The Center on Asian Americans and the Law hosted a “Professionalism and Career Advice Panel Discussion” for Fordham Law students featuring three accomplished Asian American speakers, who spoke about their legal careers and how they got to where they are today.
The panelists included U.S. Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara of the Eastern District of New York; Una A. Dean, vice president, assistant general counsel, and head of global investigations at IBM, and Richard K. Kim, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
The event was moderated by Professor Thomas H. Lee, Leitner Family Professor of International Law and co-director of the Center on Asian Americans and the Law.
Below are four pieces of wisdom shared by the panelists on how to make the most out of your legal career.
1. Embrace Flexibility
Bulsara described experiencing several transitions earlier in his career, including a year spent in Los Angeles where, though he enjoyed his work, he knew he didn’t want to stay long term.
“Part of legal life is figuring out what makes you happy, as well as what you’re good at …. The great part about having a law degree is that it gives you a lot of flexibility. You can try different things. You can do one thing, and then do something else, and figure out what you like and don’t like.”
2. Your Work is What You Make of It
Kim, who after several transitions himself, has remained at the same firm for 24 years, described strategies on how to remain engaged with your work and make the most of it.
“I think this is generally true of our profession: it’s really what you make of it. You find a way in which you enjoy what you’re doing, and you stick with it.”
One way Kim accomplishes this, he said, is to make personal connections with his clients whenever he can.
“Someone reached out to me a week ago to work on a project. I didn’t know him, so I had dinner at his house last night and met his family,” Kim said. “It’s very much a human business. You’re giving people advice in times of great importance to them and [that]feels very worthwhile and meaningful.”
3. Make Yourself Indispensable
When working on his first trial as an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in New York, Bulsara remembers being asked by the head of litigation to take the depositions on the case. That provided an opportunity—and a lesson, Bulsara said.
“By the time the trial came around, I was the one who knew the entire factual record— backwards, forwards, upside down,” he said.
Bulsara was asked to sit at the counsel table during the trial and went on to contribute in many other ways as a young associate. “If you make yourself indispensable … they have to put you up there,” he said.
4. Think About Who You Want to Emulate
Una Dean offered a helpful way of deciding on next steps for students who, like her, weren’t sure where to take their early career.
When working as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, Dean looked to the partners she most admired for inspiration on how to chart the course of her career.
“I thought, ‘Who do I want to emulate?’ ‘Who do I want to be like?’ And the people that I admired the most—in terms of how they handled themselves, how they worked with associates, their style of lawyering—were all the former assistant U.S. attorneys who [became]partners.”
Dean decided to take the same path. She landed a position as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where she stayed for eight years. She described it as an “unbelievable experience” that gave her invaluable expertise in cybercrimes. That experience led her to her next roles, first as a partner in Fried Frank’s cybersecurity and data privacy practice, and then her current role at IBM.