I HAVE A DREAM! A DREAM THAT I WILL BE FIRST!

0951 ha. i assume that was a joke.

affirmative action

Yeah, but if you go to UVA, you have still got class today.

Thanks MLK for reminding us that there are more important things in life than whining about whether your bonus is market this year.

I don't work in a TTT so I'm at work today.

Ha.. I've never heard of big firms taking MLK day off. Mine sure doesn't consider it a worthwhile holiday. Of course all the hedge funds in my building let their guys off.

Public service? That's just a nice way of saying nonbillable time.

Question for you sage associates: Given the market and economic outlook, if you were choosing a (transactional) practice group to join this fall, what would it be?

In keeping with annony's off-topic request for advice: For the bar this summer (last two days of July), would you take the 3-day PMBR at the end of June or in mid-May?

I have a dream that blacks will stop using the color of their skin to get an unfair advantage over better qualified non-minorities!

I too would be interested in responses to annony's (11:06) and anon's (11:09) questions. Hopefully not everyone reading ATL today is a mouth-breathing racist thug.

At my firm, all the minorities are from ivy league schools, and all the nonminorities are from TTT's. I feel this is relevant.

How laughable that the King family make him out to be some saint and family man. MLK was a well known womaniser and ladies man......and good for him.....but he wasn't a great guy.

I am always shocked by the comments to this blawg. I thought that more educated people would be less bigoted. I was so wrong.

Does Lat get MLK day off?

I'm a URM (underrepresented minority) associate at one of the so-called "elite" firms in DC. I did a highly sought after federal clerkship a number of years back, and the rest of my credentials are otherwise strong too. I get great feedback from my superiors and colleagues, virtually all of whom are white.

With this in mind, 11:27, I'm not suprised in the least by the racist comments on this blog or any other. With the cloak of anonymity, people feel comfortable letting escape their true feelings about people who are different from them. When these people are in positions of power and authority, and the contest is between two qualified candidates who differ really only in skin color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc. , who do you think gets the job? Now multiply this scenario many times over, and you begin to see an enormous diversity deficit.

Ironically (and probably unwittingly also because these bigots don't appear too, um, smart), the preceding racist comments also reveal that Dr. King's dream isn't anywhere near fully realized. (O'Connor's analysis in the Mich case said as much.) This being so, these bigots are, by extension, REINFORCING the need for Affirmative Action.

My dectractors well counter, "Hey, we are only being racist in response to government sactioned racism against white guys -- Affirmative Action!" "It's reflexive racism, which is justified." My response: not likely.

Someone who feels comfortable and justified to hide behind a keyboard and computer screen would have been right at home hiding behind a white sheet and a burning cross. Put differently, systematic bigotry, which still exists today (see above) PREDATED Affirmative Action, and continues now. If there is an argument to be made to refocus or dismantle AA, it certainly shouldn't be champoined by the very biggots who despise me because of the color of my skin, and would hope to bring about my downfall with or without this curative measure.

12:01--Bravo.

I am a fairly successful white associate at my firm, and I am amazed by the things people are comfortable saying after looking left and right to be sure there aren't any black people around.

Even those that aren't outwardly and vocally bigoted, and even those who champion (and, in some cases, participate in) our newly formed Diversity Committee, which is aimed at figuring out why (a) we don't attract many minority candidates and (b) the minority attorneys we do recruit end up leaving our firm in pretty short order, exhibit latent racism that does demonstrate the continued need for AA.

Unfortunately, even our white (and Hispanic) members of the diversity committee can't seem to recognize their role in these problems. They don't recognize that they give better work to non-minority associates. They don't recognize that (especially in the case of black female associates) they consistently label strong personalities as "angry" and quiet personalities as "unable to market herself."

Umm, 12:01, 12:20, I don't see a single truly racist thing on here, but maybe people post these comments on anonymous blogs as jokes. Jokes they don't feel comfortable about making about another person's race in person, because people like you take offense at obvious attempts at humor. The Irish joke, the Catholic joke, the redneck joke ... these will always be fine. But because a few people can't roll with the punches and take themselves too seriously, this is what people are left with.

"I have a dream that blacks will stop using the color of their skin to get an unfair advantage over better qualified non-minorities!"

12:43, I admit I can't see the humor in that.

Great thread! I really want to run with this story. I am thinking of the following as a headline:

"Highly-paid associate at elite DC law firm proclaims: message board posts prove existence of systemic racism; unidentified bigots hope to bring about his downfall."

What do you think?

"Someone who feels comfortable and justified to hide behind a keyboard and computer screen would have been right at home hiding behind a white sheet and a burning cross. "
I like how you compare those who disagree with affirmative action to KKK members who spread fear with burning crosses and lynchings. This is why you'll never be taken seriously in the mainstream.

Associates at Cravath have the day off.

1:30, why do you assume that the "hiighly-paid associate at elite DC law firm" is a man?

Oh noes! You discovered my latent sexism! Next time I will use an androgynous pronoun. After all, we can't assume this person is not transgendered, now, can we?

Well, fortunately for me, I am an under-qualified black guy from a tier 2 school at a top DC firm. I only got the job because I'm black. I will keep getting good work because I'm black. I will be successful in my career because I'm black. So because I'm gainfully employed due to my overachieving blackness I will celebrate and thank Dr. King for making all of this possible.

Thank you Dr. King.
Thank you Affirmative-Action.
And thank you gracious white man for seeing the potential in a 'po 'ole country boy. I just hate that your pity and charity results in me taking the place of really smart white man.

12:43, does 4:14 prove the point?

But, alas, this is mostly Lat's fault. He has used his rather powerful pulpit to carry that torch of big business and the chamber of commerce: selectively addressing the problems in our legal system in such a way that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The 'great pants lawsuit' has become rich corporations' way to "prove" that law suits are "out of control." What do the actual statistics show? Civil rights claims, employments claims, access to justice, access to juries, are all way DOWN. Mean wages are the same as the 60s, inflation adjusted.

12:43, you can't be serious!? Are you that freakin dumb? To make an assertion that Irish/Catholics (I.E. WHITES) have had to endure the shit that blacks faced and continue to face just shows how stupid you truly are! Last time I checked:
Irish/Catholics don't face discrimination when they apply for jobs, housing, etc. You want to know why? Because at the end of the day, they are WHITE. In case you haven't figured it out, this country is controlled by and for WHITE PEOPLE.
How stupid!