Many law students regard working at a large corporate firm as the ultimate career goal, according to Phyllis James. “That’s where I always wanted to be. That was my focus,” says MGM Resorts International‘s executive vice president, special counsel for litigation and chief diversity officer.
These aspirations, however, were well outside the scope of a typical Black law student at the time. James recalls: “When I was going to school, people always focused on Legal Aid or the public defender’s office. Not knocking that, but why go to Harvard for public-interest work Why should Blacks settle, limit ourselves to a niche”
Leveraging Litigation for Diversity
