Kirsten Gillibrand: 'This One Time, at Band Camp Davis Polk...'

In today’s New York Times, there’s an interesting profile of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who replaced Senatrix Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. To be honest, despite my weakness for high-powered women with gold-plated credentials — Gillibrand’s résumé features Dartmouth, UCLA Law, a Second Circuit clerkship, Davis Polk, and Boies Schiller (where she was a partner) — I’m not a huge Gillibrand fan.

If you’ve ever heard Gillibrand speak, you can understand why her congressional peers nicknamed her Tracy Flick. She sounds like a super-perky high school president, not a United States Senator. She has no gravitas. She occupies the Senate seat once held by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but Kirsten Gillibrand is not fit to kneel down and remove Hillary’s kitten heels.

Anyway, enough ranting. The NYT profile of Gillibrand, despite its occasionally fawning tone, is worth reading, due to some fun tidbits about Gilliband’s stint as an associate at Davis Polk….

The context: explaining Gillibrand’s (most commendable) commitment to gay rights. David Halbfinger writes:

[W]hen Ms. Gillibrand was a young associate, working long nights at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, she recalled, “the straight men found time to date and get married and have kids and went home at six every night, and the only ones left were the women and gay men.”

So she wound up vacationing with gay colleagues on Fire Island and in the Hamptons, and forging lifelong friendships. “A lot of them are now having children,” she said. “And it never occurred to me that they should not have every benefit that I have.”

Some observations and questions:

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1. This must have been a really, really long time ago. Because DPW associates haven’t left work at 6 p.m. since, oh, the days when John W. Davis argued on the losing side of Brown v. Board of Education.

2. Workaholic male at Davis Polk = Closet case?

3. If Davis Polk gays are such hard workers, why doesn’t DPW have as many gay partners as, say, Sullivan & Cromwell?

4. It’s not surprising to learn that Davis Polk folks go to Fire Island and the Hamptons. These are the summer playgrounds of the beautiful people — and Davis Polk people sure are beautiful.

5. It’s not surprising that Gillibrand started her private practice career at Davis Polk. Even though Elie denies her status as a MILF (or SILF?), Gillibrand is quite pretty (even “Senate Hot” — cf. “Law School Hot”).

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Finally, one comes away from the piece thinking that Kirsten Gillibrand is, well, one of these. One can already imagine a Lifetime original movie based on her life, starring Sarah Jessica Parker as Gillibrand and Alan Cumming as her gay sidekick, during her Davis days.

Okay, Kirsten Gillibrand is growing on me….

Gillibrand unpopular among peers [Politico]
Gillibrand Gains Foothold With Victory on 9/11 Aid Bill [New York Times]