By Maggy Baccinelli
Last Thursday, ACC Editorial Coordinator Maggy Baccinelli attended The Supreme Court Law Day, sponsored by ACC, Just the Beginning Foundation and Reed Smith. Maggy is the editorial coordinator of the ACC Docket and is responsible for editing the publication, writing monthly articles and creating corresponding multimedia pieces highlighting ACC members’ legal expertise and unique personal interests. Follow along as Maggy, shares her insights into last week’s event.The voice, views and stories expressed in this series are of the author and are not ACC’s.
More than 40 local high school seniors stood up with eager attention when Associate Justice Elena Kagan entered the Supreme Court conference room. The Supreme Court Law Day, sponsored by ACC, Just the Beginning Foundation and Reed Smith, was packed with valuable programs for minority students considering pursuing legal degrees. The session with Kagan, though, was a highlight for everyone in the room — including, it seemed, the Justice herself.
With most of the students coming from Thurgood Marshall Academy in Southeast Washington DC, Kagan was visibly excited to tell them about her experience clerking for their school’s namesake. “Do they teach you about Thurgood Marshall?” she asked. She explained how at 27, when she was “just starting to think about the world, the legal system and what I could do to make a difference,” she had the privilege of being exposed to the “wit and wisdom of who I believe was the greatest lawyer of the 20th century.”
The excitement that comes with influencing a community or issue you care about was at the heart of Kagan’s discussion. “I used to be the Dean of a law school, so I would talk to young people about what they wanted their career to look like. And everyone wants to feel like they’re making a difference.” Whether it is the law or not, she urged students to pursue what moves them to make a difference, because that will be most rewarding.
But reward does not come without hard work and responsibility, and sometimes even rejection. Kagan told her personal rejection story when a student asked her how she felt when she got the job. “Pretty darn happy,” she said, and explained that it was not the first time she had sought the nomination. In 2009, President Obama selected Associate Justice Sotomayor for the nomination. “He was lovely, lovely. It was the nicest rejection call I ever received,” said Kagan of her phone conversation with the President. Justice Kagan received the nomination in 2010. “It was a lesson to keep working hard. You don’t always get what you want the first time.”
In addition to her lesson in rejection, Kagan shared her experience with staying confident, even when she wasn’t always liked. When a student asked how it felt to have to prove to the Senate Judiciary Committee and herself that she was fit to be Justice, she said: “I didn’t have to prove it to myself. I knew I was fit to be Justice. But during the hearing I reminded myself that you can’t go through a process like this without people saying tough stuff. You can’t take it personally. A lot of times it has nothing to do with you and who you are.”
Kagan joked that when she clerked for then Justice Thurgood Marshall he referred to her as “Shorty.” Although short in stature, her effect on the 40 high school seniors will last for some time. “There are times when you will sharply disagree with someone,” she commented “but you can learn a lot from the same person.”
Pursuing what you love, working hard through rejection, believing in yourself when times get tough, and learning from people who think differently than you, are lessons we can all apply to our personal and professional lives. On Thursday, 40 high school seniors got to take these lessons home with them because of this inspiring event that ACC had the privilege of co-sponsoring.