McKee Nelson to... Boob Cups?(Plus a digression on beauty queens in the law.)

As the BLT reported earlier this month, McKee Nelson has hired beauty queen Chelsey Rodgers, a 3L at Howard University Law School, who will be D.C.’s representative in the Miss USA competition. Although the firm has been trying to thin its ranks, we’re sure that they can find room for Ms. Rodgers (just as Thacher Proffitt, in its recent personnel reductions, kept its former Playboy pinup on the payroll).
In an interview in Washingtonian magazine, Chelsey Rodgers described this embarrassing moment:

“I lost a boob cup once. It’s one of the tools of the trade, but I was uncomfortable with it. I told the girls before we went out: ‘If you see something fall out of me, just act like nothing happened.’ I could sense it shifting as we walked out and it came out on me. All you can do is act like nothing happened.”

Quips our tipster, “Let’s hope she doesn’t lose any ‘boob cups’ whilst ‘thumping the table in the courtroom.'” [FN1]
Here’s a question (which you don’t need to emerge from a soundproof booth to answer): What is up with beauty queens and the law? See, e.g., Erika Harold (Harvard), Victoria Kush (Florida International), and — last, but definitely not least — Kumari Fulbright (University of Arizona).
Why do these beauty pageant winners gravitate towards the legal world? Especially when, in a sad commentary on gender equality in the law, they could arguably earn more as escorts? As Stanford law professor and sociologist Michele Landis Dauber recently told us, for our column in this week’s New York Observer:

“It is unfortunately true that plenty of women, Silda Spitzer included, probably have a better chance of making five diamonds at the Emperor’s Club than they do of becoming an equity partner at Dechert, Mayer Brown, Blank Rome, Kramer Levin, or Cravath.”

Professor Dauber is a director and officer of Building A Better Legal Profession, which works to increase diversity at large law firms. There’s a nice shout-out to BBLP in today’s Los Angeles Times.
[FN1] Don’t feel bad if you weren’t familiar with a boob cup; we weren’t. But Kashmir Hill, ATL’s breath of fresh estrogen, explained:

“A boob cup is one of those stick-on bra things. You get two cups that you essentially adhere to yourself. They don’t tend to work that well for anyone larger than a B cup.”

Next Stop Miss USA: DC’s Pageant Representative [Washingtonian]
Beauty and The Law [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]

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