Hearsay

• Pages: 15-15

PHOTOS BY CHONES, ALEX STAROSELTSEV, COZINE, NIRAT.PIX/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

pain of a punch.

In life, no challenge beca me

too di cu lt for me to handle. No

battle existed t hat I could not over-

come. I learned to sur vive with less,

and I had to become stree t smart to

survive. I k new school was the only

way out, and getting good g rades was

the only option. I needed the books to

have characters t o relate to and to rep-

licate. I learned to b e able to spend

long hours by myself and to be able

to focus on a project for a long period

of time. I remember buying a pair

of shoes at a garage sale and tel ling

a bully at school that I was bring ing

them back into style. I ha d to be not

just a leader but a leader who could

overcome so much at such a young age.

Hence, I prepared for law school

almost from when I could wal k. I stud-

ied hard. I solved my own problems. I

learned empathy and understood d if-

ferent types of people. I conquered so

much just by surviv ing. By never hav-

ing a video game or watching much

television, my mind was cle ar and

sharp. I did not know it at the time, but

my analytic al abilities allowed me to

see strategies int o the future. I never

followed anyone else, which assiste d in

making me a natura l leader of people.

No human could be more disciplined.

I never lose control of my temper, and

I can usually work longer and harder

hours than anyone else I have ever met.

I discovered in law school and

beyond that I had jungle street sk ills

and a passion for justice. Alt hough

it took me nine months to fi nd a job

after law school, once I took my fi rst

job, I never looked back. I was deter-

mined to try to b ecome the best lawyer

I could be. And whether in cour t or in

a boardroom, each d ay, I try to be bet-

ter than the next , always thankful for

the gift of being a law yer and this pro-

fession where I am able to do so much

for so many—knowing at least in par t

because of the train ing I received dur-

ing the fi rst 14 years of my life. Q

Adam Leitman Bailey runs a residential

and commercial real estate  rm in New

York City. He is the author of two books,

Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top

New York Lawyer Explains How to

Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible

Price and a new children’s story, Home.

TOUGH LUCK

Highlights from a new sur vey

by the Center for WorkLife Law

showed only 40 percent of

women of color and 44 per-

cent of white women felt free to

express anger at work when it ’s

justifi ed, compared to 56 p er-

cent of white men. The fema le

attorneys also

said they felt

penalized for

assertive behav-

ior. According to

an Arizona State

University study,

female attorneys

who used anger during

closing arguments also

were considered less competent at their jobs, while jurors

perceived men who use tough beh avior during a close

positively. Participants watched identical closing argu-

ments and found the fema le attorney to be shrill and

ine ective, while the men were c ommanding and

powerful. Researchers’ fi ndings suppor t evidence

that women face a double standard and are more

harshly judged for showing anger or dominant behavior.

Sources: abajournal.com, usnews.com

The United States ranks 19t h out of 113

countries surveyed on the la test World

Justice Project Rule of Law I ndex. The U.S.

score for “constraints on government powers”

slid south, and contin ued low marks for the U.S .

criminal justice syste m dragged down the country ’s

rating. The top three per formers in the 2017-2018 survey

were Denmark, Norway and Finland. The bottom three

performers were Afghanistan, Cambodia and Venezuela.

Source: worldjusticeproject.org

19th

PLACE

... is the increase in

students applying to law

schools this year—the

highest since 2010 . A total

of 60,401 peopl e applied for admission , up

from 55,580 the previou s year, according

to the Law School Admissi on Council. Also,

the number of people ta king the Law School

Admission Test in June and July was u p 30

percent over the previous year. The LSAC

also has announced it is increasing the

number of test dates from six to 10 , starting

with the 2020 admissions cycl e, and will

institute a computerized versi on in 2019.

Source: law.com

8%

Hearsay

Having a professor of a di erent gen -

der reduces the likelihood of rec eiving an A or

an A-minus by 3 percent, a nd having a professor

of a di erent race reduces the likelihood of receiv-

ing a good grade by 10 percen t, according to a

research paper, Stereotype Threat, Role Models, and

Demographic Mismatch in an Elite Professional School

Setting. The conclusions are from a study tha t

looked at 10 years of data from a private top-

100 law school. Auth ors say the results pro-

vide “novel evidence of the per vasiveness

of role-model e ects” in eli te graduate

school settings. Source: law.com

Grade Bias

Opening Statements

OCTOBER 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 15