NetApp Speech

This is the script for a public speech I gave at the NetApp Headquarters on February 24, 2020, in the Silicon Valley.  

Since I ad-libbed and free-styled a bit as I talked, this transcript is not a perfect representation of the speech, but it’s a pretty accurate reflection. 

This was followed by a Q&A with moderator Monica Phillips, the CEO & Head of Spark Plug Labs, an organization dedicated to coaching leaders and teams to develop successful habits and amplify their business goals.

Portions of the recorded speech will be readily available at a later time. 

Thanks for reading.

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 We all have a story. 

And before I go into why I started Firm for the Culture, I want to share mine.

So, I wanted to quit being an attorney a couple of times.  

By way of background, I'm a proud first generation college graduate. 

I'm a proud first generation law school graduate from UC Berkeley School of Law. 

And I am proudly from the projects of New York, where there was oftentimes more money, more month than money, pee in the elevators and needles on a staircase. 

And I come from all of this and it created a grit and tenacity that has really propelled me forward.

But notwithstanding any of that, I wanted to quit being a lawyer when I graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law. 

The issues that often arise from being a first generation college graduate in the first generation law school graduate were not just present in the legal space. 

Yes, I found myself as the only person who looked like me in this space. 

Yes, I thought of myself as the only person who came from my background. 

This is all true.

But I also found issues that we weren't really talking about as first generation professionals.

We weren't talking about the fact that we didn't necessarily have a lot of financial boundaries when it came to family members and we didn't really have the tools to engage those conversations in a way that allowed us to thrive forward. 

We weren't talking about the fact that “we didn't know what we didn't know” about navigating these spaces and that it was a lot more political than we anticipated. 

So because of that, I was tired. 

Yes. 

Tired.

I found myself that, you know, top law firms and beautiful prestigious law legal courthouses.

But I wanted to quit. 

And I was so intent on quitting. 

So with this goal in mind, I actually decided to interview with a couple of tech companies to become a diversity inclusion manager. 

One of them happened to be Facebook. 

So I'm sitting at this interview and the person looks at my resume and I doctored it in such a way that every single time I spoke about diversity, that was on the resume, every single time I talked about inclusion, that was on the resume.

So the person is looking at my resume and says...

“Thank you for coming, why do you want to be at Facebook?”

And I talked to her about the amazing resource that Facebook is to all of us and how proud I am to be a part of their “two billion active users.” 

I said the way we engage the world today is really through social media.

And I said I want to be a part of that.

I want to be a part of diversifying that space.

And she said, “OK, yeah, but you're an attorney.”

I paused. 

And I said, “OK, yeah, I know.”

“But, but, but….I can utilize my litigation skills and I can utilize my legal skills to really create a space of belonging!!”

And she said, “yeah, but you're an attorney.”

So at this time, I'm getting a little perturbed,  a little annoyed.

But I said “yes, but I can really use all the skills that I learned, you know, in the Eastern District of California, where I clerked for two years, and at Ropes and Gray, where I worked, I can use that to really bring a lot of greatness to this space!!”

And she said, “yes, but you're an attorney.”

And she said it the third time. 

And at that point I was super annoyed because she was stopping me from being great in the way that I thought I should be!

(audience laughter)

So let’s back up for a second. 

Before I interview with anyone, I research them. 

I will know your mama. 

I will know your cousin. 

And I might if I make a mistake, double tap a photo on Instagram, but I get to know you. 

(audience laughter)

So I realized from my “research” that we essentially share the same faith. 

We're both Christian. 

So let’s get back to the story.

So the third time she said, “yeah, but you're an attorney.”

And I had my answer ready...

And I told her “I prayed about this and I think…. I think OUR God is telling me that I should be in this space.”

Pregnant pause....

And she says, oh, “you talk to God, well, let me tell you what God is telling me to tell you.”

I panicked. 

And I thought, “but you’re Facebook, you're not supposed to know God like, come on!!” 

But what she said to me was extremely profound.

She said, “keep going, because the way you're going to engage this space…utilizing the background that you come from… and the tenacity and the grit that you've been able to hold throughout these years is going to make you a force to be reckoned with.”

“Keep going, because the community and the grit and the tenacity that you've been able to build up to this time is really going to allow you to make a difference in a way that's never been seen before.”

“Keep going.”

And to this, I cried. 

Because, honestly, I didn’t know how to “keep going.” 

I didn’t know how to engage these spaces. 

I didn’t know what I didn’t know. 

And she said, “as long as you keep going, you'll find the community, you'll find the people and you'll find the ecosystem that's really going to be fertile to help you propel forward.”

So needless to say, I didn't get the job at Facebook….

But I decided to keep going, and after my clerkship, I ended up in Quinn Emanuel, which is also the number one litigation firm in the country, and I ended up navigating that space as an intellectual property attorney in the Silicon Valley office.

And it was an amazing opportunity because I went into that opportunity, really grounding myself, not so much in the understanding of who I can emulate, but who I was. 

I was a girl from the projects of Brooklyn, New York.

And I kept going. 

I grew up with more “month than money.”

And I kept going. 

I had a grit and tenacity like you had never seen before. 

So I kept going. 

And I used what I knew to discuss practical ways to solve the “bet the company problems” that clients brought to us at my new law firm. 

Yes, I decided to stay a lawyer....

One example that I often give, we were in a trade secrets case and I was, as is often the case, the only person who looked like me on the team. 

We were trying to figure out how this other company got access to the trade secrets.

And my colleagues are poring over login records. 

We’re looking at computer history reports and all and all that stuff. 

And I remembered saying, “OK, but like, was the door unlocked?”

I remember just kind of saying that I was like, “was a door locked?” Do people, you know, leave the computer when they're often logged in? 

Because in the spaces that I've navigated, it's been a privilege for people to just assume places were safe.

And guess what?

That essentially became the way we found out somebody kind of trade secrets from the computer. 

So I leave you with my final statement. 

When we talk about “diversity,” we're not only talking about the “Black voice” or the “Asian voice” or the “White woman” voice.

No...

We're talking about the practical realities of having to navigate spaces when you don't have access to resources.

We’re talking about the unique and multi-faceted stories that come from that. 

We're talking about the fact that because I grew up in a space that was really, really congested and didn't necessarily have a lot of resources, you’ve learned creative ways to engage culture and learned creative ways to engage the law. 

So when we're talking about diversity, don't just look at who we are, look at where we come from and look at the practical realities that come out of that.

So after leaving Quinn Emanuel, I decided to start a Firm for the Culture, which is a 100% virtual law firm designed to help social entrepreneurs trademark their brands. 

My goal is to really make IP protection accessible. 

Because just as our stories are different, our creativity manifests itself in diverse ways. 

And I want to protect that. 

For the Culture. 

Thank you for your time.

(Applause)