Help me out here. Vicki Iseman has an education degree. And she's a senior partner in a law firm?

[Bozita]

WTF? How does that happen?

[pinto]

1. I am clueless, yet don't really care, truth be told.

:shrug:

[Omega3]

2. I heard that too, but then today I heard it was a Lobby firm she was at and this is where she became

a partner, didn't know you could be a partner at a lobby firm but that makes more sense. Initially it was reported that she started working at a law firm but I don't think that's true.

[LiberalFighter]

6. One can be a partner on a farm

[originalpckelly]

3. You just need a bachelor's to get into law school...

you can have it in physics or teaching or etc. just so long as it is a BA or BS.

So she could have gone to college to become a science teacher, but the law school accepted her into it's program anyway, because she had a BA.

There are some programs that will shorten the time to full lawyerhood :P to 6 years in a combined BA/JD program.

[Bozita]

4. NO mention of law school anywhere I can find.

[originalpckelly]

7. Look for JD or Juris Doctor...

you cannot practice law without passing the bar, and I don't believe it's possible to do that without going to law school.

[lapfog_1]

5. Partner at lobbyist firm

The youngest in the firm's history (when she made partner).

Lobbyists are, generally, not lawyers, they just organize their firms at partnerships.

[originalpckelly]

9. HA! That'd be the reason!

:P

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. she is a lobbyist. she came in as an admin and learned how to BS.

There is no rocket science in it...just pure BS and...I won't go there.

[Bozita]

13. Up the Down Staircase

It's an old book about public education a long time ago.

[Divernan]

15. No, she came in as an eye candy receptionist, straight out of college.

After a couple of months as receptionist, she sashayed into the senior partner's office and told him she could do more for the firm. She had no relevant education (law, business, government) or experience. Nevertheless, he made her his "special assistant" and next thing you know she's a partner, and now a senior partner.

This with an education degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania - one of those small town state teachers' colleges which all got to change their name to "university". I know a couple of people on the faculty there. Let's just put it that they didn't have the credentials to teach at Pitt or Penn State.

It's a nice little small town - Jimmy Stewart came from there and they have a little Jimmy Stewart Museum - or they used to, unless it's closed. But really, all she had going for her was being a cute blonde with a hot body and a lot of ambition.

[NRaleighLiberal]

17. yup. you went where I didn't go with my brief explanation!

[GOPisEvil]

10. She's a partner in a lobbying firm.

She started as the receptionist and worked her way up somehow.

[Fleshdancer]

11. How do you go from secretary to partner in a few years?

Her degree doesn't mean much since most degrees don't go toward a person's profession these days. Starting out as the secretary seems odd to me though.

[Divernan]

18. Let's not insult secretaries. She didn't have the training to be a secretary.

[rocktivity]

12. From her online bio

(Before it was temporarily pulled):

A native of Pennsylvania, she holds a B.A. degree in Education from Indiana University in Pennsylvania.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Divernan]

19. Here's the info and link I posted elsewhere about her background

This came from the IUP alumni magazine archives. When I just tried to check it again, it had been removed! ! ! Guess IUP is not that proud of her now.


2. With no experience and a degree in educ., she becomes "special assistant"
Edited on Wed Feb-20-08 09:08 PM by Divernan
to the president of the firm after 3 months as a receptionist and next thing you know she's a senior partner. Hmmmmm. No degree in business or government. But a killer bod. It's good to be friendly with older men. Click on this link and you'll see a picture of her with W. And IUP by the way is a state teachers' college which now calls itself a university. This link is to an article about her in the alumni magazine.

http://old.www.iup.edu/publications/iupmag/backissues/F...
From her office windows, Vicki Iseman ’90 has a great view of Washington, D.C. The Indiana native is one of the youngest people in the lobbying firm of Alcalde and Fay and one of its most senior partners.

Two weeks after graduating from IUP with a degree in elementary education, Iseman joined a friend in Washington and was hired as a receptionist. With only a few months’ experience on the job, she said she “walked into my boss’s office and said, ‘You don’t really know me, but I answer the phones. I’m a college graduate and I’d like you to consider me for a secretarial or an administrative position.’” He agreed to try her out for three months. Within a year she became his special assistant.

Alcalde and Fay represents clients from cruise lines and universities to airports and broadcasters. With no background in politics or telecommunications, Iseman realized she needed to know as much as possible to survive her new job. She spent most of her waking hours learning the business, and it paid off handsomely. Eight years later she became the youngest partner ever in the firm, counting among her clients PAXtv, Religious Voices in Broadcasting, Telemundo, the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. In addition, she has met Melanie Griffith, Britney Spears, Bo Derek, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Iseman said that the most important aspect of her job is the effect that one person can have on legislation in small communities and educational institutions. “Where my heart lies is in education,” she said. “I believe it is the great equalizer.”

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[Yupster]

14. After Anne Richards left the governorship

she joined the law firm of Verner, Lipfert, Bernhard, McPherson, and Hand as a "senior advisor."

Before going into public service, she was a junior high school social studies teacher.

So I guess the answer is that it happens sometimes.

[Divernan]

16. Anne Richards had years of experience governing a large state.

All McCain's "special friend" had was answering the phone as a decorative receptionist. Richards was doubtless hired by a law firm for her government connections and as a lobbyist. I knew a very effective lobbyist without a law degree, who had his offices in a major law firm. Lobbying does not require a law degree, and some of the big law firms like the business that having a good lobbyist on board can bring their way.

[Berry Cool]

21. This woman never worked a day as a teacher.

And from what I understand, you don't have to be brilliant to earn an undergraduate degree in education. Many states and schools are no longer hiring teachers with nothing but a bachelor's degree in education, because all they have learned is how to teach. They haven't necessarily learned anything about the subjects they plan to teach. More and more, the entry ticket to teaching is becoming a bachelor's in a teachable subject (English, math, history, social studies, etc.) PLUS a master's in education.

Many teachers with nothing but bachelor's degrees in education are dumber than dirt.

She may have realized that the only way for her to get ahead and make real money (which most teachers don't) was to sleep her way to the top in the private sector. I can't think of any other way one goes from receptionist (being a secretary usually requires more knowledge) to lobby firm partner like zip, zap, zoom.

[Berry Cool]

23. It's also possible to go from being a teacher into law school, and end up as an excellent lawyer

but that is hardly relevant to this situation because, well, the woman isn't a lawyer.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. They're lobbyists. Some may be lawyers, but lobbying is what they do.

Read her story. Pretty interesting.

[Berry Cool]

22. It should be made clear to all that while she works for a "firm," it's a LOBBYING firm

and not a law firm. She never spent a day in law school and sure doesn't have a J.D.

Lobbyists are sometimes lawyers, but they don't have to be. And some lobbying firms are connected to or are arms of law firms, but their employees may not be lawyers at all. However, many times they have extensive experience of some kind in the private sector at something other than lobbying. It's usually for this reason that they are qualified to be lobbyists. Not just because they're good at schmoozing.

She, however, may be an exception.