The Cravath Model Is Failing - Nothing New to the Bottom 80.

According to Professor William Henderson, Indiana University School of Law, and a study from Bell Laboratories, top performing associate attorneys can "evaluate problems from the viewpoint of customers and manager," take initiative, rely on more experienced coworkers, and build consensus.  The study then goes on to further that these skills do not necessarily correspond to law school class rank.  In fact, "researchers found no relationship between [attorney] performance and various social, psychological, and cognitive abilities.  http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/cravath_model_that_created_have_and_have_not_law_grads_could_implode

The ability for lower-ranking law students to become high-performing attorneys may be news to big law firms, but for those of us in the lower eighty percent, it's what we rely on every time we check our grades.  This is also what clients unwilling or unable to pay the six-figure salaries awarded to associates at big firms rely upon in all of their legal endeavors.    I have spent this summer clerking in a seven-attorney law firm in a county which bridges the gap between rural and suburban, hardly a Sidley or a Shook, Hardy, and Bacon (neither of which would have granted a student like myself - somwhere around the top third mark - an interview).  In this firm and in similar firms in the area I have observed some of the most talented attorneys practice their craft.  I have seen them succeed in cases against those big firms that may have passed on these small-town attorneys' resumes years ago and that passed on mine last fall.  Class rank is not the only marker of a lawyer's ability.  It is about time firms realized it.

Interviews with Fatima Goss Graves and Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel at the National Women's Law Center

The National Women's Law Center has started a weekly series interviewing bloggers at Womenstake, their blog. Most recently they interviewed Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel with NWLC. She works for greater gender equality in education, through litigation, drafting legislative policy, and public education. Highlights...

I come from a long legacy of civil rights activists. My father and aunt were the named plaintiffs in a significant post-Brown Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the height of the civil rights movement.

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Q: Over the years, the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement have coincided and sometimes clashed. As a woman of color, do you ever feel torn between your loyalties as an African-American and as a feminist?

[T]hese are movements that have benefited from and fostered each other. And these movements continue to work in strong coalitions together; I work with many civil rights organizations on a regular basis and our work often overlaps.

That said ... feminists have to ensure that their advocacy takes the needs of all women into account, not just white women.

Previously Womenstake interviewed Jill Morrison, another Senior Counsel at NWLC. She litigates and drafts policy to ensure access to health care. If you are interested in nonprofit, public interest legal careers or looking for a dose of inspiration, the series looks like something to check on Fridays!

Interview Advice: What not to talk about

There are plenty of things that you should talk about on a job interview: your qualifications, your experience, your good grades if you have them, law review, etc.

How about the things you shouldn't talk about? There are a lot of things that will highlight your inexperience or put up a wall between you and the interviewer. The bad news: you might not even be aware of them. Without encouraging that you try to hide who you really are or try to be somebody that you aren't, here is a start to a list of things you should leave out of your interview conversations in order to avoid leaving a bad impression or alienating your interviewer...