Streetwise — Chapter 3: Glimpses Beyond

1. 1. The author initially saw himself as disadvantaged due to his background, but after attending Harvard and working at a prestigious law firm, he realized he was in the upper range of advantaged.
2. 2. The author barely made it into Harvard Law School, being one of the last admitted in a rolling admissions process, and nearly 100 of his 560 classmates were Harvard undergraduates.
3. 3. Harvard Law professors adopted the intimidating Socratic method popularized by the movie The Paper Chase, using random questioning to embarrass unprepared students in front of 140 peers.
4. 4. The author valued law school for its substantive content and training in precision, compromise, and understanding how rules evolve, contrasting it with what he saw as the contentless nature of MBA programs.
5. 5. The author's first serious girlfriend, Susie, was from Kansas City, and he worked as a summer associate at Hallmark's law firm, where he delivered documents to New York to see the bicentennial tall ships.
6. 6. During a visit to his girlfriend Debbie's Park Avenue duplex, the author mistook an artichoke for a pineapple and tried to eat the leaves, highlighting his unfamiliarity with upper-class customs.
7. 7. In the summer of 1977, New York City was plagued by blackouts, crime, and the Son of Sam serial killer, making it unsafe to walk freely even on the Upper West Side.
8. 8. The author chose tax law for its marketability and high pay, but after accepting a job at Paul Weiss, he was told they overhired and transferred him to corporate, leading him to decline and take a position at Donovan Leisure.
9. 9. The author admits he held himself back in law school, not aiming for law review or clerkships, because he still felt like an impostor due to his background.