In Practice

(To read from the beginning, click here)

Practicing law in a big city like Philadelphia is so not what her friends back home were doing. Girls from rural North Carolina became wives or teachers, not lawyers. And they certainly didn’t practice law “Up North“ - in the big city.

She wrinkled her nose.

Okay, so suburban South Jersey wasn’t exactly Philadelphia, but she didn’t want to practice in a big Center City firm anyway. That’s why she jumped at the chance to work for Jim when she saw the ad in the newspaper:

Small boutique tax firm seeks law clerk.
Knowledge of Tax Code a must.
Estates experience preferred.

Katie remembered thinking that it was perfect, maybe too perfect. A small firm in a small town was exactly what she was looking for - and she had both tax and estates experience. Last semester, she had interned at the Internal Revenue Service in the estates department. At the IRS, she researched tax issues and assisted in audits; she even won an audit, something that she was very proud of. It seemed like the position was created for her.

Jim had been looking for someone a little different: older and male, like himself. On paper, Katie was perfect. In person, though, she was clearly not what he was expecting.

She was young, for one. Jim had gone to law school after working a number of jobs in sales (though Katie couldn’t picture it) and hadn’t started working as an attorney until he was almost 30 years old. Katie, on the other hand, started college early, graduating at the age of 20. Now, about to graduate from law school, she was just 23. Her only real work experience had been a stint at the weekly newspaper in her hometown - a summer job - and a part-time gig at Urban Outfitters while she was still at law school to pay the bills.

She felt like a little girl playing dress-up at the interview, wearing a borrowed navy wool suit that was two sizes too big. Katie didn’t yet own a real suit of her own and couldn’t afford to spend any money on one until she had a job that paid more than minimum wage. Her classmate, Lynda, had offered her a suit, and Katie had accepted, having no other alternatives. It wasn’t her size, or her style, but it was a suit. It would have to do.