I did not enter the legal profession expecting to be welcomed.
As a first-generation lawyer, an immigrant, and a non-native English speaker who applied to law school from a women's shelter, I had already been told many times what I could not do. In law school, a professor suggested I return to ESL classes rather than pursue a legal career. A well-meaning lawyer later advised me that my accent was too strong for litigation, that no judge would understand me, and that I should perhaps consider other paths.
I went into litigation anyway.
But those early experiences planted a question that stayed with me long after I was called to the bar: what exactly does hierarchy in the legal profession do to the people who live within it? And now that I lead a team of my own, a harder question follows: what kind of leader am I becoming?