My Introduction to Big Law

Ever since I was a child, I've wanted to be a lawyer. The idea was enchanting to me, as I wanted to help people. Unfortunately however, my idea of what that looked like changed once I realized that my law school education would not be paid for, as my undergraduate experience was. And so, the conversations about big law began. I became a member of the SEO Law program, where I experienced for myself what “Big Law” was and what it could mean for my future. In eight we, and I was not even making the full amount other Summer Associates were making, as SEO Law Fellows were paid less than the other Summers.

The Salary Game

Through SEO, I learned that making $205,000 out of law school was not only possible, but it was possible for me as a Black woman. As of this week, making $215,000 within my first year of law school is the new reality. Over the last month, these top firms have been playing the matching game as law students who are in debt like me watch from the sidelines, with their eyes peeled on the constantly increasing salary raises. Why am I constantly checking the raises? When I graduate from law school I will be in debt, as will be the case for most of my classmates. But the difference between me and some of my classmates is that some of their parents are partners at the very law firms I want to work at, and some of them even have trust funds. The difference between me and them is that they grew up with a path into this Big Law world, a world they may not have to enter as a result of their generational wealth. Now as for me and my Black classmates, we have to work harder from the beginning. We have to make these connections to even learn about these spaces, then we go through the application process with everyone else. Why? Because our lives quite literally depend on it .

The Numbers

The National Center for Education Statistics states that African American college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than white college graduates.Four years after graduation, 48% of Black students owe an average of 12.5% more than they borrowed and 29% face monthly student loan payments of $350 or more. The Brookings Institution further estimates that on average, Black college graduates owe $52,726 in student debt while white college grads owe closer to $28,006.https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/es_20161020_scott-clayton_evidence_speaks.pdf And what happens if these students, already crippled with thousands of dollars of debt, now want to go to law school or another profession school? They go, because it is their dream, and their parent's dream, and their grandparents’ dream. And while they are there, at these institutions that couldn’t care less about their dreams and only their money, they rack up even more debt.

The Importance of "Prestige"

I have to acknowledge that I come from a place of privilege. I graduated debt free from my undergraduate institution, as a result of a full tuition merit scholarship. Had I not received that scholarship, I would not have attended Howard University. However, I did and now I am a 2021 graduate of the Mecca. When it was time to choose a law school, I used a different line of reasoning as I was told time and time again that the ranking of the school mattered in starting my legal career. I was constantly told that lower ranked schools would make it more difficult for me as a young attorney, especially because I am a Black woman. So I picked the higher ranked school, because I wanted to make sure I could have all the resources possible available to me.

What Those Numbers Mean for Me

Unfortunately choosing a higher ranked school places me in an interesting situation. Luckily, I am excited to be doing the work I will be doing this summer at a law firm. I will get the training needed to leave big law and go do what I really want to do. While I am unsure what that looks like as of right now, I am sure of the fact that the “average Black household has about 1/13th the wealth of the average white household. And if you view student loan debt as negative wealth, as money that could have been used to save for wealth or to purchase a home or to invest in the stock market to accumulate wealth, that potential wealth is now used to repay loans.” I will always be steps behind my white counterparts because of the way the system works, and to even try to get past them, I will have to take financial risks they may not need to.

The Bottom Line

After four or five years at a firm, perhaps I will have paid my student loans off with the help of scholarships and strict budgeting. Unfortunately, I will have wasted time just so I can pay back the government for an education I am not even enjoying. Now, whether or not I believe I am getting a better education here at Columbia Law School for thousands of dollars than that of the education I would have gotten at Howard University School of Law for free, is a topic for another day. Furthermore, it does not matter what I think, only what those interviewing me think. As a result, I am afraid I have been convinced that if an applicant's name does not mention the "T14", the application may not get a second glance. That is why for minorities, not choosing a Big Law firm may not be as easy of an option to make, as life changing money to offset debt for the prestige of an institution is more than appealing.

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