
One of my favorite favorite people EVER is Julie S*U, APALC's litigation director (the one on the left next to cornell west)
Julie came and spoke for my seminar on Monday, and she was so inspiring that I felt like weeping hysterically. Julie was the lead attorney on APALC's famous case representing the El Monte Thai garment workers, who had been working in virtual slavery as sweatshop workers for major textile corporations. Julie was a first year attorney fresh out of law school working as a Skadden fellow when she stumbled upon the case and convinced APALC to take it on. under her guidance, the case was settled and broke major ground, allowing cases to be litigated successfully afterwards on behalf of sweatshop workers.
as famous as julie is, she is one of the most down to earth and humble people i have ever met. she is the recipient of the macarthur genuius award but jerry told us that she prefers not to talk about it and she cringes if you even bring it up.
at the apalc anniversary banquet last night, julie volunteered to spend the entire night selling raffle tickets with all the other interns and volunteers, rather than taking it easy and chilling out since she's super famous and lots of people would have wanted to talk to her that night. instead she was out there with us interns, asking people to cough up 100 bucks for a raffle ticket. of course she ended up selling the most tickets out of all of us!
julie just has that amazing quality and charsima that i imagine is what every successful leader/politician has, in that i think she makes everyone she meets feel like she genuinely thinks they are amazing, and that they are the inspring one not her. a month ago, i emailed her asking her if i could ask her some questions for an article i was writing. i had introduced myself in my email and she wrote back saying "I am so sorry you felt like you had to introduce yourself, of course i know who you are!" I was shocked since I had only met her briefly at an event and said hi to her once in the APALC bathroom! anyways, she is so friendly and genuine that she could probably tell me i'd look amazing with a shaved head, and i'd beleive her.
our professor asked julie to talk to us sincce she is one of the finest examples of a "rebellious lawyer" that he knows. some things i learned from julie from hearing her talk were:
1. julie hated law school too and wanted to drop out! it was so comforting to hear that she too was alienated and silenced in law school. hearing her say that almost made me weep
2. julie had no idea what she was doing as a lawyer. she said she learned everything through a process of trial and error and was not afraid to make mistakes
3. julie involved her clients in the case as much as possible, asking them what they wanted to do, what their opinion was, and making them a part of the legal process as much as possible, which empowered them and taught her many lessons as a lawyer as well about what their best interest was
4. no matter what , julie seems liek shes stayed the most humble , down to earth and appreciative person who never puts on airs, nor takes credit for any accomplishments, and she has definately achieved so many accomplishments!
5. julie demonstrated how no matter how caught up you get in the minutia of the law, you can't forget your humanity and the humanity of the subordinated clients you are working with