoid being called a racist (and
being ridiculed by other judges), he was relegated to doing all her writing himself and
getting a special allowance to hire an "emergency clerk" to finish opinions.
Of course this is not the case for all African Americans by any means. In most cases the
underlying problem is class-based and not race-based. This is my entire point.
African Americans, American Indians and others who come out of middle class
backgrounds are more likely than not to be superstars. They may have gone to great
schools and the odds are always pretty good they deserved to be there. Their parents
may have been doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers and other middle class
professions. Their parents inculcated into them the value of hard work and showed
them the value of working hard. They most likely grew up surrounded by other groups
of people who also understood the value of hard work and appreciated it.
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Like a good athlete who gets a "boost" in being admitted to a competitive school that
still requires good academics (for example, Princeton), the athlete still understands he
or she needs to work hard and not continuously be given special treatment.
Hard work and an understanding that you need to work hard to succeed is also,
incidentally, what makes some middle class people successful and not others. When a
middle class person does not understand the value of hard work-or stops appreciating
the value of hard work-he or she starts to fail. When people expect to be advanced and
become accustomed to being advanced without working hard (the rich, certain ethnic
groups from lower class backgrounds, etc.), this is when everything goes to hell.
I've been in the legal recruiting industry my entire career and when I see attorneys who
are failing, dropping out, not making partner and having issues with the practice of law
it is mostly because they do not understand the value of hard work and constant
improvement. It does not matter what race or social class you are: Your success as an
attorney is based, in large part, on your ability to understand the value of constant,
never-ending commitment and unwavering discipline to improve and be the best you
can be.
See The #1 Attorney Career Killer that Attorneys Are Never Taught for more
information. BCG ATTORNEY SEARCH

Rich people often believe that their wealth and influence can buy them entry into good
schools and jobs-and to some extent they are right. Children of affluence are often
advanced far beyond their means and get into good schools and jobs based on this
affluence. They even get into certain law firms based on affluence. As recently at 10
years ago, I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about how it is much easier to get
into colleges like Duke if your parents make a big donation or are alumni who give over
$5,000 a year. Schools like Duke that favor affluence often create a culture that has an
undercurrent of people that get ahead based on wealth and not working hard.
I've seen people get into major American law firms who have no business being there,
just because their parents were rich and powerful-and they always failed (because they
did not understand the value of hard work). Someone using money-based connections
to get into a major American law firm can sometimes succeed but it almost never lasts.
Advancing without appreciating the value of hard work and paying your dues at the
firm is unlikely to lead anywhere.
At the first firm I worked at, a graduate of a fourth-tier law school was hired who was in
the middle of his class. He was hired without all of the announcements and so forth
that typically characterized any new hire. At the time my law firm was mainly
comprised of graduates of Harvard Law School and so this was incredibly unusual.
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Within weeks of arriving, I saw a partner down the hall from me sitting at his desk and
tutoring the attorney in basic grammar, sentence structure and legal terminology. It
made no sense to me and all of the associates in the law firm were trying to figure out
what was going on. Eventually someone learned he was the son of a major law firm
client.
This attorney applied to work with BCG Attorney Search several times throughout the
years. Since I knew him when he was practicing at my firm I was happy to speak with
him and give him advice. Eventually, after leaving his job at my former firm (because
people would not give him work), he wound up doing the sort of job he should be
doing-at the salary that people like him that graduate from fourth tier law schools
make.
It is a profound problem when the upper and lower classes are advanced on something
other than merit. They develop expectations that they should be making large salaries,
that they should be surrounded by attorneys who went to great schools (often like
them!), that they should be doing work on behalf of major corporations, and that they
should have a shot at being a partner in a major American law firm.
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But this never works out. They are not performing at that level and they do not
understand the value of hard work-very hard work. They often have not learned the
sorts of middle class values that are necessary to succeed in this sort of atmosphere. It
is not to say they cannot learn it, it is to say they need to.
This week I was talking to an African American attorney from a poor family who
managed to graduate from a top 25 law school and get into a good law firm. He told
me the sort of thing I hear regularly. He:
started out at the firm,
turned in his work,
was told it was sloppy,
worked for multiple partners,
stopped receiving work,
was told the firm did not have a lot of work (but other associates were busy),
asked to be switched to another practice area where he thought he would do better,
was interested in getting a good job now,
would like to make as much as he was making before,
and is interested in contract work or a staff attorney job. He asked if I have anything
"in-house"?
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You get the idea. This is someone who was advanced all the way to the top but got
there without the skills necessary to compete at a high level. This happens to white
attorneys from lower to working class backgrounds. It happens to attorneys from upper
class backgrounds and it happens to minority attorneys from working class to lower
class backgrounds as well.
With lower to working class attorneys here is the problem I see: They view their jobs as
exchanging a certain amount of time for a certain amount of money. That is it. If 2,000
hours is required, that is what they are going to try and do. If they need to work
occasionally on the weekend, then that is what they will do. It is an attitude of I am
selling my labor for this amount of money and that is what you get in return.
This attitude of "I am selling my work for this amount and you get this in return" misses
a hugely important point:
It is the quality of the labor that counts.
It is the passion behind the labor.
It is being an advocate and not a seller of labor that counts.
It is being on the same team as the attorneys and the client that counts.
It is seeing yourself as essential and not just a pawn that counts.
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Many lower and working class people show up and flip burgers at a fast food restaurant
and see little point in the work they are doing. They are there only for the money. They
have no passion for what they do. The same goes for day laborers standing on the side
of the road willing to do any sort of manual work you give them-provided you pay them
$10 an hour.
Being an attorney is different. It is a profession you grow into, develop a reputation in,
become more and more skilled at, grow in and spend your life doing. YOU ARE NOT
SELLING LABOR AND YOUR TIME. YOU ARE SELLING SOMETHING MORE SIGNIFICANT.
YOU ARE AN ADVOCATE FOR COMPANIES AND PEOPLE WHO DEPEND ON YOU BEING
PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO.
It is not flipping burgers or selling time. It requires something far, far more. What it
requires is that you step out of a lower to working class mentality and embrace
something more.
If a lower class person does not like working for a certain yard service, the person finds
another. If a working class person is unhappy being a cook in one diner and gets in a
fight with a boss, the person finds another job. This is the attitude of the working class
and that works just fine inside of diners and in the yard maintenance industry.
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It does not work inside of law firms-and this is where the disconnect happens.
Liberal admission representatives and others can do all they want to help people from
certain backgrounds get ahead; however, when it comes down to it the only thing that
helps people get ahead is understanding the value of work and doing what it takes to
get ahead.
On my computer I keep a PDF copy of a bunch of writing and other work tips that I
share with my candidates who come from these sorts of backgrounds where they do
not understand the value of hard work. I make sure they read articles like this one and I
also tell them that they need to IMPROVE THEIR WORK and COMMIT TO PRACTICING
LAW in order to get ahead. I lecture them about all of this and in most instances it is
the only time they ever hear this sort of lecture-or have ever heard it in their entire
lives. No one ever told them what was important. And because no one ever told them
what was important they've been having all sorts of issues.
It does not matter if the person is white or black. These issues are, more often than
not, class-based. I see plenty of white people who managed to get great LSAT scores
and grades in college and get into exceptional law schools. They got out of these law
schools, though, without understanding the rules of the game.
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They did not have the work ethic, commitment, or drive to improve and all the other
skills that are necessary to get over the first bump of becoming a good attorney. Afraid
of criticism, they quickly gave up and became contract attorneys or hid from the
criticism and pressure of a large law firm. They did not have the right attitude towards
work.
This is very common among white and black students from lower to working class
backgrounds who attend state schools like the University of Michigan, UCLA, the
University of Texas and others. These schools are more purely "numbers driven" than
most schools and they often do not look at the drive behind the person, the desire to
improve and the potential malleability of the person-in a way that other schools
somehow do. That said, the people from lower to working class backgrounds who
show up at these schools and graduate from them often do not understand (or even
learn) the middle class habits necessary to achieve at a high level in law firms. It is not
necessarily an attorney's ability to succeed at taking tests that makes the attorney
successful. It is the drive to improve work product, get along with others, learn from
others and more.
When most attorneys start work they have very little idea of what they are doing. They
are expected to improve and learn from their mistakes, and commit to being attorneys.
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Committing means learning about the personalities they are working for (clients and
partners) and giving them what they want. It means putting in extra hours to learn the
nuances of what they are doing. It requires eating, sleeping and drinking in becoming
the best at something, 24 hours a day. It is not taking a test and advancing because you
answered the questions correctly.
I have worked with people who graduated in the top five students in their class from
schools like UCLA and the University of Texas and they had no idea. In most instances,
these lower class-raised individuals believed they were selling their time for a certain
amount per hour. This sort of attitude missed the idea that an attorney is more than
someone skilled at solving puzzles: Lawyering requires commitment and a deep,
visceral appreciation and understanding of the subject matter and material they are
dealing with.
In the legal recruiting realm, for example, an average recruiter will say "I have an
opening here" and then pursue it. The truly exceptional recruiter will understand you,
the market, the people, your background, how you approach work and interviews and
more dynamics than you could possibly ever see on your own. Once that recruiter has
understood that information, like a good attorney, he or she will get behind you and
get you the best result. A good recruiter-like a good attorney-does not just parrot back
information for a certain amount of money. BCG ATTORNEY SEARCH

There is far, far more involved in being good at anything than just being an answer box
for a certain amount of money. Here are some potential solutions a good legal recruiter
will offer his attorneys:
If an attorney is told his or her writing sucks, the attorney needs to read books about
being a better writer in his or her spare time, take classes at night if necessary and do
everything within his or her power to improve his or her writing. It is incredibly
important. This is a skill the attorney will need throughout his or her entire career. This
skill can be learned with hard work.
If an attorney is told his work is sloppy and not well-thought through, the attorney
needs to put his head down. He must become obsessive about details and do
everything within his power to avoid errors. This skill can be learned with hard work.
If an attorney finds herself not caring about the work she is doing, then she needs to
start finding out how to care. The attorney needs to do work she cares about, or start
connecting more to the work and finding ways to make it more interesting. If I were a
legal recruiter just cold calling attorneys about one opening, and I was not interested in
recruiting issues like the one I am writing about here, I would be very bored and not
care about the work. There is a lot of depth and excellence in everything and this is
why the best attorneys (in every practice group) can make millions of dollars a year.
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In fact, every skill that is necessary to being an outstanding attorney can be learned
and every attorney can learn these skills. But it takes hard work. I have seen the
following scenarios too often:
A middle class kid makes it into a good college based on merit. He does well but
ultimately fails. The kid stops appreciating the value of hard work and what got him
there. I cannot tell you how many people I have met who went to Yale, Harvard and
schools of that caliber and worked like crazy to get in there. They somehow believed
they had "made it" and their work ethic and skill went down from there. Nothing much
ever happened in their lives ever again.
Others worked hard in college and then got into good law schools. Then they
stopped working hard because they believed they made it after getting into law school.
Their careers never amounted to much.
Others worked hard in law school and then got good jobs. Then they stopped
working hard and their careers did not amount to their full potential.
Others advanced way up the chain when they had no business being advanced like
this-due to their wealth, or race-and the results were disastrous.
If I were suddenly the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and decided that based on my
wealth I would now be a wide receiver of the team, the results would be disastrous.
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They would try throwing the ball to me a few times (giving me work), but I would not
do well and so the team would simply work around me. They would have no choice but
to let me play, but they would not give me the ball. My self-esteem would be low. They
might try giving me the ball a few times, but I would drop it and make the team look
very bad to their fans (i.e., the clients). I might be so depressed about all of this I would
never play football again.
The truth of the matter is I played football in high school and would do okay if I played
with a group of similarly skilled middle-aged men. I would also enjoy it. I would not
enjoy, however, playing in a game where I am so far out of my league that no one likes
me and I am an embarrassment to the team. I would know I had no right to be there
and that I was in the role simply because of my wealth and connections.
There is a movie with Warren Beatty about this exact sort of thing happening. It is
called Heaven Can Wait. Here, Beatty dies as a football player and is reincarnated as a
rich man-with no discernable skill as a football player. However, in Heaven Can Wait the
rich guy, Warren Beatty, works very hard to get in shape for the team and be a good
player. He is a former football star reincarnated into someone else's out-of-shape body.
So he works as hard as he can-running, lifting weights, training -to get his body in the
position where he can play professional football. And it works.
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The advice, then, is if you are advanced up the ladder because of your wealth (or
parents' influence or race) then work your hardest and make the most of it. People like
Rashida Jones, for example, the child of a famous musician who went to private schools
growing up and got into Harvard with only 1100s on her SATs (and not the best grades),
have made the most of the advantages they were given. They have worked hard and
advanced their connections by doing their best and giving back to society, and have
become very productive-and even grateful for their advantages. Jones is proud of the
fact that she went to Harvard (she talks about it in every interview it seems), but she
has not used the fact that she has a great education or a rich and famous pedigree, or
that she may have been favored because of her race, as an excuse not to work hard.
She has had an outstanding career as an actress, producer and more, and is extremely
motivated.
The access that the rich and the poor get to good schools and jobs generally does not
make them any more likely to succeed. Administrators, hiring partners and others
believe they are doing the "right thing" by hiring someone to please clients. ("We hired
your son-now can you send us some more business!" "Look! Now we have a black
attorney! Can we do your labor and employment work now?") But they are just hurting
everyone involved when they hire people that should not be there to begin with.
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When I was in high school I attended a private boarding high school and observed all of
this firsthand.
Periodically the school would let in the child of some very rich alumni. Every year there
would be a few of these kids who would show up in my class. The school I went to was
pretty demanding and required a lot of homework. They sent multiple students to
every Ivy League school each year, including MIT, CalTech and other schools.
The problem with these students was not that they were not nice people. It was that
they would quickly fall behind in class, start getting poor grades, and then to cope with
the pressure would start doing antisocial things like using drugs or sneaking off campus
and getting caught doing so. They would then get kicked out of the school and go on a
downward spiral that they were not on when they attended the local public high
school where they were from. There were stories of rehab and other issues. Most
ended up attending local community colleges after all of this. I saw this multiple times;
it was more than a pattern.
In most instances, these kids did not see the value of hard work.
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They were from extremely wealthy backgrounds, had been coddled their entire lives,
already had expensive German cars and nice clothes, took expensive vacations, lived in
beautiful homes, were members of expensive country clubs, often got plenty of
attention from the opposite sex due to their parents wealth (especially the men), and
more. With all of this-and already living the good life-I am sure you can see why these
sorts of kids did not understand the value of hard work and were expelled from a
school that rewarded middle class values (just as the middle class kids would feel out of
water being part of their country clubs, or wealthy social circles).
In fact, most of the middle class kids at my high school were working hard because they
were jealous of kids like this and hoped to give their own children similar opportunities
one day!
The point of all of this is that the children of the wealthy do not see the value of hard
work. Because they never see the value of hard work, their lives are often full of
resentment and kissing up to their parents so they can one day (hopefully) have access
to their wealth.
When you see the children of the wealthy who have not led successful lives or had
successful careers,
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it is often not because they are intellectually incapable of this (although very wealthy,
self-made men have a more-likely-than-not tendency to marry women based on looks
and not intelligence, which can create not-so-intelligent offspring). It is because they
do not understand the value of hard work. The price of working hard is not worth it
when you have been coddled your entire life and you expect (with the right dose of
manipulation from your parents) that this coddling will continue indefinitely.
Another thing I noticed was that because my school started in kindergarten (when no
scholarships were available), the kids who went all the way through the school also
went to the worst colleges. They went to rich kids' colleges for the most part-small,
very expensive, private colleges with low admissions standards. Like the rich kids who
flunked out, these children also tended to be from very wealthy families. They may
have understood how to do the work to get by; however, they lacked a high level of
motivation for wanting to get ahead because they started out ahead and were from
very wealthy backgrounds.
The same thing goes for attorneys. An attorney from an upper class background may
see working incredible hours among ultra-competitive attorneys to be a waste of time-
especially when they can simply go over to their parents' vacation house any time and
relax.
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Maybe they already have a trust fund. Working hard and being an attorney is
something for the middle class. For the most part attorneys work for people who are
making much more money than them. Attorneys in large law firms are servants of rich
companies and people. Because they are middle class, they make a good living, but
certainly nowhere near as much money as the companies and clients they are working
for.
Being a servant of the rich requires that attorneys always be available, work long hours,
be attentive to the needs of the rich and compete with one other to advance up the
middle class chain. This is what the job is. The job of an attorney is to be a servant of
the rich and this is one reason that people from upper class backgrounds do so poorly
in these positions-even when they are given positions they should not be given
gratuitously.
Middle class people are raised with the skills and attitudes to serve the rich. They are
schooled, pushed and taught these skills and the importance of pleasing superiors from
a very young age. They also watch their parents do it and they go to schools that push
this and show them how to do this. This is why middle class people do so well as
attorneys. They are told they should be doctors, lawyers, accountants and other middle
class professions and the necessity for stability and a career is drilled into them from
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In contrast, upper class people are raised watching their parents hire and fire lawyers.
They sit in meetings and sign trust documents for lawyers, and the lawyers basically
kiss their ass. Lawyers are people to serve you. They grovel and want your business.
In contrast, the lower class person is not even exposed to attorneys at all. They are also
not exposed to the middle class work ethic and how important it is to do well in school,
to impress the upper class and to develop the habits that will be useful to the upper
class. They know nothing about working with groups of other middle class people to
get the best results.
The parents of lower class people are unlikely to set an example either. Working class
people often view the employer as the "enemy" and someone to unionize against, who
is exploiting them and not paying them enough per hour. They will work the minimum
they can because "working for the man" is not a profession-it is just a job. Because
lower to working class people see work as a "job" they never see what they do as
important, or a mission. Because it is not a mission, they approach everything as a
tradeoff-this much work for this much money.
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One of the problems with lower to working class attorneys (and minority attorneys
from these backgrounds, in particular) is that they view the fact that they have a
certain piece of paper (a law degree from a good school) as a right to trade a certain
amount of time for a certain amount of money with an employer. This blue-collar
thinking hurts them because, like the blue-collar worker, they often view the employer
as an "opponent" of sorts. They are involved in a game where they are getting as much
as they can for as little work as they can possibly give.
The idea of using your time away from work for improving your ability to cut grass
faster, lift more boxes at once, or clean floors more quickly would be foreign and insane
to most blue-collar workers. In a similar vein, many attorneys from lower class
backgrounds cling to a blue-collar attitude and think I am insane for suggesting they
improve the quality of their writing by taking writing classes outside work.
What makes all of this the most interesting, in fact, is that the value of hard work and
middle class thinking is available to all. Attorneys inside of law firms that understand
these middle class values can do well. You can also learn to be middle class-just as you
can learn to be upper class.
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Nothing is more interesting to me than how quickly people learn to be upper class
once they make a bunch of money. Their accents even change! I am sure you know
plenty of people who have made boatloads of money who suddenly changed their
friends, neighborhoods, childrens' schools, dress, attitude and more after their success.
Many aggressively avoid their former lives and selves because they now believe they
are of a different social class. Even attorneys who win huge verdicts and suddenly
become multimillionaires (or more) go from middle to upper class in how they relate to
the world.
Conclusions
You would have to be blind not to realize class is something that largely determines
what happens to attorneys inside of law firms. In particular, the lower class and the
upper class often have serious issues fitting in and doing well.
What the practice of law requires is that you treat being an attorney as a mission and
something that is part of who you are. If you are on a mission you will continue doing
everything you possibly can to constantly improve and get better and better at what
you are doing. You will learn everything you can from those around you and will get
better and better and better. You will not give up.
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Ultimately, I think there is some prejudice against people in the legal profession in both
the upper and lower class. In order to be middle class you need to play by middle class
rules. Law is a very, very middle class profession. Regardless of someone's social class,
or race, all it takes to "fit in" is to be like the people you are working with. People have
been assimilating to different environments and classes as long as they have existed. If
you want to be a successful attorney in a large law firm, though, you need to learn how
to be middle class.
This article “The Unexamined Crisis of Race, Social Class and the American Law Firm”
first appeared on BCG Attorney Search is widely known to be the most selective
recruiting firm in terms of who it represents in the United States.
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The Unexamined Crisis of Race, Social Class and the American Law Firm

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The Unexamined Crisis of Race, Social Class and the American Law Firm