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By Root 804 0

bring new policies that would affect the practice of law in Washington, D.C. I had only voted for one president in my life, Jimmy Carter in 1976. That was the first election in which eighteen-year-olds were allowed to vote. I voted for Carter not so much for his political philosophy, but because he represented a kind of caring and concern about the people of the country that I found alluring. At that point, I had no developed political ideology. I had registered as a Democrat because Democratic candidates appealed to my sense of fairness. Most people in Oklahoma were Democrats and in some ways mine was a default registration. It never really occurred to me to register Republican.

By November of 1980, too concerned about work and passing the bar examination, I had failed to register to vote in Washington, D.C. By the time election day approached, all of the polls favored Ronald Reagan, whom I mistrusted. The rhetoric he spun struck me as class-divisive. Even though I was enjoying some success having graduated from law school, I could not help but think that many people, family members and friends, who had not would bear much of the economic burden if Reagan was true to his word. Nevertheless, I could not believe that he would be. The events in Iran in the winter of 1979 had taught me that no politician could be. Matters out of their control, like the kidnapping and hostage of Americans in Tehran, ruled much more than any policy they might propose. Ronald Reagan had to be just another politician promising changes that could not come to pass. I had friends who would work in the Reagan administration; I had friends who opposed Reagan. So, with a mixture of apathy and cynicism, I waited to see what would happen.

CHAPTER THREE

Like most of my classmates, I welcomed the end of law school. As is often the case, however, my first work experience was not the “dream job” a Yale degree promised. Wald, Harkrader and Ross was a medium-size, relatively young Washington law firm. Gilbert Hardy, a Yale Law School graduate I’d met in New Haven, encouraged me to come to the firm as a summer associate in 1979. Gil had visited the campus in 1978 and recruited black law students to come to Washington and particularly to his firm. He believed very much in the relaxed, egalitarian philosophy of the firm, and soon after talking to him I began to believe in it too.

In the spring of 1980 I accepted the firm’s offer to come on as a permanent hire. My class of new associates included seven women and one man, all from East Coast schools. We got along well with each other and with our colleagues and there was little of the competitive tension that many of my friends at other firms complained about. Though I was by no means rich, my salary allowed me to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a neighborhood near my job, to go out from time to time with friends, and to send an occasional gift to my parents. I felt comfortable with the firm’s atmosphere and expectations.

In 1980 Wald’s business was growing, and there was plenty of “quality work” to go around. Our offices were in the heart of the business district, just a few blocks away from Dupont Circle, a major transfer point for the city’s new subway system. Many days I walked to work from my apartment in Adams-Morgan located about twenty blocks from my job. On my route to work, the characteristic Washington, D.C., brownstones of the residential neighborhood turned into the restaurants and shops just north of the Circle and finally into the modern glass and concrete buildings of the business district. Wald was housed in a modern red brick building with huge picture windows facing onto Eighteenth and M Streets in the city’s northwest quadrant.

When the partners expanded to an additional floor, I and four other associates volunteered to take the new offices. Though we were away from much of the intraoffice goings-on, we were content with our separate space. We pretended we had our own mini-firm, though we knew we relied on the people upstairs for our work. My office was near the entryway to the suite