Obama's Law Career: A Pre-Presidential Pursuit

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, practiced law before becoming president. Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991 and was admitted to the bar the same year. He worked as a civil rights lawyer at the firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 2004, accruing 3,723 billable hours and working on 30 cases. Obama also worked as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where he met his future wife, Michelle Robinson.

Obama's work as a community organiser in Chicago

After graduating from Columbia University in 1983, Barack Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organiser. From 1985 to 1988, he worked as the director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organisation serving the largely poor and Black South Side of the city. The DCP was originally made up of eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale).

During his time as director, the DCP's staff grew from one to thirteen, and its annual budget increased from $70,000 to $400,000. The DCP helped set up a job training programme, a college preparatory tutoring programme, and a tenants' rights organisation in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organising institute.

Obama's work as a community organiser gave him his first deep immersion into the African American community he had longed to both understand and belong to. It also led him to the conclusion that a law degree would be necessary to effect change in the face of a complex city bureaucracy. This realisation prompted him to enrol at Harvard Law School in 1988.

Obama's time at Harvard Law School

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, entered Harvard Law School in 1988 at the age of 27. Obama stood out from the get-go, with Professor Laurence Tribe recalling that he was struck by Obama's unusual combination of intelligence, curiosity, and maturity. Obama's performance both inside and outside the classroom attracted notice, and he was elected the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990.

Obama's work at Sidley & Austin law firm

During his time at Harvard Law School, Barack Obama worked as a summer associate at the law firm Sidley & Austin in 1989. Here, he met his future wife, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, who was also an associate at the firm.

Obama's work at Sidley & Austin was instrumental in his career and personal life. The firm, established in 1866, is one of the largest and highest-paying law firms in the world, with approximately 2,300 lawyers across 21 offices worldwide. It was renamed Holt, Wheeler & Sidley in 1900 and became Sidley & Austin in 1914 with the addition of Edwin C. Austin. The firm has a history of prominent alumni, including Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and former U.S. Postmaster General J. Edward Day.

While Obama's specific responsibilities during his time at the firm are not widely documented, we do know that he excelled academically at Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude and becoming the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. This achievement, along with his work experience at Sidley & Austin, contributed to his growing reputation and influence in the legal community.

Michelle Obama, on the other hand, has shared more details about her experience as an associate at Sidley & Austin in her autobiography, "Becoming." She describes the isolating nature of the work, involving mostly memo-writing and editing with limited interaction with clients or other lawyers. She also addresses the lack of diversity at the firm, recalling that only about five out of four hundred lawyers were African American. Michelle actively worked to increase diversity during her time at the firm, pushing for the recruitment of law students from a broader range of schools and backgrounds.

Obama's time as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School

Barack Obama lectured at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years, from 1992 to 2004. During this time, he taught courses in due process and equal protection, voting rights, and racism and law.

Obama's formal title was "senior lecturer" from 1996 to 2004, and "lecturer" from 1992 to 1996. Senior Lecturers are considered members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. Lecturers, meanwhile, signify adjunct status.

Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position several times during his 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School, but he declined.

Obama's time at the University of Chicago Law School came after he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. He then accepted a two-year position as a Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book, Dreams from My Father, which was published in 1995.

Obama's work at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland law firm

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1991, Barack Obama joined the Chicago-based law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where he worked as an associate lawyer from 1993 to 1996, and then as a counsel from 1996 to 2004. Obama's work at the firm focused on civil and workers' rights cases, including representing African Americans who sued under the Voting Rights Act to obtain equal electoral opportunities in Illinois and elsewhere, and minority mortgage seekers who claimed they were subjected to redlining, or mortgage credit discrimination, by a major national bank. Obama also worked on whistleblower cases, representing those who exposed fraud that was being perpetrated against the U.S. government. In addition, he devoted time to the representation of not-for-profit clients devoted to community redevelopment and the expansion of affordable housing.

Obama's time at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland is notable for his involvement in several significant cases. He accrued 3,723 billable hours and was listed as counsel on four cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, all of which were resolved in favour of his clients. One of these cases involved ACORN suing Governor Jim Edgar under the new Motor Voter Act, while another involved a voter suing Mayor Daley under the Voting Rights Act. Obama's only oral argument before the Court of Appeals was a case involving a whistleblowing stockbroker suing his former employer.

Obama's work at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland was influenced by his interest in civil rights and his desire to learn about Chicago politics. He joined the firm with the understanding that his practice would focus on non-traditional cases and that the firm would be committed to building a diverse team of lawyers. Obama's time at the firm provided him with valuable experience in litigation and community development work, which would later inform his political career.

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