Barack Obama entered Harvard Law School at the age of 27 and by the end of his first year he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. After earning a J.D. in 1991, Obama accepted a position as an associate lawyer at a law firm known for handling civil rights litigation. Later he worked for the same firm "of counsel". During this first period in his career, Obama stayed mostly behind the scenes and away from the courtroom. Instead he focused his efforts on researching points of law and writing drafts. "I was one of the better writers. I ended up doing the more cerebral writing, less trial work," Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times. "That's actually something I regret -- not doing more trial work."
According to the Los Angeles Times, as an associate attorney, Obama spent a majority of his time assisting with cases that concerned voting rights, wrongful firings and civil rights matters and in addition, devoted his efforts to real estate matters and minor tort cases. Though Obama is said to have assisted with 30 cases while working for the Chicago firm, he is only known to have helped in the courtroom litigation of 10 cases, all federal cases. Though he worked as an associate attorney on some of the cases and the lead in others, Obama is not on record as saying more than a few words to the court in many cases. If Obama's laconic tendencies were employed strategically, this proved successful, as a majority of the 10 cases he was involved in were ultimately favorable for him and his firm.
One case where Obama did utilize his exemplary language talents in oral arguments was in his defense of a securities broker before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals who had been defamed by his former bosses after he reported them for fraud. Mr. Obama argued that an arbitrator's ruling granting his client $120,000 in punitive damages should stand because arbitrator's are allowed to award punitive damages. Obama was successful in his appeal and his client ended up retaining his punitive damages despite the fact that a week prior the same court had ruled that arbitrators could not award punitive damages. An audio clip of Obama's argument from the 1994 case before the Seventh Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner is available.
Sources:
- Lattman, P. (January 4, 2008). Barack Obama Was Once a Lowly Law-Firm Associate. Wall Street Journal Blogs. Available at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/01/04/barack-obama-was-once-a-lowly-law-firm-associate/ (2009 Dec 15)
- Morain, D. (April 6, 2008). Obama's law days effective but brief [31 paragraphs]. Los Angeles Times electronic edition. Available at http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/06/nation/na-obamalegal6 (2009 Dec 15)
- Pallasch, A. (December 17, 2007). Strong, silent type [48 paragraphs]. Chicago Sun-Times electronic edition. Available at http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/700499,CST-NWS-Obama-law17.article (2009 Dec 15)
Written by Kimberley Dickey, Law Librarian Fellow
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