This is an email from “Stephanie” regarding her trifling boss.

“I hope you put this on your site.  My boss qualifies as a dirty legal industry person.  I am a solo-practitioner now, but I used to work for [.......] for almost ten years.  During that time, there was a secretary, named “Mary”, who was a part-time evening law student and worked full-time during the day at the firm.  We were about the same age and we got along well.  We weren’t best friends, but I helped her with a few of her classes, her bar exam prep, and gave her pep talks.  I remembered how difficult law school was for me so I was willing to help her.  By the time I left the firm to focus on my practice full-time, she was waiting on her bar exam results.  We kept in touch via email once in a while.  I learned that she was offered a position as a staff attorney at the firm.  We both knew that she didn’t have the kind of academic performance required by the firm for that position.  She got the job because she already worked there.  I am a single mother with a school-aged child.  My practice isn’t bringing in regular business like it was before.  So, I decided to do a document review project until things pick up.  Well, the project is at the firm where I used to work and “Mary” is the attorney in charge of the project.  Recently, the clients visited the firm and walked in the area where all of the document reviewers were working with “Mary”.  There are only twenty of us working on this project.  Well, while “Mary” and the clients were standing there, “Mary” told the clients: “This is what attorneys that don’t pay attention in law school end up doing.”  Of course, everyone heard what she said and was pissed about it.  I was even more offended because I knew that Mary herself was on academic probation during law school and would never had been granted the opportunity to even interview for her position let alone be offered employment.   She has no clue what others had to go through.  She’s been working at this firm since she graduated high school.  She would be clueless if she had to go out on her own and try to find a job.  Let’s face it, being a staff attorney in charge of document review projects is not going to get you hired as an associate.   I just had to get that off of my chest.”

I’m sharing this email that I just received from an anonymous Dirty LAWndry reader.

“I have a confession to make.  I work for  a large firm and I was recently promoted from a staff attorney position to an associate because I’m white.  I’ve only worked for the firm for about two years.  I started as a contract attorney, and then I was hired as a staff attorney after 8 months.   At this firm, if you’ve been a staff attorney for at least 1 year and an associate position becomes available, then you can apply for it.  The Senior staff attorney makes the hiring decision.  They say that the Senior staff attorney only makes a recommendation and then a partner either approves or disapproves, but you only have one interview with the Senior staff attorney.

So, when the associate position became available, I was encouraged by the Senior staff attorney to apply.  He told me that they were looking to fill two or three spots.  There were three other staff attorneys that were eligible to apply.  One of them - “Max” - said he had applied previously years ago but was told that due to his grades in law school he couldn’t be offered the position.  The other two - let’s call them “Jane” and “John” - were not told about the position right away.  When the Senior staff attorney told me about the position, it hadn’t been emailed to everyone yet.  He told me about it two weeks before the email was sent by the firm.  I am the one who told “Jane” and “John” about it.  I assumed that the Senior staff attorney told them too, but he didn’t.  This was kind of awkward because both “Jane” and “John” were hired as staff attorneys and had been with the firm longer than I had, and this was the first time that an associate position had opened up since they started.

On the morning of the interview, the Senior staff attorney saw me in the break room and told me that I had nothing to worry about.  “Jane” and “John” had their interviews before I did.  I was able to speak to them afterwards.  They both said that their interviews went well, but they weren’t sure what the outcome would be.  I didn’t really know much about “John” so I couldn’t say what his qualifications are.  But, “Jane” and I graduated from the same law school.  She was a couple of years ahead of me, but I remembered her because she was always in the school paper receiving some award or another.  She graduated summa cum laude and was an editor for one of the law reviews.  I didn’t graduate with any honors.  My G.P.A was only a 2.8 and I didn’t participate in law review or any other activity.  So, I figured “Jane” had a pretty good shot at one of the openings.  When I had my interview, the Senior staff attorney pretty much just told me what to expect as an associate and what my responsibilities would be.  He really didn’t ask me any interview questions.

About two weeks after the interview, the firm sent an email to everyone welcoming me as the new associate.  Apparently, “Jane” and “John” weren’t offered a position.  The associates and staff attorneys do not work on the same floor.  After I cleaned off my desk, I went into the Senior staff attorney’s office to let him know I was leaving and to say thanks for his recommendation.  It was during this time that I learned that he only recommended me because I was white.  “Jane” is a black woman. “John” is Asian.  The Senior staff attorney was making inappropriate statements about never hiring “n-s”.  He said that even though “John” is Asian, he’s still a “n” and that Asian “n-s” just thought they were better than the other “n-s” and that just because they bleach their skin they weren’t white.

So, I’m not sure what to do.  The partner that approved my position seems to be close to the Senior staff attorney.  I’ve heard them making offensive jokes when it’s only white people around them.   Meanwhile, there is one more associate position to fill and the only two eligible staff attorneys left are “Jane” and “John.”

Dirty….. Speak on it, people!