Kappa alpha rated and also a mentor pursuing the esquire thank you for joining us tonight for episode 4 of our panel series d9 brothers in law please do not forget to tune in next week at 7 o’clock p.m. for a last and final panel of this month’s series next week’s
Episode will feature entertainment lawyers currently practicing in New York and also Los Angeles I know we have a large interest Entertainment Law so I hope you all are able to join us mom please also follow us on social media if you haven’t already our Instagram page is at pursuing esq and we
Also recently started our YouTube page which is pursuing the Esquire all of our past panels have been uploaded so be sure to check those out and now I will turn it over to our founder miss Danielle Hardy to introduce our panelists thank you so much Alicia
And welcome everyone to episode 4 of our legal life line series I’m so excited to have our fraternity brothers on tonight as if you tuned in last week you saw that we had a chance to talk to 40 members which was a great conversation I do see that some of them have joined
Tonight thank you so much for tuning in and we’ll go ahead and get started with the introductions so first up representing Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity incorporated is Melvin Allen he’s originally from Arkansas he went to school for elementary in middle school in California and graduated from Brook Point High in Stafford Virginia
He’s been a member of Alpha Phi Alpha since 2001 and was in the theta iota Chapter graduated from Radford University in Radford Virginia and obtained his master’s degree from Radford as well he attended and graduated University of Baltimore for Law School he was the Prince George’s County District Court judicial law clerk
In 2009-2010 he were in the assistant state’s attorney office as well in Prince George’s County he was also an associate at the law office of James E farmer and he opened his own practice and has been practicing with his firm since 2019 where he focuses on personal injury and criminal defense welcome
Melvin hello everyone representing Kappa Alpha Tsai is Xavier Lightfoot he’s a labor and employment attorney who spends most of his time advising employers on workforce education safety reduction lead and liability during the koban pandemic his practice areas include employment law commercial litigation and personal injury welcome Xavier up next representing
Omega sci-fi is Doron Hayes Geron was born and raised in New Jersey where he graduated from North Carolina Central University in North Carolina for his bachelor’s in 2017 Doron graduated with his JD from Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte North Carolina and following Law School he served as judicial law
Clerk for the Honorable Karen H Mason in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County Maryland shortly after that Geron has started his career as an assistant state’s attorney for the Prince George’s County Maryland area where he handles criminal matters welcome drawn up next represent up next representing iota Phi
Theta is Darius Brown Darius is a member of Nixon Peabody’s financial restructuring and bankruptcy practice group where his practice spans a broad range of matters including corporate reorganizations and restructurings mergers and acquisitions export control and compliance and general corporate transaction Darius was born in Florida and raised in Texas and after high
School he joined the United States Marine Corps serving in both the infantry and presidential security unit after his active duty service he moved to Massachusetts and attended the University of Massachusetts Boston graduating in 2014 and he joined the Massachusetts Army National Guard at the completion of his service Darius attended South University School
Of Law and is a member and State Director for Massachusetts of iota Phi Theta thank so much for joining us serious thank you so much Brava me getting me number one so we’re gonna get started and chat with our panelists a little bit and it’s such
A pleasure to have a panel full of male attorneys this week because our viewers it’s important for our viewers to have representation we’ve been talking about that every week in our panel series about the importance of representation so if we could get started and start with Melvin if you could share with the
Viewers what inspired you to become a lawyer well I have a have a deep history and alpha and my family so when I was in elementary and middle school I had the ability to go onto the campus of Arkansas State University in and hang out and with with cousins elder cousins
Of mine and kind of see the light about early songs probably predisposed notwithstanding that I knew I was going to be a lawyer living in the state of California during the OJ Simpson trial during that time I you know I knew I want to be probably a next Johnny
Cochran and and there was a lot of things going on during that period but I was inspired by by OJ Simpson trial and Johnnie Cochran during that period II and then moving to Virginia and into campus of Radford University and Virginia Tech I was impressed further
With the Alpha men on that campus and then best went on my third semester in college I’m there after you know went after the light and became alpha so went from my family to them being further inspired in college and then perhaps with the OJ Simpson trial I know in
California has led me all the way to you know plus 20 years later being still on this road Wow you know that’s such a pivotal case that you know they still mention in law school today as a reference or I appreciate you referencing that because that’s such an important case for a lot
In the community Xavier you could share necks with us um yeah sure and can you all hear me yes okay good as far as you know what inspired me it’s a little different I grew up in Columbus Georgia and Macon Georgia and you know for me I don’t have anybody in my family
Who’s an attorney or anything like that but growing up I had an interest in reading want to share with folks everything that rich folks kind of plugged it in my ear hey you know you’re gonna grow up and be a lawyer I didn’t think much of it but you know when I was
Going into college I went to East Carolina University which is in Eastern North Carolina and I was in college I was trying to figure out what I was going to major it felt like you know business was something that would serve me well because I couldn’t do science so
I wasn’t gonna be a doctor anything like that but as I was doing that I had the opportunity meet individual who was in his third year of law school at North Carolina Central University at the time and he became a mentor for me and he kind of helped me understand that
There’s a lot of different things you can do with a legal degree you don’t have to you know go in the courtroom if you don’t want to like what you see on TV um and kind of open my eyes to see different things and so I’m just you
Know being exposed to someone who was going through law school at that time Raymond you know has more more information and just insight at the product it got me into looking and it was having a mentor from with the law school in helping the open minds to all the different turn
The types of attorneys that you can become I mean you know now today I am a trial attorney but that certainly you know got me going in the right direction I’ve wanted to be be an attorney and go to law school so that was my inspiration
Thank you so much for that you’re on it you could share with us your story a skier yes yes so for me my is kind of similar to Xavier it was more so I didn’t I don’t have any attorneys in my family I’m the first attorney of my
Family however most of the things that kind of spearheaded me in a direction of law was conversation I had with my father early on growing up I was always big into like politics and history I’m I’m a nerd at heart so with that being said my
Dad was like well you know I think things that like growing up in a black community kind of like it bothered you a lot things that are unfair to us things that are not just in our community so he said in order to join politics and in
Order to like change law change policy you have to join it so that was one of the things that would think about as I grew older starting out I know my sister wasn’t my sister and I were situated apart she pursued law a pharisee end up
Going that route with her career but I kind of my sister was a big inspiration of my life especially when it came to education so I kind of picked up where she left off and I just kept continue to carry the torch as far as like pursuing
A degree in law when I got to North Carolina Central University I found out that my HBCU is one of the few HBCU that has that have a law school and only that is just more so that we we have a prominent law school many of the state
Legislators and politicians that come on in North Carolina actually graduated from North Carolina so truth rule of law so that’s one of the things that kind of led me in a direction another thing is more so once I started interning and Prince George’s County after my first year of law school I
Noticed that while so many black attorneys by judges out here it’s kind of something that you really it’s like a unknown normally see that many black judges and black lawyers and one concentrated area so that was really exciting growing up my parents they had a few legal cases due to personal injury
Slip-and-fall car accident cases and I always noticed that a lot of their attorneys in South Jersey were white there’s not really many black attorneys that come out of South Jersey that I know of this is kind of off topic and I’m not trying to rant but my first my
First dentist was a dentist out here in Prince George’s County it just shows that there’s not really many black people and big in like corporate America are big professions like law medicine outside of this area so that’s one of the things I actually kind of continues
To push me to you know be a black male figure not just a black male figure but black law attorney in the profession thank significant and the representation is why we’re doing this you know with politics that are out there about the lack of diversity in this profession
It’s so important that we’re able to provide that representation for members of our community because oftentimes they don’t see us they don’t see us in the courtroom they don’t see us in the boardrooms and but we are there we just need more visibility so we appreciate
You being a part of it and Darius if you could share with us your inspiration sure thank you so my inspiration started right after military service I was looking for a career that had vast you know sort of area to grow in similar to the military where you’re able to do a
Wide range of jobs and I thought you know that’s similar to the other panelists that in the legal field there’s only one type of lawyer which was a trial attorney or in the courtroom I had no idea that you know IP intellectual property law was a family law transactional law even bankruptcy
Were areas of law that you know were available so my grandmother who’s also here with us today one of my grandmother she’s turning out in California and I’ve got to speaking with her and there was another gentleman at Phillips I was there working as a security guard and he
Was an IP attorney and he got to talking to me about what his job was in particular different than a trial attorney and all the other areas and you know different law firms I had no idea that they were am 100 and am 200 and all these different acronyms and little
Hairston knowledgeable about so after doing research you know that is what really drove that drug that that motivation to get in the law school to take the LSAT even before then just kind of speak with other attorneys and but I really think you know my grandmother and and that those attorneys at Phillips
Those IP attorneys that sort of gave me the the true insight besides what I’m a saw on TV you know I can watch suits all day but it was that the accurate representation of law no so that really was the motivating force behind it was that need for a new career that new
Field that adrenaline rush that a lot of veterans tend to you know seek where can I find that even outside of the courtroom because I know a lot of times you know even in even in our practice the trial attorneys are the superstars you know so we you tend to you know only
Think that that is the only route to go but I found that you know I have that same adrenaline fuel you know going even on the transactional side and I’ve had some time in the court and that and that’s and that’s that’s really kept me motivated to continue going even in the
Midst of law school in other days and you want to kind of stop close the book and call it a day so that really was the driving force behind me absolutely and thank you for sharing that as well I think sometimes I know when I’ve spoken to students before like you they weren’t
Aware of just the vast areas of law that you’re able to practice in and for in-house or support for it no it’s not as flashy as the courthouse or the courtroom but I like to say were the superheroes without the Cape so we definitely are needed these days so to
Continue the conversation because each of you touched on the lack of representation when you were pursuing law school and eventually taking the bar become a licensed attorney a couple of panels ago and our judges panel for those who tuned in our Judge Scott Carrington had mentioned the disparity
Of black men in the legal profession today according to the American American Bar Association there’s only five percent of african-american attorneys in the hire legal profession of those 5% only 2% are black men I want to speak to each of the panelists about how we can as a community of black legal professionals
As a community just as a black community in general how can we encourage black men to pursue a career in the legal profession and if we could start with Darius door you know I think the very first thing to do is the those who are practicing mrs. black man is as black
Attorneys we have to help law students and in those that are aspiring to get into the legal profession we have to help break that stigma that this is not a field that we belong in that is it’s a field that requires some high level of say intelligence or some high level of
Some type of right that was given to you through birth or something that your skin color alone just won’t allow you to be amongst you know your peers and in the legal community I know for me that was the biggest fear that I had was do I
Belong here and once I found you know I look to the left or right of me I’m starting to see more people of color and then I started to see more people who look just like me as an african-american now that eliminated the stigma that I
Didn’t belong there I know that you know a law school lawyers tend to have this sort of presence that they are the smartest person in the room and we’re and we just have all this knowledge when you know in fact it’s about the ability to go find that knowledge about that
Ability to research a topic and then come up with a you know applicable argument or take you say a multi-million dollar case or even a small case and and be able to see it through to the to the finished minor to that deal that is a
Stigma as well as we tend to think that we only belong in the courtroom sometimes because we tend to have this stigma placed on us or this this improper view on us that we’re argumentative and things and we have to erase that and the moment we erase that
I think is the moment that we start to see more of our peers more of our people going to the legal cause and actually practice so I think it’s definitely on us who are in the field to help erase that stigma of you don’t belong here there’s other
Areas of the law and in here let me invite you into what I do you know absolutely and that was very well said Xavier if you could share with this next sure I’ll say that you know I think another thing is that you know people are black
Me and are interested and black women are interested in practicing law I think one of the thing that trips a lot of people up is once you have to do to get to law school right I mean and what I mean by that is you know a lot of these
Schools they want you to have a certain GPA coming out of undergraduate LSAT score and there’s been studies done and there’s research on this that shows who’s that you know but black folks typically or traditionally have scored lower than their white counterparts on these standardized tests and you know
When you’ve got certain you know measurables that are barriers to your entry into law school that can that can trip you up before you know anything and so it’s kind of getting around that one thing that I went to North Carolina Central School long and one thing that
Central does is Central has what’s called a performance-based admission program and it squares people who you know have been out of school for many years I mean just going back to law school or going to loss for folks who you didn’t do so well on the LSAT or
Don’t have a high GPA they give you an opportunity to come in for two weeks throughout the summer and prove to them that you can do the work and and you know in that program do you do some of the work that you would experience as a law school student and if you’re
Successful then you’re admitted to the fall class for that year and and so that’s a way that kind of helps those folks who do have lower LSAT scores or lower GPA to kind of show that you know you have the intellectual aptitude to do the work and you got the work that and
You know you borders are not a true representation of who you are and your grades are not a true representation of you know what success you can have in law school I’ll be completely honest with you I mean I had a horrible GPA coming out of
Undergrad and a lot of that was probably attributable to joining a fraternity but that’s what that’s what it was um I didn’t I didn’t have the best stats for work either but central gave me opportunity to go through feedback I did well and I mean when I was in central I
Did very well I graduated with honors near the top of my class and you know it it hasn’t been an indicator of me performing well in the profession or passing the bar so I think you know you gotta try to work around those those barriers and it may be that we’ve got to
Talk to folks who are interested in going to law school a lot early in middle school in elementary and letting them know that hey you know if you want to set yourself up for success and you are gonna have to have a good GPA you
Are gonna have to have a good LSAT score score and you know you do want to study for that and trained for that LSAT they kind of avoid those issues but I think that’s something that we can work on so that way we can have greater representation absolutely I think that’s
A fantastic program that central does because you know I think sometimes a barrier for people is saying I’m not a good test taker right and that’s not you know an indication of whether or not you’re gonna be a great lawyer so I think that is a really great program
That central has for the students um Alvin if you could share with us next yes well first of all I think I want to respect the question thank you think it’s a great one but it’s also for me amazingly deep I want to answer the question with the
With the premise and understand that I think that we as the people are behind also want to answer with the question with with understanding that the that I think that the system for sure is not indicative of what our people can accomplish but there is a system out
There in place that especially as a relates to law school admittance is out there and it is uh it is uh it’s a typical system to overcome if you think about the LSAT or if you think about the the pre-admission Law School test and then the first-year law school and then
You know their after graduation maybe okay but then what traffic’s it takes to perhaps pass the bar and and then passing the bar and then the character stuff so whatever your life was beforehand since high school was all that play I mean that’s a lot of
Landmines that you can if I may but I want to answer the question how do we perhaps enhance our exposure well I think one of the things well if you think about how society American society is this it’s it’s it’s it’s in it we’re in a place where if I’m a certain even
If I’m a trash man or I’m a plumber well most likely when I when I teach my seat whoever they may be that person if they’re kind of in seeing their parents which is kind of the way American society goes then they’re predisposed to being bats for perhaps of what the older
Generation is and I think when I say we’re behind I want to say that with understanding that well I have a bunch of a few friends that have their fathers as lawyers when I speak to them you know I get an understanding on how they’re a
Little bit ahead and and me being a first generation allure I see how it was see how and why it was very difficult to to go through this journey to get to wherever we may think we are but how do we do better I think we have to focus on the younger
Generation because we have to find a way to get hope instilled early I told you how I was somehow and still buy buy a lot of other things but I remember a lot of distractions which could have put me in a way in a circumstance where grace would not have
Work a grace prevailed for me but I definitely could have been in a situation on time or to where you know work perhaps forbidding me from being a lawyer so I heard my brother speak about how even when we got to college well I experienced the same thing while
Pledging in my third semester so we off track for GPA so somehow even if you decide to go in a national paralytic council even if you are good and great you perhaps will receive a nick in your GPA just based on you being desiring to
Be good at everything you want to be so how do we get to the hope I mean think about all the things that’s going on in the world today I can tell you that when I graduated in the year 2000 I thought that some of the things that we’re
Experiencing today and year 2020 would be impossible I thought that somehow based on all of the things me trying to be just criminal justice major master all these things that I was studying about and we were learning about you know really the beginning of DNA and how
DNA has caused many of our people to be Carla wrongly accused in innocence projects and how many of programs work and don’t work there were so many things going on in around 20 years ago so that even right now when we’re talking about black folks and College Admission and I
Remember being it on the campus of Gref University of Virginia Tech how during every year and I was over there for a period of six years I wasn’t impressed with how black attendance actually increased in both campuses how either Virginia Tech or a rapper we were
Fighting to get a monument on DC we were fighting that either Virginia Tech or Radford University even acknowledged Martin Luther King’s birthday and I’m like okay well 2020 they’ll be weird why are we fighting 20 years ago to acknowledge Martin’s birthday on the campus at all times I’m thinking about how to
Fight and increase our people and even at this point I am a trial lawyer I happen to be in civil and criminal law and the trials are numerous just because of being a prosecutor so these folks are mentioned judge Mason judge Hill well I clerked and worked underneath
Them in the beginning of my career so it’s interesting you speak about them those are very close so so I don’t have all the answers in this I like I told you was a deep and complex answer but to me overall we have to find a way to
Inspire early because by the time you happenstance figure to get to whatever point we’re thinking about interest in law if it gets to around the time you’re in college most of the time that’s too late most of the time because you have it thought about how to focus on your
GPA and all these other things which are important because if you don’t get your your pre-law school examination test up high enough then you need to focus on your GPA and so part of me even going to grad school was to ensure that I can get into the law school that I
Wanted to and we talked about these programs well guess what I’m one of those recipients of going to a program at University of Baltimore where I had to show for two two weeks that I was worthy of doing whatever they told me to do and I did that other options opened
Up and I still went to the University of Baltimore but it is those things that are important for our people to have opportunity once being even open to the chance once getting into college to the end there after fighting scrap to do the law thing and then there’s still this
Other thing about the financial burden and it takes to get to live how long it takes to even overcome those stains and then you know the government versus the corporate circumstance even overcome that so it’s a tricky circumstance for us absolutely it is and I think going
Back to Xavier point with the central program to me the program that you are in I think more schools should take advantage of that to give another alternative to increase no diversity and this their student body especially in predominantly white institutions in this country so that’s very very important
Geron if you could share sure first off I would like to say that I came in through a bridge program as well as Charlotte School of Law it was called the import program during that program we had to take two classes one was Fourth Amendment which is under the
Bridge of criminal law from a procedure the next the next class was negotiable instruments which is under commercial law as our transaction law as we know so I’m not missing an honest test taker so that was one of the things actually helped me out and again I went to a PWI
For a law school although I went to North Carolina Central for undergrad and that was one of the ways master our school of law increases diversity was through the bridge program where the import program for wood from which is called but to answer the question I had
I believe the best way to increase black not just black attorneys but black militaries is to introduce the topic as early as possible with that being said is again I’m from South Jersey although I wasn’t raised in the urban community and my parents fortunate enough we were
Able to reach my sister and I are in a small Township very small town consulting but it’s right outside of one of the most dangerous are two of the most dangerous cities in the nation one being I grew up 10 minutes outside of Philadelphia but I grew up right down
The street four blocks away from Camden New Jersey typically is considered the top ten more dangerous cities if not number one from year to year if not every other year every few years but with that being said some of the people that live in the area from which I come from their earliest
Introduction to to the legal room is the criminal justice system and I’m not talking about the good side either I’m talking about they have family members uncles mom dads cousins brothers and sisters that are they get introduced to the criminal justice system through being locked up and going getting convicted of
A crime something like that side note our side story real quick I was working in Camden New Jersey as a teenager I was a camp counselor at first I’m a youth program called urban promise and I was dealing with middle schoolers my middle schooler his name never forget
His name the name is bebo he was a Puerto Rican he had an ankle monitor on his seventh grade so his whole family mom dad brothers and sisters all of them went through the criminal justice system so with that being said is not only do we introduce
This the legal filter people early to introduce the positive side bring positive people bring lawyers into the conversation show them that being in the legal field could be a good thing yeah and just being having an honest candid conversation with these people because a lot I read an article within
Like the last year and a year and a half that said that in a black community all we do is push when we talk about college and professional schooling we push the easiest career fields and I’m not that’s not like a shot against any career field like Social Work or mass communication
But Milan to North Carolina Central University that was one of the biggest career shows that everyone wanted everyone chose but when it comes to a arduous program like a difficult program I don’t think it’s really one of those of similar to eye medicine or the legal career our law engineering such as a
Program that are a lot of North Carolina A&T students are introduced to early on and most of their students go there and come up with a significant degree and they have significant prominent careers so the thing we have to push it not only that the legal fill is necessary it’s
Worth it but it’s not going to be easy either so like stop just pushing us as black attorneys and as black people and these prominent professors we have to push the fact that their career is worth good and but it’s not easy at the same
Time and I think we have to change that narrative absolutely absolutely that was a really great one and I think one grade that I heard through equal do you’re experiencing where your opinions was that you know it’s not enough piece to have representation representation and timing of that representation is
Important because I think if we are able to the students at a young age expose them to a positive member of the legal profession that they may not see on TV or they may not see in the news or around them then that can at least inspire something in them to want to
Further research or want to see that it’s a possibility you know for them as well so transitioning over to a a related topic to representation and mentorship so this organization pursuing the myth the Esquire was founded in order to support aspiring minority lawyers get to and through law school to
Diversify the legal profession and a big part of our organization is our mentorship program so if each of you could share just the importance of mentorship to you and how it’s been helpful in your career and if we could start with Chris Dodd one he is representing Phi Beta Sigma he is now
Joining us welcome Kristin the conversation if you could kind of share with us the importance of mentorship see you Thank You Daniel I appreciate it so mentorship is very important especially as a young attorney you’re gonna go into a field that is based on referrals right so it’s really about
People knowing you and being able to put you in contact with people that may be in the same area be doing the same things that you want to do so having a mentor that actually you can talk to you figure out what you want to do and kind
Of point you in that right direction is very important also as far as mentors another reason that you need to have a mentor I think and rely on the mentor is that they’ve been through some of the situation’s you’re going to go through whether it’s changing a career or
Whether it’s figuring out how to deal with coworkers trying to figure out as far as like you know what things you need to work on as far as in the career like writing or negotiations or those various strategies that will help you become more successful and a more accomplished
Attorney not necessarily in a financial sense but actually being comfortable in your skin and doing the work in whatever area of law that is mentors will help you with that so I was fortunate that my mentor was actually one of my professors and she I was kind of conflicted because
I had I was in an okay position because when I was in law school I actually worked at a law firm his legal secretary and then as a clerk and so I I didn’t have to go through a lot of the trials and tribulations as far as finding a job
Trying to get the firm job or working with other organizations to figure out what I wanted to do during my second year or after law school I had a nice situation and my profession I she knew I wanted to work in the community and do something related to helping people and
She was very very direct with me when she would tell me that look you this opportunity working in the firm while it might not be what you want to do you ain’t you can actually parlay that and take some of the experiences that you get from there the training and things
And actually become a better attorney and then when you feel like you can be a better asset to the to the public interest from do that transition and they made a lot of sense to me no but you was great was I would have necessarily
Expected to be my mentor when I went to law school but our relationship developed and she really became a mentor and kind of like a mother figure to me it really helped me navigate the pitfalls of law school and also the beginning stages of my career so if I
Were to talk about mentor and those would be two very important reasons and I think everybody should have a mentor one is to provide you with the guidance that you might not necessarily that you might not necessarily think you need but just from having those conversations with somebody you’ll
Figure it out and the like I said the second is also just to make sure that you know when you’re going into law you’ve somebody that’s been there and can put you in the right situations with the right people that can actually help you along to become a better lawyer
Absolutely and I similar to you I’ve been fortunate in the fact that I’ve had really great mentors you know while I was getting to this point as well as in my career as well so that’s a main reason why this organization was founded my mentorship to minority attorneys
Darius if you could share the importance of mentorship to you thank you so I’ll speak on it more so as a junior associate at a firm and it’s it’s an area and kind of time that’s our previous question how we get more black attorneys in more african-american male
Based attorneys for myself this is not my world and that’s the way that I saw it you know this is you know big law firm you’re you’re you’re gonna be you know busy can you even have a life you know these are sort of the stories that
You hear and I don’t you know I think a lot of times if we get into this particular arena we are trying to climatized to the workload but we haven’t even acclimatized to the particular realm around us which is just affirm life or or just say if you’re a
DA then you know even in the public law side so my mentors definitely focused on tailoring my lifestyle to that of an attorney first based differently than if I were in a different field the this is one of the fields similar to medicine or theology where it comes with a
Particular set of skills that differ from what you’d be doing outside of that particular field and I did not have those skills you know you go to law school and a lot of times you’re learning the loitering skills but you don’t know actually how to be and carry yourself as an attorney everybody
Believes that you have just the answer when it comes to a legal questions I mean if your phone doesn’t ring once you pass the bar even I mean actually even when the day you say you’re going to law school your phones ringing people are asking all type of legal questions and
You want to help but you don’t you know necessarily even know how to respond just to say let me get back to your here’s what my workload is so my mentor is definitely tailored my lifestyle to that of an attorney first and then we started learning what my particular job was
Going to be in bankruptcy I’m blessed to be able to you know have trial experience and transactional experience but I have no idea just say I didn’t have an idea about how to actually say hey you know this is what I do let me explain to you what I do I just say
Bankruptcy assuming that somebody would know with that area of law is so I think that’s how that mentorship tends to tailor your actual new career for you as a law student we definitely know it’s inviting you into that realm whether you’re going to be learning a higher
Level of education you know in undergrad we understand that we have our classes we have to kind of get out of that 13th grade mindset thinking that we’re just gonna you know ease through freshman year he’s through sophomore year here you’re held to a higher standard and in
Law school because you have your own schedule you make your own schedule you follow your home schedule and you really don’t get much guidance unless you go and get it so when you happen to get that mentors gonna help you maneuver through law school it’s best to find
That same equivalent of a mentor who’s gonna also help you through your first few years of practice as my brother mentioned before you know that is is highly important and that’s what I valued the most so it’s super important to me and I mean I’m actually very very
Lucky that actually one of my frat brothers happens to be my mentor and work at the same firm he’s one of the reasons that I’m at the firm so that you know you can’t ask for any better thing than that but you know for those of us
Who might not have that it’s okay to seek out your mentor they don’t have to come to you a lot of times it’s great to go up to that individual and say hey would you mind teaching me this or that and actually guide me on this particular
Road of my legal career so that’s the that’s truly what the value of it is to me it’s highly important it’s needed I have a few mentors that I can lean on and you know some from a bigger picture as far as hey I need to see the you know
The general view of this or the broader view of this but I do value my more direct mentors who can tell me hey I just got you know asked to make to make a file or something and I have no idea how to even maneuver that to my day-to-day mentors or my
Operational mentors we’re truly important as well absolutely absolutely and I’m glad you made the point of going after the mentor because I think sometimes it can be intimidating for law students or even college students to approach an attorney and ask them you know can you be my mentor and instead
They tried to either make a good impression hoping that you know someone would come after them and say I would mentor you but oftentimes as you know and everyone on the call you know practices we’re all very busy and we all have a lot on our plates and so our
Cognizant level may not be a who can i mentor it’s more so in the approach of kenya mentor me and taking that initiative i think it’s very important for students to to get that access Geron if you could share with us the importance of mentorship to you sure I
Would first like to say that anyone that tells you that they got there or they got where they’re at or their own that is a complete lie because yes everyone’s not great they didn’t get there busing and he did it all by herself overload Joe jokingly I think mentorship
Is definitely important for myself is kind of weird because none of my frat brothers per se helped me like actually navigate through the legal realm a little also but it was more so other people that I met along the way but I did meet a lot of great people
Along the way and it was more so that I kept that bridge up between me and those people because even if I met them like a few years ago I never lost connection with him because I know either I can help them out or they were ordered to be
So more so they can help me out but if they even need anything from me even if it was also out of the legal filter the legal realm I was there for them and mr. important I had mentorship in the legal field more so because I think there’s a
Statistic out there that says most attorneys commit my legal malpractice within their first from the time they get bars like their first 3 to 5 years which is that’s pretty quick but it’s mainly because a lot of people go out there on their own and they’re not the asking the right questions or
They’re not keeping in contact with the right people that will help them navigate and do the right thing at all times so I don’t want to piggyback off too many people I agree with most of the other panelists but that was what I had to share based on that question
Great that was fantastic um Alvin if you could share with us how mentorship has impacted you through your career I think you’re muted am i muted now yes okay no thanks for letting you speak last summer subject miss it’s interesting to hear my brother speak on
It because it is absolutely true that in such a profession or any profession you have to speak to someone as did this before you in order to get to wherever you think you want to go so that is like it is absolutely a golden rule and for
Me I had I’ve had mentioned many many different mentors heard you all speak of some folks and I remember in law school I depended on I remember this judge who was a teacher I mean I think his name I remember saying you to be judged cur
Assic and he told me how to he basically taught me how to pass the bar on the first time pass the bar for the first time and I remember the first two people that I met when I was a law clerk trying to be a prosecutor it was a juror it was
Judge Carrington and judge judge Simpkins and they happen to be sorority sisters of mine um and but I was an out but they knew it and I was just transferred from one place of the court house to another after making a decision what I was going to do so mentorship at
All times is important and and and another thing that you all spoke about is and I can definitely see it now from the business owner perspective is you know I just hired a intern today that I wasn’t looking for that in my mind for months I’ve been looking for from the
University of Maryland but she happened to look out she happened to be looking for and opportunities for herself so even though I didn’t have the time to go out and look for her just because she was aggressive on our stuff pre-law looking to do whatever it’s this happy marriage
That I think is gonna happen in a month so as far as that that person wants to be a lawyer regardless of whether you want to be transactional in the courtroom you somehow need to be aggressive and a go-getter you somehow need to figure out a way to be
Accountable of your time you somehow need to be a way to be semi independent because there is some level of independence that happens in law school I I there’s like there’s there’s a certain point in law during their soccer cheese method that you’re just kind of
Dependent on your own so with that said I the mentorship is very important but it’s also important to be aggressive and you’ve gotta find a way to help yourself as well as find people that can help you absolutely really grated that to our viewers most of whom are students so we
Hope that that’s encouraging to the students to take that initiative and seek out the middle line and I’m going to go ahead and swing this over to our shooting a Kirsten has some questions from our audience for our panelists and she’s got to go ahead and ask though so
Kirsten take it away good evening everyone thank you so much for joining us my name is Kirsten Evans and I’m a member pursuing an Esquire I am also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated so I’m particularly excited about our panel soon as I thank all my brothers in Greek
Tongue and my brothers-in-law for sharing all of their insight tonight we do have a few questions from the audience that we received in the chat and if we don’t have time to get to all of them I apologize we are running towards 8 o’clock now but the first
Question that we have for all of our panelists is what do you wish you would have known an undergrad or as a law student that would have made your life or your career a little easier now we can start with mr. Malkin I struggled in my first year I remember being the
The black dot in the back of the room even though I got along well and everyone treated me well but the biggest thing that I had an issue with was that there was like something going on in law school where somehow you know you kind
Of either got to get in or fit in or understand what’s going on spiritually around you and you kind of got to figure out don’t be an isolationist isolationist or whatever it may be so before you go to law school then it behooves you unlike
Me to have some idea of what that first year may be like because indeed it is your most difficult year and I feel like I went in so naive then looking back that if I would have had a little bit more understanding about what goes on during the first year then I perhaps
Would have even been in the questionable circumstances which led me that may not even get past my first year even though I’m happy and everything is good now as a trial lawyer and all these other things but there were systematically some things that were set up during the
First year of law school which I feel like puts us in a position to on an average level fail so we just got out somehow I get a better understanding about that first year once we get to over the standardized test issue and I actually get admitted that first year we
Gotta find a way to work better together as a people thank you for sharing that the first year is definitely crucial in law school I remember we had to read a book called 1l overfried and it gave us some insight on what you could do to be
Successful in your first year because it is so incredibly crucial will have Xavier up next to answer the question thanks Kirsten um you know it’s a great question uh I don’t know you know one thing that I wish I’d known undergrad that would have prepared me better for law school to practice but
What I can say and the reason why I say that is because when I was an undergrad I did my best to try to seek out mentors early and seek out folks who could give me a blueprint on how to get into law school and how to go about my first year
Of law school and the rest of my career in law school my second and third year um and you know I still do that now like the you know I think the best thing that you can do is to surround yourself with first of all you know if you don’t have
People in your family like myself who have forged the path for you then what you ought to do is surround yourself with people who can fill that gap and who can stand in and provide you with the blueprint and basically puts you on game and lets you know you know what are
The things that are going to help you to be successful and whatever stage of life you’re in and whatever field you’re in and with the practice of law I mean I try to do that as early as possible I mean I like I said I got a mentor who
Was in law school my second year undergrad I interned with one of my fraternity brothers that summer who was an attorney out in Charlotte I connected with other attorneys once I graduated even while I was working a corporate America before I was going to law school
Who could you know help me out as far as trying to get into law school since I had a horrible LSAT score um and one of my mentors actually got me the opportunity to get into the feedback program at North Carolina Central I mean I think the best thing you could do is
Surround yourself with people who can fill that gap and help you know what’s to come and how to shape your career moving forward I mean even now in practice I mean part of my practice is a trial attorney I worked with the best trial attorney with my firm and he’s one
Of my mentors and I reached out to him the first day and let him know hey I’m interested in personal injury this is what I want to do you know I know that you’re you graduated top of your class you’re killing it here with urn can you take me
Up under your wing and he’s done that and you know every every part of the process he’ll call me and we’ll talk about certain things and you know some things that I don’t even ask him he’ll fill me in on and trying to give me other opportunities just because he
Knows it’s gonna help in my development with my career so I think that’s the best thing that you can do thank you so much Xavier for sharing that with us in the interest of time I’m gonna move on to the next question and this relates to our overall theme of this evening which
Is our brothers in law and I’m gonna pose this question to Darius so how do you think your experience and network and your fraternity has prepared you for the practice of law in your career thank you you know and I go back to what I was speaking with being blessed to have a
Mentor who’s also my fraternity brother and who’s also in the area of law if it wasn’t for that I don’t think that I would be in many of the different places that I am within the area of law so that network definitely helps in joining a fraternity we know you know you’re gonna
Meet a ton of other you know educated people that look just like you and they have degrees they have careers they know somebody who knows somebody else and and in that pipeline of just network just continues is it’s almost you know so fast that you don’t even know it ends at
One point and you know without that I don’t think that I would definitely you know you’ve even finished law school I wouldn’t have probably been even able to explore with different areas that were I would probably just take the first opportunity that came to me so that that
That network also helps you to maneuver what is being presented in front of you if it’s a good deal if it’s a good offer if it’s a good opportunity you’re gonna get a lot you know in law school and it’s it’s definitely something that we just don’t go into law school thinking
And even you know slightly going backwards you know that Network allowed me to take my mind off of Law School so fine and I don’t mean you know just going to the bar every day are fun and that one bar that’s around the corner from law school but there are a lot of
Clubs in law school it is your are going back to school it is it is a higher level of college isn’t it’s not so much undergrad but it’s grad so join those clubs you know ask your networks what they did while they were in law school it’s not just constant constant working
You can you know you can never really let your head down or or either you know wipe you know take a look take a breather for a minute we have to understand that we can do that and that’s what that network really helped
Me to do was take my mind off of what it is that I’m trying to do which is be just like them you know thank you so much Darius that’s very true our organizations they provide such an instant connection and professionally and personally so thank you so much for
Answering the questions from our audience and I’m gonna turn it back over to Danielle for a closing thank you thank you so much Kirsten and thank you so so much to our panelists I enjoyed speaking to each of you and I know our viewers learn a lot from what
You shared tonight this is the conclusion of our Greek Week so I appreciate you supporting not only pursuing the Esquire but also our fellow Greek members that have joined last week and this week that support our community as well in our efforts thank you gentlemen so much for taking your time
Out and sharing with our viewers today it was a pleasure to speak with you and thank you to our viewers for tuning in we have viewers that have been tuning in with us all month long every episode and next week is a conclusion of our series for now we will have our
Entertainment law which is much anticipated our panel where we were here from entertainment attorneys from top companies a lot of firms both on the East Coast and the west coast and we hope that you will tune in again thank you so much for joining us for episode 4
You can check out this episode starting tomorrow it will be on our youtube channel for you to replay or share with those who are not able to join us tonight and catch us next week for the conclusion of our series thank you so much everyone – have a great night
Thank you much that’s enough Rob other going job you say project thanks thank you
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