O

victories, and this seemed to encourage him. He was in law school, he explained,
because grassroots organizing had shown him that meaningful societal change
required not just the work of the people on the ground but stronger policies and
governmental action as well.

Despite my resistance to the hype that had preceded him, I found myself
admiring Barack for both his self-assuredness and his earnest demeanor. He was
refreshing, unconventional, and weirdly elegant. Not once, though, did I think
about him as someone I’d want to date. For one thing, I was his mentor at the
firm. I’d also recently sworn off dating altogether, too consumed with work to
put any effort into it. And finally, appallingly, at the end of lunch Barack lit a
cigarette, which would have been enough to snuff any interest, if I’d had any to
begin with.

He  would   be, I   thought to  myself, a   good    summer  mentee.

ver the next couple of weeks, we fell into a kind of routine. In the late
afternoon, Barack would wander down the hall and flop onto one of the chairs in
my office, as if he’d known me for years. Sometimes it felt as if he had. Our
banter was easy, our mind-sets alike. We gave each other sideways glances when
people around us got stressed to the point of mania, when partners made
comments that seemed condescending or out of touch. What was unspoken but
obvious was that he was a brother, and in our office, which employed more than
four hundred lawyers, only about five full-time attorneys were African American.
Our pull toward each other was evident and easy to understand.

Barack bore no resemblance to the typical eager-beaver summer associate (as
I myself had been two years earlier at Sidley), networking furiously and anxiously
wondering whether a golden-ticket job offer was coming. He sauntered around
with calm detachment, which seemed only to increase his appeal. Inside the firm,
his reputation was continuing to grow. Already, he was being asked to sit in on
high-level partner meetings. Already, he was being pressed to give input on
whatever issues were under discussion. At some point early in the summer, he
pumped out a thirty-page memo about corporate governance that was evidently
so thorough and cogent it became instantly legendary. Who was this guy?
Everyone seemed intrigued.

“I   brought     you     a   copy,”  Barack  said    one     day,    sliding     his     memo    across  my