‘Hear my story’: Giving voice to first-generation lawyers and clerks

Lawyers and law students who come from less privileged backgrounds than their peers face psychological as well as financial barriers, finds MaryAnne Armstrong of Birch, Stewart, Kolasch & Birch.

First-generation lawyers and law students who are the first in their immediate family to attend university and those who come from limited income backgrounds comprise two of the most overlooked groups in the legal industry. This is mainly due to their lack of representation and visibility in the profession.

While these groups are not completely coextensive, there is usually a significant overlap between them. For the purposes of this article, I have borrowed an acronym used in university settings to refer to this group: FGLI (‘first-generation, limited-income’).

New lawyers and law clerks coming from a FGLI background have a unique set of life experiences, which can create barriers to both entry into the field of law and inclusion in their job or law school. An understanding of these experiences and providing support can help turn such barriers into strengths for clerking law students and new attorneys.

Self-reliance

One of the common experiences or characteristics of a new attorney or law student who is coming from a FGLI background is self-reliance. Dane Pascoe, academic advising research and data analyst and FGLI student organisation advisor at the College of William and Mary,  in Williamsburg, Virginia, conducted a study on the life experiences of FGLI students.

The self-reliance (referred to as ‘agency’) of FGLI students was described as the following in Pascoe’s paper The lived experiences of poor and working-class students at a wealthy university (2019).

He wrote: “As a means of achieving success, poor and working-class students used their agency, which primarily meant solving their own problems and taking responsibility for getting things done.

“These students often contrasted themselves with their wealthy peers, who were considered to be overly reliant on their parents. This, to poor and working-class students, often felt like they were adults with stressful and demanding responsibilities while their peers were free to enjoy college.

“Within this contrast, poor and working-class students pursued success by exercising agency in three primary areas of their lives: transitioning to the middle-class, in relationships, and academically.”

Take a look at the story told by Ava, which presents a good picture of the self-reliance of a FGLI student.

She said: “There's a lot of things I hadn't told my parents, to not worry them. Because I felt like, whether or not no one wants to help me, I'm going to make it happen. I don't have the money, they don't have the money. Regardless of whether they know or not, I have to find a way to fix this solution. Them knowing would just be more stress for them. If I can get away with figuring it out before they find out, then that's just what I'm going to have to do. Because at the end of the day, I'm also going to have to go back to talk to financial aid. My parents are not going to drive down and figure it out. They don't have that time. My parents are immigrants. They only have a grasp of what the education system is like back home. My parents have not understood college. I had to do basically every college application, every financial aid form, every personal form, just anything you can think of in the college admission process and all of the paperwork that you have to do yearly for FAFSA [US Federal student financial aid application], I did on my own." id, page 84.

Detrimental behaviour

While self-reliance is often touted as a good trait, this behaviour can also be detrimental to a new attorney coming from a FGLI background.

As new hires, these attorneys may not be asking questions when they should, placing an avoidable unhealthy pressure on themselves, and taking them longer to learn the job.

This may be perceived by the supervising attorney as “just not getting it” and as a tendency for making more mistakes compared to their peers from a middle/upper income, university-educated background.

The supervising attorney may not pick up on the fact that the reason that the new attorney from the non-FGLI background appears to be learning faster is because they are asking more questions, which also results in the non-FGLI attorney building more of a relationship with the supervising attorney.

As a result, new FGLI attorneys may also not feel as included in the law firm culture, adding to their struggles with maintaining a healthy mental wellbeing.  For these reasons, as discussed below, having mentors who also come from a FGLI background and can understand the life experiences of the new attorney is critically important for helping new FGLI attorneys and law clerks to successfully navigate training and work in a law firm or as in-house counsel in a company and at the same time to maintain their mental health.

However, law firms and companies should also appreciate the determination and commitment to work and success that new attorneys and law clerks from a FGLI background bring with them. These attorneys and students have a ‘sink or swim’ attitude because of their life experiences and backgrounds. As students, they had no safety net springing from the attitude: “I will just move back home and figure it out, while a parent(s) supports me.”

If a FGLI student fails in university or law school, usually the only other option is to return to their impoverished background. These students carry that experience with them to their job as an attorney or law clerk, and the work ethos of a person from a FGLI background is generally higher than that of their peers coming from a middle/high income, educated background. This can be an asset to a law firm.

Imposter syndrome

There was a common thread in the responses from FGLI law students at the College of William and Mary. First, FGLI law students often have imposter syndrome, which causes them to question whether their presence in law school is justified and their ability to succeed.

One student, Janelle, described her experience with both imposter syndrome and having a mentor: “The biggest challenge for me was entering an environment full of legal verbiage that I had never previously been exposed to. It felt like most of my peers already had an understanding of what words like torts and jurisprudence meant, as well as pre-existing knowledge about briefs, memos, and what it meant to create an ‘outline.’

“I felt like I was Googling every other word I heard, which definitely contributed to the imposter syndrome I experienced 1L year. Coming into law school, I had support from a professor at my undergraduate institution’s law school. Over the three years I worked as a research assistant for her, she became a mentor to me and gave me advice during the law school application and selection process…she continues to help me achieve my goals by acting as a pillar of support for me. She never hesitates to jump on a phone call with me to discuss anything I need help working through.”

Another story, courtesy of Jacob, is both inspiring and eye-opening in terms of understanding the experiences of FGLI law students—experiences they will carry with them as new attorneys.

“I am a first-generation law and college student. I put myself through college and worked part-time and full-time to get to law school with no student loans…I came here with an idea that I wanted to specialise in constitutional law and argue at the Supreme Court—that was the dream.

“Then came 1L year. The fall semester was a breeze, but 1L winter break and spring semester were awful. For me, law school was a war, and by spring I was losing. The mental element and the imposter syndrome were the most difficult thing for me, and I think for most first-generation students…I was homesick in a place where I felt I didn’t belong, with people who were so different from me. There were people here and in my small section who had been paralegals, or who had parents or family members who were lawyers, and just knew things and had connections I don’t think I will ever have.

“By March and April, imposter syndrome had taken me totally: law school had burned me out, and I still had two months to go. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to drop out. I thought if this work and this environment was going to be the rest of my life, I did not want it.

“I hated every minute of classes, every networking function, everything law-related. I found myself always asking for help and for clarification, and I felt incompetent. Professors would say they were happy to help, and that’s it’s our job to help, but it felt like they had to say that at that point.

“But that spring, we matched to legal mentors in their actual workplace, and I met my mentor (our programme calls them co-counsel). My mentor was also a first-generation student, like me, and worked in public service. And I felt like finally someone understood and really could help me. She was great—she pushed me, made things seem more manageable, and told me that I did belong here.

“With her help and the advice and help of a few friends and family, I decided to finish the semester. My plan was to work over the summer at my local prosecutor’s office and decide after that experience if I was going to return to law school or stop.

“That summer was the most life-changing experience. I met another great legal mentor—the prosecutor whom I was assigned to throughout the summer—who was an amazing legal advocate and litigator, and just a kind and caring human to be around.

“She was such a great role model and mentor who believed in me and gave me the chance to do the real work and the real job that litigators and prosecutors do. My summer job gave me courtroom experience, confidence, and a new mentor. These things pretty much cured my feeling of imposter syndrome. With the advice from my mentors, I got a new vision of what I wanted to be: a great litigator.

“And to achieve this new vision and new goal, I had to work and focus inward on developing litigation skills and being better at my craft and not so focused on the ideals and thoughts of others.”

Conclusion

In doing research for this article, three messages consistently emerged:

1. Many new FGLI lawyers and law students struggle with imposter syndrome

This is exacerbated by seeing their counterparts from university-educated and middle-or upper-economic tier households who seem to know the academic answers as well as how to interpret and respond to the subtle social cues during interactions with peers and supervisors.

1. Mentors are critical

Having someone believe in you when you do not know how to believe in yourself can lead to the success of a young lawyer, law clerk or law student, while the lack of a mentor can result in that same intelligent, qualified and capable lawyer or student failing. Experienced attorneys (especially those of us coming from a FGLI background) have a responsibility to mentor new attorneys and law clerks coming from this unique background, with an empathy and understanding of the unique life experiences of these new attorneys and students.

1. Most FGLI attorneys had to work while in university and law school and largely figure things out on their own

As a result, they didn’t have the time to be engaged in the same number of social and career-focused organisations as many of their peers. Instead of discounting a resume because it lacks a near perfect grade point average (GPA), we need to look deeper and see what else is listed on the resume and cover letter. If a FGLI law student a firm is considering for a clerkship does not have a perfect GPA and was not on the Law Review, it is likely that they were working while attending law school.

We, as attorneys already established in the profession, need to hear the voices of these new attorneys and law students. We need to understand how their life experiences have shaped them and we need to support them as they enter their careers.

MaryAnne Armstrong is a partner at Birch, Stewart, Kolasch & Birch. She lectures around the world on patent issues and has completed a certification in diversity and inclusion with Cornell University. She can be contacted at MAA@bskb.com