Yolanda Young, Huffington Post
- This week, Attorney General nominee, Eric Holder Jr., will probably be confirmed by the Senate. It is a historic moment and one that Holder has seemingly been working towards for much of his career. He has served as a US Attorney for the District of Columbia and a Deputy Attorney General–the first African American, incidentally, in either position. Simply stated, I am proud of him. My admiration, although sincere, is not without its complexity.
Mr. Holder’s time as a litigation partner at Covington & Burling LLP coincided with the period I chronicled in an essay entitled, “Law firm segregation reminiscent of Jim Crow,” for The Huffington Post. An abridged version appears below.
“Blacks at Covington comprise less than 5% of the Washington office’s partners and associates, but make up 30% of its staff attorneys, the non-partner track lawyers who handle the menial legal tasks that associates shun. While paralegals have their own offices, as many as ten staff attorneys share windowless file rooms. Segregated from other lawyers in the firm, we go uninvited to attorney-only firm functions and are not provided jury duty or maternity leave…
