Close
About
FAQ
Home
Collections
Login
USC Login
Register
0
Selected
Invert selection
Deselect all
Deselect all
Click here to refresh results
Click here to refresh results
USC
/
Digital Library
/
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
/
Making it to the top: a study of Black partners in major law firms
(USC Thesis Other)
Making it to the top: a study of Black partners in major law firms
PDF
Download
Share
Open document
Flip pages
Contact Us
Contact Us
Copy asset link
Request this asset
Transcript (if available)
Content
MAKING IT TO THE TOP : A STUDY OF BLACK PARTNERS
IN MAJOR LAW FIRMS
by
Susan Silbert
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Sociology)
March 1985
Copyright Susan Silbert 1985 ©
UMI Number: DP31849
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
OisssHation Publishing
UMI DP31849
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
ProQuest LLC.
789 East Eisentiuwer Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CAUFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK PL
LOS ANGELES, CAUFORNIA 90089 '
So
This dissertation, written by
under the direction of h^x. Dissertation
Committee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted by The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
D O C TO R OF PH ILO SO PH Y
<2^
Dean
Date
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
...
Chairvéfs
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Carol : Who knows that true teaching is an act of love
To Ed; Who was supportive and caring throughout.
To Zandy: Who is the nicest man.
To Mac: Who insisted that I grow up.
To my parents: For teaching me to care.
To Momii, Erskine and Tanya: For everything.
To Bernice and Zandra: Who gave me loving truths.
To Barbara: Who typed this with all her heart.
11
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements.................................................... ii
Abstract ........ vi
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION.............................................. 1
Background...................... ......................... 8
The Study................... 12
Human Social Reality...................... 20
11. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE........................ 24
Status Attainment........ 25
Mobility and the Race-Class Debate..................... 29
Blacks and Middle Management.......................... 35
Blacks and the Law................... 42
Conclusion.............. 49
111. METHODS................... 51
Entree. ........... . 51
Setting ........... 59
Sample............................... 65
Interviewing and Analysis. .............................. 72
Conclusion................................................ 81
IV. "IN THE BEGINNING" - BACKGROUND SOCIALIZATION.......... 83
Family.................................. 84
Education........................... 85
111
Page
Racial Socialization: Work Twice as Hard, Do.... 88
Twice as Well
Role Models............................................... 91
Family Role Models................................. 92
Famous Public Figures............ 94
Schools ....................................... 97
Better Schooling.................................... 98
Confidence....... 100
Conclusion....... 102
V. "GETTING THERE" - OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES...... 105
Perceived Options........................................ 107
Law School...................... 110
Admission. ..................................... 110
Quota. ............................... 112
Affirmative Action............................ 114
Experience in Law School.............. 118
Outsider......................... ... 119
Implied Inferiority. ......................... 121
Getting a Job.............. 125
Blocked Opportunity...... 126
No Interviews, No Jobs............. 127
Breaking In................................ . . . 129
Opening Doors....... 138
Changing Options.............................. 139
Courted Few.................................... 141
Conclusion................................................ 145
L___
IV
Page
VI. "MOVING UP" - BECOMING PARTNER.......................... 149
First Experience...................... 151
Isolation....... 152
Burden of Proof............ .. 157
Becoming Partner................ 164
Being Liked, Fitting In.... ..................... 165
Acting White. ........*..................... 166
Doing Well, Work Quality........................... 169
Reputation..................................... 171
Internal Opportunities....................... 173
Conclusion............ 176
VII. "BEING THERE" - SUCCESS AND RACE....................... 180
Success................................ 181
Hard Work, Luck..................... . 187
Personal Qualities................................. 194
Racial Consciousness........................ 196
No Real Change...................................... 200
Different Perspectives............................ 211
Conclusion.................... 212
VIII. . CONCLUSION .......................................... 217
Inequality................................................ 218
Racial Inferiority.......... 218
Isolation and Identity............................. 221
Opportunity Structures...... 222
Implications.............................................. 225
I
I The Future................................................ 234
I
t
1 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................... 236
ABSTRACT
This is a study of five black people who have become successful
by making it to the top of a professional hierarchy, becoming
partners in major law firms. The five black respondents in this
study are pioneers in the integration of the upper levels of the
predominantly all white legal community. At the present time, these
five people comprise the total population of blacks within a
particular American city to have reached the position of partner in
major law firms. The focus of the study is on the perceptions and
experiences of these people as they rose to top levels of success
within the legal establishment. The study provides a detailing of
the precise ways in which individual human lives are affected by
racial social structures even at the upper most levels of achievement
within society.
The study was conducted over a fifteen month period and consists
of analysis of in-depth intensive interviews of the five black
partners in a large American city. .In order to make comparisons
between black and white perceptions of experience of rising to the
top of the legal hierarchy, five white partners were also interviewed
as a matched sample. The black and white partners were representa
tives of seven different major law firms, hosting a population of
over 900 practicing attorneys. The study was done in the traditional
Symbolic Interactionist mode, focusing on subjective experiences of
VI
the respondents and the personal meaning and interpretations given
to events experienced by those living them out.
The findings of this study show that racial social structures
exist as an ongoing normal process within society. The daily reality
of the black respondents was infused with the effects of being black
in a racially stratified society. The respondents had continually to
bear the burden of having to prove themselves as capable in order to
dispel socially imposed notions of racial inferiority. Being
numerically isolated as they integrated educational and professional
institutions, the respondents had to deal with problems of alienation,
isolation and racial identity. Perhaps most importantly, in order
to become successful, the respondents had to make their way through
a society based on a dual set of opportunity structures with limited
and sometimes blocked access for blacks.
The importance of this study is that in getting close to
individual experience, we are able to learn the precise and often
subtle ways racial social structures affect the lives of top level
black professionals. Specifically, the findings show that race
continues to exert influence on mobility by creating added pressures
and burdens for blacks in achieving positions of success within a
professional hierarchy.
In providing the specific details of how racial discrimination
works in the lives of blacks who. have risen to the position of
partner within major law firms, this study adds to a continuing
tradition of research examining the effects of race on occupational
Vll
mobility. The major contribution is to present the first in-depth
qualitative analysis of the process of black mobility into top
level positions of success within a professional hierarchy. .The
findings add evidence to the theoretical position that racial
discrimination continues as an important variable influencing black
mobility into upper level positions within society. The future
implications of this study indicate a need to readdress ourselves
to a continuing commitment to uncover the force and reality of
racism, even in a society that at present, is in a period of denial
and avoidance of racial issues.
Vlll
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This is a study of five black people, four men and one woman,
who have become successful by making it to the top of a profes
sional hierarchy, becoming partners in major law firms. This
study could not have been conducted twenty years ago. The poli
cies of racial exclusion and discrimination were still so strong,
that it was not until 1969 that any black was admitted to partner
in a major law firm in this particular American city. Even at the
present time, the five black participants of this study represent
the total population of black partners practicing in major firms
in this city. The shockingly low number of black partners in this
city are borne out nationwide. In 1979 the National Law Journal
published a survey finding that of the 3,700 partners in the
nation’s fifty largest law firms, only 12 were black (Burke,
1979) . The five black people interviewed in this study are pio
neers in the integration of the top of the predominantly all-white
legal community. The focus of this study is on the perceptions and
experiences of these people as they rise to top level positions of
success within the legal establishment. It is a detailing of the
precise ways in which individual human lives are affected by
racial social structures in a society still marred by racism and
discrimination.
Although this study provides substantive information about
the lives of some black people who have become successful in
America there is a deeper analytic perspective. It is the bridg
ing of the gap between social structural ideas and processes, and
the active lives of individuals who give reality to any type of
social dynamics. Words like racial structures, racism, negative
stereotyping, have little meaning devoid of the actions and mean
ing of human beings living these processes out. It is only
through the subtle and constant details of human life and activity
that analytic concepts take shape and provide meaning. C. Wright
Mills probably best describes the need to bring individual lives
and notions of social structure together, when he talks of the
"promise" of sociology lying in %he ability to analyse the inter
section of what he terms "biography" and "history" (Mills, 1959).
We have come to know that every individual lives, from
one generation to the next, in some society; that he
lives out a biography, and that he lives it out within
some historical sequence. By the fact of his living
he contributes, however minutely, to the shaping of
this society and to the course of its history, even as
he is made by society and by its historical push and
shove. The sociological imagination enables us to
grasp history and biography and the relations between
the two within society. That is its task and its
promise (p.6).
The five black respondents not only represent the effects of the
social system, but, like us all, demonstrate the way in which each
individual human life is significant in itself as the creator and
recreator of human social activity. Each respondent not only
reacts to his or her environment, but in any action, creates the
rhythm of social dynamics as an ongoing process.
Racial social structures do not exist in a vacuum. They
intertwine with each and every other part of the social system.
The five black respondents were placed in a racial hierarchy from
the moment of their birth by the fact of being labeled black in a
racially discriminatory society. The effects of racial designa
tion can be seen at every phase and step of their lives, from early
childhood to later years as successful partners within major law
firms. The force and pressure of racial stratification are a
constant reality that must be dealt with by the five respondents
every day of their lives. However, the effects of racial strati
fication are so complete as a given way of existing within our
society, that to the respondents many of the adaptations, strate
gies and ways of coping to racial discrimination are taken as an
assumed and natural part of living within this particular society.
It is not that the respondents are unaware of and have no
feelings about the issues of racial inequality and bias in our
society. They do. It is more that the procedures they have had
to assume to become successful as blacks within society are taken
for granted, burdens assumed as simply necessary in an unjust
society. Perhaps that is one of the most frightening elements of
social systems. Practices, over time, become natural. That, in
fact, is what the basic notion of the social construction of reality
(Berger and Luckman, 1967) is all about. Humans define and create
what is to be taken, as reality by subjective imposition of meaning
on ideas, actions and behaviors, and then those perspectives of
reality are internalized as if they represent objective given
fact. In the case of racial social structures, history provides
racial segregation and inequality as a pattern over time, always
with given justifications for explaining away the existence of
blatant inequality, injustice, unacceptable dimensions of human
suffering, degradation and exploitation (Wilson, 1973; Ryan, 1971).
Those born into a social system based on racial stratification are
quickly taught, through socialization, appropriate explanations of
racial reality complete with justifications and accepted ways of
acting.
In our society "white people" are basically taught to deny,
ignore, minimize, not be aware of, and do nothing about racial
issues. We all "know" that something is going on, but we are told
how much better things are, how they are changing, that we as
individuals can do little to promote change. Through complicated
and subtle processes of physical and psychological segregation,
white people are, most importantly, kept from knowing the daily
truth and reality for blacks in American life. It is a successful
process of defense mechanisms that keep us unaware of the depth
and reality of the disease from which we suffer, and the truths
I
i
I that we are afraid to face.
I
For "black people" on the other hand, the reality of racial
discrimination is a given state of being that must be confronted
every day. It is a personal reality that is lived out. The human
dimensions cannot be ignored, because they must be dealt with.
That does not mean that the feelings are not blunted. Often they
are, precisely in order to "make it."-! Rage, discouragement, hurt,
bitterness often must be put aside in order to find the paths of
success open to those historically designated to the bottom of the
social system. For blacks, the reality of a racially-biased
society is not something that can be avoided, but rather must be
used like a surface map, finding accepted routes through the maze
of social terrain barring entry.
This relationship of white denial and black reality is what
the modern state of race relations is all about - race relations
defined as meaning precisely the relations taken between the
races. We no longer live in the day of blatant and obvious
racism. Examples of overt and concrete racist ideas surface
infrequently among the black respondents of this study. But the
subtle and constant reality of racial social structure does make
itself felt at every turn of the respondents’ lives. The reality
of racial stratification and the form of race relations can more
clearly be seen in comparison to the responses and experiences of
whites who have achieved the same successful position as the black
respondents. To this end, five white respondents were chosen as a
matched sample to the black partners.
When James Baldwin coined the term "Another Country," refer
ring to the plight of black people in America (Baldwin, 1960), he
was underscoring the vast difference in experience of being black
in this country. Perhaps the best way to sum up the findings of
Lhis study is to use the phrase "two worlds.” It is as if the
black and white respondents, while on parallel courses, live
different lives with different experiences, pressures and modes of
adaptations. Nowhere as in this comparison between the respon
dents can the lived-out reality of the terms racial social struc
ture or racial stratification be more clearly understood. The
daily experiences of the individuals within this study are defined
primarily by their racial status within a society that divides
itself along racial criteria.
It is as if we live in a social system where we have chosen
to be blinded to the reality of those existing side by side with
us. A choice that is difficult to conceive of executing, since
the black and white respondents in this study worked together,
went to school together, and often called each other friends. And
yet shared knowledge of racial reality between the black and white
respondents is almost unknown. The white respondents are almost
totally unaware of the special burdens and daily pressure of being
black in this society. And most of the readers of this paper will
share that same position of socially and perhaps personally
imposed ignorance. The phenomenon of white denial is the glue
that allows present-day systems of racial inequality to continue
unabated.
It is a special phenomenon of social science and all learning
that we know nothing until we find out what it is that we didn’t
know. In setting out to do this study, I wanted to uncover the
subtle forms racism took even at the upper echelons of success
within this country. In a sense, I thought I already knew. But I
cannot tell you how often I was shocked, startled and surprised as
the details of black reality in the white professional world were
opened up to me. When the study was completed, I realized the
greatest lesson of all: human reality cannot be learned from the
outside. It can only be guessed at, imposed upon and inferred.
When the black respondents took me into the intimacy of their
daily lives and experiences, I found the sorrow of human injus
tice, the joy of individual spirit, fortitude and dignity. I was
faced with the reality that social inequality cannot be measured
without human emotions. The paths of success etched out by the
black respondents told of the specific mechanisms, processes and
roads of adaptations taken by those who had become successful in a
society fortified against their making it. For the black respon
dents in this study, the term "racial social structure" is not a
vague term yearning for definition - it is the most fundamental
cornerstone of their lives.
Background
This study is set in the intellectual and academic climate of
a new "Promised Land" (Brown, 1965). During .the seventies and
eighties a redefinition of freedom for the black population came
about, entailing upward mobility within the system. Riding the
coattails of governmental and private programs toward affirmitive
action begun during the sixties and implemented most strongly
during the Johnson administration (Leviton, 1975), the notion of
changes occurring within the opportunity structures of the system
began surfacing. With the heat of the violence of the early civil
rights movement changing into concrete social action programs,
doors previously barred into educational, business and profes
sional arenas started to open for blacks in American society. The
American dream began to take shape for what Martin Luther King
called "the disinherited" of this country. Suddenly the caste
like system traditionally relegating blacks to the bottom of
society appeared to be changing. The movement in the racially-
stratified opportunity structures began a movement of hope and
changing options in the minds and hearts of blacks in America
(Wilson, 1973). Success within the system began to be a possi
bility for blacks, and the new promised land of the North became
the promised land of making it to the middle and upper class
within this society.
As barriers to participation within the system began to lift,
blacks began entering all aspects of occupational life in America.
Academia followed the movement and change in racial structures,
and the sociology of race relations began to focus on changing
mobility patterns for black Americans (Blau and Duncan, 1967;
Treas, 1974; Porter, 1974; Davis and Watson, 1978). With the rise
of the black middle class in the late seventies and early eighties
(Brashler, 1978), a theoretical debate began in sociology that is
as yet unsettled. The debate concerns the relative effects of
class and race on the lives of black Americans in the changing
economic and opportunity structures of current times. In 1978
Julius Wilson, a black sociologist, wrote a book entitled The
Declining Significance of Race (Wilson, 1978). In his book Wilson
introduced the thesis that in modern industrial society race no
longer has a relevant impact on the economic and occupational life
of blacks and, in fact, the only significant dimension affecting
the individual life chances of blacks currently is class status
and position. Wilson maintains that an opening economic system
has created different mobility patterns for middle and lower class
blacks. This schism of opportunity for blacks is based on posi
tion within an internal class structure, rather than the effects
of general social discrimination. According to Wilson, class and
race are inversely related for blacks so that as class position
goes up, the effects of race diminish to a point where they are no
longer relevant in terms of economic and occupational success.
Although Wilson’s theme made sense in terms of focusing on
the increased importance of class position to blacks in deter
mining their chances of success within the system, it seemed to
dismiss the continuing importance of racial social structures in
obtaining middle class positions and in succeeding within those
positions once obtained. It is almost as if Wilson’s position
reified the new ’’promised land’’ by stating that once upward mobil
ity was achieved, black problems of racism and discrimination
would be no more. However, there is an autobiographical account
by a black,man who became successful within the system, that sheds
nuance of light on Wilson’s position. The man is Frederic Morrow,
who became the first black to serve on a presidential staff during
the Eisenhower administration and then became the first black vice
president of the Bank of America.
In his book Forty Years a Guinea Pig (1980), Morrow delivers
a scathing attack on the system in which he managed to succeed.
Having made it to the top of the upper middle class world, Morrow
describes the pain and disillusionment he felt, still having to
encounter forms of racism and discrimination in the professional
world dominated by whites. In the foreward to his book. Morrow
states :
If this were the biography of an American white, it
would merely be the recording of the natural progres
sion of a person’s life from youth to old age. What
makes the difference in this instance is the revealing
of the infernal and everlasting structured obstacles
of racism (p. vii).
10
For Morrow, the issue of racism in America is hardly over
shadowed by class achievement. He describes in particular the
ostracism he felt being the lone black to integrate the upper
level political and business arenas, telling stories of being
slighted socially, excluded by others, and constantly feeling the
burden of his blackness. The burden of black life in America is
hardly a new topic. The literature abounds with horror-filled
personal accounts of the slavery experience (Douglass, 1968;
Washington, 1956), and the more current plight of poor blacks in
America (Wright, 1937; Moody, 1968). However, with the exception
of Morrow’s work, there is no detailed subjective accounting of
the experience of blacks making it to the top, or what they en
counter once there.
It is in this atmosphere of changing opportunity structures
and rising hopes of equality of achievement that this study
arises. It is an attempt to outline in careful detail the exper
iences of those five blacks who have made it to the very top of
the legal hierarchy. The findings of this study indicate a modi
fication of Wilson’s thesis, indicating that racism does not
disappear on the climb upward, but that its forms do change.
Issues of poverty turn to issues of isolation in a cultural mil
lieu based on white middle class values. Issues of gaining entry
into acceptable schools melt into issues of proving yourself as
capable, once admitted. The everyday pressure of frying to bridge
the gap between the world experiences of blacks and whites becomes
11
a burden carried by the blacks entering the system. But, hope
fully, this study accomplishes more than just elucidating the
modes of adaptations and strategies used by these five people who
have become successful within the system. Hopefully it casts
light on the subtle but sturdy forms of racism that still invade
prof essional institutions - even ati:thee topr^y Whe.rektheu'' ' promised
land" is most promised to be.
Thé Study
Racial social structures are lived out by individuals. But
they do not form the whole life of the individual. Instead, they
interact with all of the other normal ongoing structural processes
of society. The differences between the experiences and responses
of the black and white partners in this study can be attributed to
differential positions within that racial hierarchy. However
there are similarities as well. And those similarities are
reflective of the shared social experiences of all the partners.
Although the content chapters of this study follow a chronologi
cal path, beginning in childhood and ending with present-day
experiences, there is an overlapping of theoretical perspective as
well. Each stage in the lives of the partners is marked by the
primary importance of a significant social process. For instance,
childhood is reflective of the effects of early socialization
patterns, especially relating to parental influence. Later,
schooling and entry into the job market are indicative of the
12
working of the opportunity structures of this society as they
relate to educational and occupational mobility. Entry into the
profession as an attorney in a major law firm calls forth consid
erations of specific organizational structures and practice.
Definitions and perceptions of success, once having made it to
partner, are reflective of establishment of a world view or ideas
of reality as formed by experience within the social system as a
whole. Race, racial social structures, and ;the creation of racial
perspective weave their effects through all aspects of the social
system.
Chapter four of the study begins by focusing on the effect of
early childhood socialization in the lives of the respondents. In
particular, both black and white partners talk about the importance
of early internalization of established cultural values of hard work
and educational achievement as necessary means to becoming success
ful. The similar responses given by both black and white partners
reflect values assimilated from the general cultural millieu.
However, racial social structures impose their effect when the
black respondents are taught early on that in order to succeed,
they are going to have to "work twice as hard and do twice as
well" to make it. The black respondents primarily cite family
members as responsible for instilling in them the awareness that,
as blacks, the possibility for success is there, but only if they
are willing to become superachievers to prove themselves capable
13
within the context of white racial bias and assumptions of infer
iority. In addition, the black partners all point to the impor
tance of early integrated school experience in helping establish a
sense of confidence in their abilities to compete equally with
whites, that helped lead to further success in later life.
Although socialization to success goals in childhood was
important to both black and white respondents, the black partners
received additional racial socialization gearing them to succeed
within a racially discriminatory society. The theme of having to
prove themselves as capable by working twice as hard and doing
twice as well is one that the black respondents refer to over and
over at each stage of their life pattern. It is reflective of the
need to overcome socially-imposed notions of racial intellectual
inferiority that manifest themselves as the dominant argument
against achieving racial equality within a discriminatory society.
Chapter five deals with law school experience and entry into
first job as an attorney. The predominant theme that intertwines
with racial social structure is the vast importance of historic
context and changing opportunity structures based on racial
status. It becomes clear that entry into law school and as asso
ciates into major law firms are affected by race. Perhaps nowhere
in the study is the idea of dual opportunity structures based on
position in the racial hierarchy made more evident than in the
sphere of educational and occupational opportunity. For the black
14
respondents who entered law school in the fifties, racial struc
tures were so closed that each was taken into their law school
class as the "token" black. When graduating from law school, two
black respondents found that doors to the law profession were
almost totally barred. Neither was able to step directly into
associate positions within a major firm, but both first had to
take jobs in government offices, "earning" their way into the life
of major corporate law firms. It took one of the black partners
nineteen years working his way up a government office to finally
achieve enough credibility to be taken into a major law firm as a
partner.
The younger three black respondents, entering law school in
the late sixties and early seventies, found that they were the
recipients of the affirmative action period, and were sought after
both in terms of law school entry and invitation to practice at
major law firms. These respondents, however, make it quite clear
that the opportunity offered them was available only to a select
"pool" of highly-qualified blacks, and not a changing of opportun
ity structures to the point where race was no longer an important
issue.
With the ebb and flow of changing social historical patterns
in terms of race relations, opportunity structures changed from a
policy of closed doors to, as one respondent put it, "a door
slightly ajar'." The existence of dual opportunity structures and
the importance to historical context was almost unknown to the
15
white respondents. They, in fact, found the era that they entered
law school open and easy, compared to theipresent time. The war in
Viet Nam and other social movements of the sixties were the histo
rical reality they related to, with no personal knowledge of
emphasis on changing opportunity structures.
In addition to the relevance of historical context on oppor
tunity structures, the black respondents also raised the issues of
isolation, loneliness, visibility, having to prove themselves as
capable, and cultural problems of black identities in a white-
dominated world. In all cases but one, the black respondents were
in the vast minority during their law school tenures. As such,
they felt the cultural isolation of having to fit in and con
stantly having to carry the burdens of becoming superachievers to
be noted as successful within the upper levels of academic
achievement. The differences between the additional pressures and
burdens felt by the black respondents, compared to the white
respondents, again reflect the effects of racial social structures
on normal mobility experiences of higher education and entry into
first level professional employment.
Chapter six deals with internal mobility structure of the
rise to partner within major law firms. Organizational concerns
of what it takes to become a success, paths of upward movement,
being a good lawyer, and fitting in the law office are all general
concerns of becoming partner. All attorneys, both black and
white, are subject to standardized organizational procedures of
IB
becoming partners in major law firms. Initial pressures of making
it within the firm, being accepted as a highly competent top level
attorney, adjusting to the rigorous and demanding pressures of
practice within major firms, produce concerns for all new asso
ciates . However, for the black respondents, racial social reali
ties again create issues and pressures separate and in addition to
those encountered by the white respondents.
The themes of isolation and having to prove themselves as
blacks surface most predominantly at the early stages of the black
respondents’ career when they first enter the firm. In particular,
pressures of learning white roles in terms of cultural experience,
language, entertainment activities, and even choice of music
become relevant. For many of the black respondents, the pressure
of being the only, or one of few blacks in the firm sets a tone
of having to do well for the ’’entire race.” Issues with clients
initially accepting a black as capable also create pressures.
But perhaps the most significant pressure is that of having to
continually dispel internal and external assumptions of lack of
ability based on racial criteria..
Chapter 'seven explores the personal feelings and perceptions
of the respondents having made it to the position of partner. The
most unexpected, and perhaps revealing theme to develop was that :
the assumed definition of this study, making it to partner within
a major law firm being considered a success, was a definition not
held by all of the partners. The different perceptions about the
17
meaning of success were divided along racial lines. All of the
black respondents equated becoming a partner in a major firm to
having become a success. The white partners did not. For them,
issues of success entailed definitions of personal happiness,
creating social good and so on. The differences in definitions
and meanings of reality stem from differential positions and
experiences on a racial hierarchy. It should be remembered that
at the time this study was completed, only five black partners
existed within the entire population of partners in major law
firms in this large American city. For the black respondents,
historically blocked opportunity structures made the very entry
into position of partner a socially significant and personal
success.
In addition, the black and white partners held very different
perceptions about why the numbers of blacks entering the upper
levels of the legal establishment were so few. The white partners
basically felt that no racism was involved in the low numbers, but
that it was a problem of finding blacks capable and prepared to
succeed within the world of major law firms. The black partners,
however, indicated that subtle forms of institutional racism in
the educational and legal profession still existed, marring
entrance to black attorneys. The white partners in general were
unaware of any forms of racism existing in the legal profession.
The black respondents were not. Although they rarely cited per
sonal examples of blatant racism, the black respondents felt that
18
the world of the law profession was no more than a microcosm of
the racially-stratified construction of society at large. The
black respondents felt that unconscious dual standards still
existed in the law field, demanding levels of excellence of the
black attorneys that were not asked of all whites making it to
partner.
The fact that perceptions are molded by experience is hardly
a new social-psychological reality. Yet the depth of the effect
of position within a racial hierarchy in creating differing
perceptions is often dismissed and overlooked with assumptions of
overreaction or increased sensitivity to racial status. It is
rarely taken as a realistic evaluation of experience within a
racially discriminatory society. For example, basic assumptions
about the American system differed between the black and white
respondents. For the white respondents, their climb to success,
often from humble origins, reflects the American dream in all its
promise, that the system is indeed open to those who work hard to
succeed. For the black respondents the system, even at the pre
sent time, does not represent open and free mobility, but rather a
challenge that must be met by being better than those around you
who are white, in order to be able to make it within the system.
The black respondents felt discouragement about the fact that
although they had made it to the top of their professional hier
archy, it was almost as if the ladder upward had been cut behind
them. The respondents talked of the lowering numbers of blacks
19
entering prestigious law firms, less blacks entering major law
firms as associates, lack of emphasis on black recruitment with
the end of the affirmative action policies in government and
business. These assumptions are borne out by statistics in the
current law journals (Wadluw, 1980; Culp, 1981; Burke, 1979;
Smith, 1980; Jordon, 1980; Munneke, 1980; Benfell, 1978; Quinn,
1980). The black partners conveyed saddened feelings about hopes
of an opening system turning to "tokenism” at the top, coloring
their own feelings of personal success with feelings of discour
agement about real and lasting change within the racially-biased
structures of this society.
From early childhood experience to perceptions of success and
society from the top, the reality of racial social structures
creates dual experience for the black and white respondents of
this study. Shared cultural values splinter off into differing
perceptions developed by separate racial realities. Although
opportunity structures have opened enough to allow the black
respondents of this study to make it to partner within major law
firms, it has not been a climb made without the price of extra
pressure and burdens of racial status.
Human Social Reality
This is a study about human beings. It is a study about how
human beings survive, and in fact become successful, within a
society that marks them by the color of their skin. Individual
2:0
lives, filled with experiences and nuance of living, give us the
details and "facts" of how race relations work. Individual social
reality is a combination of perception and experience. Each
individual within society gathers what we call a personal "con
sciousness" as he or she lives within a social millieu. That
consciousness develops from experience, interacting with others
from the moment of our birth. It is formed by the various posi
tions we hold within society which, in turn, influence our exper
ience, and, therefore our perceptions about our experience, social
reality and life in general. The daily reality and significance
of race relations cannot be understood without understanding the
lived out reality on individual human lives of racial social
structures within our society.
What this study seems to indicate is that the "Promised Land"
of promised freedom from racial exclusion, discrimination and
injustice does not exist at the top of the social system. The
theoretical debate on the importance of race and class on the
lives of black Americans seems to diminish as the realities of the
black partners of this study are revealed. The constantly
repeated themes of the daily and continual burden of having to
overcome socially-imposed assumptions of inferiority, the struggle
with isolation, loneliness and cultural identity, the constant
reality of a dual opportunity structure based on race limiting the
chances of entry into the upper levels of the system, all create
pressures and obstacles defined by skin color. It is clear that
21
racial hierarchy within this society determines position which, in
fact, defines both experience and perceptions. Each individual
reacts as an independent being to those pressures and experiences
caused by social position. Each has to some degree different
experiences, to some degree similar experiences based on position
within the racial social structure. Yet the experiences of the
black partners in comparison to the white partners indicates
tremendous similarity in experience by racial, not just class
position.
Racial social structures interact with every other process of
social life : culture, history, opportunity structures, organiza
tional realities, and establishment of individual consciousness.
Each social structural reality has an impact of its own, as each
blends together to create society and individual experience as we
know it. Unfortunately in American society, racial social struc
tures have to be considered a "normal" part of the ongoing proces
ses of society. It is not an aberration or temporary malady of
society, but a historically-rooted, essential part of our economic
and social system. That is not to say that it is morally correct,
or represents a value choice that in all good consciousness, or
conscience, we might not choose. But nonetheless, any under
standing of racial reality within this society has to encompass
the acknowledgement of the normal process of racial social struc
tures within this society.
That is not to say that change is not a relevant factor in
the shape and influence of racial social structures within Amer
ica. Clearly, change has taken place, or this study would not
have been possible. But I would like to think a day might come
when equality really means lack of racial emphasis of any sort,
where race, like hair color, falls into the distant background of
irrelevant distinguishing characteristics. For the present time,
however, the existence of racial social structures creates "two
worlds" for the black and white partners of this study.
To the partners who agreed to do this study 1 must give my
most heartfelt thanks. Each one of them made time available in
busy schedules to let me question and requestion them on the story
of their rise to partner. Often they shared intimate details of
their lives. Sometimes they had to recount occurrences that were
still painful and difficult to understand on a human level of
comprehension. But each one of them did the study for the same
stated reason. They all told me that if they could, they would
like to "try to help." If it is the blinding and deafening of
ourselves to the reality of social and racial injustice that
creates and recreates anew the pain and inequality, then each one
of their efforts and voices have been significant. In addition,
each of the five black partners, although some more discouraged
than others about the state of true change in our society, issued
some hope in the act of participating in this study. It is to
that hope that 1 dedicate this work.
23
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Although 1 was unable to find any studies that provided an
in-depth examination of the process and experiences of blacks as
they moved upward through the system to reach the top of a profes
sional hierarchy, there is a sociological tradition of study
existing that lays the foundation for just such an inquiry. His
torically, the classic ethnographic studies about blacks have been
confined primarily to the lower class community. Such brilliant
contributions to the study of race relations as Soulside (Hannerz,
1969) and Tally’s Corner (Liebow, 1967) describe the modes of
adaptations and experiences of lower class black culture in
America. Until recently, the occupational structures of predom
inantly all white professional hierarchies were almost totally
blocked to blacks, making the study of the entry or upward mobil
ity of blacks into mainstream professions almost an impossibility.
However in 1967, Blau and Duncan, in their major contribution
The American Occupational Structure, provided a genre of stratifi
cation research on mobility and status attainment that began
examining the ways blacks move through the occupational system.
24
Status Attainment
In The American Occupational Structure, Blau and Duncan
devised a basic model to examine the effect of background status
on the process of social mobility and occupational achievement.
The model rests on a quantitative analysis of path coefficients,
determining the effects of variables such as father's educational
achievement and father's occupational status on the educational
achievement and current occupational status of the respondent.
The authors seek to provide a method that will measure the strength
of ascriptive status such as social origin, ethnic status on the
process of social mobility and occupational achievement from
one generation to the next.
Blau and Duncan conclude that equality of opportunity exists
only as an ideal in the United States, with the chances of occupa
tional achievement and mobility limited by ascribed racial status.
comparing generational cohorts of whites and blacks, the
authors found that "Negroes are disadvantaged relative to whites
not only educationally but in respect to all other career contin
gencies" (p.209). Blacks were found to have inferior educational
opportunities compared to whites, lower mean occupational status
at all educational levels, and lower paternal occupational status.
Yet Blau and Duncan find that even holding the effects of lower
social origin and background constant, blacks still achieve
25
occupational status inferior to that of whites. The authors
attribute such differences in black and white achievement to
discrimination and racial inequality within the system.
Of particular interest for this study is the finding that as
blacks move up the educational hierarchy, occupational discrimin
ation actually increases rather than decreases. In comparing
blacks and whites at the same level of educational attainment, the
authors found that as educational status increased the gap between
black and white occupational achievement also increased. Blau and
Duncan stated that the findings argue for the existence of dis
crimination in upward mobility for blacks beyond the effects of
disadvantaged background.
Background and educational handicaps create occupa
tional disadvantages for most nonwhite groups, but
there are additional career and income disadvantages
that must be attributed to ethnic status itself and
to the discrimination it provokes (p. 213).
In finding that blacks not only start from a more disadvantaged
position but move up through the system differently than whites
due to racial discrimination and unequal opportunities, Blau and
Duncan were the forerunners of the class versus race debate,
citing race as having "independent disadvantageous consequences"
(p.209) for blacks within the American occupational structure.
In 1968 Duncan pursued the matter of race and class as the
basis for inequity among blacks by comparing the effects of black
and white family background on present occupational income. In
his article titled "Inheritance of Poverty or Inheritance of
26
Race?" (Duncan, 1968), Duncan argues that the problem of poverty
for blacks really issues from the problems of race. Once again
Duncan finds that in comparing blacks and whites of equal or
comparable education, family size and socioeconomic levels, the
income and achieved occupational status of blacks is 1 ower than
whites. The income status differential between blacks and whites
that cannot be explained by the model in terms of family
background, Duncan attributes to what he calls "occupational dis
crimination" finding the "right" skin color to be an important
determinant of mobility within the social structure (p.108).
During the seventies there were numerous studies done which
explored the effects of race on mobility in the tradition of
status attainment research. Treas (1974) and Porter (1974) both
found in comparing black and white mobility patterns, that race
had a significant effect beyond background in determining occu
pational attainment. Treas, in her study on race and sex in
occupational achievement, examined the specific effects race had
in the occupational careers of men and women. Treas found that
race affected occupational achievement for black men and women, at
different stages of their careers, imposing barriers on educa
tional achievement for black men, while affecting black women more
at the level of first job entry. In both cases, Treas found race
to be an important variable determining lowered occupational
achievements of blacks.
27
Porter (1974) in a study comparing black and white mobility
patterns found race to be the most important factor accounting for
differences. Although the white data produced the expected
effects of the model, the black data yielded departures from
expectation in ten areas. The racial differences existing in
mobility patterns between blacks and whites were so great, that
Porter concluded that the model based on white data was not
applicable to black experience. Instead, a two system ideal-type
of social mobility patterns based on Turner's (1960) contest and
sponsored modes of mobility was posited to explain the racial
differences. Contest mobility refers to equal competition in an
open system for the gaining of educational and occupational
achievement, describing the traditional opportunity structures for
whites in American society. Sponsored mobility is a system aris
ing from discrimination barring equal competition between blacks
and whites, where entry by blacks into mobility patterns can only
occur if they are chosen by the established elite. In Porter's
findings not only is race a major variable determining the
mobility attainment of blacks, but the process of occupational
achievement is so different that it can only be explained by
formulating a separate mobility system for blacks.
The literature on status attainment established early quan
titative findings of the importance of race as a determining
factor in the mobility process for blacks in the American
28
system. In sum, the studies established the effect of existing
discrimination in limiting occupational status of blacks.
Mobility and the Race-Class Debate
In the late sixties to early seventies, mobility studies
began to turn toward the question of examining black access into
occupational positions of authority and power (Baron, 1968;
Egerton, 1970; Kluegel, 1973). With the changes in the economic
structure, it became clear that blacks were gaining entry into
blue collar positions that previously had been barred to them
(Kluegel, 1973). However, in a study of policy and decision
making positions of authority held by blacks in Chicago, Baron
found that blacks were grossly underrepresented at the upper
levels (Baron, 1968). In the city of Chicago, blacks held less
than 2 percent of the upper level positions of authority in the
private and business sector, while their overall population within
the city was 20 percent. In fact, Baron stated that the power of
the position was inversely related to the number of blacks occu
pying such positions, the higher and more powerful the position,
the fewer blacks to be found. In 1974 Baron again reviewed the
employment statistics in Chicago and found that there had been no
change in black employment patterns in upper level positions. In
a survey of the 17 most prestigious Chicago law firms, only-one
black occupied the position of partner out of a total of 676
partners. From his study Baron concluded that although the
29
sixties had brought changes for black participation in the lower
and middle levels of the labor force, no real change had occurred
in terms of black access to top level positions of authority and
power.
In 1970 Egerton conducted a survey of the fifty largest
corporations in America with combined assets of over 420 billion
dollars employing 6.5 million people (Egerton, 1970). He found
that out of 3,182 executive positions, including directors and
senior officers, only three of the positions were held by blacks.
In looking at 23 of the nation's largest industrial corporations
such as General Motors, Standard Oil, Ford, General Electric and
IBM, Egerton found that none of the 880 senior executives or 238
directors were black. There were no black executives in the
largest retailing companies such as Sears, Safeway and J. C.
Penney; in the major transportation companies such as United Air
Lines, Southern Pacific and Trans World Airlines ; or in the
largest utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric, American
Telephone and Telegraph or Southern California Edison. There was
one black serving as a director of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and
two blacks serving as directors of major life insurance companies.
As a result of his survey, Egerton concluded that discrimination
successfully barred black access to top level executive positions.
Egerton held that institutional racism left the running of thé
most powerful corporations to whites, with blacks only serving in
token positions.
30
Kluegel (1978) linked racial exclusion from positions of job
authority to the discrepancy in socioeconomic achievement between
blacks and whites. In a study conducted in 1973, he found that
the average job authority of blacks was far lower than that of
whites. Kluegel stated that exclusion from positions of authority
accounted for one third of the income gap between blacks and
whites. Blacks were excluded from positions of authority both by
blocked entry into occupations and industries that lead to
positions of authority, and by limited promotion to authority
positions once within a situation offering possibile mobility.
Kluegel concluded that blocked opportunity for blacks to achieve
positions of authority and increased income were due to institu
tional discrimination, more than to the direct effects of lesser
education or socioeconomic disadvantage.
In the late seventies to early eighties, studies of black
mobility into upper level positions took a new and interesting
turn, stirring up new debate in the current literature. In 1978
Julius Wilson published a controversial book entitled The Declin
ing Significance of Race (Wilson, 1978) where he put forth the
thesis that in the modern industrial era, "the life chances of
individual blacks have more to do with their economic class posi
tion than with their day-to-day encounters with whites" (p. 1).
Wilson’s view that class outshadows race in determining black
mobility and occupational achievement rests on the argument that
changes in the overall economic structure of society have led to a
31
major class division within the black population. Wilson cites
the recent rise in the black middle class and their entry into
upper level positions as a marked contrast to the continuing
plight and limited mobility of the disadvantaged black under
class. Wilson asserts that it is this class-based dual pattern of
mobility opportunity within the black community that determines
chances for occupational achievement, rather than the effects of
race or institutional discrimination. In fact, Wilson maintains
that the effects of class and race are inversely related for
blacks, so that as class position goes up the effects of race
diminish and eventually lose significance.
According to Wilson, the lack of racial blocks in the economic
sector in current times stem from historical changes in the
economic structures of society. Wilson claims that society has
passed through three stages of economic-race relations. The first
was an early period of plantation economy which brought racial
caste oppression for all blacks, and the second a stage of
industrial expansion marked by class conflict and racial oppres
sion as blacks began joining the labor force after World War I and
II. The third and present stage is the modern industrial economy
where race inequalities have passed to class inequalities, affect
ing blacks and whites equally. Wilson maintains that the dis
advantage of the poor black underclass exists as a result of
historical racial oppression, and is not due to current insti
tutionalized racial discrimination and exclusion.
32
Although Wilson’s position on the lessening importance of race
as a factor influencing black mobility brought a great deal of criti
cal response from the academic community (Hill, 1978; Willie, 1982),
he was not without support. In 1978 a lengthy article appeared in the
New York Times Magazine discussing the growing black middle class,
and the schisms created within the black community between upwardly
mobile professional blacks and the black underclass. Brashler (1978)
points out that in order to succeed within major white corporations
and businesses, upwardly mobile blacks have to give up their black
identities and take on the cultural patterns of white middle class
society. He points not only to a growing economic schism within the
black community, but to a cultural gap that aligns members of the
growing black middle class more closely with their white counterparts
than with blacks existing in lower class status.
Hill, in an article entitled "The Illusion of Black Progress,"
addresses himself to a refutation of the position put forth by Wilson
that class is more important than race in determining black progress
and mobility (Hill, 1978). In examining data on black class status,
employment and income in comparison to whites. Hill states that the
foundation upon which Wilson bases his theory does not hold up under
close empirical scrutiny. Hill argues that in recent years there has
been no significant increase in the proportion of middle class blacks,
and no evidence of a widening economic cleavage between middle and low
income blacks. Instead, there has been an actual increase in the
income gap between blacks and whites (p. 27). Hill maintains that
33
black access to employment and occupational mobility is not based on
lack of education or background disadvantages, but to the continuing
effect of racial discrimination barring blacks from equal participa
tion in the system. As proof of the importance of race as a limiting
factor for blacks. Hill cites statistics showing that black youths
who hold significantly higher educational achievements than white
youths still have far less access to employment opportunities.
According to Hill, the idea of significant economic progress for
blacks masks the existence of the continuing influence of race in
barring access to occupational achievement and mobility, creating
the illusion of a system based on equality of opportunity.
Willie wrote an article in direct response to Wilson's thesis
entitled "The Inclining Significance of Race" (Willie, 1978) where
he puts forth the counter thesis that in fact, for middle class
blacks, the significance of race is increasing rather than decreas
ing. Like Hill, Willie argues against Wilson's empirical assump
tions about black progress, pointing to continuing income
inequality between blacks and whites on both the upper and lower
end of the income scale, the fact that the proportion of poor
blacks is two and one-half times greater than poor whites, and the
statistical evidence that whites with less education than blacks
get better jobs (p. 397). Willie finds that Wilson's assumption
that the economic occupational opportunity structures are no
longer influenced by racial discrimination is untrue and that in
fact the higher blacks go in the occupational structure the more
34
race becomes a relevant variable. Willie points to the influence
of affirmative action programs in bringing blacks into positions
from which they were previously barred, stirring up new forms of
racial discrimination. Willie points to the "consuming exper
ience" (p. 398) that race can be for blacks first entering inte
grated work situations. He talks about the constant need
blacks find to have to prove themselves as capable within these
situations, and the battles they must fight either to suppress or
maintain black cultural identities. For Willie, as for Hill, the
supposition that class now determines blacks’ opportunities for
occupational achievement and mobility exists as an ideology
obscuring the continuing effect of race and discrimination on the
unequal placement of blacks within the American stratification
system.
Blacks and Middle Management
While sociologists debate the relevance of class or race as
active variables affecting the upward mobility of blacks, most of
the studies of blacks making it to middle level occupational
positions have been done from within the tradition of business and
management case studies. During the late sixties and seventies
there was an affirmative action movement aimed at admitting blacks
to mainstream occupations that had previously been barred to them.
Governmental pressures in corporations and businesses, as well as
35
the public sector, led to a significant increase in black partici
pation in white collar jobs, and in the mobility of blacks into
middle management positions (Levitan, 1975). Much of the litera
ture dealing with black mobility into newly integrated situations
focuses on the problems race brings for those blacks making it
into the system.
One of the most significant aspects of blacks’ entry into
corporate life is the issue of racial "cultural shock" that they
experience upon entering predominantly white corporate institu
tions (Smith, 1972; Holsendolph, 1972; Jones, 1973; Davis, 1977;
Greenberger, 1981; Davis and Watson, 1982). Davis and Watson, in
their book entitled Black Life in Corporate America (Davis and
Watson, 1982) discuss the problems blacks face in entering the
corporate environment in having to fit in and not appear dif
ferent. Although Davis and Watson point out that to some extent
everybody who joins major corporations has to conform to a cor
porate identity to fit in, they stress how the problem is multi
plied for blacks coming from a background that-differs markedly
from that of the white established corporate norm.
All managers have some problems in the area of assum
ing corporate identity. But black managers have more
difficulty with it because black life is further than
white life from what might be called the corporate
norm. Once black managers have undergone a process
of ’managerial development’, there is greater estrange
ment between them and their families and communities,
and yet often there is no correspondingly greater com
fort level between them and the white managers they work
with and for (p.10).
36
Greenberger (1981) discusses the pressures blacks feel enter
ing the white corporate structure -of having to learn whole new
cultural values and practices in order to not appear different.
Specifically he cites incidents where blacks were cautioned about
the importance of changing their dressing habits to wear clothes
more in line with the corporate image, where black managers under
stood that the real message was not about clothes but "about the
delicate line that a black must walk between being black or
different, and being perceived as a team player in a white corpor
ate culture" (p. 1). Greenberger relates the experience of a
black manager in having to learn the acceptable values in the
corporate environment by such things as learning to play golf with
his work associates rather than basketball, a favorite sport in
the black community. Black respondents also spoke of the problems
of having to learn proper restaurants at which to eat, what to
order, and all the details of middle class white culture.
Jones in an article entitled "Black Executive in a Nearly
All-White World" (Jones, 1972), stresses the problems blacks en
counter of being isolated in a virtually all-white work situation,
where they constantly feel on stage and more closely watched
than their white counterparts. Davis (1977) and others (Smith,
1972; Holsendolph, 1972) discuss the issues blacks encounter in
trying to suppress their racial identity to make it in white
corporate America. Again, the added issue of being black is
talked about in terms of creating extra burdens of conformity
37
where "anything that’s different when you’re black just makes you
stand out more" (p. 113).
In addition to the problems associated with cultural conform
ity, the literature on black participation in middle management
also focuses on race as a limiting factor in black upward mobility
to top level executive positions. A number of articles cite
statistics pointing out the lack of blacks breaking into the upper
levels of management in the corporate and business structures
(Smith, 1972; Colbs, 1972; Holsendolph, 1972; Greenberger, 1981;
Davis and Watson, 1982). In 1973 less than 3 percent of managers
and officials of major corporations were black (Colbs, 1972).
Smith points out that in a survey of 50 top corporations with
2,500 top management personnel in 1972, none were black, with only
65 black executives appearing anywhere in the entire Fortune 500
list of major corporations (Smith, 1972). Although Greenberger
cites statistics stating that by 1978 the number of black managers
and officials of major corporations had risen to 3.8 percent, he
points out that "blacks remain grossly underrepresented in the
executive suite" (p. 3). Greenberger states that top level execu
tive positions are still almost entirely closed off to blacks with
most black positions remaining on the managerial rather than
executive levels.
Davis and Watson assess the role race plays in limiting the
upward mobility of blacks once they achieve middle management
status in major corporations and businesses. They state that
38
black managers feel that promotions are denied them on the basis
of race rather than performance, and found that for blacks their
careers are stopped at a certain level because of the "unwilling
ness of whites to allow blacks into the decision-making positions
at the top of the company" (p. 73). Davis and Watson discuss
white assumptions that blacks are not intelligent enough to fill
top level positions, that those black managers who do succeed are
exceptions, and that cultural values hamper black capability to
serve well in executive positions (p. 85). Davis and Watson state
that most black managers they interviewed felt that the higher up
in the company a black moved, the more race became an inhibiting
issue.
I don't fool myself. The higher you go the more
important race becomes. Above me everything is
white (p. 103).
Colbs (1972), Smith (1972) and Davis and Watson (1982) all
point to the lack of black access to informal avenues of social
izing with whites which limits black chances of upward mobility.
Within corporate and large business structures, many major deci
sions of company policy and promotions take place during informal
social gatherings such as on the golf courses, the country clubs
and the after work parties. According to Colbs, one problem in
upward mobility for blacks has been exclusion from such social
settings. Most blacks do not belong to white clubs because of
discriminatory policies. Smith points out the general lack of
black exposure to "the guts of corporate decision-making, the
39
country club and cocktail party socializing wherein many a multi
million dollar deal begins and top promotions are often clinched"
(p. 44). Smith and Colbs also note that the limits to black
mobility within the corporate structure arise from general issues
of racial exclusion and discrimination within society in general.
Alderfer and Tucker conducted a study comparing the different
perceptions between white and black managers on the issue of race
and black mobility within the corporate structure (Alderfer and
Tucker, 1980). The overall finding was that perceptions of race
relations and the existence of discrimination were vastly differ
ent between black and white managers. Whites tended to view race
relations in a more favorable way than blacks, denying the exis
tence of racism or racial discrimination. In addition, white
managers rated the impact of their behavior in relation to blacks
more favorably than blacks did (p. 150). On the other hand, black
managers felt that whites were "blind" (p. 150) to existing racial
dynamics and felt that many forms of racism and discrimination
existed within the work situation. In terms of mobility issues in
black-white relations, both blacks and whites unanimously felt
that managers should be hired on the basis of ability rather than
color; however, differences existed in the racial groups in terms
of their perceptions of what actually occurred within the cor
porate setting. White managers tended to believe that blacks were
hired less because of their ability and competence than because of
the need to fill racial quotas. White managers also believed that
40
blacks brought into the company tended to lower the existing
standards of the corporation. Black managers thought that white
managers often held the expectation that blacks would fail because
they could not accept the idea of black competency. Blacks felt
that if they failed at a job all blacks suffered in the eyes of
the corporation, yet when a white failed, it was viewed as an
instance of individual incompetency. Most importantly, black
managers felt that their promotions were limited by racial consid
erations, with whites being promoted more easily and with far
greater frequency. Alderfer and Tucker conclude that the great
difference between black and white perceptions of racial dynamics
stems from the fact that whites tend to focus on only one group as
problematic, the blacks; whereas blacks tend to conceptualize
racial dynamics in terms of systemic causes affecting two groups,
blacks and whites. * .
Antonovsky conducted a study on blacks who had achieved
middle class occupations, attempting to understand how they had
arrived at their present status (Antonovsky, 1967). In asking 83
respondents about their feelings of success in making it in the
white world, Antonovsky found that the respondents stressed family
socialization and personal characteristics. In particular, the
respondents cited the role their parents played in establishing
the value of achievement and stressing the importance of "amount
ing to something" (p. 252). The respondents stated that theii
parents emphasized the importance of education, even though many
41
of them had themselves not had access to educational advancement.
Antonovsky’s respondents felt that they had become successful
without the help of specific role models who were not available in
their childhood background. However, they believed that much of
their success was due to personal characteristics such as persev
erance, willingness to work hard and sacrifice, which they credit
to a general sense of values that their parents socialized them to
in early life.
Blacks and the Law
As business and corporate structures changed in the sixties
and seventies, the professional structures were also shifting,
beginning to admit blacks into areas of practice previously barred
by policies of racial exclusion. Until the mid-sixties, black
legal practice was almost totally restricted to private practice
within the community, primarily serving the needs of black clien
tele. Blacks were rarely allowed into any aspect of legal prac
tice that served the white community. Katz (1982) points out an
exception when he describes the integrated legal staff of
Chicago’s legal aid services in the fifties and sixties. However
Katz makes it clear that employment of blacks at that time as
attorneys was not the usual practice when he says, ’’Legal aid
mixed lawyers by race, sex, religion and ethnicity into one staff
to an extent that perhaps surpassed all other lawyers’ work organ
izations" (p. 48). With the changing social structures in the
42
sixties, affirmative action programs began admitting more blacks
to law schools and opening doors of employment for blacks as
attorneys in government, business, and to a less extent in major
law firms.
The literature on black mobility within the legal profession
follows a historical pattern of opening and closing educational
and occupational opportunities. During the early and raid seven
ties, the literature appearing in the law journals reflected a
sense of change and guarded optimism (McGee, 1971; Edwards, 1972;
Baker, 1975). Edwards points out that since the sixties, some
"progress" (p.21) has occurred in terms of sheer numbers of blacks
within the legal profession (Edwards, 1972). However, he is
careful to point out that numerical underrepresentation of blacks
serving as attorneys in the profession is still a critical prob
lem, with the greatest discrimination at the top of the legal
hierarchy, in the major law firms. Conducting a survey of 44
major firms in the Midwest, Edwards found that out of 1,249 part
ners, only one was black, and of the 976 associates, 12 were black
(p.28). As a consequence, Edwards concludes that the survey
indicates the beginning of a slight trend toward increased hiring
of blacks in some major Midwestern firms, which might lead to
greater equality in job opportunity within the large firms. How
ever, Edwards makes it clear that this initial hope reflects only
a potential change when he says, "This trend, however laudable,
indicates that the formerly closed corporate door is only slightly
ajar, not yet fully open" (p. 29).
43
Baker points out the role institutional racism has played in
keeping blacks underrepresented in the legal profession even after
opportunity structures have begun opening up (Baker, 1975). He
describes institutional racism as the unwillingness to admit that
the application of standards, which blacks cannot adequately meet
because of historical racial discrimination in the past, leads
to a continued but unacknowledged discrimination in the present.
Baker makes it clear that equal opportunity in essence provides
no opportunity for those groups who have been discriminated
against and cannot meet existing standards.
People who start their lives at a disadvantage rarely
benefit significantly from equality of opportunity
because, unless they are outstandingly superior in
skills or in upward mobility techniques, they can
never catch up with the more fortunate, and most dis
advantaged people never even get access to the
supposedly equal opportunity (p. 710).
Baker contends that blacks feel the impact of institutional racism
most strongly in terms of employment in the major law firms, where
the entrance requirements are not only high but also require skills
and expertise in areas from which blacks have been excluded.
Because of this black lawyers need no longer be excluded specific
ally on racial grounds, but nonetheless find themselves excluded
because of inability to meet existing standards. As a solution.
Baker calls for special programs in law schools and major law firms
to recruit and train black lawyers in an attempt to undo exist
ing consequences of past discrimination. T.ooking at the attempts
law schools were making in the late sixties and early seventies.
44
as well as efforts by major law firms and government agencies to
recruit black attorneys, Baker felt that the long term prospects
for black participation in the legal world were fairly good, "If
all of these activities are continued, and optimally accelerated,
we will begin to see the emergence of increasing numbers of black
business and commercial lawyers" (p. 726).
With the coming of the eighties, however, guarded optimism
and tentative hope has shifted toward discouraged pessimism and.
feelings that black participation in the upper levels of the legal
establishment has actually taken a step backward (Wadlow, 1980;
Culp, 1981; Burke, 1979; Smith, 1980; Jordan, 1980; Munneke, 1980;
Benfell, 1978; Quinn, 1980). Culp conducted a survey of presti
gious law firms in five major American cities, in order to find
out if black progress in the legal profession is continuing at the
rate it has in the past, and if opportunity structures for blacks
in the law have been substantially altered in the last two decades
(Culp, 1981). Culp discovered that out of 13,387 lawyers in major
firms, only 189, or less than 3 percent, were black. He also
found that black lawyers were primarily concentrated as associates
and that out of a total of 5,526 partners, only 20 were black. * As
a consequence of the low numbers of black partners, Culp states
that blacks are "very unlikely to be partners in prestigious law
firms" (p. 164). In addition, the statistics showed that in all
of the five cities, from 40 to 50 percent of the law firms hiring
45
any blacks as attorneys had only one black per firm. Culp inter
prets these figures as representing the existence of "token
hiring" (p. 166) where the goal of firms is only to hire one or
two black lawyers per firm, and then hold constant at these num
bers without increasing the overall percentage of black attorneys.
He concludes that although there has been some progress in black
mobility into prestigious firms, blacks continue to be severely
underrepresented with no expected percentage increases in the
future..
Reporting on a survey by the National Law Journal of the
nation’s 50 largest law firms, Burke (1979) found that of 3,700
partners only 12 were black, making the percentage of black part
ners less than .03 percent. Burke and others (Jordan, 1980;
Blackwell, 1981) point out that the total number of blacks ser
vicing as attorneys in the legal profession is 2 percent; they see
partnership as representing the strongest barrier to black parti
cipation in the practice of law. Burke also points out that of
the 5,800 associates in major firms, only 142 are black, again
representing only 1.6 percent of the total number of associates in
the 50 largest firms. Burke concludes that the survery statistics
establish the fact that large prestigious firms discriminate
against black lawyers, and that "few inroads have been made at
major firms" (p. 1). Pointing to the fact that only one of the 50
largest firms has as many as two blacks serving in the capacity of
46
partner, Burke also indicates the existence of tokenism in terms
of black entry into mainstream legal practice at major firms.
Mlinneke discusses the findings of the annual Employment
Report of the National Association for Law Placement, which sur
veys all of the law schools approved by the American Bar Associa
tion (Munneke, 1980). In an analysis of the employment patterns
for black law graduates, Munneke found that : the total number of
blacks entering practice in major firms was so small that the
numbers "will not significantly change the racial composition of
private practice law firms" (p. 156). In fact, Munneke concluded
that in the area of private practice in major law firms, blacks
were actually losing ground. He attributes this decrease in
participation to continuing existence of racial discrimination at
the top of the legal hierarchy.
J. Smith in his article entitled "Career Patterns of Black
Lawyers in the 1980’s" (Smith, 1980), finds the underrepresenta
tion of blacks in the major firms to be due to a superficial
system of recruitment patterns in the most prestigious firms, and
the falling numbers of blacks attending major law schools. Smith
stresses the importance of increased tuition and fees, and a
turning away from affirmative action programs following the Bakke
decision, to account for the decrease in ranks of blacks entering
the law schools and the legal profession. Jordan (1980) and R.
Smith (1980) also state that in the last few years black enroll
ment in law schools is actually decreasing rather than increasing.
47
Because of decreasing black participation in law schools and the
paucity of blacks in major law firms, Jordan concludes that
"Future prospects for growth in the number of black lawyers is
grim" (p. 57).
Wadlow (1980) points out that exclusion of blacks from major
law firms as partners is critical because partnership represents
success in the most powerful and influential area of law practice
within the most important and prestigious firms (p. 17). R. Smith
(1980) also states that blocking black mobility into the upper
levels of the major firms keeps blacks from achieving entry to
career paths that "traditionally afford members of the legal
profession access to the levers of power and substantial influence
over and input to the making and shaping of public policy"
p. 83). Jordan (1980) concludes that as long as blacks are kept
from achieving top level positions within major firms, they are
being denied the sorts of public power and prestige in essence
enjoyed by their white counterparts. Jordan states that "the
continuing absence of black partners and associates in major law
firms is a disgrace to the profession" (p. 58).
All of the authors surveyed in the law journals in the late
seventies and early eighties agreed that black entry into the
major law firms had not increased as expected, and in fact showed
signs of recent decrease. The overall conclusion was that hoped
for changes in opportunity for blacks entering the top levels of
the legal field had not been achieved, but rather a state of token
48
positioning of some blacks in major firms had taken place. Be
cause of declining numbers of blacks in major law schools, and a
lack of commitment to special programs of affirmative action, the
literature on blacks and the law reflects a growing sense of
pessimism about signficant change in the future.
Conclusion
The literature of the seventies and early eighties looking at
black mobility into areas of middle management in business,
corporations and the law all stress the significance of racial
discrimination and institutional barriers in preventing equal
occupational opportunities for blacks. Although the business and
management literature deals only with middle level occupational
achievement, it does examine the particular problems and stresses
placed on blacks as they attempt to move up the hierarchy of
white-dominated corporate structures. The literature in legal
journals provides survey information describing the barriers and
underrepresentation of black mobility into the upper levels of the
legal profession.
Both the management studies and articles appearing in the law
journals seem to refute Wilson’s contention that as class position
goes up the importance of race diminishes by indicating that in
fact the opposite is true; and that as blacks attempt to move to
the top of the occupational hierarchy into positions of influence
and power, the greater the racial barriers of exclusion become.
49
At the present time, there have been no in-depth studies done
examining the experiences of blacks as they move up to the top of
a professional hierarchy. It is the purpose of this study to pro
vide detailed information on the perceptions and experiences of
black attorneys who have reached the position of partner in major
firms. In so doing, it is hoped that some light will be shed not
only on the subjective experience of these five participants, but
the processes of racial social structures and their influence on
mobility attainment on blacks who reach the top of the system.
50
CHAPTER III
METHODS
The methods of this study consist of in-depth intensive
interviewing of five black partners in major law firms in a large
American city. In order to make comparisons between black and
white perceptions of experience of rising to the top of the legal
hierarchy, five white partners were also interviewed as a matched
sample. The study has been done in the traditional symbolic
interactionist mode, focusing on subjective experiences of the
respondents and the personal meaning and interpretations given to
events experienced by those living them out.
Entree
Before I began this study, I was worried that entree would be
one of the primary barriers encountered. Schatzman and Strauss
(1973) in their book on field research, discuss the necessity of a
"mutually voluntary and negotiated entree" (p. 22) as a prerequi
site for a field study to take place. In that sense, my worries
stemmed from two sources. First, I was unsure how I as an unknown
white researcher would be received by blacks. Second, I had
general misgivings about how to approach high level important
51
and busy peo.ple such as those I was choosing to study. Hannerz
(1969) in his ethnographic study of a black community, discusses
the problems of a white researcher studying blacks as being one of
"the establishment and maintenance of personal relationships" (p.
207). According to Hannerz, the researcher must be aware of the
possible mistrust based on racial differences, and then build
mutual relationship to overcome that mistrust, Galliher (1980)
discusses the problem of studying elites and superordinates. He
points out that because of power differentials, access to elites
is not easy, and permission to do studies must be won over by
specific strategies to help reduce feelings of social distance.
In my research, however, I have been careful to try to
present myself as someone as much like my respondents
as possible, I have gotten a haircut and shaved my
beard and worn a business suit and necktie (p. 303).
Although I was aware of the possible problems in studying black
elites, as it turned out, my initial worries were unfounded and
gaining entree to the partners serving as respondents in this
study was no problem.
My initial point of entry came from two sources. The first
was a white friend of mine who is a senior partner at one of the
major firms in the chosen city. I talked extensively to my friend
about my interest in studying blacks practicing in prestigious law
firms. He thought it was a good idea and something that would be
of interest to those practicing in the field of law. I think it
should be noted that both in gaining entree and doing interviews.
52
interest was an important motivational point to help gain partici
pation in the study. Hannerz (1969) also cites interest in the
study as being a useful strategy in establishing research bargains
when he states,
Perhaps if one can build up a good case for the
importance of one’s research to the community
where it is conducted, it might be good strategy
to give emphasis to the role and convince people to
to go out of their way to be cooperative, for their
own sake (p. 204).
The respondents of this study did not need convincing of the
importance of the research. Instead, the interest and desire to
discuss racial issues and success within the law were self-
generated without any particular help from me.
In continuing to talk with my friend, I asked him if he knew
of any black partners to whom he could introduce me. He said he
would like to help in any way possible, but that he couldn’t
personally think of any blacks with whom he had come in contact.
I asked him if he would ask some of his friends and associates in
other firms, to see if we could begin locating firms with black
partners. My friend had only one concern about getting partici
pation in the study, and that was time. He pointed out that
partners in major firms are terribly busy, and he wasn’t sure if
they would be able to give the needed time to a study of this
nature. However, he felt it was worth pursuing and said he would
begin asking around to try and locate the black partners.
My other source of entree was a black friend of mine who was
practicing as an associate in a smaller firm in town. When I went
53
to see my friend, she also felt that the study was worth doing and
that it would generate positive interest amongst black attorneys,
I asked my friend if she thought I would have problems gaining
entree as a white person. She replied that she didn’t think so,
but if it would help, initially she could assist me in making
contact. I asked if she knew who the black partners were in the
major law firms, and she gave me an unofficial list of all the
blacks serving as associates, clerks and partners in white law
firms. The list had no title or explanation beyond the enumer
ation of the names of people, with names of firms, addresses,
phone numbers and type of law practiced. When I asked my friend
who put the list together, she said therc^was a group of black
lawyers who kept the list up, and met every year in social
gatherings to keep in contact and know who is practicing where.
Once I had the list, I called my first friend and asked him if
he would call some of the senior partners of the major firms and
see if any of the blacks practicing there were partners, and if
they would be willing to help introduce me. He agreed and made
the initial contact with the name partner, finding out that one of
the blacks on the list was a partner, and he would be very happy
to call the black partner and introduce me. Because of this
initial contact, when I called the black partner whom I call Bob,
he was already aware of my name, took the call without trouble,
and already had some idea of why I was calling. I found the
technique of previous introduction to a new respondent to be
54
valuable throughout the entire entree period of setting up first
contacts and calls with all of the respondents in this study.
During that first contact call, I asked Bob what his fellow
partner had conveyed to him about why I wanted to talk to him. He
stated that all he was told was that I was conducting a study on
blacks in major law firms. I then told him that I was working on
my Ph.D dissertation in sociology and that race relations was my
chosen area. I said that I was interested in doing a study on
blacks who had made it within major law firms, and asked if we
could set up an appointment for me to talk it over with him in
further detail. Bob said it sounded interesting, and proceeded to
set a time for our next meeting.
When we met, I went to Bob’s office. I found him to be
prompt and cordial when I first came in. At that time which was
early November 1982, I did not take a tape recorder to my initial
meeting with Bob, but rather took notes as we talked. As I again
repeated my intention of doing a study of blacks in major law
firms, Bob expressed interest in participating and felt that the
study would be worth doing. My immediate impression of Bob, which
was reinforced during my interviews with the other nine study
respondents, was of his highly articulate ability to communicate
clearly and provide detailed complete responses to any questions I
raised. Later on I of course realized that the primary vehicle of
lawyers’ occupational role is clear, logical and precise communi
cation. At the time however, I was pleased that Bob was able to
provide such articulate and valuable resonses to my inquiries.
55
After we talked for about an hour, I asked Bob if he would be
willing to give me more time to keep discussing the issues of
black participation in major law firms, and he said he would be
glad to. I also asked him if he knew of any other black partners
within the city. He named five. I asked if he could suggest to
whom I might next talk and if I might use his name in my intro
duction. Bob gave me the name of Allen and said it would be fine
if I used his name.
The general pattern of entree that I described for my initial
experience with Bob was repeated with each of the other four
respondents with very little variation. I found a chain of entree
opening up where each respondent provided me with introduction to
the next respondent. Because the number of black partners is so
small, I found that each black respondent knew of the others at
least by name, and in each case knew one of the respondents I had
not yet contacted personally. I was then able to work in a net
work pattern of going from one partner to the next, each time
having a name of introduction to use as,initial entree contact.
Hannerz (1969) also notes the success of using a network pattern
of introductions to help establish first contact: "I thus followed
the natural links of social networks as I was introduced to
people" (p.204).
I found the other four respondents to be as cordial and
willing as Bob. Each found the idea of the study to be of
interest, and each made time during their busy schedules to see me
56
as often as necessary. The only problem with time was that some
times their schedules would become so busy that subsequent
appointments would have to be made weeks or a month apart. It
was not unusual, as well, for some of the respondents to have to
cancel appointments at the last minute when critical situations
within their legal practice would arise. Throughout the inter
viewing period, the respondents remained excited about providing
as much time as I felt was necessary, and always apologized
profusely for any inconvenience their cancellations might have
caused me.
In following the similar pattern established with Bob, I
would call each respondent using a name of introduction, briefly
explain what I was doing and then ask for an initial appointment
to explain in greater detail. During the preliminary interviews,
I would make it clear to each respondent that I wanted them to
participate in the study only if it was of interest to them. I
explained what I was doing, and encouraged any questions they
might have. Again, each respondent said that they wanted to
participate in the study and looked forward to doing so. Only
after this initial contact did I bring in a tape recorder to the
subsequent interviews. It was during the initial contact entree
period with each respondent that I explained my position on confi
dentiality, that although the interviews were to be taped, I would
not use their names so nobody but myself and my dissertation
57
chairperson would have access to their identities. Because the
black respondents were so highly visible within the legal commun
ity, I pointed out the problems in disguising their identities
when writing the dissertation. Only one of the respondents
expressed any concern, which was alleviated when I said that if
the dissertation was to be published, I would submit a copy to
each respondent beforehand in order that they might personally
determine if their confidentiality was protected. I made a simi
lar statement to all of the respondents concerning publication,
but made it clear that no such preliminary reading would take
place before the dissertation was completed and approved by my
academic committee. All five of the respondents agreed to parti
cipate, being willing and helpful throughout the interviewing
period.
Entree to the white matched sample was gained by having each
black respondent pick his or her own match. The criteria of
picking a match will be discussed in this chapter under the sub
section "Sample'»!' but in terms of entree, I again was able to use a
name of introduction with the white partners as I had with the
black partners. In addition, I had the added benefit of being
able to tell the white partners that they had personally been
selected by the black respondents to serve as their match. Each
white partner expressed feelings of being flattered by being
chosen that made participation on their part even more attractive.
Again, all of the white respondents thought the topic of study was
58
interesting and were eager and willing to provide the necessary
time.
Although Schatzman and Strauss (1973) warn of the diffi
culties in gaining entree in field research because "people’s
privacies are to be invaded" (p.22), entree to the participants of
this study was not difficult. Even though the respondents were
upper level professional people with considerable power, using
what Lofland (1971) terms "established contacts" (p. 95) as means
of introduction proved useful and facilitated the process of
entree. Having a topic of study that was of interest to the
participants also helped stimulate involvement and made initial
contact and further participation an easy matter.
Setting
The interviews took place in the offices of the respondents
at seven different major law firms. These law firms range in size
from 80 associates and partners to over 200. Salaries of partners
within these firms range from around $90,000 per year for junior
partners to $250,000 to $500,000 for senior partners. These major
law firms have established fee rates for clients varying on the
level of seniority of the attorney billing for hours. Clients’
fee rates range from $125 per hour for a junior partner to $250
per hour for a senior partner. The major law firms represent both
private individuals and large corporations or companies such as
CM, AT&T and so on.
59
Since the major law firms are large in number, the internal
hierarchy of mobility is well established with little deviation
from firm to ::firm (Wadlow, 1980; Smith, 1980; Jordon, 1980). An
entry-level attorney comes into the firm in.the position of asso
ciate and goes through a four-to-^seven year period before consid
eration for making it to partner. As the attorney works his or
her way up the associate ladder, increased amounts of responsi
bility, salary and seniority follow. At the top of the hierarchy
is the position of partner, where the associate actually becomes
an owner of a law firm, generally getting a percentage of the
firm’s overall profits as well as a standard yearly salary. Not
all associates make it to partner. It is a procedure similar to
the ones employed at universities based on tenure track positions.
The associate is only asked to be partner at the invitation and
discretion of the partners, after years of proving him or herself
as capable of enhancing the firm’s membership. In a typical sized
firm with about 100 practicing attorneys, an entry-level associate
class usually begins with close to 20 new attorneys, with only 3
to 5 eventually making it to partner.
A combination of criteria is used in this study to define
major law firms: size of firm, recruitment patterns for new asso
ciates, type of clients and length of time remaining with the
firm, rates charged to clients, salaries paid to attorneys within
the firm, and general recognition within the legal community.
Although a smaller firm may be considered prestigious, major law
60
firms are defined in part by the fact that they are large in size
(Smith, 1980; Culp, 1981 ; Burke, 1979). Culp points to the fact
that major law firms recruit at the best law schools nationally
(Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and so on) and are able to take into the
firms the attorneys holding top academic standing within those
schools. The prestigious nature of major law firms' is also
measured by the clients they attract - major corporations, busi
nesses and powerful individuals within the community. The reputa
tion of a law firm is often based on the fact that such large and
important clients remain with the firm over long periods of time,
providing testimonial to the success of the firm. The large fees
charged to clients and commensurate high salaries paid to the
attorneys also serve as indications of the worth of the firm. In
addition, there is general recognition within the legal community
of the prestigious nature of major law firms based on the opinions
of judges, attorneys and clients.
All of the major firms I visited were located in large office
buildings in upper level business areas within the city. Each
firm also occupies at least one entire floor of the office
building, so when you take the elevator to the assigned floor, you
step off into the foyer of the law firm itself and not an empty
hallway. There is always a sign designating the name of the law
firm. In all of the law firms, this outer receptionist area is
very elegantly decorated, with rich plush furniture, usually dark
wood paneling, and a quiet air of solemnity and grace that give
the feeling that you have arrived at a prestigious place.
61
There is in each outer waiting area a receptionist who takes
your name and phones.ahead to whomever you want to see. The
receptionists in all the firms are attractive, female, and very
polite. At each firm I was asked if I would like some coffee or
tea, and told that Mr. so and so would be right with me. The
sitting areas are furnished like an upper class living room, with
deep and comfortable couches and large sitting chairs, antique
tables, paintings on the walls. Reading material in the form of
current newspapers and magazines are always provided. Usually
after a few minutes’ wait, either the secretary of the respondent,
or the respondent personally would come out and I would be intro
duced. If it was the secretary, she would ask me to follow her to
the respondent, again offering me coffee or a cold drink. If it
was the respondent personally we would shake hands, greet each
other, and then they would ask me to follow them to their office.
Office space in major law firms is determined by seniority.
New associates are given smaller offices with less desirable
views. All of the partners in this study shared similar offices,
which were quite large and furnished to their own taste. I was
able to note a slight difference between the size of the offices of
the newer partners and the more senior partners. The newer
partners’ offices were somewhat smaller and less plushly
decorated. The senior offices often occupied corner suites
providing more windows and a more expansive feeling. Each office
had both a desk where the partner worked and a sitting area, with
62
a couch, coffee table and often comfortable chairs. The secre
taries for the partners were generally stationed in offices right
outside where the partner is located. The major law firms also
have their own law libraries, large photocopy and computer facil
ities, coffee and lounge areas for the employees, Some of the
major law firms occupy multiple floors within the building.
Walking from the receptionist area to the respondent’s particular
office often felt like walking through a large maze of doors. The
internal expanse of the law offices felt vast with large numbers
of people working.
Oftentimes it was easier for the respondents to schedule
appointments with me during their lunch hour, to not take away
from their busy work periods. During initial contact appointments
we would often leave the office and go to a nearby restaurant to
discuss the nature of the research project in which I was asking
them to participate. Once the initial contact meeting was over,
we always met inside their offices so I was able to tape record
the interviews without distracting noises. All of the respondents
were very cooperative, agreeing to whatever arrangements would
best facilitate the project at hand. When we met during lunch hour
for our taped interviews, the respondents would order lunch in or
skip lunch saying that they rarely ate during the day anyway, I
found it very important to remain completely flexible in my hours,
so that I could offer to meet with the respondents whenever it was
convenient for them. One respondent had a particularly busy
63
schedule, so we found it difficult to arrange an appointment that
he was able to keep. Finally he asked me if I would mind meeting
with him at his office at six in the morning, feeling that at that
time he would be able to give me the best, most relaxed interview.
We both kept the appointment. Another respondent preferred to
meet late on Fridays when he considered his work week to be
ending. I was fortunate during the time period of the interviews
to be able to keep my outside work commitments to a minimum,
allowing myself the needed flexibility to fit into the busy
schedules of the ten respondents.
During the hours that I interviewed the respondents in their
offices, they asked their secretaries to stop their calls, so with
rare exceptions we were left uninterrupted. During the period of
transcribing the tapes I became aware of the tremendous importance
of having a quiet place for interviewing. Squeaky chairs, sirens
passing by outside all provided blocks to clear hearings of the
tapes. Fortunately, such noise distractions were few in the quiet
setting of the respondents’ private offices.
The overall feeling of the law firms as setting and back
ground to the interviews,, as well as the respondents’ own offices,
was that of very successful high powered professionals. Everyone
was dressed well, men in suits, women in dresses or nice pants
and silk blouses. The atmosphere was fairly formal, business
like, emanating a feeling of confidence and efficiency. Later on
a number of respondents referred to the importance in the legal
64
profession of instilling a sense of confidence in clients, espe
cially when dealing with successful, influential people. The
physical setting and demeanor of the firms provided a background
for that feeling of accomplishment and quality.
Sample
The sample for this study consists of five black partners in
major law firms and five white partners serving as a matched
comparison group. The five black partners comprise the total
population of black partners practicing in major law firms in a
large American city at the time the study was conducted. For
reasons of confidentiality, the name of the city will not be
disclosed. It is, however, a major city considered one of the
centers for nationally known and prestigious law firms.
As indicated, the black respondents were a convenience
sample, while the selection criteria for the matched white sample
were based on life event and career patterns. The most signifi
cant aspect of matching the black and white respondents was age.
The specific historical context of black opportunity and mobility
structures within this country is an important determinant of
black experience in becoming an attorney in a major law firm. The
white match had to have entered law school, graduated, and begun
looking for employment at the same historical time period as their
black counterpart. The criterion of matched seniority of present
65
status as partner was also important, because it represented
equality in occupational achievement. The last criterion of simi
lar occupational specialty within the law profession was intended
to eliminate any influence different areas of practice might have
on the respondents’ move upward through the legal hierarchy* The
law, as all other major professional arenas, has proliferated into
distinct specialties with different internal career experiences.
Therefore in order to have the effect of being a litigator or
practicing entertainment or corporate law reduced, the black and
white respondents specialize in the same area of the law.
As it worked out, the process of having the black partners
select their own matches brought unexpected and fortuitous bene
fits that I had not anticipated. In the first place, the self
selection of the comparison sample provided almost perfect matches
on all three of the stated criteria. In addition, the black and
white partners were perfectly matched on a criterion that I had
not asked about nor thought I would have any control over in the
selection process: the initial class position of the family back
ground of the respondents. Four of the five black respondents
came from families that were poor or lower working class, with no
professionals in their family background. Only one of the black
respondents came from a family of middle class standing with
parent and grandparent serving in the medical and legal profes
sions* As it turned out, all four of the black respondents who
came from non-professional lower class working families also
66
selected four white matches who came from the same economic back
ground. The one black who came from'a professional middle class
family selected as a match a white respondent who came from a
similar background. As a consequence, the black and white
partners were matched in terms of family class position and back
ground as well as other criteria. It is difficult to determine if
the unexpected sample selection holding class constant between
the black and white respondents was a matter of luck and chance,
or whether in asking the black partners to select their own
matches, knowledge of similar class backgrounds played a part in
their particular choice of a white match. However, the benefit
for this study of having class position held constant becomes
important in trying to determine the relevancy of race as a dimen
sion affecting the mobility of blacks in the upper echelons of the
legal profession. In comparing responses of black and white
partners to their experience and perceptions of moving up the
hierarchy to becoming partner, differences are more easily attri
butable to race than class because of the similarity in class
origins. If Wilson’s thesis of the importance of class position
over race is to prevail, then there should be very little differ
ence in experiences between the black respondents and their white
counterparts, since the only dimension of difference existing
between them is race and not class.
In addition, the dimension of sex is also held constant
between the black and white respondents. Four of the black
67
respondents were male and one was female. The selection of sex
of the black partners was predetermined by the existing population
of black partners practicing in major law firms within the chosen
city of study. However for the white comparison sample, each of
the black partners was asked to choose a match of the same sex.
Since one of the partners in this study is female, the issue
of sexual status in the professions and changing sex roles could
be brought up. However, when I questioned Elaine about the
affects of her female status, she said that she didn’t think there
had been any of major consequence. According to Elaine, women
serving in major law firms was a battle that had already been won,
and was now a fairly commonplace occurrence. In speaking about an
article she had recently read about women lawyers, Elaine said,
There is definitely a trend up [referring to women in
major firms]. Most law firms now, in terms of their
associate ranks, are now thirty to forty percent female.
So that means that there are going to be more women part
ners. I don’t see any such trends for black partners.
Elaine also pointed to various women in her firm who had become
successful as partners, who in a sense had already cleared the
path for her. In addition, Elaine's mother had been a profes
sional and established at an early age a successful female image
for Elaine.
There are some general characteristics of the 10 participants
in this study that can be provided without violating confiden
tiality. The ajT.eas of legal specialties of the partners include
corporate law, commercial law, entertainment law, civil law, and
68
litigation. The ages of the respondents bridge a twenty-year gap
from the youngest partner who was thirty at the time of the study
to the oldest at fifty-one. All of the respondents attended
prestigious and nationally ranked law schools, doing well in their
academic careers.
Specific information on the black and white matches between
partners is as follows (also see chart on following page): Allen
is the black partner with Frank as his chosen match. Both respon
dent Allen and Frank are heads of major divisions within their
respective law firms, and are senior partners at the very top of
the internal hierarchy. Allen and Frank are within five years of
each other's age, graduated from the same major law school within
two years' time in the late fifties-early sixties. The only major
difference in objective mobility information between the two
respondents is that while Frank was made a partner in the mid
sixties, six years after graduation from law school, Allen did not
become a partner in a major law firm until the late seventies,
nineteen years after graduation from the same law school.
David selected Steve as his match. David and Steve are
within one year of age of each other in their early fifties. They
both practice the same type of law, went to the same law school
within two years of each other, graduating in the late fifties-
early sixties. Steve became partner of a firm two years after
his graduation from law school in the early sixties, with David
becoming a partner in the late sixties, eight years after his
69
a hJ
rH
rH 4-1
U-l
C O C D CD y—\ C D CD y—\
O 5-4 O
O O
O 5-4
CO C C 3
O O 5 - 4 O
r H . rH
T )
•H 4-1 4-1
5 - 4
c d /
v D
4 J
T3
rH r H fX
O C D
•H rH
o
r ~ -
o
m
O C D
dd c a
•H rH
O
m
o
vO
o
&d CO
rH 4H 4-1 4-1
C J
rH
M - t
txO d
a.
CU r C
4-1 o
‘H 4-1
4-1 4-1 4-1 4-1 4-1
4-1
70
graduation from law. school. Both David and Steve are senior
partners at the top of the hierarchy in their respective law
firms.
Bob is the black partner who chose George as his match. Both
Bob and George are in their early forties, graduating law school
in the same year during the late sixties. Bob and George both
practice the same specialty of law and consider themselves mid
level partners in terms of seniority. George became a partner in
the early seventies, four years after graduating law school, and
Bob became a partner in the early eighties, eleven years after
graduating law school.
Chuck is the black partner with Harold as the match he
selected. Chuck and Harold - practice the same type of law, are in
their late thirties-early forties, with two years separating them
in age, both graduating from the same law school in the mid
seventies. Both Chuck and Harold consider themselves raid-level
partners, becoming partners in their respective firms within one
year of each other in the early eighties.
Elaine and her white match Kathy are the only two females in
the sample, and the only two coming from families of professional
middle class background. Both Elaine and Kathy practice the same
type of law, are in their early thirties, with two years separ
ating them in age, attended the same law school, graduating at the
same time, in the mid-seventies. Kathy became a partner in the
early eighties, with Elaine making partner one year earlier. Both
71
Elaine and Kathy consider themselves to be junior partners within
their firms.
Interviewing and Analysis
The interviews for this study were conducted over a fifteen-
month period beginning in November of 1982 and ending in February
of 1984. The black partners were all interviewed at least two,
and in some cases, three times. Each white partner in the matched
sample was interviewed once. The average interview time of each
respondent was from one and one-half to two hours. All of the
interviews were tape recorded and then transcribed.
The early period of interviewing the black partners was
almost like a pilot phase of the study. At that point I was not
sure of the specific direction the study would take, how it would
be conducted, who would be willing and able to participate and so
on. It was an exploratory period with little more formulated than
the basic desire to gain access to and examine the feelings,
perceptions and experiences of the black partners within major law
firms. I was unsure about how I as a researcher would be
accepted, whether the busy schedules of the partners would allow
time for them to participate in the study, or whether the study
itself would prove of interest to the intended participants.
When I conducted the first interview with Bob, I didn’t have
many specific questions in mind. The form of our initial inter
views was that of an open-ended question-discussion format.
72
Lofland (1971, 1976) discussed the use of "open-ended semi-
structured conversations" as a "flexible strategy of discovery"
(1971; p. 76) that allows the respondents to speak in their own
words and raise issues central to their own lives. During the
early interviews, once I explained the general purpose of my
desire to study black partners in major law firms, I really didn’t
even have to raise a specific question. Bob began to talk on his
own, describing the historical situation of blacks participating
in major law firms, specific structural elements particular to the
practice of law in major firms, some of his own personal history,
feelings and so on. I was startled to find how easy the interview
went. I found Bob to be highly articulate and fairly self-
directional in the interview. In a sense, these preliminary
interviews served as a personal initiation into details of the
processes and workings of entry into position of partner in a
major law firm, as well as informing me of specific issues related
to blacks’ rise to partner.
I also found that my worries about ray position as a white
person hampering the interview process lessened after the initial
interview period. Phillips (1971) discusses the problem of cross
race interviewing as part of social reality where the process of
interviewing is itself a social interaction.
Every individual brings with him to all social
encounters certain recognitions and expectations
about what he can anticipate from people with
certain attributes and what they can expect from
him. As a result of the socialization process.
73
he has learned the social significance of male
and female, Negro and white, young and old. The
social distinctions indicated by these attributes
operate to define the context in which communi
cation occurs (p.66).
Since Bob did not seem the least bit reticent to talk frankly to
me about racial issues, T realized that I had held biased assump
tions entering into the interview situation, that blacks might not
want to open up to me because I was white. As the interviews
progressed, I realized that I had not taken into account the fact
that the black respondents in this study had functioned within
white educational and occupational institutions all their lives,
having related to white people as friends and work colleagues for
some time. My previous experience with blacks had primarily been
as an instructor at a university where most of the students had
not as yet become integrated into the white world. Phillips also
speaks of the importance of establishing rapport during the inter
view process being dependent not simply on social status differen
tial, but rather the "relative" (p. 91) status distance between
the respondent and interviewer. The experience of the black
respondents in the white world helped lessen the social distance
between us based on race. My experience with Bob was repeated
with the rest of the black respondents, all of whom were candid
and frank in their discussions and responses about race and racism
as they exist in the legal profession and society in general.
Although there is no way to know what different course the inter
views with the black respondents might have taken if I had been
74
black, it was my feeling that the respondents were not holding
back because of racial differences between us', providing miich more
detail and insight into their positions as blacks functioning in a
white social structure than I had expected.
All of the initial interviews with the black partners were
fairly general open-ended discussion periods. After reading and
analyzing the early transcripts of the pilot interviews with the
black partners, certain themes and categories emerged in the
interviews that began to center around the concept of becoming a
success and making it to the top. These early themes touched on
by the respondents became the central focus of questions to be
raised in an informal interview schedule that I later developed.
Katz (1982) discusses the importance of analytic induction as a
method in fieldwork that "captures the processual nature of social
life as experienced from within" (p.204). From this perspective,
there is a constant interaction between the information that is
gathered and the process of gathering it. Analysis and data
collection go hand in hand, with one constantly affecting the
other. As the substantive topic of examining the process of
blacks making it to the top of the legal hierarchy became clear,
the methodology of the study also took shape. In providing a
white matched respondent for each black partner, some sort of
comparison could be made of the perceptions and experiences of
black and white respondents as they moved through the legal system
to the very top. Once the informal interview schedule was
75
devised, I decided to readminister the same questions to all the
black respondents, as well as to each white partner chosen to be
the matched sample.
The questions devised for the interviews were purposely
designed to be as open-ended as possible. I didn’t want to
restrict the responses of the partners to the areas that had been
devised from the pilot phase, but used them as possible' touch
stones to perceptions and experiences as offered by the respon
dents themselves. Each interview began with the most general
question possible, allowing as much free flowing response from the
partners as possible. My plan was to follow up each question with
further probes, as necessary. The first question used to begin
each interview was, ’ ’ How do you account for your success?’’. The
responses of the partners to each question varied, with some
talking for as long as what would be transcribed into a page or
two of typed manuscript, with others as short as a paragraph. I
then pursued with follow-up questions. Each of the questions were
administered to all of the respondents, although the order was
changed to fit the natural flow of the conversations as they
emerged. Within each question I would insert probes and requests
for further information or opinions when I felt it to be neces
sary.
As much as possible each of the questions was phrased in the
same way, ’ ’ What if any effect might ’X ’ have on your having become
a success?” I made it clear to each respondent before the inter
view, that the questions might not be relevant to them, that they
76
might be answered with a simple "no", or they could talk for as
long as they wanted. I also made it clear that in looking for
factors that might have affected their becoming a success, T was
looking for both those that helped and those that hindered. I
also stated that some of the questions might not seem to have any
relevance to their lives and personal experiences, and if that was
the case, to say so. The general categories covered by the ques
tions were the following : background, personal qualities, histori
cal context, philosophy for success, and help from others. The
specific questions asked in each interview are:
1. What effect, if any, might family have had on your becoming a
success?
2. Were there any role models that might have influenced your
becoming successful?
3. What effect, if any, might school have had on your becoming
a success?
4. What effect, if any, might race have had on your becoming a
success?
5. What personal qualities might have affected your becoming a
success?
6. Can you tell me a strategy or philosophy for success that
you hold that affected your becoming successful?
7. Does the particular historic period you went to school, got
your first job, rose to partner, in any way have an effect
on your becoming successful?
77
8. Did you have help from others that might have affected your
becoming a success?
In addition to these specific questions, each respondent was asked
to give me a personal history starting from childhood, telling me
specific details of the course they took to end up where they are.
I was careful to obtain relevant information on college exper
ience, how they got to college, law school experience, when and
how they got their first job, experiences in moving up the inter
nal hierarchy of the law firm in becoming partner, and so on. At
the end of each interview, I turned the topic to the issue at
hand, asking specific feelings and comments about the numbers of
black partners practicing within major law firms at the time,
awareness of black participation in the established community and
so on. I found that most of the black respondents referred to
these issues before the end of the interviews, whereas in the case
of the white respondents, no such reference was made until I
brought up the topic.
An interesting methodological consideration concerned the
fact that for the black respondents, multiple interviews took
place over a time period of many months to close to a year, with
many of the same issues and questions repeated over time. The
first issue is that of consistency. I found the respondents to be
consistent in their responses over time. More interesting, I
found that the respondents brought up the same illustrative
examples, and chose the same topics as important to relate over
the series of interviews. Even though the questions remained
78
open-ended, again and again the interviews would produce not only
similar general feelings and comments, but repeated specific
details and occurrences. For example. Bob told me in his initial
interview of the importance Perry Mason had played in his becoming
an attorney. In subsequent interviews months apart he brought up
the same example. In her first interview Elaine stressed the
importance of her family in her becoming a success, and later she
brought up the same reference when asked again to account for her
success. With all of the respondents and the repeated interviews
over time, I was not able to find inconsistencies either of a
minor or major nature throughout the entire interview process.
This finding of consistency tends to indicate that the interview
method produced, for this topic, responses that reflected fairly
stable perceptions on the part of the respondents.
After all of the interviews were completed and the tapes
transcribed, the final analysis of the data took place. Through
out the course of the interview period, the interchange between
talking to respondents, designing the.study, and amending ques
tions was dependent on a continual analysis of the material as it
came in. Once the interviews were completed, the detailed analy
sis of comparison between the black and white respondents took,
place. In presenting the material, I decided to focus on the
responses of the black partners, using material from the white
partners as a basis of comparison and to highlight possible simi
larities or differences. In letting the material speak for
79
itself, and attempting not to impose my preconceived biases on
analysis of the data, I found some areas emerging that I did not
expect. For example, the study had been based on the premise that
making partner in a major law firm was considered a success.
During the interviews of the white respondents I found this
assumption continually challenged with such responses as "assuming
I am a success," and constant references to the fact that making
it to partner was not all that was needed to fulfill the defi
nition of success. Thus, a major difference between the black
and white respondents’ perceptions emerged. Because of histor
ically blocked access to top level positions within the estab
lished legal community, all of the black respondents equated
becoming partner to having achieved a personal success. For the
white respondents, success meant such things as achieving a sense
of fulfillment, being happy, doing social service and multiple
definitions beyond achieving the position of partner within a
major law firm.
I also found instances where my previous assumptions made it
difficult for me to accurately understand the information as it
was presented to me by the respondents. For example, I had been
well-read and versed in the necessity for blacks to play racial
roles when they entered a white established working situation.
And yet the black partners indicated that they felt comfortable
amongst their white colleagues. On the other hand, some of the
black partners talked about how difficult it had initially been to
80
enter an all-white working situation, having to learn the cultural
habits of the white world, letting their black identities be
submerged. Because of my bias toward believing that all blacks
played racial roles hiding their true racial identities, it took a
while before I was able to understand what a number of respondents
were telling me, that if you play a role long enough you become
it. Again, this was a situation where my expectations were not
upheld by the data presented by the respondents, opening whole new
areas of understanding processes as they evolved for the partners
in the daily lived-out reality of their lives.
Interviewing the ten respondents for this study and analyzing
the data was reflexive and dynamic. The open-ended nature of the
questions provided room for the respondents to tell their own
stories without being restricted. The highly articulate nature of
the partners and their strong abilities to communicate, helped
provide data that was detailed and lent itself well to the analy
tic phase of the study. The choice of using a matched white
sample to provide necessary reference and comparison to the black
partner’s perceptions and experiences, allowed a more accurate
view of the effects of race on the mobility process of becoming a
partner in a major law firm.
Conclusion
Glaser and Strauss (1979) probably best describe the overall
perspective used in determining the methods for this study, when
81
they talk about grounded theory as a process of discovery.
Generating a theory from data means that most hypo
theses and concepts not only come from the data, but
are systematically worked out in relation to the data
during the course of the research. Generating a theory
involves a process of research (p.6).
The topics of this study derive from the experiences and percep
tions of the respondents. The concepts arose during the inter
views with the respondents and were generated from the research
process. The importance of background socialization, for example,
was mentioned by the respondents before being selected as a topic
to be pursued. The chronology of the chapters of this study
reflect the life experiences of the respondents as they became
successful within major law firms. For the partners, orientation
toward success began early in their childhood backgrounds.
82
CHAPTER IV
“IN THE BEGINNING" - BACKGROUND SOCIALIZATION
Socialization is the process whereby members of a society
learn the values and practices necessary to fit within that
society (Elkins, 1960). In a sense, socialization is the process
that recreates society in the form of its individual members.
Each of us learns what society is, our proper role within society,
how to think, act and feel all in a social context, through the
process of socialization. Socialization is intimately related to
the social structure of society at large. Our various positions
within social constructions such as class, sex and racial hier
archies are all conveyed to us through socialization (Light and
Keller, 1975; Smith and Preston, 1977). We learn what it is to be
a woman, what it is to be black, what it is to be rich or poor.
The respondents of this study were not unaware of the effects
of early childhood socialization on the later successes of their
lives. When asked the general question, "to what do you attribute
your success?" all of the black partners pointed to at least one
aspect from their background as having been influential. The
areas cited by the respondents - family, role models, schools -
83
follow those of the childhood socialization literature (Elkin,
1960; Light and Keller, 1975; Smith and Preston, 1977). What is
interesting is to come to understand the intricate effect racial
social structures have on the process of socialization. Although
the black and white respondents share similar socialization pro
cesses , preparing them to function within the same general
cultural context, the black respondents receive additional
racially-specific socialization teaching them how, as blacks,
they can make it within a discriminatory society.
Family
Elkins (1960) holds that the family is the first and most
important socializing agent. In his discussion of the importance
of the family as a vehicle for socialization, Elkins states:
The family, as a socializing agent, necessarily trans
mits not only segments of the wider culture to the
child, but particular segments depending primarily on
its social positions within the community. To have a
father who is a farmer or a doctor means that a given
culture content is passed on to the child; it also
means a certain occupational identity (p.47).
Elkins goes on to explain that the relationship between the family
socialization processes and occupational mobility extend beyond
transference of direct job identity. He points out that the most
significant function held by the family is instilling within the
children the cultural values and norms necessary for success.
The respondents placed strong emphasis on the various roles
their parents had played in instilling values, teaching goals and
84
passing on personal characteristics that had helped them become a
success. Specifically the partners talked about the function
their parents served in teaching the importance of education, and
in providing necessary racial socialization.
Education
Four black respondents note the role of their families,
specifically their parents, in transmitting the importance of
education and academic achievement as a means to success. In
fact, the respondents almost seem to equate high academic achieve
ment with success as an attorney, and attribute the motivation to
achieve academically directly to their parents.
Chuck characterizes himself as "not poor, but if you saw my
family you would be very surprised that I ended up here." He was
raised in a family of eight, his father having what he termed "a
reasonably good job, as a matter of fact, he had several jobs at
one time" being a plumber. Chuck stresses encouragement and
reinforcement from his parents as a basic motivating force in
terms of his successful academic achievement.
I don’t really know the reason why I am where I
am now other than I think that both my mother
and father encouraged us to do well in school.
I think the basic motivation that you get from
your parents is very helpful and the form of
not only encouragement and reinforcement for
the things you do well, but the demand that you
do certain things. When I was growing up, when
I had homework, I had to do it. My parents kept
a very strict account of what was going on at
school and how well we were doing and what kind
of effort we were making. So there is that
85
element involved. It’s not unusual for black
people who have achieved a certain amount of
success to have had parents who were like that.
You find that many times black parents were
very insistent that their children do very well
at school and that they become successful,
search for opportunities and try to achieve.
Chuck not only describes a passive type of value transfer from his
parents on the importance of education and achievement, but an
active stance of involvement in overviewing school work, perfor
mance at school and demand for achievement.
David also refers to the important role his parents played in
his doing well in school and working toward achievement. He
describes himself as coming from a family of seven children where
his father "supported us doing all kinds of things, where I remem
ber as a kid his usually having two or three jobs." David points
out the effect of internalizing success into a personal desire not
to let himself or his parents down.
I don’t think I achieved in school because I was
exceptionally bright. I think I achieved because
I worked hard and because I was pushed by my folks.
Also because I didn’t want to embarrass myself or
them.
Elaine poses a somewhat different case, being the only
respondent who comes from a professional upper middle-class
family. Elaine was raised by her mother in her grandfather’s
house, both of them being professionals. Although the historical
context of her family heritage was rather unusual in a time when
almost no black professionals existed (her grandfather became a
professional in the thirties, holding a position of importance
86
within the white community), Elaine experienced her success as
being a natural and not unusual outcome of her present family
achievements. Elaine feels she was always simply expected to
achieve academically and take on a career by virtue of her family
background.
I think my family has a lot to do with accounting for
my success, as being a function of my education, which
is what my family gave me. My family knew what kind
of education I would need, because I come from a pro
fessional family. So, it wasn't like they were start
ing out from scratch and just trying to figure out
what kind of schooling I should have. I think that my
mother was very much aware, having been very well
educated herself, of what tools I would need to deal
with whatever profession I went into. So I would
attribute it (my success) to good education. My
family knew what would be important and guided me in
that direction and made it available...I don’t think
there is anything too unusual about where I ended up.
I mean, I feel as though a lot of it was kind of very
much pre-programmed. I don't feel as if I'm much of
a success story. In other words, it was expected.
In comparing the black respondents to the white matched
sample, no real differences were found. The white respondents who
came from families with no professional backgrounds attributed
their gaining academic achievement to the same type of family
influence as did the black respondents. Harold characterizes
himself as coming from a very poor family where his father was "a
self-employed whatever from time to time, very unsuccessful.’’ Yet
as with the black respondents, Harold talks of the strong social
izing affect his parents had on him in terms of instilling educa
tional success as an important value.
87
I grew up in an exceedingly poor family. First person
ever to have gone to college. I marvel sometimes at
my success. I think in a large part my parents, who
while poor were not unintelligent, were quite middle
class in their values, a good education being one of
the values they cherished. I read a lot, and their
emphasis on education and the reinforcement of suc
cess in education was important. They were people
who were very pleased by gucccsg in school, so that
was very reinforcing. Scholastic achievement was a
rewarded value. So you have, essentially, a kid who
was from a very early age, socialized to academic suc
cess and achievement.
Similarly, the one white respondent who comes from a profes
sional family, Kathy (who is the specific match with Elaine)
expresses almost identical sentiments as to natural expectation
for academic achievement and success placed on her by her family:
The first factor accounting for my success is
my parental guidance, background, my family
life at home. My father is an attorney.
Everyone in the family went to college. My
eldest sister is also an attorney. We were
always expected to go to college and to be
successful, and I believe if you are expected
to be successful that’s certainly a help.
That would be the first, and probably the
largest factor leading to my success.
Racial Socialization: Work Twice as Hard, Do Twice as Well
In addition to being taught the basic cultural values of
education as a means to success, the black respondents referred to
racially-specific socialization supplied by their parents. In
general, the black respondents spoke of the tremendous influence
their parents had in shaping their own personal characteristics
and values. They credit their parents for having instilled in
them the strong personal desire and motivation to do well. How-',
ever, they were also taught by their parents that if they were
88
going to make it as a black person they would have to work twice
as hard, and do twice as well as the whites in order to be
accepted.
David talks about the emphasis his father placed on working
hard and doing twice as well. He describes his personal motiva
tion to become a high achiever not to anything innate, but to this
guidance passed on by his father.
I was always a fairly high achiever, and I suspect
it’s because I work a little bit harder than most
people. And I don't think there was anything
innate that caused me to want to work hard. It
probably came more from the attitude that I devel
oped from my father who said (when I was just a
kid, in grammar school or whatever) that if you
really want to be a success, you're going to have
to work twice as hard as the-other fellow. And I
believed that. He also had another bit of philo
sophy that I took seriously, and that was because
you are black, whatever it is you do, you have to
try to do it better than anyone else. If you're
playing football, if you’re scrubbing a floor,
if you're in class, whatever it is, try to do it
better than anyone else.
Bob comes from a family of eight where his father worked in a
factory and his mother in a laundry. He describes the personal
characteristic of determination to succeed as having come from his
family.
The determination that I was going to do it [succeed]
goes back to family. Those kinds of characteristics,
I think, come from the way you are brought up. The
idea that you can accomplish what you set out to
accomplish comes from, at least with me, from my
parents.
Bob goes on to talk about the instructions his parents gave that
to succeed as a black, he had to be twice as good. As a result.
89
Bob describes himself as having a "drive to prove that I was twice
as good that was very much responsible for my achievements and
some of the success I've had." He describes his family as having
assumed, with "enough experiences to justify the assumption", that
whites were prejudiced against blacks in terms of an underlying
presumption that blacks are not as qualified as whites. Bob
talks about how growing up with that kind of concern created a
positive motivating factor to try everything and do well.
My folks never wanted me to not do something because
of prejudice, or because of perceived prejudice. So
I was encouraged to try everything. They were very
concerned that I be able to compete on the same level
with everyone else. I was prepared to fight for my
right to do so. But they also always made me aware
of the fact that I might not always be welcome. But
that I should do it anyway. So, I spent my whole
life that way. I was always instructed, told, by my
parents that in order to accomplish the same amount
you have to be twice as good. So I strive to be
twice as good. It's something that got drummed into
me. My father’s favorite saying was that you start
out with two strikes against you. Make sure you
connect on the third strike. As a result of that,
I became a very good hitter in baseball. I was
used to playing with two strikes.
Chuck also talks about being encouraged by his parents to do
well and work hard. He points out the role his father played in
passing on the value of hard work. He also introduces the idea of
parents, in this case especially his mother, passing on goals that
had been denied them, as motivating opportunities for their kids.
In succeeding, I think that certainly encouragement
by your parents to do well and the values that your
parents have are important. My father worked very
hard when we were growing up, so that is certainly a
value that was communicated to us. My mother, dur
ing a relatively significant part of my childhood,
90
worked as well. I think the background and the kinds
of goals that your parents might see for themselves,
opportunities that basically got away, are to some
extent transmitted to their children. I think that
my mother was probably more responsible for trans
mitting the goals that she saw for herself that got
away as opportunities for her children and she encour
aged them to try and achieve. It’s not unusual for
black people who have achieved a certain amount of
success to have had parents who were like that. Who
saw opportunities for their children that had been
denied them at the time they were growing up.
In talking about how their parents socialized them to ’ ’ work
twice as hard and do twice as well,” the black respondents des
cribe a situation where a negative social reality, racism, led to
a positive motivating force to succeed and do well. Not only did
the parents transmit the importance of hard work for success, but
they stimulated the respondents to the idea that they could suc
ceed, that they should try to succeed, but because of racial
precedent, they needed to be the best. The black respondents
attribute the tremendous drive within them to work as hard as they
did, to these motivations by their parents. The white respondents
only talked about family in terms of the role they played in
socializing them to the value of education and academic achieve
ment as a necessary means to becoming successful.
Role Models
Most often, role models affecting occupational choice and
mobility are associated with family (Elkin, 1960). Antonovosky
(1967) conducted a study of middle class blacks, to find that the
91
respondents felt they had become successful without the benefit of
role models in their family background. For the respondents of
this study, however, role models were cited as influential in
affecting choices to become attorneys. Only one of the partners
personally knew any attorneys or professional people who could
serve as role models toward becoming a lawyer. Yet the rest of
the respondents, with the exception of one, stated that role
models had been important in their background experience. Without
having any personal relationships or contacts with lawyers in
their childhood, these respondents turned to public figures or
famous people whose professional lives became real enough to the
respondents to serve as role models.
Family Role Models
Because of the historical situation of limited educational
and occupational structures for blacks previous to the civil rights
era, black mobility often entails moving into professional or
middle class work arenas without precedent of family members
occupying similar positions (Levitan, 1975). Elaine, who was the
only respondent to come from a professional family, was also the
only black partner to cite family members as having directly served
as role models for her becoming an attorney. In response to
questions asking if there were any role models in her background,
Elaine said:
Family members. My grandfather was a judge. Just
the whole professional role model. It was never
real well defined what that would be, until I got
92
to that point where I had to choose. I had an
aversion to medicine. In terms of professions,
there really was just one that I did have some
experience with, my grandfather having been a
judge. So I went to law school.
Similarly Kathy, Elaine’s match and the only other respondent to
come from a professional family, cited family members as role
models for becoming a lawyer. ”My father and sister served as
role models. My father was an attorney, and my sister likewise
became an attorney.”
One other black respondent, David, talked of family members
serving as role models, but not directly in terms of the law.
I had role models, but none in the legal profession.
My father was my role model. But in terms of the
legal profession, no. No one in my family had
anything to do with the law, no lawyers, no aspiring
lawyers. I had a lot of respect for my father. He
never had any formal education. I think he went to
the third grade. One of the brightest people I know,
and I tried to model myself after him. He’s a hard
worker. He had seven children and supported them
very well doing all kinds of things, usually having
two or three jobs. Although he worked around the
clock, he still had time for us. He taught me the
ethic, hard work.
David describes his decision to become a lawyer to something he
knew in high school. When I pursued the question by asking David
how he knew in high school he wanted to be a lawyer, he said,
”Either I decided, or my mother decided, or my brothers decided
that I was going to be a lawyer. It wasn’t very conscious on my
part.” So although David doesn’t refer to any direct role models
in his decision to become a lawyer, he indicates family influence
as playing a part in his choice.
93
Famous Public Figures
Although the two remaining black respondents did not have any
professional role models within their families, they both told of
the affect famous public figures had as role models in their
choosing to become lawyers. Chuck tells of an experience in
grammar school where students were to act out events surrounding
the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. In so doing they were
asked to play roles of the personalities involved in the actual
trial. Chuck cites this experience as providing not only a role
model in the field of law that stimulated his interest in becom
ing a lawyer, but a black successful role model with whom to
identify. Chuck gives credit to the grammar school and teachers
for providing positive black role models with whom the kids could
relate.
I think the grammar school that 1 went to had a lot
of very good teachers who were very interested in
the kids. The teachers there were very insightful
in that they were very good at providing role models.
One of the things that we did was always put on some
kind of semesterly performance in a school production
that gave the students the opportunity to project
themselves into a role that was something that you
would want to see your kids look up to and adopt as
a role model. Still, to this day, I remember one
well involving the Brown vs. Board of Education
decision, where there were lots of opportunities for
lots of kids to project themselves into roles that
created very positive images. There was Thurgood
Marshall, Roy Wilkins, all of the black lawyers that
were involved with Brown vs. Board of Education.
We principally focused on the black lawyers involved.
It gave the kids a chance to project themselves into
94
a character that created these positive images. As
you can see, I remember that. It was noteworthy to
me. So I’ve always been interested, since, in being a
lawyer.
I think it is interesting to note the significance Chuck attri
butes to teachers in exposing students to role models with whom
they otherwise might have no contact. Providing positive racial
roles by focusing on successful black attorneys clearly illumi
nated options for Chuck that otherwise might not have existed.
Bob also had no professional role models in his family, but
turned to a fictitious figure created by the media, Perry Mason,
for a role model.
There were no lawyers in the family. I suppose kids
growing up in families where there are lawyers to
serve as positive images, to have parents or uncles
or friends of the family as role models, decide to
want to be a lawyer as a result of that. I really
decided I wanted to be a lawyer from watching Perry
Mason on television. It seemed like a nice way to
make a living. You know, literally a white knight.
In high school I just assumed that’s what lawyers did.
Interesting to note again, that when there are no immediate role
models present, the strong influence the media, in this case
particularly television, can play in providing role models. More
over, whereas the source of Chuck’s role model was positive racial
image, Bob’s was centered on a white character, Perry Mason. In
this particular case it seems that the role model was based on
creating glamour and excitement about the practice of law as a
profession, without racial reference. Bob not only made it clear
that his parents had taught him he could achieve any position
95
within society he desired, but he also had a very strong back
ground of previous success within integrated environments (top
grades, student body president, editor of the school newspaper and
so on). In Bob’s case, the media was able to provide a useful
occupational role model, stimulating his interest in becoming a
lawyer without particular racial identification;
In looking at the white sample, we see that the two respon
dents without family role models somewhat parallel the black
respondents. Frank talks of a combination of meeting professional
people who served as role models and admiring famous role models
through reading. Both the people Frank met, and those he read
about were lawyers;
While working at the Y.M.C.A. when 1 was growing up,
I got to meet a lot of professional people. And I
did a lot of reading. And of the people I admired,
most of them were lawyers, whether it’s Abraham
Lincoln, or some of the adults 1 met. So, without
knowing what the law was about, 1 decided that it
must be okay. And I went to law school.
Harold also decided to be a lawyer by watching Perry Mason on
television. He portrays the experience as seeming exciting and
something he then knew he wanted to do.
1 wanted to be a lawyer from the time 1 first saw
Perry Mason. 1 mean, I thought that would be
wonderful. So that’s what 1 really wanted to do,
probably from the time 1 was twelve years old.
As bizarre as it may seem and as much as every
body jokes about it, 1 think a lot of lawyers
today are lawyers because they thought it would
be an exciting and interesting way to spend one’s
time.
96
For both the black and white respondents in this study, role
models played an important part in their choosing to become
lawyers. For those respondents who had family members who were
lawyers, the people in their family served as role models. For
those respondents who did not have family members involved either
specifically in the law, or in any professions, other role models
were established through identifying with famous public figures
introduced through school, and the media, in particular tele
vision. It is interesting to note the extent to which the media
served as a shared source of images for both the black and white
respondents. Bob who was black, as well as Harold who was white,
both received positive motivation to become lawyers from the media
message transmitted through Perry Mason. Not only was the media
figure strong enough to serve as substitute role models when there
were none in the family, but for Bob, a white man was able to
serve as his occupational role model. The importance of tele
vision as a transmitter of cultural values and agent of social
ization even reaching beyond racial categorization is pointed out
by Bob’s experience.
Schools
At some time during their early educational careers, each of
the five black respondents in this study attended integrated
schools. Although the debate within sociology over the relative
97
merits of integrated schooling continues (St. John, 1970;
Pettigrew, 1973; Armor, 1973; Nelson, 1972; Wilson, 1973), the
respondents left little doubt as to the positive function inte
grated schooling served in their becoming successful. Each one of
the black respondents stressed that their experience in integrated
schools was beneficial in two ways: providing better schooling and
helping establish self confidence. In marked contrast, not one of
the white matched respondents mentioned early schooling, in any
respect, as having influenced their having become successful.
Better Schooling
Allen grew up in an all-black neighborhood, but went first to
a junior high that was almost totally white, then to a high school
that was predominantly black. Allen talks of being aware of the
difference in quality of education from the white school to the
black, receiving far better schooling in the white school. Allen
expresses his earlier fears that the quality of education was so
much lower at the black school that it would put him behind in his
future studies.
I was raised in an all-black area although I went to
a junior high school that was 99.9 percent white.
Then I went to a high school that was 99.9 percent
black. I think the biggest adjustment was well,
not really an adjustment, it was just such a notice
able difference in the quality of the education and
the teaching say, in a predominantly black high
school. We had a lot of student teachers, and
there was just a general difference in the quality
of education. 1 mean, you really had to work at
it to get the best out of the system. Leaving this
98
environment, where I knew the education level was
not as strong as some of the white high schools, I
began to wonder whether or not I would suffer at
college.
Not only was Allen conscious at the time of schooling, of the
inferiority of his education at the black high school, but also
the notion that the responsibility was on him to get what he could
out of the experience. Allen was also aware that the school
situation itself was not offering him as much in terms of educa
tional achievement as a white school would have.
Chuck also realized the value of attending integrated
schooling by equating participation in white institutions with
gaining the necessary foundation for success in society. In fact.
Chuck talks of himself as actually being better off than most
blacks because of his opportunity to develop in what he calls
"basically white institutions."
I don’t think the recipe for success for blacks is
necessarily any different than it is for white law
yers. The issue is how black people obtain the
same kinds of skills that are required to become
successful, coming from a completely different
background. So when you ask me how do I describe
the basis of my success, I think that I was fortun
ate in that I went to actually very good schools.
So in many ways, I have developed at a relatively
early age, in a basically white society and I think
that, quite definitely, is one of the things that
has put me in better stead than other black people
who have really been, for the most part, raised
entirely in black areas and in the black culture.
Chuck introduces the notion that not only are white institutions,
in this case schools, superior and necessary to gain the correct
tools to becoming successful, they also offer the chance to "learn
99
the white world", to shed the isolation of growing up in all-black
surroundings. Integrated schooling provides not only a superior
education, but also the socialization to white culture and values
that Chuck regards as important elements for becoming successful.
Confidence
In addition to the benefit of receiving superior education
from integrated schools, the black respondents also talked of the
psychological dimension of being provided with an arena in the
white world, to prove their ability to succeed among whites. In a
sense, integrated school experience gave them a chance to match
themselves against white students and to discover they could
compete. The respondents attributed establishing a sense of con
fidence or self proof that later helped them become successful in
the white world to this experience.
Bob grew up in a small town where the only high school was
"predominantly white." He talks of being placed in a situation
where he had to deal with and compete against whites thoughout his
childhood. Bob was very successful in high school at everything
he tried, making excellent grades, being the first black quarter
back on the team, student body president, editor of the school
newspaper, and member of the school band. It was this success in
an integrated school that helped give Bob a sense of confidence to
later compete in the white world.
100
In a town of 5,000 people, you have one high school.
The town is predominantly white, so it wasn’t like I
only spent ray time dealing with blacks. 1 dealt
very substantially with whites all ray life. And 1
did very well in high school. 1 had, more than just
doing well in terras of grades, crossed the line, so
to speak. I was the first black quarterback on our
football team, and we had the best season we’d had
in fifteen years. I was the student body president,
1 did all kinds of things. 1 was, you know, proving
something. 1 got used to it, not letting it be a
big thing.
Elaine was raised in an integrated neighborhood and went to
integrated grammar schools and junior high school. For high
school she went to a private school that was almost totally
white. Elaine-reaffirms the assumption that white institutions
are superior to black ones, and adds the notion that competing and
doing well in an integrated school allows for a feeling of confi
dence that there really are no differences in being black or
white.
There were affects on' ray becoming a success by having
been in an integrated school environment. I can
think of a few. One, you know, the whole motivating
factor behind school integration, or busing, is a
basic presumption that white institutions are better,
and that’s probably a truism. So there is that bene
fit of being in an integrated environment.. There’s
the confidence factor, that I discussed earlier as
being so important to succeed. It reestablishes, 1
think, a sense that there really were no differences
in what 1 could do and what anyone else could do.
The value for the respondents in attending integrated schools
was seen not only in terras of acquiring a quality education
serving as a necessary tool for later achievement, but also as
providing a personal testing ground where the respondents could
compete equally against whites, and find they could succeed. In a
101
sense they felt they were given an early opportunity to dispel the
myth of white superiority in intelligence, education, and all
other areas. This early socialization to a concept of equality
helped these respondents later to continue to seek out and achieve
success in the white world.
Conclusion
In this chapter a pattern begins to emerge indicating the way
in which racial social structures interweave with the ongoing
processes of society. Socialization is a universal and necessary
activity in every society. Both black and white respondents
learned basic social values through the process of socialization.
Primarily through parental guidance, the respondents were taught
the cultural value of receiving a good education as a necessary
means to achieving success within society. In this respect, there
was little difference between the experiences of the black and
white respondents. However, because of differential positions on
a racial hierarchy within a discriminatory society, the black
respondents also received additional racial socialization and
strategies.
For the black respondents, the message was that in order to
succeed, they would have to work harder and be twice as good as
competing whites. They were instilled with both a sense of hope,
and at the same time taught specific strategies of how to maneuver
102
through a racially-biased society. This added motivation in
stilled in the black respondents a drive to be the best they
could, and perhaps in some cases be superachievers. Yet it was a
double message urging the respondents toward success in the white
professional world, yet not without the knowledge of how difficult
such success would be to accomplish.
This splintering off of differential socialization norms does
not indicate a lack of shared cultural foundation and experience.
Not only did the black and white respondents report similar value
orientation toward educational achievement, but their experience
with role models was almost identical as well. The main differen
tiating factor on use of role models was whether a family member
held a professional occupation. In the cases where this was not
so, both black and white respondents turned to distant sources,
especially the media, in terms of providing occupational role
models. In one particular case, the situation of shared media
experience was so strong, that both a black and white respondent
identified with the same white character, influencing both of
their decisions to become attorneys.
I do not mean to downplay the staggering differences brought
about by racial stratification within this society. Instead, a
subtle diagram of the workings of racial social structures as a
normal part of the social system must be sought. It is as if
there is a social foundation of cultural values accounting for
shared experiences. From this base of mutual experience and value
103
orientation, racial strategies arise, creating unique and dif
ferent experiences for the black respondents. The ongoing effects
of racial social structure are a continual dynamic reality in a
racially-stratified society.
For the black respondents, the value of an education as a
socially understood value is imposed upon with the knowledge that
if they are to succeed as blacks, they must work twice as hard and
be twice as good. Early childhood schooling becomes not just a
place to learn needed skills, but a testing ground for adequacy in
a world infused with myths of white superiority. Parents of blacks
must attempt to instill a sense of hope that opportunities are
changing, making access to positions of success possible for the
sons and daughters of those who themselves were denied such chances
The black respondents felt that the background socialization
they received was. a fundamental reason for their success in later
life. They expressed feelings of gratitude to their parents for
having instilled in them the drive to succeed, and the knowledge
of how such success might be accomplished. They felt fortunate
for the chance at an early age, to have an arena of equal compe
tition with whites, which motivatéd them to continue to seek out
competition for schooling and jobs within the white world. Issues
of having to prove themselves equal and bear the burdens of white
discrimination continued as the black respondents advanced their
careers by attending law school and getting their first job within
a law firm.
104
CHAPTER V
"GETTING THERE" - OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES
History is a broad spectrum of human events with particular
significance to individuals depending on their position within the
social structures. For the black respondents, the adult stage of
their life was strongly influenced by the changing historical
patterns of educational and occupational opportunity structures.
Differential positions on a racial hierarchy accounted for vastly
different experiences between the black and white respondents in
getting a legal education and entering the job market as young
attorneys. However, the experiences among the black respondents
also differed depending on what historical era they entered law
school and pursued a legal career.
Statistical trends verify the fact that until the middle
sixties and seventies, opportunity structures in prestigious law
schools were almost totally closed to blacks. The traditional
pattern seemed to be one of "tokenism" where many law schools took
one black as a token representation into each class, with some law
schools admitting no blacks at all until the mid or late seven
ties. Ralph Smith (1980) in an article in the Black Law Journal
states that the trend toward increased black student enrollment in
105
law schools began to change in the late sixties to seventies, when
enrollment increased from 2,128 to 5,503 (p. 83). The law jour
nals are are also filled with articles discussing the rise in
numbers of blacks practicing in the legal field from the sixties
ties to the seventies (Edwards, 1972; McGee, 1971; Baker, 1975;
Munneke, 1980). Edwards (1972) provides statistics describing
increased employment of blacks that closely parallel those of the
law school trends during that era, and notes that "black attorneys
have grown from 2,180 in 1960 to 3,845 in 1970" (p.23). Although
the growth in black participation was slow and blacks were still
grossly underrepresented, educational and occupational opportuni
ties within the legal profession did begin to open up as part of
the overall social changes and civil rights movements of the
sixties and seventies.
The black respondents of this study are the living human
realities that give life to the statistical data on changing
opportunity structures. Two of the black respondents entered law
school and the job market before these structures began to open.
For them the struggle was great and the words "blocked opportun
ity" a reality that they experienced daily. For the other three
black respondents entering law school in the seventies, "affirma
tive action" and "opening opportunities" were the foundation of
their perceptions and experience. For the black partners, educa
tional systems and professional occupational structures inter
twined with racial status, creating markedly different experiences
106
from the white counterparts in the process of "getting there" on
the way to becoming partners in major law firms.
Perceived Options
The social structural realities of blocked access to educa
tional and occupational opportunities for blacks had an affect on
career choice of the respondents. Four of the respondents discus
sed the limited opportunity structures for blacks seeking careers
The respondents mentioned the historical precedent that blacks
were only able to enter into specific careers, and that tradi
tionally, access to business had been completely blocked. The
careers that had been more open to blacks were centered in the
professions, medicine, law and teaching. Blackwell, in his book
Mainstreaming Outsiders: The Production of Black Professionals
(1981), also discusses the historical reality of limited occupa
tional choices and the fact that black professionals were almost
entirely limited to serving the needs of the black community.
As long as de jure segregation was supported and as
long as de facto segregation and systematized pat
terns of discrimination persisted, the skills
obtained through post-secondary and professional
education largely served a black population in a
segregated racial community. The primary career
open to black college graduates was teaching. A
selected few could enter medicine and dentistry;
fewer entered law because the opportunities for
practicing that profession were seriously want
ing. But, orientation to social welfare services
was also of long standing (p. 23).
107
Each respondent indicated that these options for career mobility
for blacks affected their becoming attorneys. It is interesting
to note that both the oldest and the youngest black respondent in
the study talked of limited options. This range in age between
the respondents indicates that although changes within the
opportunity structures of American society might have occurred,
perceptions of limited options still exist for black professionals.
Allen graduated from college in the mid fifties and stated
that he was aware at that time of the limited opportunities for
blacks in any career area other than three specific professions.
Allen indicated that his choice of law for a career was based on
what he perceived to be the only viable option for a black to
succeed.. Allen was always gearèd to go to professional school,
knowing that his options for success did not exist through any
other route.
There weren’t many opportunities for blacks who wanted
to go to college because you either had to decide to
go into basically two professions. You could be a
doctor or a lawyer. That’s a little exaggerated, but
those were the common professions. Or you could teach.
If you didn’t do those three, having a bachelor’s
degree was not a great deal of benefit because most
companies simply wouldn’t put you in their management
training program or make you an executive, or groom
you. You had to be committed into going into a
profession. I knew I had to be a doctor or a lawyer
or a teacher. I wanted to be a professional and I
guess by elimination I picked law and I'm glad I did.
Elaine is the youngest person in the study, graduating law
school in the mid seventies. And yet, she too describes the same
options.
108
For many years there has existed an educated middle-
class group of black folks. I don’t think the busi
ness world has been as open as the professional
world. And by professional I mean doctors, lawyers,
dentists, teachers. So that’s where I saw myself
going, into one of those areas. I sort of always
knew I’d be a doctor or a lawyer.
Although Elaine comes from a professional family, she still states
that the precedent of blacks not being able to go into business,
’’is one thing that I think is different for me and the white
counterpart. ’’
In a sense, limited black access into the world of business
encouraged the respondents of this study to pursue professional
careers within the law. None of the white matched respondents in
the sample spoke of any type of limited opportunities in what
they might choose to do with their careers.
For the black respondents early perceived options also refer
red to professions catering only to clients within the black
world. Bob talks of knowing he wanted to be a lawyer, but assum
ing he would be a ’’black’’ lawyer. By being a ’ ’black’’ lawyer. Bob
is referring to the role black professionals served in dealing
only with black clients within the minority community, and dealing
only with certain applicable types of law, in this case criminal.
Bob graduated from law school in the late sixties.
I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. I assumed that I
would be a black lawyer, who had a black practice,
doing principally criminal work. That was most of
what the kind of legal business that blacks had,
to ray knowledge.
109
The respondents in this study hold the historic position of
being the first blacks to break into the white legal establish
ment. In that sense, their success in making it into the white
professional world would be the first time precedent was set for
altering that limited opportunity structure.
Law School
In their climb up the professional ladder to becoming attor
neys, all of the respondents in this study, both black and white,
went to what we might call prestigious law schools. Each respon
dent distinguished themselves in his or her law school career,
achieving top positions within the law school ranking, and many
other honors such as law review, president of law class and so on.
However, perceptions by respondents about admission to law school,
and experiences during law school differed by race.
Admission
Historical context greatly influenced admission procedures in
law schools, determining admission procedures for the black
respondents. Allen and David, the two oldest respondents entered
law school during the fifties, when educational opportunity struc
tures had not yet opened up to blacks. They were both admitted
under an unstated institutionalized policy system based on the
idea of a limited "quota" of blacks in each class. Leonard, in
his book Black Lawyers (1977) discusses the use of policies of
110
exclusion and the quota system to limit black entry into law
schools until the sixties.
The Association of American Law Schools found that in
the 196U's ethnic minority students were not being .
admitted to law schools because a number of member
schools still held fast to racial exclusion, either
by gentlemen’s agreement or by eliminational pro
cedures in admissions. To be sure, throughout the
years there were a few predominantly white schools
tokenly open to black students. It was not sur
prising to note, that for the first 150 years of
legal education in this country, one percent or
less of the lawyers and law students came from the
black population (p.2).
Leonard goes on to say that at Harvard law school, for example,
the quota system allowed only between six and nine blacks in the
entire law school student body until the mid sixties (p. 29).
Leonard (1977), Blackwell (1981) and others (R. Smith, 1980;
Rappaport, 1980; Baker, 1975; McGee, 1971) all cite the mid
sixties to be the time when policies of racial exclusion began to
change to programs of affirmative action and active recruitment
campaigns designed to increase black enrollment in law schools.
Leonard states:
In the mid sixties, most law schools began to seek out
students from previously excluded populations. For
many of these institutions the process of actively
recruiting students was an entirely new experience
(p. 250).
Leonard goes on to give statistical evidence for the early success
of the affirmative action programs in law school recruitment by
stating that by the mid to late seventies, first year enrollments
of black students in law schools had doubled (p. 257). The three
111
remaining respondents all were admitted to law school during this
era of active recruitment and affirmative action programs.
Quota
Allen graduated from law school in the late fifties, and was
admitted during a time when there was a working quota system
allowing only one or two blacks in per class. Allen stated that
the quota system was part of the institutional operation of law
schools at that time, and applied to all major schools. He
describes the situation of being the "one black" allowed by quota
into his law class.
I went to law school at X (a prestigious, well known,
nationally high ranked law school). In fact, I loved
X. I’m very active in X now. But X had a quota sys
tem. I was the only black in my class at X. This was
in the late fifties. There was never more than one
black in any X class until about the time I graduated.
So I’d say around ’58 it began to change. But that
used to be documented because they’d have the grad
uating class pictures on the wall in the lounge, and
you could basically follow it through and see the
one black in each class. That, again, was the system.
X had, like a lot of schools, an unwritten quota
system.
Although Allen was an undergraduate at the same university as his
law school, he was aware of specific pressures being the "only
black" let in by the quota system for his class.
In looking at Allen’s white match, Frank, we find that he
went to the same law school, X, and graduated two years later.
Though attending the same school during the same time as Allen,
Frank has a very different perception of admissions and openness
112
in law school opportunities. He finds law schools to have been
far more open in the fifties than in the present.
I don’t think then there was nearly the struggle to get
into law school that most certainly exists today. I
think that someone who wanted to go to law school right
now would have a more difficult time following the path
that I followed. Law schools were more open Llien. All
you have to do is compare the test requirements. The
average LSAT score for a new admittee is much higher
today in all law schools than when I was admitted. In
those days, we just walked in off the street and took
the exam.
The difference between the two respondents’ perceptions is related
to different opportunity structures for blacks and whites. For
Allen, law schools were far more closed in the fifties than at the
present time. For Frank, a white, law schools were far more open
in the past in terms of entrance requirements and lack of attor
neys in the field.
A second black respondent, David, also was admitted to law
school in the fifties, when there was only ’’one other’ ’ in his
class. David was admitted to a major university on an athletic
scholarship. After college, David went into the service for a few
years, and then went to a highly ranked law school. His white
match, Steve, had an almost identical school pattern. He also
went to a major university, did a few years in the service, and
ended up at the same law school with David, graduating two years
earlier. Yet Steve also felt that opportunity structures in law
schools had reversed themselves from the past, and now in the
present were more closed, ’’I did well enough to get into law
school in those days. I ’d probably never get in now, nor would
113
half of my partners." Again, differing perceptions by black and
white respondents are in agreement with actual differences in
opportunity structures that existed for blacks and whites.
Affirmative Action
The three remaining black respondents and their white
counterparts all attended law school in the late sixties to the
mid seventies, a period best characterized by affirmative action
programs in admission policies. All three of the black respon
dents were aware of the effect of affirmative action in their
admission to law schools. All of the respondents felt that law
schools were actively searching for black students, and that they
were besieged by offers to schools because they were one of the
pool of "courted" blacks. Among the white counterparts, there was
no mention during the interviews of anything unusual related to
admission to law school.
Bob entered law school in the late sixties. He was the
second black ever to attend this very prestigious law school. Bob'
comments that the historical context of the time he was entering
law school was one of changing opportunity structure for blacks.
He describes the effects of affirmative action in creating an
active search for qualified blacks. For Bob, affirmative action
served a positive function in his life.
You have to remember at this time the law schools were
just opening up to blacks, just beginning to recruit
blacks and to actively seek to admit more blacks into
classes. Being black at that time was very good, it
114
was very positive. I was admitted, literally admitted
to four or five major law schools that I never even
applied to. I was awarded scholarships and admitted
just because a college counselor of mine sent out
letters inquiring about my chances for admission.
I did formally apply to two major law schools, one
of which I attended. I got into both. I was
accepted to the school I attended within two weeks
after I sent the application in.
Bob goes on to explain that the opening structures for black
opportunity in law schools did not apply to all blacks, but only
to a select few of very qualified people. Bob credits the combin
ation of pressure for finding blacks to fill affirmative action
requirements and the search for outstandingly qualified blacks, in
the creation of the limited resource of which he was one.
The fact was that at this point, we were at a time where
everybody was looking for the same black guy. We’re
talking about there being a relatively, at least in the
minds of the law school admissions people, small pool of
blacks that everybody would want. The schools were both
interested in showing that they were not prejudiced, and
at the same time follow the high standards of what was
necessary to make it in their schools. Fortunately at
that time I had an LSAT score that was very high. I had
good grades, a lot of activities (sports, student body
officer, band) so I was reasonably interesting on paper.
Because of that I was courted, I mean at that time I
could have gone to any law school in the country.
Elaine also felt herself to be in a position where being a
qualified black was an advantage. Elaine went to a distinguished
university, with a high record of scholastic achievement, school
activities, and a high LSAT score. She entered law school in the
mid seventies when affirmative action programs were in their
height. Elaine reflects the changing temperament of the times
when she uses the word quota to mean requirement to have blacks
115
attend the school, rather than a policy of exclusion as it was
used in earlier historic periods.
I think I came through at an optimum period, I came
through during an affirmative action period that,
although I may have gotten in anyway to my college
and law school, assured me of getting in. I still
came in through the special programs because they
had quotas, and there really wasn’t much choice
about it. I was assured of getting in because,
credential wise, I was really by far at the top
of the stack.
In fact. Chuck, who began law school in the early seventies,
was admitted to a prestigious law school where there had been such
pressure to fill minority quotas that his law class was close to
40 percent minority. But Chuck refers to that over-response to
the times as a quirk that never repeated.itself.
We had a lot of black law students in my class. I was in
the largest minority class, perhaps, of any law school
ever. But to tell you the truth, the discussion around
school was, ’whoops, our minority population is too big’,
so I never harbored any misconceptions about reality and
what was going to happen in the future. It was a quirk.
It was very easy to recognize this because the adminis
tration of the school said so in no uncertain terms.
Essentially that this wouldn’t happen again, and it
hasn’t.
While looking at the white matched sample, we find a very
different response to the importance of the historical context at
the time of law school admission on their becoming a success.
While all three black respondents cited affirmative action and
changing racial opportunity structures as affecting them in a
positive manner, the white respondents found the historical con
text to have no effect, or perhaps even a negative effect on their
116
reaching their present status. For the white respondents, the
historical era was characterized by the anti-war movement, the
anti-establishment movement, and values that went against tradi
tional modes of career achievements.
George entered law school at the same time as his black
counterpart. Bob, in the late sixties. When talking about the
effects that particular historic period had on his becoming suc
cessful, he said;
It really didn’t have any effect because if anything,
that period really militated against doing what I
ultimately did. I mean, that period really would
have encouraged me to go out into the streets. I
don’t mean in any kind of revolutionary sense, my
going into what I did was very traditional, so it
was almost inconsistent with the period in which
I went to school.
In the same vein, Kathy entered law school at the same time as
her black counterpart Elaine, in the mid seventies, and found the
times symbolized by the drop-out, anti-establishment culture.
Again, she talks of the historic period as putting forth values
that went against her particular path to becoming successful.
The particular times had no bearing, if it had, I
wouldn’t have ended up here because I went through
in the years of turmoil. I went through the univer
sity in the late sixties, seventies, when everyone
was tuning in and dropping out. I didn’t, because
I looked at that scheme and I didn’t see it as
leading anywhere productive. I wasn’t interested
in the drug culture at all. It just didn’t appeal
to me,
Coming from a different racial perspective, the white respon
dents did not experience changing opportunity structures in terms
117
of law school entry. They did find themselves part of the sur
rounding dominant cultural values of drop-out, anti-establishment
career goals. Each white respondent felt that they had to, in a
sense, "overcome" the effects of their particular historic period
to continue the path that ultimately led them to their position as
partner in major law firms. The black respondents, however, found
the times to have a positive effect on changing previously closed
racial opportunity structures.
Experience in Law School
Leonard (1977) describes life at law school for black stu
dents through the sixties as "painful" (p. 29). In discussing
black experience at Harvard Law School, Leonard states:
As far as law school related activities were concerned,
black students were conspicuous by their absence. It
must also be noted that very few, if any, black law
students were on any of the committees, publications
or in any other law school affiliated organizations.
Socially, black law students were very much estranged
from extra-curricular activies, from each other, and
from the surrounding community. One black graduate
of the fifties said that he could not speak for the
other black students, but socially speaking, he lived
in a vacuum (p.30).
Four of the black respondents of this study also talked about law
school experiences in terms of racial issues. The three respon
dents who attended law school in classes with only one or two
blacks talked of feeling like an outsider by virtue of being
racially isolated. All of the four respondents brought up inci
dents of racism in the form of subtle implications of inferiority.
118
In contrast, only one black respondent and all five white respon
dents from the matched sample talked of law school solely in terms
of the academic success and high class stanrling they achieved.
For the black respondents, feelings of isolation and implications
of inferiority were the lived-out effects of institutional racism
during their law school careers.
Outsider
Allen, who came in under the quota system, was the only black
in his class. He describes what he calls "subtle" feelings of
having no one to share with, being alone and isolated. He attrib
utes that loneliness to racial isolation: not having anyone from
the same background with whom to share intimate feelings and
experiences.
It’s very subtle, but no matter how open and liberal you
are, you like to have people that share certain things
with you. Being one among 800, no, that’s not accurate,
one among 250 in our class, you never have the luxury
or convenience sometimes of just sitting down and talk
ing to some other student. You can’t pick up two or
three close friends of your same background and say
let’s go to dinner tonight, let’s talk about an exam
ination, let’s talk about some theories. You’re always
an outsider fitting in, and you adjust to it. I think
you miss something that’s very, very intangible by
being alone when there are times that you can’t share
some of your deep feelings simply because of the
difference in racial backgrounds. It’s so intangible,
it’s hard to describe.
In trying to explain exactly what that intangible element was,
Allen talked about the isolation both in terms of not being able
to open up to whites because they wouldn’t understand much of what
he was experiencing as a black, and in terms of always being "visible'
119
Sometimes you need to be able to say things that I
wouldn’t say to another person because that person
wouldn’t understand. That’s part of what you miss
with the isolation, I guess the other part of it is
you know you’re always on a platform, being observed,
being watched. Back in those days the average class
at my law school was 250, and they weren’t broken
down into sections like they are today. That isola
tion factor had an impact just in terms of your day-
to-day contact with the people around you.
In a similar vein. Bob, who went to school in the late
sixties but still was only the second black to attend his school,
describes his outsider state as feeling lost in a ’’foreign situa
tion’’ and feeling the ’’ pressure’’ of being one of the only blacks
among whites.
Then I got to law school, and there were only three
blacks in the law school. Two in my class, and one a
year ahead of us. All of a sudden, it was a totally
white world. I began to feel the pressure. I felt
lost. I had never been in a place where there had
been no blacks to speak of. In college there was a
substantial black population on campus. You know,
those were the people with whom I associated pri
marily, although I had a lot of white friends as
well. But there was that base from which you got
strength, or at least it helps to feel more com-
. fortable in a foreign situation.
Bob explains that it was only when he made contact with people in
the black ’’ community’’ outside of law school that he began to feel
comfortable. When I asked Bob if he had experienced overt forms
of racism, he replied that everyone’s ’’ well intentioned’’ efforts
to make him feel comfortable succeeded in achieving just the
opposite effect.
It’s funny. That was a period of time at a university
like Z, where everybody wanted to appear liberal. So
everybody wanted to talk about the ’black problem’ and
its kind of hard to explain, but the very fact that
120
everyone was making such an effort to make you feel
comfortable made you feel uncomfortable. You just had
to adjust to that.
In trying to explain the subtle pressures of their law school
experience, both Allen and Bob said that it was something hard to
explain, something fairly intangible, but nonetheless preseiiL. It
is clear that perceptions of feeling blocked from being able to
fit into the social life of a predominantly white law school
created extra burdens to which the black respondents felt they had
to adjust.
Implied Inferiority
Each of the four black respondents asserted that institu
tional and subtle forms of racism existed in the form of impli
cations of black inferiority. Allen talks of being aware of
institutional barriers within the system which kept blacks out of
law school.
After a while you begin to say, ’Gee, why am I the
only one here?’ And, ’What’s wrong, I know of too
many qualified black people in college. Why aren’t
they here?’ It makes you gather facts. And all of
a sudden you realize that it’s not natural. That
there are some barriers out there which have pre
vented the people from getting into the system.
For Allen, institutional exclusion of blacks and the implied
thesis of inferiority created a constant pressure to prove that he
was as good as whites. Allen repeats the thesis that to overcome
stigmas of inferiority, it’s simply a ’’given’’ that blacks have to
be better than whites.
121
The need to prove yourself is usually a given whether you
feel it or not. I mean, it’s just a given. You know no
matter what it is you do, you start out with the premise,
if you’re going to succeed, you have to be better than
the white person. Because everything else being equal,
when opportunity comes, whatever reason, if I’m good and
a white is good, they will pick the white. So you have
to start out with the expectation that you simply have
to be better.
David, who was one of only two blacks admitted to his class,
talks of assumptions of inferiority existing within his class
mates, as well as within himself. David also expresses the belief
that the only way he would be able to succeed in law school
competing against whites was by working twice as hard. However,
when David found that he had received grades in classes that were
the highest mark, assumptions of inferiority changed both for
himself and his classmates.
I’ll tell you how it was being one of two blacks out of
a whole law school of whites, and maybe this is one of
the reasons I did well. In law school, I was absolutely
convinced that all those white folks out there were so
much smarter than I was and that I was really going to
have to work hard just to stay in law school. So I
worked, really diligently day and night, studying and
I assumed everybody else was doing the same thing. I
was absolutely convinced that I wouldn’t make it. But
I put the time in and I worked hard. We were sitting
in the library when the first grades came out on the
first class that I had in law school. We were sitting
around the table, and all the guys were talking about
their grades. They were all mentioning their grades
and none of them had gotten a grade as high as mine.
And I hadn’t said anything and someone asked me what
grade I got. It turned out it was the highest grade
in the class. And none of them would believe it.
They thought I was lying. -So be it. But once I
learned I could compete with those guys, being one of
two black people in the whole class became insigni
ficant. Once you know you can compete and they know
you can compete, you become one of them.
122
Chuck, who was a member of the "quirk" law school class that
by "mistake" admitted 40 percent minority students, also talked of
experiencing subtle forms of assumptions of racial inferior!ty
that "pushed" him to try and demonstrate that he was not inade
quate. Chuck is clear to point out that although he did not
experience any direct racism from professors or students, he did
sense that the faculty was "uncomfortable" with the high number of
minority students let into the class.
I think some of the professors were uncomfortable with
the number of minority students that were there and the
percentage of the class. It’s hard to identify, or peg,
the discomfort that they may have had. I think that to •
an extent those people were also elitists. That was
their mentality and they felt that having that large
a percentage of minority students would affect the
reputation and the standing of the school in the
eyes of the legal profession.
When I asked David to be specific about the assumption underlying
the faculty’s discomfort and concern about too many minorities in
the school, he said, "It was that blacks were not as capable as
the majority."
Bob, who was only the second black in the entire history of
his law school, also said that he experienced no "overt prejudice"
on the part of the law school faculty. However, Bob felt that
institutional bias existed in the form of admissions criteria that
successfully barred blacks from entrance.
The position of the faculty and the administration had
always been, you know, that blacks were admitted to
the class as lung as they met our entrance qualifica
tions. But they failed to recognize the fact that,
under those guidelines, they had admitted in the
123
seventy-five year history of the law school, three
people, and that there were a lot of other blacks
out there, if given the chance, who could do the
work at the law school.
In order to try and change the opportunity structure for admission
for blacks, Bob helped create a committee to try and adjust the
entrance requirements so more blacks could be given a chance to
prove their abilities. During his work on the committee, Bob
found examples of implied assumptions of racial inferiority by
"thin-veiled comments made by some of the faculty about blacks
being unable to handle the work even if we did let them in."
During law school, all four of the black respondents exper
ienced subtle and institutional forms of racism based on assump
tions of implied inferiority. The black respondents indicated the
existence of this as an added burden, in addition to the normal
pressures of trying to succeed in law school. They spoke of
having to constantly prove to themselves and others that they were
not inferior to whites. In terms of feeling like an outsider,
experience in law school for blacks was dependent on the number
and size of blacks in the class in proportion to the white
students. When the black respondents were one or two among a
majority of whites, they expressed feelings of being outside the
mainstream of white social existence. When the numbers of blacks
were such that there was more of a mix, as in the case of Chuck,
no such feelings were cited.
Only one of the black respondents, Elaine, did not mention
any racial aspects of law school. Elaine attended law school in
124
the mid seventies and was in a class of 300 with over 60 minority
students, 30 of them black. She felt that she had a solid network
of friends who were both black and white, and that her background
of coming from a professional family made it easy for her to be a
part of the law school setting. Although Elaine mentioned affir
mative action programs and push for filling minority quotas as
affecting her admission to law school, she made no other refer
ences to her law school experience being affected by the fact that
she was black. Like the white respondents in the matched sample,
Elaine talked only of law school in terms of her successful aca
demic achievement.
Getting a Job
Once out of law school, black respondents found themselves
facing very different opportunity structures for employment as
attorneys than their white counterparts. Those black respondents
who graduated law school in the late fifties and entered the job
market in the early sixties entered a historic era characterized
by blocked opportunities for black employment within the white
legal structure. For those black respondents graduating law
school in the late sixties-early seventies, the social context was
marked by changing opportunities and a period of opening doors for
black entree into the white professional world.
125
Blocked Opportunity
Leonard (1977) states that the troubles encountered by black
students in law school paled in comparison to what was to come
after, in seeking employment. Leonard points out that until the
late sixties the crucial function of law schools in helping place
students after graduation was not fulfilled in terms of the black
students. He talks about the fact that interviewers were not
hiring blacks into major corporations and that "Harvard failed to
provide equal employment opportunities for its black students" (p.
33). In discussing the fate of the black attorneys who had made
it into prestigious law schools but were then forced to face
closed opportunity structures in employment, Leonard states.
What did these black graduates do? The overwhelming
majority went back to their home communities, usually
large, urban areas, hung out their shingles, and began
hustling for a living. Their work was, and in most
cases still is, rather varied with a heavy emphasis-
on criminal and family matters (p. 32).
The two respondents of this study who graduated law school during
the late fifties became exceptions to what Leonard outlines as the
fate for most black attorneys of their era. Both Allen and David
were able to eventually become partners within major white firms.
However, in achieving that position, both respondents were met by
the existing obstacles and blocked opportunity structures of their
times.
126
No Interviews, No Jobs
Both Allen and David, who had gotten into law school on the
quota system, faced upon graduation a system of blocked opportun
ity for blacks in the white legal establishment of which they had
not been aware. David talks about being "hit" by the reality that
even though he had achieved highly during law school, because he
was a black, the world of practicing attorneys was not open to
him.
When I was about to graduate from law school is when
it really hit me that it made a difference that I was
black. I was in the top five percent of my class,
associate editor of law review, president of my law
school fraternity, and not only did I not get a job
offer, I didn’t even get a job interview.
All of the respondents in the study, both black and white, agreed
that the standard procedure for the major law firms in finding new
associates is to interview top students out of the highly ranked
schools. And yet neither Allen nor David were interviewed by any
of the white firms. Allen describes the situation at the time by
saying,
I had a very difficult time finding a job. Trying to
find a job was very difficult because in the first
place, you didn't get interviews. I mean the doors
weren’t open, they simply weren’t hiring blacks.
But both respondents agreed that being blocked from the inter
viewing procedure was only reflective of the fact that until that
time, no blacks had ever been hired in major white law firms.
David states.
127
At that time, in 1960, not only was there not a black
partner, there were no blacks anywhere in any of the
law firms. Just none, period.
Allen offers a similar description of the opportunities available
for blacks at the time.
I wouldn't have gotten a job no matter what Llie law
schools may have done in terms of interviews. It
wouldn't have mattered. White firms did not hire black
lawyers until about 1970. White companies did not hire
black lawyers. Government didn't hire black lawyers
with very few exceptions. Period, end of sentence.
For these two respondents, the social policy of racial ex
clusion from the white legal world made the issue of gaining
entree and getting a job within the legal establishment the most
difficult barrier they had to encounter. Allen describes the
blocks in opportunuty structure that were facing them at the time.
The biggest barrier was getting an entree, an entry
into the professional legal area. When you couple the
absence of opportunities in the private sector with
the same thing in the government sector, that is a
thing that is so devastating in terms of having an
ability to practice.in the profession that you've
spent, by then, seven years of getting professionally
prepared for.
According to both respondents, the only opportunities really open
to black attorneys was having a "black" practice. That meant
going into private practice doing primarily criminal work for an
all-black clientele. Allen clarifies the extent of the blocked
opportunity structure for blacks by saying.
The most interesting thing about that time period
which still strikes me when I think about it, is
the fact that the policy of excluding blacks existed
in the state, the federal, the county and city
governments. Again, testing my memory, but the
128
city attorney had hired its first black sometime
in the latter part of 1959. The county counsel
at that time had not hired a black, and the public
defender had not hired a black. I even interviewed
at some of the federal agencies and some of the
other governmental agencies without any success.
Within the entire state, with its numerous agen
cies, there were only two that I was aware of that
were hiring blacks. One happened to be the Depart
ment of X, where I ended up, and the other was the
Office of Y (a government office whose employees
practiced law).
It is through these two "cracks" in the system of blocked oppor
tunities, that Allen and David were able to gain entree^ into the
white legal world, and work their way up to making partner in a
major white law firm.
Breaking In
Although respondents Allen and David took different paths to
break into the system that blacks had previously not been able to
penetrate, the reasons they gave for being able to do so were
almost identical. Both respondents said that the reason they were
able to make it in the white legal world was that they had been
given a chance to prove themselves, and both attributed the
gaining of that chance to specific individuals who initiated
innovative acts to open previously barred opportunities. Both
Allen and David credited themselves with having the ability to do
well and establish themselves as capable — overcoming racial bias
and barriers — once the door had been opened to them.
Allen entered the world of major white law firms by coming in
"laterally", which means he first entered the firm,as a senior
129
partner rather than working his way up from an associate position.
Bringing partners in laterally is a fairly rare practice, used by
law firms to attract people from outside jobs such as government
and politics. Allen did not feel that his career pattern of first
working his way up a governmental agency and then coming into a
law firm laterally was by choice, but rather represented the only
alternative open to him because of the existing blocked oppor
tunity structures.
I tried very hard to crack the white legal barrier
with no success because they simply wouldn’t hire
me. I went into government because that was the
only place I had to work. I did not go by choice.
After being unsuccessful at trying to get employment in white
firms, white companies and other governmental legal offices, Allen
took the civil service exam and applied for jobs at the two
agencies "known" to recently be hiring blacks as attorneys. He
was offered a job in one of the governmental agencies and took it
because "1 needed work."
Although Allen found great difficulty in gaining entree as an
attorney in any white agency, government or otherwise, once
allowed in he felt there were no internal blocks by race or any
other criteria to hold him back. In fact, Allen attributes his
rapid move upward in the agency to the direct help of his super
visors, who in recognizing his potential abilities provided an
opportunity for him to prove himself and do well.
1 was perhaps fortunate in the Department that once
I got there the only thing they cared about basic
ally was your ability, and I moved very, very fast.
130
Once I got there color made no difference at that
department. That’s not true everywhere. I had a
couple of supervisors who were impressed with my
ability. They went out of their way to help me
advance. They gave me advanced work that people
on my level were not doing, and that helped. They
really went to bat for me getting advancements and
promotions. That helped. It was encouraging to
know that other people supported you. But it
really was still a question of ability. She gave
me a lot of very difficult work and I performed.
The more I performed, the more she wanted to give
me. It is that kind of thing that accelerates your
movement. It was just a combination of supportive
people and demonstrating an ability to do a good job.
Allen did point out that the particular situation he was in, of
’’not having any obstacles in moving ahead internally within the
Department once I got there’’, was not the universal condition
facing most blacks at the time when they attempted to enter white
hierarchies. Instead, Allen credited specific individuals within
his work situation, for taking the initiative in providing him
with the opportunity to show his abilities' and in recognizing
them with upward promotions through the hierarchy when he per
formed successfully.
As a result, Allen became the first black to head a major
state agency when he was appointed Director of the Department in
the mid-seventies, fifteen years after he first began working
there. In addition to crediting individuals within the internal
structure of the department, Allen credits a major state political
leader with unlocking the doors that would allow a black to hold
such an important and prestigious government post.
131
A significant factor if you want to look at my overall
success, was the election of Mr. X as governor. There
had never been a black who had been head of a Department
of this state before. But for Mr, X serving as Governor
at the time of my appointment, I don’t think there wmil r i
have been a black chosen to head the Department.
Allen is careful to again point out that the role of helpful
individuals was in ’’opening the door’’ so people who had ability
’’could perform’’. It is to this chance of proving himself by
working his way up the system and finally being appointed Director
of a major State Department that Allen most credits his success.
In my situation, becoming Director was the most signi
ficant factor to my success. The appointment was
significant in terms of national exposure. At the
time I was appointed, I was the person who had the
ability to represent this state nationally. This was
a tremendously important and powerful position. I had
access to lawyers all oyer the country in terms of
knowing who I was and knowing that I could perform
like any other good lawyer. They had a chance to see
me in action and that kind of performance helps to
establish and solidify your reputation. That really
for me was the opening. Opening the door is import
ant because what that does is demonstrate that
qualified people, no matter who they are or what
their color, can perform.
Nineteen years after graduation from law school Allen was
able to, as he put it, ’’establish reputation’’ by becoming Direc
tor, that provided him with the chance to realize his original
goal and be invited by a major law firm to transfer over laterally
as a senior partner.
By the time I had become a Director, I had established
a reputation. It was not just in this state, it was
around the country. I had good rapport with major law
firms, with major partners in major law firms, with
all of the administrators from other states. What I
132
am saying is that as Director I probably spoke to
every major group in the business community. I had
established rapport, a reputation, ability and there
fore, I had something to sell. I was very, very
fortunate in a sense that when my chance came to move
laterally, I had nineteen years of solid experience
as a professional, respected and known.
Allen’s white match, Frank, had a veiy different experience
both in gaining entree into the legal world and in reaching his
final position as partner in a major law firm. Although Frank
graduated from the same law school within two years of Allen, he
had no trouble getting jobs in the legal community. Immediately
after graduation, he went to work for a small firm of attorneys.
He was offered the job through a friend of his whom he had worked
with previously. After a short while, Frank became dissatisfied
with his firm, and with no trouble transferred over to another
small and supposedly upcoming firm.
When I got out of law school, I went to work for a
small firm. One of the fellows who worked there had
been on the board of directors at the Y.M.C.A. and
we had worked together. He asked me to join his
firm and there were five in the group. I was the
fifth lawyer. And that’s where I started. It
took not too long before I realized that I was
being underpaid, compared to what I could get else
where, and also the practice, being so general, was
not as intellectually demanding as I would appre
ciate. So then I made a shift and went to work
for, once again, a smaller law firm. I was told
this firm was growing and was going to end up being
a dynamic, large firm. So I went to work there,
but after several years, decided that was not
really a growing situation.
Again through friends, and social encounters, Frank was easily
offered a job at the firm where he is now a partner. Frank
mentions no difficulty in getting jobs or gaining entree to major
133
firms. For him, there were no structural blocks to entrance and
open social relations with other attorneys made contacts for
entrance into law firms easy and natural.
In the same building that I had been operating, there
was another law firm, where I now work. And I knew
some of the people there. One of the fellows had
gone to school with me. In addition to that, they
had great baseball seats, and since I was in the same
building, several times they would have an extra seat
and they’d call me to see if I wanted to come to the
ballgame with them. . Well, knowing the quality of
their seats, I would always go. As a consequence, I
got to meet several of the other people in the firm.
Just socially, with no thought of doing anything.
Finally, when I decided I was going to leave the
firm I was with, I was talking to my law school chum
about what I was going to do, and he said, 'Well,
why don’t you come to work for us?’ I decided sure,
why not, give it a shot.
Frank became a member of his present firm in 1966, five years
after law school graduation, and became a partner the next year.
Easy access to jobs through open social relations and no struc
tural bias made it possible for Frank to become a partner thirteen
years before Allen, who came in laterally.
David was the first black to gain entree into a major white
law firm by following the natural procedure of entering as an
associate and working up through the ranks to partner. Unlike
Allen, David did not have to spend years outside the firm achiev
ing tremendous status and reputation before being invited to join.
Although David followed a different path of entree, he attributes
his rise to success to the same things as Allen, the help of
concerned individuals in providing opportunities to prove oneself,
and the ability to succeed when given the chance.
134
David marks every stage of his career in gaining a job as an
attorney in a major law firm with the help of specific indivi
duals, The first person who helped David along hie course of
entry was an acquaintance who had taken an interest in him during
his college career as an athlete. When David was unable to get a
summer clerking job as an attorney during law school because such
opportunities were not available to blacks, this friend stepped in
and helped him get a job. However, because of policies of racial
exclusion existing within law firms, the job was only temporary
for the summer.
After my first year in law school, I had no legal
type of summer job because there just weren’t any
available for blacks. And I was in the top five
percent of my class in my first year. In my second
year, I was talking to an alumnus of my college,
who got my old friend on the phone and says, ’guess
who I have in my office and he's looking for a
summer job.’ And just like that my friend said
’you have a job here.’ So I spent a summer clerk
ing for his firm, and I think I did very, very well.
People marveled over the work product, and my friend
was very happy, but I didn’t get a job offer. Later
my friend told me that one of the reasons he left
that firm was because of the fight he had with
his partners about not giving me a job offer.
Upon graduation from law school, David was able to get a job
as a practicing attorney with the only "other’’ government agency
that Allen had mentioned as hiring blacks. David credits an
elected public official with establishing the policy of opening
the doors of the agency to black lawyers. Because of the know
ledge that this agency was hiring blacks, David's law school
helped set up an interview for him with the agency. It should be
135
remembered that although David had placed in the top five percent
of his class and was Editor of Law Review, he had received no
interviews from any of the major firms.
The administration at my law school was not unaware
of the fact that I had not been interviewed and they
directed this govermiieiiL office’s Interviewers to me.
The head of the office came out and he talked to me,
offering me the job on the spot. Not having any job
offers, I jumped at it of course.
Once admitted to the agency, David talks about the unusual
chance he had as a black to develop talents in corporate law that
had previously not been available. He feels that it was specifi
cally this chance that was offered to him, to build up experience
and ’’ credentials’’ in areas of legal expertise relevant to major
law firms, that put him in a position to make the move into the
white legal community.
So I went to this government office and I was very for
tunate. I was exposed to a whole new world in the law.
There were other blacks in the office, but none doing
the kind of glamorous thing that I had.the opportunity
to do. I ran the office here and in another city. I
spent my time starting the consumer fraud section,
working also in the anti-trust section and doing work
in the area of constitutional rights. I found that I
really liked practicing in the civil area and I thought
that I had an aptitude for it. I was in this govern
ment agency from 1961-1965 when I was hired by my
present firm. The actual reason that I came to my
firm was because of my experience in these areas,
particularly in anti-trust.
Although internal opportunity structures within the agency
opened up to allow David to develop specialized expertise in
corporate law, he again credits the fact that he was offered a job
in a major white law firm to the help of a specific individual.
136
who had previously decided it was time to take action against
racial discrimination and integrate major law firms.
My now deceased senior partner was one of the best,
most respected lawyers in the state. Bill decided
that he was going to integrate the white legal com
munity. Just like that he says, ’I’m going to
integrate. ’’ He had been a lecturer at my law school
so I had met him. In 1965 he and a partner in his
firm were working on a major anti-trust law suit and
the partner became very ill in the middle of the
preparation. Because Bill knew that I was an anti
trust lawyer and this was an anti-trust case, and
I was black, so now was the time he could do it. He
could say ’What do you mean. I’m not integrating, I
just need an anti-trust lawyer.’ And it happened.
He offered me a job.
Interestingly enough, when the job was first offered to him,
David was very ’’ apprehensive’’ at the thought of taking it for
reasons already referred to, of being the only black in an all
white setting. David was worried about being on the spot and
having to perform twice as well as his white associates to be
recognized as capable. With the encouragement of friends, he
decided to take the chance, becoming the first black to enter a
major white law firm as an associate.
After I was offered the job I wasn’t sure I wanted
to do it. I was very apprehensive. I was the only
black, there were none. I was apprehensive about
going into that setting. I was enjoying practicing
law, doing what I was doing. This would be a whole
new life style. I knew that I’d be on the spot and
no matter how well I performed, I assumed the stan
dards wouldn’t be the same. That I would have to,
in my father’s words, do twice as well in order to
be perceived as making it. And that really con
cerned me. I can remember talking to some of my
very close friends who weren't black, and they
understood it, but they encouraged me to do it
anyway. So I decided to do it.
137
David’s white match, Steve, also had a very different exper
ience perience in getting a job once out of law school, Having
graduated from the same law school within a two year time, Steve
was immediately offered a job in a well established law firm.
Although Steve successfully interviewed with mauy firms, he was
offered the job he decided to take through a friend who called him
while on vacation. Steve expressed no difficulties in the exper
ience of getting a job as an attorney, and felt it to be a very
natural step in the development of his career pattern.
I got out of school and a friend of mine encouraged
me to take a vacation. While I was still on vacation
having a good time, I got a call from John who was my
professor on the faculty at law school. He told me
about a firm having an opening that needed someone to
fill it. They wanted me to come back and interview.
I said, ’fine. I’ll be back in three more weeks.’ He
said, ’no, no, now.’ So I came right back, went and
interviewed, and went right to work there.
Steve left the first firm he was employed by in two years, to
form his own firm with other associates, which was to become a
forerunner of the present major firm in which he is currently
partner.
Opening Doors
The remaining three black respondents graduated law school
and entered the job market in the early to mid-seventies. Their
experience in getting a first job as a practicing attorney in the
white legal establishment differed considerably from their earlier
black predecessors. In a sense, Allen and David from the earlier
138
era served as the first blacks to break their way into a pre
viously blocked system, as pioneers. By the time the remaining
three black respondents began their search for a job, social
structures were beginning to change, as one respondent put it
"opening doors" of opportunities for blacks. Entry into jobs
within the white legal community came easily to these respondents,
as did their law school entry, in an era of affirmative action
programs in business and the professions. It should be pointed
out that as with admission to law school, doors were not opening
to all blacks, but to a select "pool" of highly qualified people
who were few in numbers, and courted by all the major firms. The
three black respondents in this study were all among those
"courted few."
Changing Options
Bob talks about the strong effect hearing about select blacks
gaining entree into major law firms had on his ideas about what
areas were open to him as an attorney after law school. Bob
states that in the mid to late sixties, it was common knowledge
and well publicized that major firms were actively recruiting and
hiring some blacks. Until then, Bob had simply assumed that as an
attorney, he would have to follow the only career paths then
available to him as a black, to either open up a private criminal
practice, or enter the district attorney’s or public defender’s
office. Once it became known to him that opportunities were
139
opening up in major corporate practice, Bob shifted his career
goals to getting a job in what he called the "top of the
profession."
In terms of blacks going into major law firms, my recol
lection is that it really began on a significant level
in the mid to late sixties, when law firms began to feel
the pressure to hire blacks. There was a well publi
cized recruitment of Joe Smith who had been a Rhodes
scholar and Yale law graduate by firms in San Francisco.
He ultimately went to Smith, Smith and Smith, and re
ports were that he was even paid more than the going
rate at that time for starting lawyers. There was
another well publicized case in New York, again a black
fellow who had been a well known basketball player at
Columbia and a Columbia law grad who reportedly was
also paid more than the going rate. This was reported
in national magazines, national newspapers. It was
well known throughout the legal community and through
out the law schools, and I think it had an effect on
people like myself who were in law school at the time
in changing somewhat their focus as to. what they would
do when they graduated from law school. Up until that
point, most of us had figured that we would graduate
from law school and maybe spend a couple of years in
a D.A.’s office or a public defender's office and then
become sole practitioners with a criminal practice. A
number of us had talked about the possibility of start
ing a black firm and trying to practice in that manner.
But the idea of going into a major firm and going
through what is considered in the legal business the
normal top of the profession type progression to part
nership and so forth in a major firm, really hadn't
been considered. So I began to look at the possibil
ity of joining a major firm when I graduated from
law school.
Bob makes clear the importance of transmitted information about
opening opportunity structures in terms of blacks changing their
career goals and patterns. All of the three black respondents
coming through law school in the seventies were affected by these
changes in opening career options, that led to taking first jobs
with major law firms.
140
Courted Few
As in the case with admission to law school during the era of
strong affirmative action policies, all three of the black respon
dents who were looking for their first job in the seventies were
actively sought after and "courted" by the major law firms. It
seems to be a cohort type pattern over time that those select
blacks who were chosen to enter law school were those same select
blacks that were first hired into major firms. Both black and
white respondents talked about the law profession being very
"caste oriented" in terms of having to attend the "right" school
before even being considered for admission to a major law firm.
Traditionally, the major firms only interview for employment at a
very select group of highly ranked schools. All the respondents
agreed that if you did not attend one of those prestigious
schools, the chance of even gaining an interview by a major firm
was almost non-existent. Since the black respondents were among
those graduating from select law schools, they carried the right
entree credentials to be given attention from major law firms. In
addition, all of the respondents also agreed that you had to place
well in your class standing, and achieve honors such as law review
to be really regarded as potential material within major law
firms. All three black respondents also had high academic
standing, putting them well in position for job consideration.
Chuck talks about being one of the blacks who had gained the
necessary skills and background by the early seventies to benefit
from opening opportunity structures.
141
The things that helped me personally, and I think
helped the people who happened to be in a position
to benefit from the opportunities that became
available in the early 1970's, were being in a
group of people who just happened to be there at
that time, with the necessary skills and back
ground to be able to pursue those opportunities.
Chuck goes on to talk about his experience in being one of the
"courted few" while the firms were searching for potential black
associates.
There were law firms everywhere that were recruiting
minority law students, I interviewed with a number of
major law firms. I got offers in San Francisco to join
law firms even though I did not interview. What happened
was, I was on the Law Review and they were recruiting
people in general off the Law Review, and particularly,
any minorities who happened to be on Law Review. I got
these unsolicited calls all the time.
Bob describes his situation of being "unusually sought after" by
major firms during that period.
In 1970 I started interviewing with major firms after I
was out of law school. I interviewed a number of major
firms and I interviewed the top firms (he names the
firms). I received a number of job offers. I, in fact,
received a job offer at Smith, Smith and Smith on the
spot, which I was told later was unheard of. I spent
the day interviewing there and apparently the hiring
partner, as soon as I would complete an interview with
someone, had them call him and give him their impres
sions. So that by the time I finished my interviewing
day, he had everyone's viewpoints on me. And when I
did my exit, after fifteen minutes with him, he made
me an offer on the spot. I also had offers from
several other firms.
Unlike their earlier black predecessors who felt that they
needed to break into a blocked system with the help of specific
innovative individuals, the three black respondents graduating law
school in the seventies perceived the system itself as shifting
142
into opening opportunity. None of these three respondents attri
buted their entry into the legal profession to the help of any
individuals. Rather, they cited changing governmental pressures,
general throughout the business and legal community, as creating
the "push" to hire qualified blacks into law firms. In this
sense, the respondents felt that being black at that particular
historic time context served as an advantage in getting a job.
Bob describes the pressure put on by the Johnson Admini
stration in enforcing civil rights legislation that stimulated law
firms to look for qualified blacks.
In the mid-sixties law firms began to feel the pres
sure, as did business in general, to hire blacks. I
think at that point in time, being black in that
situation was very helpful. There was considerable
government pressure from the Johnson Administration
for equal opportunity, enforcing civil rights legis
lation. His administration was very strong in
enforcement and putting pressure on business and
therefore law firms, to hire blacks.
Elaine also talks about feeling it was an advantage in inter
viewing for a job to be a black because the firms were looking for
blacks who were qualified.
I think it may have been an advantage being black
when it got around for interviewing for jobs. I
would have done fine anyway. I'm confident enough
to think. But I think that the person who inter
viewed me was really happy to go back to the firm
and say, 'She went to an excellent school, she's
got a good I.Q., and she's black too.' I'm sure
at the period of time that I was hired here, being
black was an issue and it probably made me more
attractive.
In comparison to the white matched sample, no major differ
ences in gaining entree to first job as a practicing attorney were
143
found. All three white respondents had no troubles being inter
viewed or offered jobs with major firms. Like the black
respondents, all of the white respondents graduated law school
high in their class with appropriate honors. The only difference
between the black and whiLe lespondents seems to be that the white
respondents took it for granted that job opportunities with major
firms would be waiting for them, while for the black respondents
it was a new experience based on some feelings of surprise and
knowledge of opening opportunity structures.
Kathy describes her coming to a major firm as actually the
"easier" and in a sense most secure job choice. The idea of
entree and progression within a major firm is taken as natural and
given by Kathy.
I preferred the easier more comfortable way out, which
is you know, you go through these steps and you ulti
mately get to this end. In other words, you go to law
school, and you go into a law firm, and you'll get
somewhere that way. You start making money immed
iately. You don't really have to scrap or hustle much.
Harold also describes the situation of not having any trouble
getting a job with a major firm, nor of ever having any worries
about being offered employment. In Harold's mind, since he had
fulfilled the necessary "prerequisites for being considered for
hiring for a major firm, graduation from a highly regarded law
school, ranking high in the class", there would be no problem with
his getting hired.
A friend of mine who is now a partner here clerked for
the summer between his second and third years of law
school. He and I were on the law review together. When
144
he returned from his summer here, he told me that he had
a very good time clerking and would I have an interest
in talking to their recruiters. I said no, I didn't
have any interst in doing that, because I had no inten
tion of practicing in that city. He kept bugging me,
and I kept telling him no, and he kept it up telling me,
'the recruiter is going to be here next Tuesday and
they’d like you to go to dinner with them, if you won't
sign up for an interview. They'll Lake you Lu a fancy
restaurant.' So I said, okay, fine. I was never
worried about getting a job. Not at all. I knew I
was going to have no trouble getting a job and in a
major firm.
Conclusion
Perhaps this chapter more than any other points out the
intricate relationship between the individual and social struc
ture. The respondents of this study were faced with the reality
of limited opportunity structures for blacks. The two early
respondents lived in a historical time when educational and occu
pational opportunities for blacks in establishment law were almost
closed. It would seem a mix of historically correct timing, and
individual perseverance, intelligence, and ability on the part of
the early respondents which accounted for their success. But
clearly that was not all. The socially structured system of
racial bias that infused the legal profession was in fact made up
of individuals who either held and perpetuated those views, or
chose in the close surroundings of their own personal lives, to
live by a non-racist set of values. Over and over again the early
respondents credit individuals, whose acts helped open previously
145
closed racial structures, as providing a chance for them to per
form and demonstrate their capability. In this vein, the social
change experienced by the younger respondents during an era of
affirmative action and active recruitment of blacks into the
profession, was in fact begun by the singular individual acts of
people who forged the necessary beginnings of change within the
social system.
The respondents make it clear that what these individuals
"who helped them" accomplished was the providing of "opportunity."
In this sense of the lived out reality of the respondents' lives,
the word opportunity takes on perhaps its most correct meaning,
providing a chance. The respondents made it clear that the indi
viduals who helped them only opened doors that otherwise had
previously been barred. It was then up to the respondents, given
that chance or opportunity, to perform well enough to achieve
success. In the later years of affirmative action programs, the
opportunity or chance that individuals had earlier independently
granted the respondents, became institutionalized into social and
legal policies of administrations and government. But such accom
plished structural chances were the combination of acts of
individuals within a specific historic context, that then came to
broaden into laws and collective acts of society.
It is clear that this chapter also demonstrates the vast
importance in the lives of the black respondents, of the social
opportunity structures in occupational mobility and achievement.
146
The experience of the black respondents in comparison to the white
respondents underlines the workings of racial social structures as
they intertwine with ongoing social processes of the system. Dual
opportunity structures based on racial stratification determined
different experiences between the black and white respondents in
terms of gaining entree to major law schools and getting first jobs
with prestigious law firms. Blocked opportunities for partici
pation in mainstream professional activity earmarked the crucial
stumbling block for equal black participation in the professional
arena. Both entrance into major law schools which in themselves
provide necessary training and credentials required for further
mobility into top ranked law firms, as well as entrance into the
firms themselves, were affected by the racial status of the
participants.
In addition, all of the black respondents were pioneers
integrating almost completely white professional occupational
structures. As such, they were subjected to the particular
burdens and pressures of being one or a few blacks among many
whites. Wherever the numbers are so disproportionately distri
buted, the black respondents cited feelings of alienation, being
an outsider, high visibility and pressures of having to perform.
The black respondents also constantly refer back to the emerging
theme of having to continually prove themselves as capable by
working twice as hard and doing twice as well in order to overcome
social assumptions of racial inferiority.
147
This chapter would seem to provide response to those in
society who argue that blacks and other minorities do not make it
in the system because of lack of personal motivation or correct
values necessary for the achievement of success. For the black
respondents in this study, issues of making it did not arise from
lack of internal motivation, but from external pressures and
blocks applied from an occupational structure based on unequal
opportunities and racial stratification. It should be remembered
as well, that although the black participants indicate that histo
rical societal changes have brought about an opening in the
previously completely closed professional opportunity structures
for blacks in the legal profession, they are careful to point out
that these changes are still limited to a super qualified select
group of blacks setting examples of exceptionalism, rather than
indicating the elimination of racial discrimination and bias alto
gether. The issues of racial social structures as a daily reality
in the lives of the respondents continue as they begin their jobs
as new attorneys in major firms, and subsequently work their way up
to the position of partner.
148
CHAPTER VI
"MOVING UP" - BECOMING PARTNER
In order to become partner, the respondents had to work their
way through the organizational processes and internal mobility
structure of major law firms. Experiences and perceptions of the
black partners in comparison to the white partners are examined in
terms of first experiences within the firm, as well as qualifica
tions and processes of making it to partner. Since large major
law firms have an established internal heirarchy in order to make
it to partner (Wadlow, 1980; Smith, 1980; Jordon, 1980), the
experiences of respondents from different firms can be compared
because of the relative universality of the mobility process
within major firms.
Once a young attorney is selected to join a major law firm,
he or she enters a system of internal mobility structure that is
very similar to the procedure of "tenure tràck" used at univer
sities. The attorney enters the firm as an "associate" member.
He or she then enters a track of trial and approval that generally
takes from five to seven years. During that period, the attorney
works under other more advanced associates and partners. At an
1 4 9 J
early stage, the new attorney is constantly being judged by the
partners, in terms of performance and general demeanor, for "fir
ing into the firm," If at any time during the "track" to partner
the associate is deemed unsuitable, he is fired.by the firm.
If the associate works well he or she will continue moving up the
internal hierarchy and gain more important assignments and in
creased responsibilities. At the end of a five to seven year
period the partners vote on whether the associate should become a
partner in the firm. If the associate is invited to become a
partner, he or she enters into the top of the hierarchy within the
firm.
Becoming a partner means that you have actually been asked to
be an owner in the firm, bringing increased money in terms of
percentage of the overall profits of the firm, increased responsi
bility in work load, and top level prestige. If an associate is
not asked to become partner, he or she generally leaves the firm
because there is no further advancement and because such refusal
brings on a sense of failure and embarrassment.
During the associate's term in working his or her way up to
partner there is constant pressure to succeed and to live up to
the standards set by the partners within the firm. All of the
respondents described their rise through the ranks as a period of
constant uncertainty and judgment, alleviated only by some rein
forcement and praise from the partners. However, the black
respondents in this study cited issues related to race that they
150
had to face in addition to the normal pressures and tensions faced
by all associates. The literature on blacks in business suggest
similar findings. Davis and Watson (1982), in their study of
black managers within corporations, state that normal organiza
tional pressures are increased for blacks because of "alienation,
culture shock, and racism" (p. 69). For the black respondents,
racial issues created the most problems in the early stage of
their careers as new associates.
First Experience
In talking about first experiences within the firms, the
black respondents described feelings that by now begin to repre
sent familiar themes: feelings of isolation from being one of a
few blacks entering a white setting and pressures of having to
prove yourself as a black amidst assumptions of racial inferior
ity. The black respondents realized that there are tremendous
pressures on all new associates to do well and succeed, but they
felt that being black brought additional problems.
Allen, who was the only black respondent in this study to
work his way up to partner in a firm by coming in laterally, did
not share any first year experiences because he joined the firm as
a senior partner. However, Allen did acknowledge the existence of
internal barriers within the firm that put pressure on new asso
ciates in terms of trying to make it to partner.
151
The reason I said I was different, was in the sense
that I didn’t go through the first year associate
phenomenon, and the second and so on. There are so
many barriers there which can frustrate you, in terms
of satisfying those partners who make the judgment as
to whether or not an excellent associate should be a
partner.
Isolation
David, who was the first black to integrate white major law
firms in this city, talks of the problem of isolation in terras of
being cut off from the black community. In coming to practice law
in an all-white environment, he describes the situation of.
becoming distanced from the black legal world, which created
feelings within the black community that he "was not being black."
In a sense, David felt the dual pressure of having to succeed
within his white firm and still finding ways to maintain ties with
the black community. David describes the importance to him of not
losing contact with the black community, and the difficulty in
doing so.
One of the things I decided a long time ago, when I
decided I was going to practice law in the white com
munity, was that I was not going to lose contact with
the black community. That’s just always been impor
tant because there is such a separation between the
white legal establishment and the black community.
People in the white legal community just don’t prac
tice the same kind of law as blacks generally do
unless you are involved in a heavy criminal law prac
tice. You could go to court every day, you could
handle matters for clients, and although there may be
two to three hundred black or hispanic lawyers in
this city, you probably wouldn’t run into one of
them, except maybe as you’re walking through the
halls of the courthouse. It’s a question of dis
tance, practicing law in an isolated environment
152
having virtually no communication or contact with the
black community or lawyers who practice in the black
community.
During the first years of his practice at the firm, David felt the
difficulty in building the necessary "bridges" to maintain rela
tionship to the black community, because of the time consuming
pressures and demands of being a first year associate.
Those communications, those bridges, with the black
community, have to be kept on different levels since
you become so isolated by the nature of your law prac
tice. As a very, very young lawyer first in this firm,
I didn't have time to do that. I spent my time com
peting with all the other people, whose only thought in
their mind was of making it. That's why I spent my time
doing that, and I didn't have time to build the bridge.
It wasn't until, I think, three or four years after I
got started that I began doing some other things. But
that first three or four years here I was looked at as
not being black, because I didn't practice in the black
community and couldn't keep up the ties. Even after
that, a little of it has remained and much of it has
been remedied by other things that I've done.
David went on to describe the type of activities he was finally
able to put his time into that helped alleviate some of his feel
ings of isolation. In addition to the normal practice of corporate
law within a major firm, with all its everyday concerns and pres
sures, David felt it necessary to involve himself in time con
suming efforts to try to bridge a gap between the white and black
community, an activity with which his fellow white associates did
not have to deal.
For example, I chaired every one of Mary Smith's cam
paigns in the community (a local black politician). I
was the person who talked her into running for the first
time, and chaired her campaign and spent a lot of time
in the community doing those kinds of things, I was
153
Joe Smith's (a famous black politician) campaign manager
the first time he ran for office. I've been involved in
black community organizations, outside of the legal
arena, those kinds of things where contact is there and
that the people understand that you may be working in
one environment, but you really are, emotionally, a part
of the community. And so, some of that has gone away
over the years. But it was definitely there. And some
of it still is, because I don't practice on a day-to-day
basis in the community.
Bob talks about the pressures, when first entering the firm,
of being one of few blacks in an all-white setting. Although Bob
had previously attended integrated schools, he found that isola
tion was one of the most significant early experiences in the law
firm. He describes the feeling of entering a "lifestyle that was
totally alien" and attributing those feelings of perceived differ
ence to both class and race. Bob states that one of the reasons
he chose the particular firm to join that he did, was that there
were more blacks than usual as associates (6 out of a firm of 130
lawyers). He describes the feelings of needing blacks to share
situations that only they, being black amongst many whites, could
understand. Although Bob came from a poor background, his black
associates were more middle class and had the appropriate back
grounds to fit into the law firm more comfortably. And yet, in
spite of class differences, the blacks gathered together in a bond
of mutual closeness based on race.
One of the things that influenced me in going to Smith,
Smith and Smith, frankly, was that they had the pre
vious year, hired three blacks who were then at the
firm. At the time I joined them, there were three who
joined in my class. So there were six of us. Now,
this is a firm, at that time, of 130 lawyers, but it
154
had substantially more blacks than any other firm in
the city at that time could boast of. And the very
numbers afforded me, and I think the other guys, a
little comfort in there being the group of us who
could get together and talk over our problems and our
concerns. It made it a little easier to move into
the area and lifestyle that was totally alien by hav
ing other black guys there. We at least had that in
common.
Bob on to describe how coming into the firm represented a new
experience both in terms of the class and power of those involved
with the firm as well as race.
It was life at a level of society, both financially,
politically and socially that I was totally unaware
of before. The kind of people I was dealing with were
totally different than any I'd ever known before.
Part of that was because I was black, part of that was
because I was from a background where things like that
just didn't go on. From that standpoint, it was
totally different. I was dealing with people who con
trolled enormous wealth, who wielded enormous power.
So I felt a little like a fish out of water, because
you don't know whether those people are really differ
ent than you or not. Therefore it was kind of nice
being in a situation where there were other blacks
I could be with, even though most of them came from
backgrounds substantially different than mine.
Bob describes the bond of empathy created between the blacks in
the firm, and how that sharing between them made the situation of
isolation within the firm more comfortable.
The fact that there were others similarly situated
there gave me someone who had empathy for my situa
tion, and for whose situation I had empathy. So we
could go to lunch, and we could act black without
feeling as though we were out of place. We used to
be able to talk together about things we could have
never discussed with someone white.
For the five white respondents in the matched sample, there
were no early experiences of isolation or not fitting into the
155
social milieu of the law firm. In fact, all of the white respon
dents described their initial entree into the firm as being one of
feeling comfortable and at home. George talks of his first exper
ience in the firm by saying,
I always liked it. I seemed Lu fit in very quickly.
People were very open, enough people were open so that
I felt a part of it quickly and certainly didn't feel
like an outsider by any means. I felt comfortable both
socially and professionally.
IVhen asked about her first experience entering the firm, Kathy
referred to the heavy work load but said she always felt comfort
able both with the work and socially.
What did it feel like? Well, unfortunately, right
after I came was when we started getting a whole lot
of business and everything started to get real busy,
and I was working all night for the next five years.
So, in terms of what it felt like, I mean, it felt
like it was a lot of work. But I felt comfortable
socially. I've never had any problems fitting in.
Steve said that there had never been any problems fitting in,
always feeling like he was a part of the firm. And Frank, who
said he entered the firm through social contacts, also always felt
comfortable.
It should be remembered that all of the respondents in this
study with the exception of Elaine and Kathy, came from lower
class backgrounds. However, it was only the black respondents who
felt isolated or like an outsider when entering the firm, indi
cating that it is race rather than class that precipitates
feelings of separation and isolation. There is one exception.
Elaine, who is the only black respondent coming from a profes
sional middle class family, did not feel any feelings of being
156
different when she first entered the firm. In explaining her
situation, Elaine attributed her sense of fitting in to a personal
sense of "self-confidence" that being raised in her "position and
background" provided. Elaine felt that she had been raised with a
strong family history of professionalism and middle class values
that allowed her to feel at home when first coming to the firm.
She did feel, however, that most blacks would not have access to
her particular family experiences, and therefore would have a
tougher time in general, than whites in feeling comfortable in the
law firm setting. It is interesting that Elaine felt that when
you're talking about two people without benefit of a middle class
background, race would become relevant, making it more difficult
for the black than the white associate to fit in. "If you're
talking lower class, then race may enter into it as an added
burden. I think it would be more difficult for the black person
fitting in."
Burden of Proof
Although all new associates felt the burden of having to live
up to very high performance expectations during their first exper
iences within the firm, the black respondents talked of feeling
the added pressure and insecurity of proving themselves as blacks.
Once again, the implied intellectual inferiority of blacks was an
issue for the respondents in this study.
David, the first black to enter a major white firm, talks
about the experience of being very visible as a black, and as
157
such, feeling the added responsibility of being a personal repre
sentative for blacks in general, proving their capabilities as top
level attorneys.
The fact that I could go into a firm like X made me
kind of a celebrity in the legal establishment. I can
remember the first court appearance I had. The judge was
an older man, a good judge, a good person, and I think he
was trying to make me feel comfortable, but I went into
court, stood up and announced my case. And here he’s
trying to be kind and very fatherly, saying something
like, ’Mr. D, it’s a pleasure to have you in my court.
Your senior partner, Mr. Smith, has told me many good
things about you. And I’d just like to see if you’re as
good as he says you are.’ And that’s how it started.
That was my first court appearance. And it was proving
myself. You know, and not just myself. It was proving
a lot of other things, that blacks could practice law in
essentially a white legal environment.
David goes on to explain that because of the added assumption of
failure for blacks, he worked extra hard to succeed.
And I worked hard. Not because I enjoyed working hard
or because I was an avaricious legal scholar. I think
I worked hard because I didn’t want to fail, be criti
cized, embarrass myself. So I worked very, very hard
to make sure none of those things happened. And they
didn’t.
Bob also talked about fear of failing during his first exper
iences in the law firm, due not only to the usual ’’first year
associate’’ pressures, but to internalized social assumptions of
black inferiority. Bob points out that although it was an advan
tage for him to have successfully competed with whites in well
respected school situations, coming to a law firm that represented
the "top of the profession" still left him unsure whether, as a
black, he was capable of making it.
158
When you're first starting out, its all kind of tied
together. And even if you have been very successful
and have done very well in an integrated situation,
which was the situation that I grew up in, the doubt
is still there. It's even tougher, I think, for the
guys who hadn't been in that situation, psychologically
accepting themselves of being capable, because they
haven't been tried over and over in that kind of arena.
There are feelings of self doubt, that you might not be
able to make it, until you've proved to yourself that
you can do it. I mean, the idea of practicing law at
the very top of your profession with the best lawyers
in the world, it's frightening, as a lawyer. I'm sure
every first year associate has those concerns. It just
makes it worth more significance because of the racial
thing, as well. It's the attitude problem. It's, you
know, if you fail at it, you wonder if it's because you
are black.
Bob, who came into the firm with five other blacks, also describes
the added pressure on him, because within the first year he was
there, all the other blacks either left the firm because they
weren't making it or had other offers.
There was a great deal of pressure to make it. The
firm had hired a number of blacks before, and had not
had much luck with them having much success there.
Indeed, from the time I started in August there were
six of us, and by the following summer I was the only
one left. Still plugging away, still busting my hump,
still working until two and three o'clock in the morn
ing, still scared to death. I don't think I really
stopped being scared of failure there until I tried
to quit and they talked me out of leaving. They told
me how wonderful I was, which not only massaged my
ego, but at least it gave me some feeling of relief,
that I was, in fact, competing.
Another area of early uncertainty talked about by the black
respondents was in the area of proving themselves to white
clients. In the world of major law firms, one of the important
qualities to be considered in any associate is the ability to
please clients. All of the black respondents talked about fears
159
of not being accepted as capable by white clients. David
describes the kind of bias that existed within law firms in gen
eral in terms of clients accepting black lawyers.
At that time, all of the traditional kinds of notions
existed, a black couldn’t or wouldn't be accepted by a
client. Those kinds of Lliiiigs that had nothing to do
with qualifications.
Chuck said that as a young black entering the firm, he felt
that he had to prove himself more to clients than to his white
associates. Chuck attributed this need to the fact that black
attorneys traditionally did not practice in white corporate areas.
I feel that the problem is generally that the people
that a law firm might represent are just not used to
dealing with minority lawyers and business people at
any level. There is some uncertainty.
Bob attributed the need to prove himself as a black to white
clients as stemming directly from racial bias and generally held
assumptions of black inferiority. He cited the issue of whether
white clients would accept him as a black as creating a "major
concern" for him as a new associate.
One of the things about which you worry a great
deal when you first start out in this system, is
will a white client feel comfortable with a black
lawyer? You go back to all the myths, and all
the other stuff, and all of the special programs,
and all of that kind of thing that white people
have in their minds about blacks. There is an
assumption that they don't think blacks are in
telligent enough to talk to them about somebody's
money, which you do when you're representing him
as his lawyer, especially in commercial contracts
or his life in general. So that was a major con
cern when dealing with whites.
160
While the black respondents brought up racial issues of
having to prove themselves as blacks to the white legal establish
ment in general, partners, clients and themselves, the white
respondents talked about very different things in terms of their
first experiences in trying to make it in the law firm. All
five white respondents in the matched sample made reference to the
ways they had been successful as early associates in creating
opportunities for advancement, doing the work well, and becoming
accepted members of the firm. Although several of. the white
respondents talked about the general pressures inherent in the
early stages of being an associate, none cited any feelings of
insecurity, fear of failure or any other type of additional bur
dens in first experiences as attorneys within the firm.
Kathy describes her early years as associate in the firm as
entailing a great deal of work, but being a relatively "nonrisky"
avenue to success. Unlike her black counterparts, Kathy felt
there were no "external variables" to get in the way of her cap
able performance.
I worked my tail off, but it’s easy for me to work that
way, in this particular line of business. And it’s
clear, or it was clear to me, that to work very hard at
something that I knew I had a shot at being good at, is
certainly less risky than working at something else with
a lot of other external variables involved as well,
where it doesn’t really matter if you work very hard and
are very good, but there are a lot of other elements
which come into play in terms of what's going to happen
to your life. That's just too unsettling for me.
Kathy's feelings of assurance that if she worked hard she would
succeed within the firm offer a marked contrast to the racial
161
fears and insecurities that the black respondents had to deal
with, both in terms of their own abilities and acceptance by
others.
In a like manner, George talks about his first experiences in
the firm as simply a matter of working hard, and having that work
naturally recognized by the members of the firm. For George, the
early years in the firm were a "positive experience" with promo
tion to partner coming in a relatively short period of time.
In terms of my first experiences in the firm, it was
basically a positive experience. I was an associate
for roughly five years and at the end of that five-
year period I was made partner. At that time it took
between five and seven years to make partner. I made
partner that quickly because I was in on the ground
floor of that particular department, and it began to
grow after that. I simply adapted to the work very
well.
Harold talks about his early experience in the firm as being
characterized by feelings of doing well and succeeding. Harold
also attributes his success to recognition of hard work and
assumptions of success.
I was given responsibility quickly. I didn’t blow it.
So it’s one of those things that happen in any kind of
group dynamics, you are perceived early as a winner or
star or whatever, and you have to fuck up to lose that
image. I think once, having obtained a reputation for
being good, solid, whatever, you have a tremendous
advantage in terms of the kinds of assignments likely
to be given to you, which give you further opportun
ities to demonstrate that you are a ^ successful person,
or should be.
Frank and Steve discuss opportunities in their early careers
that quickly assured them of success. Frank was asked by a senior
partner to work on a book discussing a new law. According to him.
162
"So I wrote the book, he wrote the introduction, and I got equal
billing with him which was nice." Frank attributes the work on
the book and generally the work that he did in the practice, to
assure him success and being invited to become partner. Steve
talks about having made partner in his first firm in eighteen
months because he "seized an opportunity." Initially he was doing
depositions and library work when a senior partner gave him a file
to "work on." Steve states that although he knew he wasn't sup
posed to try the case, he went ahead and did so without the
partners knowing. When they found out, they let him continue and
were well pleased with his success.
All of the responses of first experiences in the law firm by
the white respondents , described the ease and success with which
they were able to perform their duties as associates and make
partner. The black respondents instead focused on early difficul
ties in overcoming issues of racial isolation and assumptions of
intellectual inferiority. The situations for the black and white
respondents in first entering the law firms were quite different.
When the black respondents became new associates, they were enter
ing a realm of legal hierarchy that had previously, been barred to
blacks, practice in the top rated major law firms. The white
respondents, however, were merely following the normal course of
events in pursuing their career goals. In attempting to integrate
the white legal establishment, the black respondents had to deal
with issues and concerns specific to that situation, dealing with
163
both the socialized and internalized assumptions of racial exclu
sion, inability and inferiority.
Becoming Partner
All of the respondents, both black and white, agreed that
certain requirements exist in a major law firm that must be met in
order to become partner and achieve success. There was no dif
ference by race in the description of the necessary qualities
attorneys must demonstrate to be chosen as partner. Harold was
exceptionally articulate in his explanation of what it takes to be
accepted into a major firm as partner. He described two necessary
dimensions, work quality and fitting in on a personal level. The
first dimension is what he calls "objective" having to do with
quality of work performance and results. The second, he refers
to as "subjective," having to do with the attorneys being liked,
and fitting in on a personal level in relation to.both the part
ners and the clients.
Whether you succeed or not within the firm.has to do
mainly with the quality of the work that you do and the
perception by the partners as to whether they want you
to be their partner. In that sense, the latter is very
much a subjective analysis. In other words, good law
yering is not sufficient. And that's simply because
there are an awful lot of differences between being an
owner of a law practice and being an employee of General
Foods. That is to say, we do not sell corn flakes. In
a large part what we sell is trust. It doesn't matter
if the person is a good lawyer if the client, to use one
subjective parameter, doesn't like the lawyer, it doesn't
matter how good that person is. If we have a law firm
with three hundred great lawyers, none of whom can get
164
along with clients, we’re not going to have a firm.
And so, the objective evaluation of the work is
a necessary but insufficient reason to make some
body a partner. That quality would be outstand
ingly high but it is not sufficient. So there’s that
personal parameter. In addition, on the more sub
jective part of the equation to success here, is
being perceived as one whom others want to join them
in the practice of law for the next thirty or forty
years. And I think that’s what accounts for being
selected, assuming that the quality of work is sat
isfactory, has to do with perceptions of how you get
along with other people in the firm.
Being Liked, Fitting In
In terms of the personal dimension involved in the selection
process of becoming a partner, the respondents talked about the
need to relate well to people, be liked, and fit it. All of the
respondents made some mention of the fact that the process of
being a lawyer involves relating well to people. George, who is
white, makes this component of the work clear when he says,
The kind of work I do as an attorney is people work.
In addition to knowing the technical side of the work,
it’s also how well you relate to people. I think I
relate well, so that certainly has helped.
Allen, who is black, also talked about the importance of relating
well with people in becoming a successful attorney.
I can’t put my finger on it except that I have always
had the ability to relate effectively with people and
establish good, solid, mutual relationships. That’s
important in this business.
In terms of describing the characteristics that helped make them
successful on a personal level within the firm, the respondents
used descriptions such as, ’’I am likable," "I’m nice," "I get
along with people well," "I like people," "having a sensitivity or
165
sensitiveness to the human aspect of our relationships, one with
the other, and to outsiders."
The respondents also talked about being liked in terms of
fitting into the firm socially. Since the partners need to work
together dally on different cases, it becomes important that they
get along and enjoy each other’s company. Elaine, who is black,
described the need to pick people for partner who will fit in by
saying.
When we hire here we try to get people who are going to
fit in and get along and be happy. And I think that’s
an important factor in becoming a partner. We haven't
had to deal with this situation, at least since I have
been a partner, but I think someone who is a brilliant
egghead would have a difficult time becoming a partner
in this firm. You know, partnership is hardly a family.
But there does have to be some sense of commonality in
getting along, and something more than just capability
in lawyering.
Harold also talked about the need for a partner to be socially
acceptable to the members of the firm.
You may make the judgment that a person is a very
sound lawyer, but you may also conclude that the
person is so boring that he or she will not contri
bute to the practice in a way that’s sufficiently
valuable to invite them into the partnership. I
don't think you’d invite people into the partner
ship you don’t like. It would be a little self
destructive and crazy. You do have to feel
affirmative about a person as a person, as well
as a lawyer.
Acting White
For the black respondents, fitting in and being accepted in
the firm socially raised the issue of having to adapt themselves
to the values of the dominant culture in major law firms by
166
"acting white." Three of the black respondents discussed the
importance of playing a white role in not appearing different.
However, the respondents also talked about the phenomenon of, over
time, becoming the role you play. Bob described his experience in
having to act white.
At first, you’re putting on a show all of the time.
You’re acting the whole time. You’re acting white.
You always have to be on your toes to try and fit in.
Everything you do is calculated not to single you out
as being different than the people you are around.
So, you act like they act. I’m not sure I can explain
it. I mean, you talk like they talk, and about the
things they talk about. You develop an interest,
whether you really care about it, in the kinds of
things they care about. So you can converse on the
things, they talk about, so that you can fit in. A
lot of them assume you’re just like they are. Quite
frankly, after a while, you are. You know, you play
a role so long it becomes part of you.
For Chuck, the need to fit into the system and act white repre
sents a strategy of recognizing things as they exist, and adapting
in order to succeed. Chuck also describes the thin line between
playing a role and becoming it, but in his case not without a
sense of some loss and personal compromise.
Coming from a different environment, one of the things
that you have to do is to decide how you are going to
relate to the system, whether you are going to fight
the system and try to change it by making it move toward
you, or whether you are going to accept that you’re just
going to be in a different world, and that it is not
going to change. The way in which everybody makes it
in that society and that structure is the way that
you’re going to have to make it, and I think that’s
the thing that is more difficult to reconcile in your
own mind than anything else. And that raises the
question of to what extent that requires you to lose
whatever identity you had developed when you were
growing up.
167
Chuck went on to give examples of how acting white was an essen
tial part of his life as an attorney within the firm.
For example, from a simply social point of view. The
question of simply what restaurants that you would go
to, what you would select to go out to with friends
that you would not select if the person was white.
You could take a black recruit to certain places that
you could not take a white recruit to and feel comfort
able doing it. Now, should that be the case? Something
as simple as that is a factor in how you would make it.
You know, if you took a recruit to the black part of
town, I daresay that most major law firms would, by
virtue of that, question your judgment, even though
it’s a perfectly fine restaurant. In my view, it
couldn’t help you. There are things that you have to
compromise that make you, to an extent, lose your own
identity and identify with the things that exist from
a different culture. And not necessarily one which
you could not embrace, but the point here is that
you have to embrace that to the exclusion of the
other. And that is the real key. There isn’t room
for both. And you have to recognize that and to
accept it. It’s one of the personal compromises that
you have to make. There are hundreds of them, like
that. Probably too numerous to describe, and very
subtle. Things that you probably don’t even focus
on, after a while, ,
When asked if it was still a distinct problem to act white within
the firm. Chuck replied,
No. That’s why I say it’s hard to say because after
a while, what becomes real and what is shunted out
to the background changes over time.
None of the white respondents felt any need to choose between
cultures in order to fit into the firm. Kathy expresses the lack
of any such issue in her experience in becoming successful as a
partner,
I didii’L have to change any of my own personal values
to get to where I am with the law firm. I didn’t have
to subvert any of my ideals or principles or any of
that to get here.
168
Doing Well, Work Quality
All of the respondents in the study agreed that in order to
succeed within the law firm and become a partner, an attorney must
both work hard and do well. Long work hours, willingness to work
hard, ability, and constant good results were stressed by all of
the respondents to be the main ingredients of the role of an
attorney in a major law firm. Respondents talked of "doing good
work," "working hard," "ability," "smarts," "being bright,"
"intellectual capacity," "willingness to work," "being a perfec
tionist," "maximizing talents," "getting good results." Elaine
described the demanding nature of the job in terms of excellence
and perfectionism.
It’s just a very tough job. People in the real world
don’t know what goes on in the law world. I mean
maybe other businesses are the same, but I don’t
really think they are. You know, when you’re paid
anything ranging from $75.00 for the most junior
associate who doesn’t know anything to $250, and I’m
talking an hour, and the clients are AT&T, and GM,
and the man who owned GM, Joe Smith, you know,
people like that don’t have any reason to expect
anything other than absolute perfection. So, you
know, you just don’t make mistakes.
The respondents pointed out that not only did the work product and
results have to be of the most superior quality, but to succeed
within major law firms attorneys must have the willingness to work
long hours and accept hard work as the normal routine of their job
performance. Elaine talks of putting in many work weeks of "70 to
80 hours a week, and the work’s got to be good." Perhaps Chuck
best describes it when he talks of the self-sacrifice necessary to
be a successful attorney in a major law firm.
169
The practice of law requires a lot of self-sacrifice
and it requires a lot of self-discipline. If you
are able to consider the interests of someone other
than you above your own, then I think you can make
it. These are the consequences that go along with
being a lawyer. And I've accepted them. The re
quirement to work hard and to sacrifice personal
pleasures. To observe a schedule that is, in some
instances, crazy, just absolutely absurd, some of
the things peoplee do around here to get things
done for their clients. And it’s not just me.
it’s a way of life.
In addition to working hard and producing quality results,
the respondents talked of the need to play a particular lawyer
role in order to be considered successful as a practicing attorney
in a major law firm. Both black and white respondents described
the need to play what Elaine called the "con game, confidence
game." The respondents referred to the importance of a successful
attorney in appearing competent and confident about their ability,
knowledge, and skill in bringing about favorable results for their
clients. Elaine describes the need for lawyers to play the confi
dence game as part of their daily professional role.
I mean there’s just one role that you've got to play
as an attorney. And that’s a professional role, a
game. It’s a con game, confidence game. I mean
your clients have to have confidence in you. You’ve
got to look confident and make your client feel con-
if You’re their representative.You’ve got to
be somebody that they want to represent them. You
have got to impress clients. I mean, our price tag
is very high, so they have to feel like they’re get
ting their money’s worth. Lawyers have to exude
confidence.
Harold also talks of the importance of attorneys playing the
confidence role and hiding uncertainty from clients.
170
There’s a confidence role. Where you are uncertain,
it is unacceptable in some contexts to show that
uncertainty. Clients have to have confidence and
trust in their lawyers.
Frank discusses the necessity of creating a professional pre
sentation to maintain the appearance of competence and ability,
I think that in many things appearances are more
important than the reality. So that if you can
convince somebody that you know your subject
matter, or you know the law in a particular area,
there will be a tendency to accept what you’re
saying. Whereas if you present your arguments
or your position in such a way that you think it
may be right but you’re a little hesitant and
you're not entirely correct, then it is not as
readily acceptable. It is important to present
yourself as being very, very intelligent. So if
you're making a presentation to somebody and they
think you are bright, I think they have a ten
dency to accept your arguments more, than if they
think you are not bright.
Reputation
Although the black respondents agreed that to succeed within
the firm an attorney needed to work hard, do well, and create a
role of confidence; they also brought up issues specific to over
coming racial bias in terms of implied inferiority and ability to
competently perform the work. Elaine brought up the importance
that position, or gaining the status of partner in a well
respected firm, had in overcoming notions of inferiority. To
Elaine, the prestigious reputations of the major firms communi
cated a verification to the legal community and clients that
anyone who made it to partner, regardless of race, was a highly
qualified and well proven attorney.
171
I think that your position is much more important than
your color. I’m sure that I have dealt with lawyers
on the other side, where I am representing GM or AT&T,
and I’m a partner in this firm, they may be as preju
diced as hell and hate my guts, but they would never
let on to that. One, because they’d probably be
embarrassed, and two, because of the position that
I am in. It’s given that if you are in this position
you can’t fit the stereoLype of blacks being inferior
or not able to do the work well. I mean, I can’t
imagine any law firm, in the interest of affirmative
action or nepotism, hiring a partner’s child or a
judge’s son or something like that, would ever go so
far as to hire someone who is incompetent, just to
fill a need. A law firm can’t really do that. A
business maybe can do that, because you can find a
place to put them. But a law firm really can’t do
that.
Bob and Chuck talked about gaining position and status through
performance. Both respondents said that the name of the game in
the corporate legal world is making money for your clients and
winning. Both respondents said that when you proved yourself
through performance, then racial barriers and bias were dropped.
Bob stated.
You prove yourself by making money for your clients.
When you do that you become white, you’re no longer
black in the viewpoint of the people you’re dealing
with. There was a major client of the firm who I’m
sure became convinced that if he asked me a question
and I gave him the answer, he could rely on that
answer. To him it didn’t matter what color I was.
If I told him something, he took that as gospel
because I had worked on matters for him, and he had
formed from his own judgment, that I knew what I was
doing. That man used to sell ten, fifteen million
dollars worth of stock based on advice I gave him.
Of course he had two or three hundred million, but
that wasn’t peanuts. And there were others, and
more and more that happened.
172
All of the black respondents in the study attributed their success
in becoming partners to being given the chance and opportunity to
prove themselves professionally as high quality attorneys. The
respondents felt that once they were given a chance, if they did
produce good work and successful results, they were well-received
within the legal establishment. The black respondents made it
clear that although opportunity was the most important component
of their having made it to partner, without their having proven
themselves through competent performance, they would not have made
it. The respondents felt that early fears and insecurities about
themselves and acceptance by others when they first joined the
firm were overcome over time as they were allowed to test their
abilities within the system and succeed.
Internal Opportunities
All five of the black respondents attributed their success in
rising up the internal hierarchy within the firm to the fact that
once entree was gained in becoming associates, no internal bar
riers or discrimination existed that would block their upward
mobility. None of the respondents cited any examples of racism or
bias within their own firm. In fact, each respondent talked about
the belief that their firm was special and unique in its commit
ment to non-discriminatory attitude and practice, allowing success
and advancement up the hierarchy to be based solely on abilities,
qualifications and performance. The respondents did not feel that
173
all major law firms were non-racist, offering open internal oppor
tunity structures for blacks, but only certain specific firms.
Three of the black respondents attributed the fact that their firm
was open and non-discriminatory to the fact that they were
"Jewish" firms. By "Jewish" firms the respondents were referring
to the fact that these particular firms were largely begun by Jews
in the late forties, who had themselves been barred from entrance
to major law firms by anti-semitism. The black respondents felt
that, as a consequence, the partners in their firms understood
that what was important was a chance to prove yourself, regard
less, as one black respondent put it, "of race, religion, or
national origin."
Elaine talked about the role her particular firm played in
providing her with an opportunity to prove herself, and be recog
nized as a success by being asked to join the firm as a partner.
I think there are firms, and I’m fairly confident so
for me to make this statement is pretty radical, but
I think there are some firms that would never have
made me a partner. I think that there is still
racism out there and there are some places that,
you know, if you’ve got any sense at all you just don’t
go to if you’re black, or Jewish, or a lot of things.
Maybe they would have, but I don’t think that they
would have ever really given me the opportunity to
prove myself. This place puts you out on the
front lines almost immediately. To me, they take
incredible risks. You know, I got sent to court
and I got imposed on clients, and the partners that
I worked for when I was a very junior associate
pushed me harder than I think I might have pushed
myself. I don’t know, I guess it gets back to
stereotypes, but you do hear that Jewish firms
tend to be more liberal. And I think that's
probably true. Liberal in at least the sense
174
that they will let you in the front door and see
if you can do it. Not liberal in the sense that
they will let you stay here if you fall on your
face.
Elaine makes it clear that the role the firm played in terms of
internal opportunity structure was simply in allowing her access
to perform daily duties as an attorney, and then judge her simply
on the basis of how good she was, and how well she did, with no
favorable push toward accepting inadequate performance because of
race, nor in barring advancement because of internal barriers or
prejudice.
Chuck also described his firm as "unique" in the opportunity
it provided for him by placing no barriers to his advancement
because of racial bias or discrimination. Chuch regards his firm
as "one of the better ones" in its commitment to choose partners
solely on the basis of qualities and performance.
Some law firms, I guess, genuinely believe that they
don't care who the lawyer in the firm is, as long as
they are good lawyers and everyone will have the same
opportunity. But that is not a widely held view, and
those law firms are very few and far between. This
firm is one of the better ones. I think I have a view
of what people really believe and the proper cynicism
to make an informed opinion, and I think this firm is
certainly one of the better ones in terms of having
an overall, genuinely held, non-discriminatory atti
tude. To some extent, it results from this firm
being, to some degree, worthy of its reputation of
being a liberal, Jewish law firm. And certainly in
the 1960’s, much of the impetus in the civil rights
movement came from the Jewish community. So it's
not necessarily unusual that that would happen here.
This firm is unique. It grew to be one of the major
firms in the city, and I think, one of the non-
traditional firms.
175
Bob clearly states that race was not a consideration in his
advancement to partner. He also attributes the open opportunity
structure within his firm to its special "personality" of being a
Jewish, liberal firm.
There have never been any real discussions about
race in terms of my position in the firm. It’s
never really been a problem at all and has never
been a topic of discussion, at least in my presence.
And I ’m told it was never a consideration in my con
sideration for partner, it was never a consideration
in my evaluation. So I can’t say that it’s ever
reared its ugly head at the firm. I suppose that
depends a lot on the personalities of the firms.
This firm was founded by Jews who had known dis
crimination in some of the WASP firms, themselves.
Because of that, the people here understood that
what really counted was your ability, and what you
could do for the firm.
Although the black respondents felt that general racial bias
within society carried the stigma of having to prove they were not
inferior, they felt that gaining an opportunity in their
particular firm to prove themselves, allowed them to travel up the
internal hierarchy to reach the successful status of partner.
Once that position was gained, the respondents felt that their
achievements were basically accepted as valid by the white legal
establishment.
Conclusion
The greatest perceived differences in experience between
black and white respondents in the process of moving up to partner
came at the point of initial entry into the firm. Four of the
176
black respondents found dilemmas and pressures facing them that
were not experienced by their white counterparts. Feelings of
isolation and having to prove themselves added extra burdens for
the black respondents to the normally stressful period of first
entering a major law firm as a new associate. In particular, the
black respondents felt separated from contact with other blacks
and the black community, unfamiliar with the cultural values of
the middle class white world they were now expected to be a part
of, and under pressure to prove to themselves and others within
the legal community that as blacks they were able to perform with
the same high standards of excellence as their white colleagues.
While the black respondents suffered from issues of fitting
into the new situation of being associates, the white respondents
cited no such feelings, in fact expressing opposite experiences of
feeling at home immediately in the law firm. In addition, the
white respondents did not talk about initial feelings of insecur
ity about abilities when first entering the law firm, but rather
pointed out ways in which they had been able to create their own
opportunities for moving up within the firm and becoming success
ful by reaching the status of partners.
The initial difference between black and white respondents in
first experience within the law firm point up racially determined
issues of cultural conflict when blacks integrate a white domin
ated occupational structure, as well as continued effects of
assumptions of racial inferiority. Since the black and white
177
respondents were matched by class background, the initial discom
fort that was experienced by the black respondents and not the
white respondents who were themselves as well from lower class
background, points to the existence of racial cultural gaps rather
than simply class related issues.
The constant and insistent form of racial prejudice that
accompanies a racially-stratified society created pressures and
insecurities within the black respondents as to their abilities
and the need to prove their competency among the top lawyers of
the legal establishment that the white associates did not exper
ience. Yet it is interesting to note that all of the black
respondents felt that once accepted into their particular law firm
as associates, they were given a fair and equal chance to prove
themselves and advance upward to the position of partner. None of
the black respondents felt that racism existed within their firm
that in any way put obstacles in front of their advancement or
personal achievement. The black respondents stressed the meaning
of opportunity to mean just that, a chance to prove themselves in
equal competition with others.
Although the black respondents cited having to play racial
roles of acting white in addition to the normal roles associated
with being a lawyer, they also pointed out the interesting pheno
menon that playing a role over time tends to make that role become
a real part of your identity. Noting some sense of sacrifice at
having to give up culturally derived values and interests learned
178
earlier in life, the black partners indicated that they now felt
they fit into the dominant value system of the firm, taking it on
as their own. For the white partners, no such issues existed.
The white respondents did not feel that joining the law firm and
becoming a success entailed any change or subversion of personal
values or identity.
In discussing the fact of having made it to partner within the
law firm, the black respondents talked about having proven them
selves through performance and the added status that becoming a
partner in a prestigious firm provided in overturning social
assumptions of racial incapability. In terms of making it within
the firm, the black respondents felt that once they were able to
demonstrate their abilities to do well on cases, and as they put
it, make money for the firm, they were able to establish internal
credibility in the eyes of their fellow associates and partners.
The black respondents also talked about establishing external .
credibility outside of their particular firm by reaching the
status of partner. The respondents talked about the high level of
prestige and respect becoming partner in a major firm carries,
establishing their credentials in the larger legal community by
virtue of having gained that position within the firm.
179
CHAPTER VII
"BEING THERE" - SUCCESS AND RACE
It is a fact of human life that what we consider to be our
most personal and individual perceptions have a social nature.
Mead (1974) probably best described the social aspects of percep
tions when he described self-consciousness.
After all, what we mean by self-consciousness is an
awakening in ourselves of the group attitudes which we
are arousing in others, the ability to call out in
ourselves a set of definite responses which belong to
the others of the group (p. 163).
Perceptions are formed from experience in interacting with others.
In that sense, position within the social system which affects How
we are treated and regarded by others, determines the body of how
we experience reality.
This chapter deals with the respondents’ views about success
and race having made it to the position of partner. Both subtle
and overt differences in perceptions exist between the black and
white partners. In discussing the current and future position of
blacks within major law firms, the black respondents talked of
decreasing numbers of blacks entering law schools and major law
firms as an indication of no real change at the upper levels of
180
the legal community. Statistics within the law journals verify
the black respondents' perceptions of the current decrease in
numbers, and indicate a feeling of pessimism shout future change.
(Jordan, 1980; R. Smith, 1980; Wadlow, 1980; Culp, 1981; Burke,
1979; Munneke, 1980; Benfell, 1978; and Quinn, 1980). The white
respondents, however, held the view that major changes had already
occurred in the system, and that past practices of racial discrim
ination no longer existed within major law firms.
Along a seemingly more subtle line, the perceptions of the
partners seem to be similar when they use the same words, hard
work and luck, in accounting for their success. However, the
meanings given to those words, and even to the idea of success
itself, are different based on racial perspective in a stratified
society.
Success
The definition of success for this study was making it to
partner within a major law firm. Since these law firms are con
sidered top of the profession, and partner represents top of the
hierarchy within the firms, it was assumed that making it to
partner would naturally represent success. That was not the case
according to the perceptions of some of the respondents within
this study. In asking the general question of how the respondents
accounted for their having become a success, four of the white
respondents within the matched sample questioned the notion of
181
whether or not making it to partner was to be considered in itself
a success. All of the black respondents, however, assumed the
given definition of success without challenge or comment. In
looking at the different responses by the black and white responr
dents, it became clear that the definition of success was depen
dent on separate notions about the importance of achieving a high
position within the legal hierarchy.
For the black respondents, the achievement of the position of
partner within a major law firm represented entering a profes
sional status that had historically been blocked to blacks.
Previously closed opportunity structures made entry into the firm,
as well as achieving the status of partner, an impossibility. The
present respondents were aware of the closed opportunity system
for blacks within the legal establishment, and of their role in
being the first blacks to achieve their present status. For the
black respondents, gaining the position of partner within a major
law firm represented making it to the top and becoming a success.
Allen, who took nineteen years to gain entry into a major law
firm by coming in laterally, defined success as having broken into
the closed structures of the white legal profession. For Allen,
the historical precedent of blocked opportunities for blacks in
the legal profession had necessitated his going into a government
agency. Because no major law firms had ever taken in a black as
an associate or partner, Allen continued his career in the govern
ment agency, working his way up the internal hierarchy until he
182
reached the position of Director, which in itself represented the
first time a black had headed a major state government agency.
Allen cited his becoming Director as the most significant factor
that enabled him to transfer over laterally to the position of
partner within a major law firm. In gaining a reputation as
Director of a major government agency, Allen was finally able to
establish the necessary reputation and credibility as a capable
black, and reach his original goal of becoming a partner in a
major law firm.
Allen’s white match, Frank, did not consider becoming a
partner in a major law firm to be in itself an adequate definition
of success. When Frank was questioned about his success, how he
accounted for it, what made it happen, he had difficulty in
responding. Later in the interview, he attributed the problem he
was having with the questions about success to a ’’confusion’’ over
the meaning of the word success. Frank talked about the multiple
definitions of success existing within the legal community, point
ing out four different perspectives on what it means to be a
successful attorney.
Part of the problem in my being able to respond to the
question of success, is what I consider to be a con
fusion of what being a success means. I think that
the public has an image of the successful lawyer
which is different than what the Bar has of a success
ful lawyer. And I think I have a different image of ;
what a successful lawyer is as compared to the law- •
yer’s version of what a successful lawyer should be.
The public seems to think that if you get your name
in the press you are then successful. The Bar, I
think, has two different ways of looking at success.
183
One of them would be if you ended up with a signi
ficant appointment, if you ended up on the Supreme
Court or if you ended up in the President’s Cabinet,
or the Attorney General. The other would be that
being successful means to be, what I would call the
lawyer’s lawyer. In other words, if you are a lawyer
that is under attack, who do you go to for legal
advice. Or if you have a very significant legal
problem outside the scope of your expertise, to whom
do you go to get that advise. And I think there are
also lawyers that think success is measured entirely
in money, who earns the most money must be the most
successful.
Frank then went on to provide his own definition of success that
had more to do with establishing a sense of well being than the
achievement of position within a law firm.
My version of success is that whatever you’re doing,
it’s a part of your life so it doesn’t matter where
you are, as long as you’re generally content and
happy with what you’re doing. Or, if you make a lot
of money and you don’t enjoy it, I don’t view that
as a success. I know lawyers that can’t take a
vacation because their work is so much a part of
them that they can’t divorce themselves. I would
not consider that successful. You see, there is a
problem in the use of the word success and what it
really means. What you’re really talking about is
the definition of what we should call successful.
Now I don’t think simply becoming a partner, in my
view in the use of the word, I would call that a
success.
In questioning the use of the word success to refer to his
gaining the position of partner within a law firm, Frank was
reflecting his experience within an open opportunity structure.
For Frank, success was not dependent on "where you are" or posi
tion of gained status, but more on subjective criteria such as
personal feelings of contentment and happiness. Allen who is
black, and Frank who is white, had different interpretations of
184
the meaning of the word success, based on their access in
society’s opportunity structures.
Bob and Elaine, who were the black respondents to become
partner most recently (during the early eighties) also accepted
the definition of making it to partner as being a success. For
these black respondents as well, breaking the racial barriers and
entering the top levels of the white legal hierarchy was still an
accomplishment few had achieved. As such, the black respondents
considered their very presence within the firms in the status of
partner as representing success. Bob talked of his success in
making it to partner as demonstrating that blacks could make it in
the top of the legal profession. He pointed out the importance
achieving that position had in terms of providing positive images
and examples of success for other blacks.
It was something to prove. It was kind of a last step
in the chain. Few enough people were giving me the
opportunity to go the whole route. Blacks who were
coming out of law school, I don’t know whether it’s
correct to say they need an example, but I had enough
students come up to me to say that it means something
to them to know that it can be done, to believe that
my being here serves some kind of positive image
purpose.
Elaine also described her position as partner in terms of being
able to provide positive role models of achieved success for
aspiring blacks.
I go to these, every summer there’s a cocktail party
for black summer associates in major firms, and
people in attendance are black summer associates and
185
black attorneys in major firms. The summer associ
ates that you meet are very glad to see there are
black people in law firms who are doing well. So
it’s true, my being here serves as an inspiration
to other people. For a long time in law schools,
minority students were going into the public sector
and were avoiding law firms because they felt as
though they couldn’t progress in law firms. T
think the fact that there are now black aLLuriieys
at firms who are doing well, provides law students
with real alternatives to consider.
Bob’s white match who is George, and Elaine’s white match who
is Kathy, both also questioned the assumption that they were, by
virtue of being partners in a major law firm, to be considered
successful. Each respondent talked about the existence of differ
ent standards for the measurement of success, finding themselves
to have been successful in terms of the criterion of making money;
but perhaps not so successful as measured by other standards such
as making useful contributions to society.
George when asked to account for his success, replied by
saying, ’’That assumes that I am successful. ’’ In explaining what
he meant, George talked about the definition of success as depen
dent upon various standards of judgment.
The assumption about success depends on the standards
one uses. There are a number of ways to view it,
obviously. Economically I certainly have achieved.
Been very fortunate in that regard. In terms of that
particular area in which I practice, I am aware that
I am perceived as a success. In certain other ways,
in terms of contributions I would like to make, etc.,
I certainly haven’t done as much, socially, as I
would like to do. I don’t think the work that I do
is terribly significant socially. It’s Commerce.
Kathy also discussed her belief in different definitions and
standards for measurement of success.
186
You can’t say becoming successful. I ’m not sure that
doesn’t assume facts not in evidence. I’m not sure
that I have a definition of a success. Whether I am
a success to the world at large, being a partner in
a law firm, is that really success in terms of some
one, uh you know, to use the obvious, someone starv
ing in Bangladesh. What have I done to benefit
society? Have I been successful in those terms.
It is important to remember that all of the respondents in
this study, with the exception of Elaine and Kathy, came from
lower class or poor backgrounds. Yet it was only the white
respondents who did not accept their upward mobility into the
status of partner as a given definition of success. Even when
comparing the two respondents who came from middle class profes
sional backgrounds, we see that Elaine who is black accepted
the definition of making it to partner as being a success, while
Kathy, her white match did not. Experience in racial social
structures created different perceptions of success between the
black and white respondents.
Hard Work, Luck
In accounting for their having made it to partner, all of the
respondents in this study, both black and white, talked about hard
work, and some element of luck or "being in the right place at the
right time" as being essential elements of success. Again, how
ever, although the words "hard work" and "luck" used by the
respondents were the same, different interpretations were attached
to their meanings by racial perspective.
187
Throughout this study, the black respondents indicated the
existence of a separate opportunity structure existing for blacks
within the overall social structure of American society. The
black respondents’ experience with blocked and limited opportunity
within the legal establishment, led Lo perceptions of a system
that for blacks, was not open. Allen described his experience
with the two systems of opportunity within the legal profession,
one for blacks, one for whites.
It took me nineteen years to get here. There are
lawyers in white firms who get there in a year, going
straight up the ladder. They have been there maybe
ten years, and they are making as much or more than
I am. That’s the system.
In-accounting for his success Allen said, ’’I really believe when
you look back, it was a question of ability being recognized.’’
For Allen, success was not simply dependent on hard work, but on
an opening of opportunity structures so that blacks ’’ who had the
ability could be given a chance to perform.’’ The major block in
Allen’s rise to becoming partner in a major law firm was a closed
opportunity structure which would not allow him entree into the
established legal community. Although for Allen hard work was a
necessary ingredient for success, hard work alone was not enough
to ensure success for blacks within a system of limited
opportunity.
Throughout this study all of the black respondents, with the
exception of Elaine who came from a professional background,
talked of the need to work ’’twice as hard’ ’ as whites in order to
188
make it and become successful. For the black respondents, the
word "work" took on the meaning "twice as hard" because of the
need to overcome assumptions of racial inferiority and blocked
opportunities. David who was the first black to become partner in
a major law firm talked about his present feelings of "still
having to work twice as hard and do twice as much” as a white
person. For David it becomes clear that the meaning of work for
blacks still encompasses the notion of limited opportunity and
racial bias when he tells of passing on to his children the same
advice his father passed on to him, that if they are to make it as
blacks, they will have to "work twice as hard to succeed."
In contrast, when the white respondents of the matched sample
accounted for success by attributing it to "hard work," they were
referring to their experience with the American ethic, where hard
work equals success in a system that is open. Harold, who perhaps
came from the most poor economic background of any respondent in
this study — he had to miss school for long periods as a child
because his family did not have enough money to buy him shoes —
described his success in terms of hard work in an open system.
I think in large part my success is due to our
society, in that with all its many, many faults, we
still have less of a class oriented society than
many others. So my background did not preclude my
getting here, because our society is an open one.
For Harold, his class background did not preclude success because
of what he described as an open society with no barriers. Harold
189
represents the typical "rags to riches" American success story,
where hard work in an open structure provides access for achieve
ment and upward mobility.
Steve, who also described himself as coming from a poor
background, also perceived success as being based on hard work in
a system of equal opportunities.
My background didn’t have anything to do with it as far
as I was concerned. My whole approach was, whether you
play baseball, basketball, football or write exams, or
go through law school, it didn’t really matter whether
you lived at 400 Park Avenue or whether you lived in
the Bronx. Put it in there, and you’re going to come
out okay. I was prepared to compete with anyone. It
just never affected me or dawned on me that my back
ground was a handicap.
Both Harold and Steve described an open system where hard work and
equal competition determine success, with no external blocks or
restrictions hampering upward mobility.
Kathy, who came from a professional upper middle class fam
ily, also talked about her belief in the "work ethic," where hard
work and good results lead to success.
The philosophy that I have always followed is again,
very comfortable. If you work very hard and are good,
then you will succeed. So far I have found that
philosophy to prove true. I have always believed in
the work ethic. I have always worked hard. I have
always, whenever I worked at things, done my best.
And that got me to here, which is nice.
The difference between the meanings of hard work to the black
and white respondents came from experience within dual opportunity
structures, one relatively open for whites, the other relatively
limited for blacks. The American ethic of hard work leading to
190
success presented by the white respondents, was based on the
assumption of an equal and open system. The perspective of the
black respondents of having to work twice as hard to succeed arose
from experience within a system where opportunity for blacks was
limited by assumptions of racial inferiority and structures which
blocked access.
Although all of the respondents in the study attributed some
part of their having made it to "luck", once again there was a
difference in the meaning of the term by race. For the black
respondents, "luck" referred to "being in the right place at the
right time" in terms of opening opportunity structures. In a
sense, the black respondents felt that their "luck" had to do with
being born in a specific historic context where a chance opened up
for them to break into the white legal establishment. As one
black respondent put it, "If I had been born twenty years earlier,
what I have accomplished would have been impossible."
David, the first black to make it to partner in a major law
firm said when asked to account for his success.
Well, I think a good portion of it is the result of
being in the right place at the right time. As a
matter of fact. I'd say the majority of whatever
success that was made was because the time was right
for a black person to do whatever it is I've done.
David talked about "being in the right place at the right time" in
terms of opening opportunities at every major stage of his career.
He specifically used the phrase when discussing his early rise as
a government lawyer where he was given the chance to do anti-trust
191
work that previously had been an area of legal practice barred to
blacks. Having built up specific qualifications as a corporate
attorney, David felt that being chosen to be the first black to
integrate major law firms was again "being in the right place at
the right time." David made clear the relationship between open
ing opportunity structures and the chance for blacks to gain
necessary expertise in becoming successful within the major firms.
When people look around, they look for an identifiable
person who appears to have what they consider quali
fications. And the more I happened to be in the right
place at the right time, the more qualifications I had.
Allen, for whom no job opportunities existed within the white
legal community when he graduated law school, talked about luck in
terms of "being in the right place at the right time" when open
ings were occurring for blacks where previously none had existed.
Allen defined luck by saying, "Luck is simply doors opening which
were not open before." In a similar vein. Bob and Chuck, who were
beneficiaries of the affirmative action era, talked about luck in
terms of making it, by "being in the right place at the right
time" to receive the benefits of changing opportunity structures.
Bob in discussing things that contributed to his success said.
It was fortunate for me in coming out at that time,
that there was the opening of the doors so to
speak. The time was right and I happened to be
there. It enabled me to get an opportunity to
prove myself.
Although the white respondents in the matched sample also
talked of "luck" and "being in the right time and place" to facil
itate success, they were not referring to the opening of blocked
192
opportunity structures. In fact, they used the word luck with
more of the traditionally accepted meaning of chance or fate. All
of the white respondents, however, made it clear that when lurk
presented them with a fortuitous situation, they had the ability
to "take advantage of it" and use it in their behalf.
Frank accounted for his success by saying that in his opinion
"it was as much chance in my case as anything else." When pressed
to talk further about what he meant by chance, Frank said he
really couldn’t explain it. Harold talked about being "lucky" and
being able to take advantage of the luck that came his way.
I’ve been very lucky But I also have those things
that allow me to take advantage of the luck I had.
It doesn’t make me smarter or better, it just makes
me lucky.
Steve talked about the effect "being in the right place at
the right time" had on his becoming successful. Again, he refer
red to random opportunities that presented themselves to him,
which he was able to make positive use of in his career.
I don’t mean this as false modesty. I am not a modest
person. But so much of where you end up is a product
of a couple of breaks along the way, or certain timing
factors that come along. I could go back and trace
those timing factors, over which I had very little
control, and feel very very fortunate about being, if
you want to say in the right place at the right time,
being in a situation when a certain other situation
developed. I was very fortunate. That’s not to say
that ten other people who had the same situation
might not have taken advantage of it. But there were
times along the way when I was presented with situa
tions that I was able to take advantage of. Had I
not been presented with those situations, maybe it
would have taken a lot longer, and been a lot
harder.
193
Specifically, Steve was referring to a situation that occurred
during his early career as a young associate, when he was given a
case file to research that the senior partner in charge forgot
about. When Steve saw that a trial date was set for the case, he
prepared it and took it to trial. When the partners found out,
they were pleased at his skills and show of initiative. It was
chance situations of this sort that Steve cited as being part of
what helped him become a success.
Personal Qualities
In addition to working hard and luck, the respondents talked
about personal qualities that helped account for their making it
to the position of partner in a major law firm. All of the
respondents, both black and white, talked primarily of the need
for a strong intellect and the ability to perform well.: In
describing necessary personal qualities, the respondents used
words like, "bright", "smart", "brains", "strong intellect",
"intellectual capacity" and "ability."
In describing intellectual capacity, both black and white
respondents were in agreement as to the meaning of the terms.
However, four of the black respondents brought up personal quali
ties that they felt were necessary for success that their white
counterparts did not mention. Allen talked about the need for
"faith" in yourself and "patience" in terms of overcoming the
racial barriers that exist.
194
You have to have a great deal of faith in yourself,
in your ability to deal with incredible odds. You
also had to have an attitude or degree of patience
and that’s hard to have under some circumstances.
You have to know you’re good and expect that some
day the opportunity will come when you can really
prove it. I think confidence is such a major fac
tor with many blacks. You have to have confi
dence in your ability. You know when you’re good
because you compete with people and you can tell
whether you match up or whether you have some
weaknesses. And when you know.you match up and
you can compete in that arena, that’s the thing
that keeps you going.
Elaine and Bob also talked of the need to have ’’confidence’’ in
one’s abilities as a black person, in order to overcome the con
stant social implications of racial inferiority. Like Allen, the
other black respondents felt that a persevering belief in yourself
was necessary to succeed, and that proving yourself through equal
competition with whites helped to strengthen that belief.
David talked about the necessity of not thinking about the
’ ’burdens’ ’ he had to carry in being the first black to integrate
major white law firms.
I try not to think about it. It would drive me crazy
if I thought about it. I know that its there, I know
that I’m very visible. I know that there are a lot of
people who would not be altogether unhappy...
David went on to talk about a personal quality that helped him
continue under all the pressures and racial barriers, not "expect
ing too much."
I’m seldom really disappointed and the reason that I’m
seldom disappointed is that I don’t expect much. I
don’t think I really expected to be offered a job. I
remember when I was at my first job as an attorney and
I received an application in the mail from the Bar
Association. I thought about it, and then I called
195
Judge Smith who was the father of my friend. I asked
him if they would let me in. I didn’t want to apply
and be rejected because there was a policy, maybe not
written anymore, but a policy not to allow blacks.
And Smith said, ’I don’t know, I’m not a member, but
why don’t you try it and see.’ So I tried, and they
let me in. But had they said no, it wouldn’t have
been a big deal. There was a policy, and I wouldn’t
have been disappointed. I guess, even now, my
expectations aren’t very great in terms of the world
and people. If they surprise me, I’m pleased, but
if they don’t, I expect it.
For the black respondents certain personal qualities of persever
ance, confidence in one’s abilities, realistic expectations, were
all cited as necessary in becoming the first blacks to enter the
upper echelons of the legal world by becoming partners in major
white law firms.
Racial Consciousness
Throughout this study, the five black respondents have
continually referred to racial issues in describing their having
made it to the top of the legal hierarchy in becoming partners in
major law firms. It should be remembered that the questions asked
of all the respondents during the interviews were predominantly
general statements without racial reference, for instance asking
what effect family might have had in becoming successful, or
schooling and so on. The continual references to a racial dimen
sion that the black respondents brought up, came from their own
view of its importance in explaining their having gained the
position of partner in a major law firm. It is not much of a
196
surprise to find that none of the white respondents in the matched
sample ever made any reference to race in responding to the
questions inquiring about their having made it to partner. The
differences in responses between the black and white respondents
throughout the study in terms of race, however, indicated that
occupying positions in separate racial hierarchies leads to
different sets of consciousness based on race. In order to ex
plore the difference in racial consciousness between black and
white respondents, they were asked directly what effect, if any,
race might have had on their making it to partner.
All five of the black partners responded to the question of
the effect of race. Although the specific content of responses
differed, there was an underlying similarity in the assumption
that a racial hierarchy existed, and affected their experience as
black people in becoming successful in the world of major law
firms.
Allen when asked what part race had to do with his becoming a
success replied.
Race, per se, didn’t enhance my success, it hampered
my success. It was a negative factor I had to over
come. I was not the beneficiary, if you will, of
the affirmative action policy because when that be
came the vogue, I was beyond help in terms of having
access. I was already locked into a long term civil
service job. So race was a major obstacle that had
to be overcome in order to even get the way of entry
I got. Race kept me out of places that I would have
liked to have been,
David, who became a success not only by becoming the first black
associate and then partner in a major white law firm, but also by
197j
being appointed to major government commissions, political posi
tions, boards of directors of many major businesses and corpora
tions, talked about the effect race still has on his having to
prove himself competent, as a black man, outside of the specific
environment where he has established a reputation of achievement.
Hey, there is no question in my mind that it happens
on a daily basis, that if people don’t know who I am,
I am black. And that connotes certain things. I
think I am viewed just as any black person is viewed.
Not as a person of accomplishment, not as a person of
great skills, just whatever that person’s view of
what black is. It’s only in the environment where
everyone else knows me and knows who I am, that they
pass the word along. Then I don’t have to prove my
self. But, putting that aside, it’s no different.
Still have to work twice as hard and do twice as
much.
David makes clear his feelings that being black is a negative
status implying assumptions about lack of abilities and accom
plishments. For David, his achievements only protect him from
negative stereotyping within a small area where knowledge of his
proven worth can be passed on to counteract racial bias.
Bob, in talking about the effect race had on his making it
to partner, brought up the idea that the overall negative effect
of racial exclusion and bias had a positive effect in forcing him
to work harder and focus his energies in an attempt to overcome
prejudice and racial inferiority.
There have been some negative aspects, as well as some
positive aspects, some of which arise out of the nega
tive aspects. If you assume, as a black, that things
are going to be more difficult for you and you want to
make it anyway, one reaction to that is to work harder.
To focus yourself better. And to simply gear yourself
198
not to be denied. In order to make it in this busi
ness, both in school and in practice, that kind of
focus and energy is necessary. The concern over per
forming because you are black, the concern over what
you perceive in people’s minds will be a negative
reaction to you. The concern over what you perceive
to be in other people’s minds will be a presumption
that you are not as qualified, leads some of us to
work harder to prove that we are as qualified.
For Bob, being black meant-facing the existence of prejudice and
finding ways to counteract it.'
Chuck talked about the effects of a racial hierarchy in
preventing blacks from assuming positions of importance and power
within the top strata of society.
I think that with the same qualifications, the same
performance, John Opel or however he pronounces his
name, would not have been the chairman of the board
and chief executive officer of IBM had he been
black. And I think that race is still a limiting
factor in the top spots of virtually every major
corporation in this country. I think that there are
some very well intentioned people, but when you are
dealing at those levels, I don’t have any confidence
that race is not an issue. I think that the more
senior you get in those corporations, the harder it
would be to move, and the more the racial factors
influence decisions.
Chuck refers to the existence of two standards of judgments in
terms of gaining position within society, one for blacks and one
for whites.
Elaine talked about race as having been an advantage in her
becoming successful as a partner in a major firm by making her
stand out and be noticed as being different.
I think race has been an advantage for me. I think
that people remember me. You know, when I go to court
I’m not necessarily any better than the other lawyers
199
that stand up at the podium in front of the judges, •
but they remember me. I don’t look like the rest of
them, so when I go to court I’m usually greeted with
’Good morning. Miss E,’ because they remember me.
Being a woman is part of it, being diffeieiiL is part
of it.
Elaine also felt that affirmative action policies had affected her
career in a positive way. During an era when minorities were
actively being sought for entry into major law firms, Elaine felt
she received more attention and job offers by virtue of her being
one of the more qualified blacks.
When the white respondents of the matched sample were asked
the same question about how race might have affected their suc
cess, the responses were all the same. Frank said, ’’ None, that I
can think of.’’ Steve replied, ’’Race? In what way, how would
that...no, I can’t imagine there is.’ ’ Harold said, ’’I have abso
lutely no idea. I haven’t had to give it much thought.’’ Kathy,
’’I’m not consciously aware of any effect because I just have no
experience other than being white middle class.’’
None of the white respondents had any consciousness of race
as an important variable within their personal life experience.
For the black respondents, however, race was an active and con
scious part of their daily life and attempts to become successful
by achieving the status of partner in major white law firms.
No Real Change
Throughout this study, the black respondents have continually
referred to the effect historical context has had in producing
changes in racial opportunity structures. The respondents
200
described the changes from the late fifties, when the era of
racial mobility within the legal world was best characterized by
blocked opportunities, to the sixties and seventies, when changing
social conditions led to a period marked by affirmative action
programs and the opening of doors to blacks in professional oppor
tunity structures. However, when talking about the present era of
which they were a part, the black respondents stated their belief
that the kind of social changes in racial opportunity structures
that they had hoped for were not taking place. Although the
respondents regarded their personal success in having made it to
the status of partner as being significant in terms of integrating
a previously all-white professional area, they did not believe
that the opportunity afforded them had led to, or would lead to
major changes within the system. The respondents shared the view
that the pressures exerted during the affirmative action period to
admit blacks to major law schools and law firms no longer existed.
They pointed to the decreasing number of blacks following in their
path as evidence that their success represented .an era of "token
ism" rather than significant social change in eradicating race as
a dimension limiting opportunity and mobility for blacks.
The black respondents held similar views about the lack of
changes within the system. Allen when first interviewed said,
"Things have changed but not all that much." Although Allen felt
that some change had occurred by the mere fact that after nineteen
years he had achieved the status of partner within a major law
201
firm, he expressed concern over the small numbers of black
partners and the decreasing numbers of blacks being admitted to
the firms as beginning associates.
As you know, there are only a handful of black part
ners. Only a handful. It is not increasing, because
if you look at the entry class, there are not that
many blacks coming in.
Chuck talked at length about his belief that the small num
bers of blacks presently being admitted to major law schools and
practice in top rated firms indicated the continuing existence of
institutional and systemic blocks to black mobility. Chuck
described the changes that have taken place as being "cosmetic"
and not really indicating any basic transformation of the struc
tural system of unequal opportunities existing for blacks.
The question of whether this period is historic in
terms of major social change for blacks is open to
question, because I ’m not sure what the impact of
having a certain number of blacks becoming partners
in major law firms is in and of itself. It seems
to me that given the small numbers of people that
you are dealing with, just the finite number of law
students coming through major law schools, and I
don’t think that the major firms in this country
are ever going to accept a large number of students
from any group who did not attend major law schools,
that if you look at the numbers of people who are
going to come through in the future, that it’s not
going to make any real difference. The nature of
the system itself is going to be a limiting factor.
The number of minority students in major law
schools in the early seventies increased quite
rapidly and it reached a peak. I think from that
peak, which occurred in probably 1971 to 1975 time
period, it has not only leveled off but decreased
somewhat. Given those numbers, there is not
going to be any substantial number of black law
students who are going to be joining major law
202
firms in the first place. And the selection pro
cess for partnership is not going to be any
different. If you apply the natural selection
process that exists in law firms to the rather
small population of blacks joining major law
firms, as far as I'm concerned it comes out to
be a very, very small number and I don't think
in the future the numbers are going to increase
dramatically. As a consequence, I don't think
that the numbers of blacks we are talking about
are going to have any real impact on the legal
system. It may be great cosmetically, but it's
not going to change anything in any significant
or material way.
In questioning Chuck about the numbers he was talking about, he
stated that out of thousands of partners' in major-firms nation
wide, there were less than fifty black partners at the present
time. Chuck felt that in the last ten to fifteen years there had
been some changes in the fact that the number rose from "zero" to
where it presently is. But he also felt that the "push" of the
affirmative action period represented a "one time shot", that was
not the forerunner of a continuing movement of social change and
opening opportunity structures for blacks.
Elaine expressed concern over the fact that very few blacks
were making it to partner by working their way up through the
ranks, and the decreasing numbers of new black associates coming
into the major law firms.
I know that there are five black partners in major
law firms, and I know who they are. And what sur
prises me the most is that most of them are signi
ficantly older than I am. That is what bothers
me, because they don't count to me. They had to
do it the hard way. They had to go out and do
something else great and them come back into a
law firm, or at least I know about Allen. He had
203
to become Director of a major government agency
before he could become, partner. But what I
think bothers me is that there are only three
younger partners who came up through the ranks,
and there really should be more. And T really
see it dropping off. It troubles me that there
are only three who made it that way, and many
fewer coming up through the ranks now.
In contrast to the black respondents, the white respondents
held different views regarding the nature of social change and
black progress within the legal establishment, expressing differ
ent interpretations as to the definition of the source of the
problem in explaining why so few blacks were making it to partner
in major law firms. The white respondents maintained that insti
tutional racism no longer existed in major law firms barring black
participation, but rather the problem was one of finding "capable"
blacks who were competent enough to meet the existing high stan
dards of entry and advancement necessary to succeed within the
firms.
Frank talked about the negative effect the opening of oppor
tunity structures for blacks through the affirmative action period
had on bringing into law practice what he termed "people of lesser
caliber," He saw the problem of limited black participation in
major white law firms as being one of lack of competency. In
talking about the entrance of blacks into major law firms Frank
said.
Well, I think it’s a good thing for society, I don’t
have any doubt about that. It is important for, you
know, all elements of society to be represented. I
204
do believe that, in an effort to correct the imbal
ance, people of lesser calibre have been admitted to
the Bar and are practicing simply because of their
race. And I think that’s a negative thing because
it ends up reflecting badly for example, on blacks.
If you run across three or four lawyers that are
black that are simply not good, no matter how you
try to protect yourself, I think you end up being
prejudiced and thinking, well, if a person's black,
he's probably not very good, until you’ve worked
with him for a while so that the burden shifts.
Whereas you don’t have that burden with the white
person, because most of the lawyers that are white
that you deal with are pretty good, so you’re
almost shocked if they’re not.
In questioning Frank about his belief that finding a good black
attorney would almost be difficult, Frank replied ’’yes.”
George talked about the major problem that law firms had in
finding blacks that were able to adequately meet the high quality
standards of performance necessary for success. George made it
clear that he did not think the issue had anything to do with
racial discrimination, and pointed out the active effort most
firms make in trying to find blacks who will fit in.
I think it’s fair to say that most firms of this
size and larger really search out the black asso
ciates. I think it is absolutely accurate to say
that there are not more because the individuals
hired either did not survive the process, or left to
do other things. And when I say survive, I mean
simply didn’t meet the standards that would normally
be applied to an associate progressing up the ladder.
That would be generally a certain level of quality of
work. I am absolutely unaware of any incident invol
ving race, when someone was the object of discrimina
tory practice. I think the firm would have liked
nothing better than to have more people progress.
Those people simply didn’t make it by the standards.
Whether or not those standards are totally fair is
another question, but certainly by the standards
which were applied to every other associate.
205
In asking George what he thought could be done about the problem
of such few blacks succeeding within major law firms he talked
about the need to deal with "existing social problems." However,
in describing what those social issues were, George defined the
black community itself as the source of the problem in its failure
to emphasize education or provide incentive for becoming
successful.
Well, I think it's a very complex problem in terms
of non-whites and minorities. I think in large mea
sure there are obviously existing social problems.
Candidly, I think to some extent, there are problems
that various communities have to deal with. I mean
the black community has to. be much more concerned
about education than it has been. I'm not a great
Jesse Jackson fan, but I think the one thing that
Jesse Jackson has accomplished, for whatever reason,
is pushing for self-help. And again, just as I
view my grandfather's generation, people came here
and experienced many of the same kinds of things and
still overcame and solved those problems.
Harold who was actively involved in the process of recruit
ment of new attorneys, talked of being unable to find any blacks
that even came close to the established standards set for entrance
into his law firm. Although Harold was unable to explain why the
major law firms were unable to find qualified blacks, or why such
small numbers of blacks were available at recruitment periods, he
affirmed that the lack of blacks coming into the firms was not a
case of institutional racism, but based on a judgment of the
"quality of the person" in meeting given standards. Harold also
felt that his firm was very interested in bringing blacks into the
firm, and that evaluations of merit had nothing to do with race.
206
The facts, at least the experiences that I have had
recruiting, I recruited for several years, are that
I cannot remember ever seeing a black person inter
ested in a job with us who came close to our academic
standards. If they had been even r].ose, I would have
offered them a job. I do not believe I ever saw a
black person who was even close to being in the ball
park, academically. I saw very few black people per
iod. Now maybe that's because our firm has a reputa
tion, or because blacks are not interested in our
things, or we are intimidating, or they perceive us
as racist. I don't know what the reason is. I think
I’m correct, I can’t speak globally, I can speak for
our firm, when I say that I do not believe it is a
case of institutional racism. I believe that it has
to do with the quality of the person. The minori
ties who would fit in are the most hotly fought for
people in the company.
As a final statement, the black respondents were asked to
respond to the idea that the problems in blacks gaining entry to
the legal structure of major firms is due to lack of finding
capable blacks. All four of the black respondents who were asked
the question basically felt that the assumption of black incompe
tency was "nonsense." Instead they felt that the statement
reflected problems of unrecognized racism in terms of use of
unequal standards, racial categorization, and some few but
nonetheless important cases of overt racism.
David talked about the existence of institutional racism in
the form of separate standards of evaluation being applied to
blacks and whites during admission procedures for selection into
major law firms. Because of the stigma of assumed inferiority,
blacks are held up to standards of capability that are higher than
those for whites. According to David, for blacks to be accepted
207
into major law firms they have to qualify as "super blacks,"
excelling beyond the normal standard of achievement.
The notion that major firms can't find capable black
people is, of course, nonsense, I think it starts
with a major problem, and that is what capable means.
If capable means you've got to be in the top five
percent of your graduating law school class, there
probably aren't too many blacks. And if you look
around, you'll find roughly nine or ten times more
whites as blacks who fall into that category. But
there still aren't many people who fall into that
category. We have 80,000 lawyers in this state
and if you went through the 80,000 lawyers, you'd
probably find 5,000 who graduated in the top five
percent from a major law school. I doubt you'd
even find 5,000. So there aren't many people in
that class. The problem is that when you define
black lawyers' capabilities, you're looking for
the super black. And when you look for a white
lawyer you look at other things, how much busi
ness can they bring in, who do they know, all
kinds of other qualities. But there is thresh-
hold with black, that means you have to be in the
top percent of your class. People aren't prepared
to take the chance, take the risk with blacks. A
lot of them justify it with sensitivity, by say
ing, it would be very, very, very tragic if we
took this person and put him in a situation where
he couldn't compete, we'd be doing him a dis
service. So it depends on what you mean when
you say qualifications, or without qualifications,
or a person who meets whatever mold you're look
ing for. For blacks, they're looking for the
super blacks. There aren't many of those, that's
true. I think there are higher standards that
are applied to blacks than whites, even - at
entrance levels.
Bob talked about the role he felt "unnoticed" racism plays in
the process of generalizing negative myths about black perfor
mance. He discussed the fact that when blacks don’t make it a
process of categorization takes place based on racial assumptions
about blacks in general, that does not happen in the case of
208
whites. According to Bob, this type of categorization by racial
group is reflective of racist thinking whether it is conscious or
not. In responding to the statement that blacks don’t make it to
partner because of issues surrounding their lack of competency,
Bob said,
I don’t agree with it, obviously. You know, there
have been blacks who got jobs in law firms who didn’t
cut it, but they don’t say that about all white
associates who don’t cut it. I mean, most of the
people you hire when you get to be this large,
don't become partners in your firm. I mean the
sheer law of averages is that we hired twenty
people this year. We're going to make partners
of maybe two or three down the road. And we're
going to have five or six who, within the first
six months we know aren't going to cut it. The
hiring process is pretty shaky, anyway, because
I'm on the hiring committee and I know you make
a lot of mistakes. To say that blacks couldn't
cut it, you've categorized somebody. And that's
obviously racist, whether you notice it or not.
But that still happens.
Allen talked about the recent occurrence in his life of an
overt act of racism which challenged his competency as a black
attorney. Although Allen made it clear that such acts of blatant
racism thinking were rare in his professional career, he stated
that the incident "put everything in perspective" for him. Having
achieved the status of senior partner within a prestigious law
firm, and having distinguished himself nationally by becoming
Director of perhaps one of the most powerful state agencies, Allen
was still subject to the racist actions of an individual who
refused to work on a case with a black attorney.
209
You feel very, very good to have been able to
achieve a degree of success. It doesn't go to your
head because you know that well, let me give you an
example. Within the last three months, my firm is
representing one of my exi sting clients to do a
public offering. That entails drafting disclosure
documents and there is an underwriter. He is the
person responsible to sell the stock once you have
gone through Llie legulatory process. We had an
underwriter who, after we had drafted the first
draft of the registration statement, came out to
meet the client. The normal procedure is for the
underwriter to come out and meet the client, meet
with the lawyer’s client, and generally to review
documents. We had that first meeting and it went
very well. It was on a Friday and I came back to
the office on Monday and the client was really up
set because, he needed the money, he needed to
raise the money publicly, and he thought he was
going to lose the opportunity to raise the money
because the underwriter told him that he wouldn’t
work with ’no black.’ This is 1983, in June of
1983. The underwriter basically told the client
that "I just simply cannot work with a black lawyer."
That’s why I say, society is reflective of the
legal profession. That shook me up, that really
did. Because in all my experiences I have never
encountered that. I have dealt with, as Director,
from lawyers and clients from the deepest part of
the South and I can remember people coming in from
Texas to plead to the Director on an issue and not
know who I was and they would walk in and see a
black and you could see their face drop ten feet.
But I never really experienced anything like this
and it really shook me, because I thought we were
taking a step backward. So I say I am obviously
pleased with what I have been able to achieve; I
don’t think anybody has given it to me, I worked
hard. But something like that stops and makes
you think, where are we going? And it was sober
ing, to say the least. At the time that I first
met with you for an interview, this had not
occurred. At that time, this event had not
occurred. And it really shook me. I just
couldn’t believe it. In this damn age, an under
writer who is in the business of representing
companies, taking their stock to the public mar
ket, refusing and willing to kill a deal because
the client had a black lawyer. That to me was
210
something that I agonized over because, quite
honestly, I did not want to jeopardize the
client's opportunity to raise needed money.
There are experiences like that which put every
thing in perspective.
Different Perspectives
The different perceptions of the black and white respondents
in terms of the changes that have taken place within the legal
world are derived from different racial perspectives. For the
black respondents, the issue of separate opportunity structures
and blocked access to top levels within the system was something
"real" that they had experienced. Even the younger respondents
who had benefited from the affirmative action era were aware of
their special status as "exceptions" who were allowed to enter the
system as a chosen few. None of the black respondents felt that
change had brought anything more than admission of a very select
few to make it to the top of the legal hierarchy. For the black
respondents, the current trend of decreasing entry of blacks into
law schools and major law firms, indicated that the end result of
all the historical change and personal battles was a system still
based on limited racial opportunity structures for blacks.
The white respondents, on the other hand, were unaware of any
personal or institutional racism existing within the legal profes
sion. From their personal experience, the white respondents felt
that they were open to blacks practicing law in major firms and in
fact were actively looking for more blacks to come into their
211
practice. The white respondents were troubled by the low numbers
of black partners currently practicing within the major firms, but
felt that the issue was a difficult one in finding blacks who were
competent to succeed within the rigors and high demands of prac
tice of law at the top.
Conclusion
The different feelings of the black and white respondents
result from their positions within a racial hierarchy in a society
stratified by unequal opportunity systems. For the white respon
dents who view the system as open, reaching the status of partner
is an assumed outcome of adherence to the work ethic, where hard
work brings automatic rewards and upward mobility. For the black
partners participating in a system of closed opportunity, the
achievement of entry to professional hierarchies previously barred
to blacks reflects a milestone of personal success. Experiences
in the occupational structures of this society differ by race,
with blacks having to fight barriers to entree into upper levels
of professional achievement, and having to bear additional burdens
in their mobility climb.
It is interesting to note how deeply perceptions by race
differ between the black and white respondents. Although choosing
similar words such as hard work, and luck or being in the right
place at the right time as a means for explaining their success.
212
the meanings given those words held vastly different interpreta
tions for the black and white respondents. The meaning of the
word luck for the white respondents referred to traditional defi
nitions of implied random chance occurrence that the participants
then parlayed into positive situations for advancement in their
career patterns. For the black respondents, however, luck refer
red to the historical context of opening and closing -opportunity
structures in a predominantly white professional establishment.
Even the use of the term "hard work," which all the respondents
black and white referred to as a necessary ingredient in their
climb to success, had different meanings. For the black partners,
hard work meant working twice as hard to be recognized as capable
as a black person, and doing twice as well in competition with
whites in order to become successful. For the white respondents,
hard work represented a necessary prerequisite in an assumed
climb to success.
These different realities reflect the existence of a dual
system of experience and opportunity based on race. Whites are
not conscious of race as a dimension of experience because their
status on the racial hierarchy in a sense negates the effects of
race by providing clear entrance to and mobility within the occu
pational structure. Blacks however, being at the lower end and
exclusionary part of the racial stratification system, find race
to be a constant and significant aspect of their everyday lives.
It becomes clear that even the achievement of a position at the
213
top of the professional hierarchy does not ensure insulation
against the prejudiced responses of society to blacks outside the
specific known milieu of the law firms. As one respondent put it,
outside of his known reputation within the professional world of
attorneys, he is still a black man and therefore subject to racial
discrimination and bias during the daily conducting of his life.
The differing perceptions by the black and white partners on
issues of success and race create an unspoken dialogue affected by
position on racial hierarchy. When the white respondents became
aware of the low number of black partners currently practicing in
major law firms they attributed the problem to one of not being
able to find capable blacks to adequately fill those high pres
sured positions. In a sense, the white respondents were
attributing the cause of the problem of integration of the upper
echelons of the legal establishment to a lack of motivation in the
black population itself. There was never any mention of a dual
opportunity system both in educational and occupational areas
functioning within society that might affect the participation of
blacks in the law firms. None of the white respondents discussed
the possibility of any forms of institutional racism that might
still exist, creating unstated barriers to equal black participa
tion and mobility within the law firms.
The black respondents on the other hand, viewed the problems
of lesser black participation as originating from a racially
MM
stratified social system, where discrimination in the law profes
sion was an extension of inequity in opportunity structures in the
society in general. The black respondents f elt that institutional
racism still influenced the daily activity and functioning of
blacks within the world of top level law firms. Such racism took
the form of unequal administration of standards for black per
formance, subtle forms of racial categorization that linked
personal failure of specific blacks to generalizations about lack
of capacity on the part of all but a select few blacks, and rare
but difficult instances of overt racism. In a sense, the white
respondents* attribution of the problems of low numbers of blacks
in the law firms to a lack of capacity validated the constant
feelings of the black respondents that in this society they have
to constantly prove themselves.
All five of the black partners were pessimistic about the
future of black participation in the upper levels of the major
firms. They all were aware of and pointed to the lessening num
bers of blacks entering major law schools at the present time and
coming into the firms as associates. Each expressed fears that
the governmental pressures of the sixties and seventies toward
affirmative action had been dropped, rendering their pioneer
efforts in making it to partner a reflection of personal success,
but not a reflection of change in opportunity structures. The
black respondents felt that times had changed to allow the excep
tionally talented and perhaps super blacks * access to white
215
professional structures within the world of law, but that
the historic movement from the seventies to the eighties was
bringing only an era of tokenism rather than real equality of
opportunity.
216
CHAPTER ÜIII
CONCLUSION
The partners in this study became successful in the context
of a racially-stratified society. This study has dealt with the
experiences and perceptions of these five partners as they rose to
the top of the legal establishment. The workings of a racial
social structure were a constant and ongoing part of the lives of
the respondents. The experience of the respondents indicates a
modification of Wilson’s theme, that as class position increases,
effects of race diminish to a point where they are insignificant.
Racial social structures not only affected the respondents’ climb
to the top, but continued to exert pressures once ’’there."
Willie (1978), in his argument against Wilson, discusses the
pressure in terms of ’ ’psychic cost” (p. 398). He refers to the
constant need for blacks to prove themselves and issues of.racial
identity as becoming an ’’ all consuming” racial focus for upwardly
mobile and successful blacks. However, Willie only provides the
argument, without giving detail of how these pressures are lived
out. In coming to know the daily reality of the black respon
dents, this study is able to provide detail into the often subtle,
but precise ways racial social structures affect the lives of
blacks who have become successful.
217
Inequality
The daily reality of the black respondents was infused with
the effects of being black in a racially ~stratified society. The
respondents continually had to bear the burden and experience the
pressures of having to prove themselves'as -capable in order to
dispel racist assumptions of inferiority. Being numerically iso
lated as they integrated educational and professional institu
tions, the respondents had to deal with issues of alienation,
isolation and racial identity. But perhaps most importantly, the
respondents had to make their way in a society based on a dual set
of opportunity structures, with limited and sometimes blocked
access for blacks.
Racial Inferiority
Racial social structures first made themselves known to the
respondents in childhood. They were carefully taught by their
parents what it would take to become successful. The parents of
the black respondents instilled in them a sense of hope and possi
bility, while at the same time taught them the realities of a
racially-stratified society. The respondents learned that if they
were to succeed, they would have to work twice as hard and be
twice as good as their white counterparts. This racially specific
socialization was the beginning effect of racial social structures
interjecting in the lives of the respondents. The message was
218
clear. Racism and discrimination exist. If you are going to make
it, you will constantly have to prove to others that you are
capable by being twice as good as the whites you are to compete
against. This formula for success, then, was set at an early age.
It was a formula that the respondents would find they would have
to follow the rest of their lives.
There are two implications of socially imposed assumptions of
inferiority: internal and external. For some of the respondents,
living in a racially-stratified society meant they would have to
fight personal battles against the internalization of negative
racial assumptions. They would have to in fact, prove to them
selves that they were as capable as whites. All of the black
respondents cited early childhood experiences in integrated
schools as an important experience in coming to have confidence in
their abilities. Competition on equal grounds with white stu
dents, allowed the black respondents to ’’ test” themselves, and
find that they were not lacking. This initial sense of confidence
encouraged the black respondents to enter into other areas of
competition with whites. For some respondents, the nagging ques
tion of their own abilities in comparison to whites was a constant
pressure up to the time of entry into a major law firm. For
others, the real problems of socially imposed assumptions of
inferiority did not stem from their own fears of internal inade
quacy, but from the constant need to prove to others that they
were capable.
219
In every new situation, during law school and when first
entering law firms, the black respondents felt the often subtle
but constant need to establish their capabilities to others. In
some cases, for the older respondents, racial bias was so strong
they were not even given the chance to enter into equal competi
tion with whites in order to demonstrate their worth. As times
changed however, doors of entry were at least slightly opened, but
the burden or responsibility of proof still rested on the respon
dents. Pressures to prove themselves to others led the respon
dents to employ strategies of becoming twice as good as their
white counterparts. Although the respondents felt their perfor
mance (once given a chance to compete) was recognized, it is
interesting to notice how restricted the area of achieved reputa
tion extended. For the black partners, success within the major
law firms established personal reputations that were recognized
within the legal community. However, once outside of the fairly
close arena of professional association, the respondents were
still, as one put it, "simply black." Even reputation within the
legal establishment did not always protect the respondents from
continued assumptions of racial inferiority. The poignant inci
dent related by the senior partner who had a client refuse to work
with him because he was black, makes all too clear the continued
pressure of racist assumptions of inferiority.
When thinking of the burden of proof that the black respon
dents had to continually deal with, it is almost like picturing
220
entering a court where the assumption of guilt is already made.
The burden, the pressure of proof, in this case rests with the
innocent. It is a daily pressure that became part of the accepted
reality of the black respondents of this study. However, coming
to terms with a socially imposed reality does not change the fact
that such reality exists. When we speak of racial inequality, we
generally refer to unequal access to education, jobs and oppor
tunities. But the pressures of having to prove yourself as
capable because of racial assumptions is also an inequality. It
is not just, nor is it fair. It places extra psychic cost on
those who must bear the burden of overcoming racial stereotypes,
and creates the necessity not only to achieve, but to become
"super achievers" in order to succeed.
Isolation and Identity
The black respondents of this study often felt alone and
isolated as they entered white dominated institutions within
society. Both in law school and as new attorneys with major law
firms, the black respondents were faced with the task of being the
only or one of a few blacks, to integrate white professional
structures. It was not easy. The black respondents talked of the
pain and difficulty of having no one to "share" with, no one to
"understand." But the burdens were greater than simply accepting
the feeling.of loneliness and isolation. The black respondents
had to learn and adopt white racial roles in order to fit in.
221
The most difficult period of altering racial roles came
during early experiences within the law firms. The black respon
dents had to both learn new white roles and cultural values while
at the same time repress their own black identities. For some of
the respondents, the submerging ot their racial identities marked
a sacrifice or "price" that they had to pay as blacks, in order to
become successful. It is interesting to note that as time passed,
the black respondents felt that the roles they initially had to
play became part of their identity. ■ Becoming comfortable with
white values, however, did not mean leaving black identity behind.
Most of the black respondents felt that they still identified with
black culture, and maintained connection to the black community.
Having dual racial identities was simply a necessary adaptation
for the black respondents, making it in the upper levels of the
white legal establishment.
Opportunity Structures
Mobility within American society is dependent on access to
educational and occupational opportunity structures. We live in a
time that is often designated as one of "equal opportunity." The
American dream is built on the very notion, that no matter who you
are, the system is open and those who work hard will automatically
be rewarded with success. However, the experience of the black
respondents in this study indicates that there is a dual system of
racial opportunity structures operating within this country. For
222
the black respondents, access to educational and occupational
opportunities was not the same as for the white respondents.
Historical changes within racial opportunity structures had a
strong influence on the experiences of the black respondents. For
Llie older black respondents, entry into top-rated law schools
during the fifties was based on a tightly defined quota system.
Once out of law school, the black respondents were met by blocked
opportunity structures that were almost totally closed to the
employment of black attorneys in areas of white legal practice.
With the exception of employment in a few select poverty programs,
strict policies of racial exclusion barred the hiring of blacks in
both public and private sectors.: Most black attorneys were forced
to return to black communities, set up private practice, and
specialize predominantly in criminal work. Through a combina
tion of sheer personal fortitude and changing opportunity struc
tures, the two older black respondents of this study were able to
penetrate the white legal establishment and become the first
blacks to serve as partners within major law firms in this city.
The three younger black respondents were able to catch the
tide of changing opportunity structures during the affirmative
action period. The black respondents felt that the rush of
attention they received in terms of being admitted to law schools
and being asked to join major law firms as associates, was
directly related to governmental pressures to achieve racial bal
ance. The meaning of the word quota itself, changed from desig
nating policies of racial exclusion to indicating a need to fill
223
governmentally established minority requirements. The benefits
of the affirmative action era, however, did not extend to all
blacks equally. The tremendous attention paid to the black
respondents of this study was, in their opinion, due to fierce
competition to get the "best" and most qualified blacks possible.
As a consequence, the black respondents felt that the opportuni
ties made available during the affirmative action period were
limited to a select pool of "exceptional" blacks.
The present historical era is characterized by the black
respondents as one of disillusionment with changing racial struc
tures. The black partners felt that the momentum of affirmative
action programs has dimmed in the eighties, and has left instead a
slight opening of previously barred opportunity structure, best
characterized by the word "tokenism." The black partners all
point to the currently decreasing numbers of blacks entering law
schools and joining major law firms to indicate a lack of social
commitment to further social changes of racial opportunities.
Position within racial social structures not only determines
experience, but perceptions and consciousness as well. Mutually
shared words and values such as hard work and success, had differ
ent meanings for the black respondents in comparison to their
white counterparts. In addition, the black partners did not share
the optimistic view voiced by the white partners concerning racial
matters within the legal profession. The black partners did not
agree with the white position that racism no longer exists as a
224
determining force in selection and advancement procedures within
major law firms. Instead, the black partners felt that institu
tional racism in the form of unequal application of different and
higher standards of performance for black attorneys, was respon
sible for the low numbers of blacks currently practicing within
major firms. Perhaps most importantly of all, overall general
views about American society differed between the black and white
partners due to separate positions within racial structures. For
the white partners, personal experience within the system had
proved it to be "open," allowing them to rise from humble origins
to present positions of power and success as partners within major
law firms. For the black partners, experience within a racially-
stratified society had demonstrated the existence of a system of
limited racial opportunity structures, where only a few select
blacks were able to reach top level positions of success.
Implications
This study is about individuals. It is a portrayal of the
minute and subtle details of the way racial social structures
interact with other social processes, to affect the lives of
successful blacks within this country. Perhaps one of the most
significant findings of this study is that racial social struc
tures are a normal part of this society; a finding that is morally
reprehensible to most of us. It is difficult to understand how we
can live in a society, that on the one hand seems to bless us with
225
such opportunity and good fortune, while on the other hand denies
to others those same privileges. For each one of us living in this
society, the existence of racism necessitates the facing of moral
and ethical evaluations of the system, and our personal role and
responsibility in its continuation. For many of us this presents
a moral dilemma that seems too difficult and painful to bear. We
must somehow reconcile the reality of racial social structures and
their effects on the lives of human beings with our own humani
tarian impulses to do something about such socially imposed
inequality and suffering. Yet most of us feel impotent to enact
creative social change. We feel overwhelmed by the scope of the
problem and feel unable to do anything about it.
The pain of this socially induced personal dilemma is often
solved by the process of denial. If the problem goes away,
there is no problem left for us to solve. The processes of de
nial, however, are complex and sophisticated. One social psycho
logical defense mechanism is simply not letting ourselves know the
truth of what is going on. But it is a strange form of denial in
which we know enough to make sure we do not know more. It is the
same sort of protective process that allowed citizens in Germany
during the Nazi regime, to know Jews were being taken away, but
keep themselves from knowing where the Jews were being taken and
what truth awaited them. In that sense, socially imposed ignor
ance is an active stance of not knowing. We don’t know because we
don’t want to know. We resolve the potential crises in personal
226
evaluation of values by denying the existence of the problem
altogether. It is there, but distant to us, without human depth
and detail that might motivate us toward action.
There is another form of denial that is even more subtle in
application. It is a process by which the definition of the prob
lem is altered, changing the implications for solutions. Wilson
(1973) defines racism itself as just such a process.
Racism incorporates beliefs in a particular race’s
cultural and or inherent biological inferiority
and uses such beliefs to justify and prescribe
inferior or unequal treatment for that group
(p. 32).
According to Wilson, racism is an ideological process that defines
the problem as residing within individuals and not the social
system. Ryan (1971) extends this explanation of social rationale,
by using the term ’’ blaming the victim.’’ According to Ryan, victim
blaming is a process whereby social problems are attributed to
deficiencies existing within individuals, rather than to social
structures based on inequality.
A typical feature of blaming the victim is the
swerving away from the central target that re
quires systematic change and, instead, focusing
in on the individual affected. The ultimate
effect is always to distract attention from the
basic causes and to leave the primary social
injustice untouched (p. 25).
This form of denial does not wipe the problem away, but alters its
form to a point of non-recognition. The problem is no longer seen
as one for which we are responsible, but rather one beyond our
control residing in the inadequacies of whole groups of human beings.
227
White denial is not one uncommon to American belief systems.
Schuman (1969) found that over a majority of the people studied in
public opinion polls believed that the problem of black inequality
arose as a consequence of lack of motivation within blacks them
selves. According to those studied, the major determinant to
success in the United States is based on "free will," or the
desire to make it to the top. The respondents described the
American system as "open," allowing anyone who has individual
motivation and personal drive access to the top. According to
Schuman, this system of public belief is a reflection of "white
racism" whose purpose is to deny the reality of racial discrimina
tion .
Most white Americans may not be racists in the
more technical sense, but nothing said suggests
that they are willing to accept past or present
responsibility for prejudice, discrimination,
and general inequality in the spread of oppor
tunities. In espousing free will, white Amer
icans deny the reality of the problems faced
by black Americans and thus place the whole
burden of black disadvantage on blacks them
selves (p. 379).
The most significant finding of this study is that racial
social structures exist as an objective, external reality in the
lives of the respondents. Experience within dual opportunity
structures, individual cases of racist rejection, and institution
alized assumptions of inferiority are all exterior forces that
impose their effects on the daily activities of the respondents in
their climb to success. That is not to say that such realities do
228
not have a subjective component. All social reality is a combina
tion of subjective and objective experience. It is subjective in
the sense that all we experience, interpret and give meaning to is
funneled through the subjective processes of each individual. It
is objective in that much of what we interpret in social life
exists exterior to us in the form of action and interaction with
other human beings. The actions of others toward us are objec
tive, even in their subjective interpretation. Racial social
structures are acted out by individuals. It is the objective
actions of individuals within the social structure that create the
inequalities, burdens and extra pressures of racial social life
for the respondents of this study.
Berger and Luckman (1967) probably best describe this rela
tionship between individuals and the creation of social structures
when they talk about social institutions.
An institutional world, then, is experienced as
an objective reality. It has a history that
antedates the individual’s birth and is not acces
sible to his biographical recollection. It was
there before he was born, and it will be there
after his death. This history itself, as the
tradition of the existing institutions, has the
character of objectivity. The individual’s bio
graphy is apprehended as an episode located within
the objective history of the society. The insti
tutions, as historical and objective facticities,
confront the individual as undeniable facts. The
institutions are there, external to him, persis
tent in their reality, whether he likes it or not.
He cannot wish them away. They resist his attempts
to change or evade them. They have coercive power
over him, both in themselves, by the sheer force
of their facticity, and through the control mech
anisms that are usually attached to the most
229
important of them. The objective reality of
institutions is not diminished if the individual
does not understand their purpose or their mode
of operation. He may experience large sectors of
the social world as incomprehensible, perhaps
oppressive in their opaqueness, but real nonethe
less. Since institutions exist as external real
ity, the individual cannot understand them by
introspection. He must "go out" and learn about
them, just as he must to learn about nature.
This remains true even though the social world,
as a humanly produced reality, is potentially
understandable in a way not possible in the
case of the natural world. It is important to
keep in mind that the objectivity of the insti
tutional world, however massive it may appear
to the individual, is a humanly produced, con
structed objectivity (p. 60).
This description of institutional reality closely reflects the
findings of this study. For the black respondents, racial struc
tures had a historical life preceding their own individual
biographies. Yet the effect of racial social structures were felt
as an intimate part of their everyday lives. Racial social struc
tures are embedded into the very fabric of this society and func
tion as institutional, normal processes of a stratified society.
Berger and Luckman make it clear, however, that the objective
nature of institutions is still a product of individual human
creation.
The findings of this study, that racism exists in an external
objective institutional form, challenge both forms of white
denial. The accounting of details by the black respondents as to
the daily and specific effects of racial social structures in
their lives, makes it more difficult for us to say we don’t know.
230
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the facticity of racial
social structures as a real existing institutional force, does not
allow the problem to be defined as one based on personal defi
ciency, but rather a systemic structural reality housed in the
very ongoing fabric of American society.
The issue of the continued existence of racial social struc
tures which produce inequality even at the upper levels of the
social system is actually what the race-class debate in black
mobility is all about. The pivotal point of this theoretical
argument arises from a fact accepted by both sides, the rise of
the black middle class (Ransford, 1977; Wilson, 1978; Brashler,
1978). It is precisely because social conditions have changed
with accompanying opening of opportunity structures, that ques
tions about the relative effects of class position over racial
status have arisen. Ransford (1977) discusses the need for new
perspectives in the study of black mobility as the system opens up
to black participation within mainstream professional and business
arenas.
The existence of this new mobility raises
important questions about the relationships
of these minority groups with the white
power structure. To what extent does class
achievement override racial restrictions?
If a black person moves into a professional
position does his increased power erode
racial barriers or do many restrictions
remain (p. 2)?
When discussing mobility of blacks into middle or upper level
stratas of white society, Ransford describes what is called an
231
"open marketplace" (p. 45) model of status configuration. In this
model, changes in modern day industrial society are taken into
account emphasizing the rational nature of the marketplace. An
open market situation is based on attempting to maximize perfor
mance and rewards, while decreasing emphasis on barriers to
achievements through ascribed status. It is the open market
quality of today’s modern economic situation that has allowed
black mobility to transform from caste like repression to entrance
into the class systems of society. Wilson’s (1978) position
asserting the primacy of class over race in current black mobility
arises from what Ransford terms "one extreme version" of the open
market model.
One extreme version of the "open market" model
suggests that race is but one kind of status
that can be offset by socioeconomic achievement.
That is, an industrial society functioning
rationally will reward performance rather than
skin color. Such an approach leads to the con
clusion that high-status segments of racial
minorities will become an undifferentiated
part of the American middle class, or at least
that skin color and ethnic status will pose no
serious barriers (p. 46).
The "extremity" of Wilson’s position does not arise from his
emphasis on changing social conditions and the newly distinguished
importance of class position in black mobility. Rather, it stems
from a dismissal of the continuing effects of racial social struc
tures interacting as a separate dimension alongside the effects of
class position.
232
An alternative interpretation of the open marketplace model
that Ransford feels is "far closer to reality for the majority of
blacks" (p. 46) encompasses the notion of an interacting system of
race-class effects. It is this ^perspective that most closely
fits the findings of this study in terms ot the ongoing effects of
racial social structures in America today. The details of the
daily lives of the black respondents not only show the effects of
racial social structures on the climb upward, but the continuing
reality of race even after reaching the top. The need to dispel
assumptions of racial inferiority, issues of isolation, and iden
tity, served as extra burdens and pressures even after admission
to practice within major law firms. The black respondents indi
cated, that once they proved to others that they could perform,
they were accepted within the law firms. However, this internal
acceptance that came as a result of achieved performance did not
always extend to clients. Racism still invaded the position of
the black partners where the established range of reputation was
not able to protect them from the ongoing effects of discrimina
tion .
It is these details of the persistent effects of racial
social structures, even at the highest levels of professional
achievement, that give new life to the race-class debate. In
providing a precise anatomy of the ways in which racial social
structures work, the findings of this study nestle into a theoret
ical tradition that underlines the continuing effects of ascribed
233
status even when achievement is high (Kluegel, 1973; Willie, 1982;
Hill, 1978). The open marketplace model assumes that socioecono
mic structures have changed enough to allow black mobility into
upper levels of professional achievement. However, the model
also provides for continuing effects of racial stratification on
the lives of blacks who make it, even to the top of the system.
The Future
One of the most hopeful elements uncovered in this study is
the importance of individuals. Racial social structures are not a
vague term devoid of human content. Instead, they encompass
effects produced on the lives of millions of human beings in this
country. The effects are deep and constant and unfair. But this
study does not only illuminate the personal dimension of those who
feel the brunt of racism in this country. It points to the fact,
as Berger and Luckman put it, that "society is a human product."
(1967, p. 61) In that sense we all become responsible for the
values and choices upon which the society in which we live func
tions. Each one of us lives in social life and has our own
personal effect on social structure. The beginnings of social
change rest within each one of us. The older respondents of this
study made it clear that they were only able to break through
closed racial barriers because of the singularly important acts of
specific individuals. That is how social change occurs. Indi
viduals start it, then others follow. It is inside each of our
234
own moral consciousness to choose the part we will play in society.
Perhaps the major contribution of this study is in making us more
aware. What we do now, will be up to each one of ns.
235
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alderfer, G. P., Alderfer, C. J., Tucker, L., & Tucker, R.
Diagnosing Race Relations in Management. Journal of Applied
Behavioral Science, 1980, 135-166.
Antonovsky, A. A Study of Some Moderately Successful Negroes in
New York City. Phylon, 1967, 246-260.
Armor, D. J. The Double Double Standard: a Reply. The Public
Interest, 1973, 3^, 119-131.
Baker, J. T. Black Lawyers and Corporate and Commercial Practice:
Some Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement. Harvard
Law Journal, 1975, 1^, 685-728.
Baldwin, J. Another Country. New York: Dell Publishing, 1960.
Baron, H. M. Black Powerlessness in Chicago. In N. Yetman & C. H.
Steele (Eds.), Majority and Minority: The Dynamics of Racial
and Ethnic Relations. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1975.
Benfell, C. How Black Lawyers are Doing. Barrister, 1978, 16-20.
Berger, P. L., & Luckman, T. The Social Construction of Reality.
New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1967.
Blackwell, J. Mainstreaming Outsiders: The Production of Black
Professionals. New York: General Hall, Inc., 1981.
Blau, P. M., & Duncan, 0. D. The American Occupational Structure.
New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967.
Brashler, W. The Black Middle Class: Making It. Thé New York
Times Magazine, 1978, Dec., 34-48.
Brown, C. Manchild in the Promised Land. New York: Signet Books,
1965.
Burke, D. J. Law Journal Survey of 50 Largest Firms. The National
Law Journal, 1979, 1-6.
Campbell, B. M. Black Executives and Corporate Stress. New York
Times Magazine, 1982, Dec., 27-35.
Carter, R. L. The Black Lawyer. The Black Law Journal, 1980, 45-56.
236
Cray, E. Blacks and Browns in Blue-Chip Firms. California Lawyer,
1984, 4, 35-39.
Culp, J. Blacks in Prestigious Law Firms. The Black Law Journal,
1981, 7_, 1959-1969. ,
Davis, C. Bitters in the Brew of Success. Black Enterprise, 1977,
Nov., 32-35.
Davis, C, & Watson, C. Black Life in Corporate America. New York:
Anchor Press, 1982.
Douglass, F. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an
American Slave. New York: Signet Books, 1968.
Duncan, 0. D. Inheritance of Poverty or Inheritance of Race? In
D. P. Moynihan (Ed.), On Understanding Poverty. New York:
Basic Books, Inc., 1968.
Edwards, H. T. A New Role for the Black Law Graduate. The Black
Law Journal, 1972, 21-32.
Egerton, J. Black Executives in Big Business. In N. Yetman & C. H.
Steele (Eds.), Majority and Minority: The Dynamics of Racial
and Ethnic Relations. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1975.
Elkin, F. The Child and Society : The Process of Socialization.
Toronto : Random House, 1960.
Frazier, F. Black Bourgeoisie. New York: Free Press, 1957.
Calliher, J. F. Social Scientists’ Ethical Responsibilities to
Superordinates: Looking Upward Meekly. Social Problems, 1980,
27_, 298-308.
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. The Discovery of Grounded Theory :
Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine Publishing
Company, 1979.
Creenberger, R. Black Managers Enter the Ranks of Top Management.
Wall Street Journal, 1981, June, 3-6.
Hannerz, U. Soulside: Inquiries into Ghetto Culture and Community.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
Henderson, B. T. The Earl Warren Legal Training Programs :
Increasing Lawyers in Lhe Black Community. The Black Law Journal,
1980, 122-126.
Hill, R. B. The Illusion of Black Progress. Washington, D.C.:
National Urban League, 1978.
237
Holsendolph, E. Black Executives in a Nearly All-White World.
Fortune, 1972, Sept., 140-151.
Jones, E. W., Jr. What it’s Like to be a Black Manager. Harvard
Business Review, 1973, July, 108-116.
Jordan, V. E., Jr. Black Lawyers Cannot be Relegated to a Profes
sional Ghetto. The Black Law Journal, 1980, 57-61.
Katz, J. Poor People’s Lawyers in Transition. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 1982.
Kluegel, J. R. The Causes and Cost of Racial Exclusion From Job
Authority. American Sociological Review, 1978, 43, 285-301.
Leonard, W. Black Lawyers. Boston: Senna and Shih, 1977.
Levitan, S. A., Johnston, W. B., & Taggart, R. Still a Dream: The
Changing Status of Blacks Since 1960. Cambridge : Harvard
University Press, 1975.
Liebow, E. Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Street Men. Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 1967.
Light, D., & Keller, S. Sociology. New York: Knopf, Inc., 1975.
Lofland, J. Analyzing Social Settings. Belmont : Wadsworth
Publishing Company, Inc., 1971.
Lofland, J. Doing Social Life : The Qualitative Study of Human
Interaction in Natural Settings. New York : John Wiley and Sons,
1976.
McGee, H. W., Jr. The Problems and Promise of Black Men of Law.
The Black Law Journal, 1971, 28-37.
Mead, G. H. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago : The University of
Chicago Press, 1974.
Mills, C. W. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1959.
Moody, A. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York: Dell Publishing
Company, 1968.
Morrow, E. F. Forty Years A Guinea Pig : A Black Man’s View From
The Top t New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1980.
Morrow, J. J. American Negroes - a Wasted Resource. Harvard
Business Review, 1957, 65-74.
238
Munneke, G. A. An Analysis of the Employment Patterns of Minority
Law Graduates. The Black Law Journal, 1980, 153-157.
Nelson, J. I. High School Context and College Plans : The Impact
of Social Structure on Aspirations. American Sociological
Review, 1972, ^7» 143-148.
Pettigrew, T. F., Useem, E. L., Normand, C., & Smith, M. S. Busing:
a Review of "The Evidence." The Public Interest, 1973, ^0^, 88-118.
Phillips, D. L. Knowledge From What? Theories and Methods in
Social Research. Chicago : Rand McNally and Company, 1971.
Porter, J. N. Race, Socialization and Mobility in Educational and
Early Occupational Attainment. American Sociological Review,
1974, 303-316.
Quinn, 0. B. Career Patterns of Black Graduates of Rutgers
University School of Law, Newark, New Jersey. The Black Law
Journal, 1980, 127-145.
Ransford, H. E. Race and Class in American Society. Cambridge:
Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc., 1977.
Ryan, W. Blaming the Victim. New York: Vintage Books, 1971.
Schaefer, R. T. Racial and Ethnic Groups. Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1984.
Schatzman, L., & Strauss , A. Field Research. New Jersey : Prentice
Hall, 1973.
Schuman, H. Free Will and Determinism in Public Beliefs About
Race. In N. Yetman & C. H. Steele (Eds.), Majority and
Minority: The Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Relations. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1975.
Shuman, J. A Black Lawyers Study. Harvard Law, 1971, Ih, 225-262.
Slocum, J. W., Jr., & Strawser, R. H. Racial Differences in Job
Attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1972, 5^, 28-32.
Smith, J. C. Career Patterns of Black Lawyers in the 1980’s. The
Black Law Journal, 1980, 75-82.
Smith, R. R. Great Expectations and Dubious Results : A Pessimistic
Prognosis for the Black Lawyer. The Black Law Journal, 1980,
82-98.
Smith, R. & Preston, F. Sociology: An Introduction. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1977.
239
Smith, T. The Black View. Black Enterprise, 1972, March, 40-50.
Smith, T. Corporate Mobility. Black Enterprise, 1972, March, 35-39.
St. John, N. H. Desegregation and Minority Group Performance.
Review of Educational Research, 1970, Feb., 111-129.
Treas, J. Differential Achievement: Race, Sex and Jobs. Sociology
and Social Research, 1974, i^, 387-400. '
Wadlow, E. For Black Lawyers, It's Lonely at the Top.
Student Lawyer, 1980, 17-19.
Washington, B. T. Up From Slavery. New York: Bantam Books, 1956.
Watson, J. G., & Barone, S. The Self-Concept, Personal Values and
Motivational Orientations of Black and White Managers. Academy
of Management Journal, 1976, 1^, 36-48.
Willie, C. V. The Inclining Significance of Race. Society, 1978, 15,
393-398.
Wilson, J. Q. On Pettigrew and Armor : an Afterword. The Public
Interest, 1973, 132-135.
Wilson, W. J. Power, Racism and Privilege. New York: Free Press,
1973.
Wilson, W. J. The Declining Significance of Race. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Wright, R, Black Boy. New York: Harper and Row, 1937.
240
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
Conceptually similar
PDF
Earnings differences among Black, White and Hispanic males and females: the impact of overeducation, undereducation and discrimination
PDF
A generalized scale for the measurement of attitudes toward international issues
PDF
Differential acceptance of a new role for pharmacists
PDF
Identity change in a therapeutic community
PDF
A comparison of attitudes of university seniors and sales executives toward outside selling, as revealed by clinical interview and questionnaire methods
PDF
Development, validation and testing of a new sensor array for intra-articular pressure measurement: in-vitro human lumbar spine intra-articular facet testing
PDF
The effects of various factors on the academic achievement of Vietnamese students at Gold Coast College
PDF
Student authoring in the American grain
PDF
Realism in the fiction of Frances Burney
PDF
Social factors involved in the success or failure of consumer cooperatives in the United States
PDF
It's only temporary?: The reproduction of gender and race inequalities in temporary clerical employment
PDF
Effects of an intervention approach on the medication prescribing behavior of physicians
PDF
A study of the effect of social status on the degree of class crystallization in an urban community
PDF
The functional gene expression dynamics of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 under various external voltage potentials
PDF
An experimental study of the effect of "human interest" factors on listenability
PDF
Bureaucrats and old clients: dependence, stigma, and negative sentiment in the service relationship
PDF
Convergent morphological evolution in hyenas and dogs: the relationship between form and function
PDF
On the move and in the moment: community formation, identity, and opportunity in South central Los Angeles, 1945-2008
PDF
The effects of centralization and board membership reform on health occupational licensing policies
PDF
Electrophysiological and behavioral activity accompanying self-stimulation (a comparative study of the hypothalamus and septum)
Asset Metadata
Creator
Silbert, Susan
(author)
Core Title
Making it to the top: a study of Black partners in major law firms
School
Graduate School
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Program
Sociology
Degree Conferral Date
1985-03
Tag
OAI-PMH Harvest
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC11256316
Unique identifier
UC11256316
Legacy Identifier
DP31849
Document Type
Dissertation