Since I have written so complaining-ly about law school and law firms and legal practice, I just have to recognize this. It deserves recognition.

The Inquirer today has a story about a woman--still just twenty-four--who managed to raise a lovely child since she was fourteen, navigate bad neighborhoods...

And on top of all that she had to figure out how a creative and unconventional African-American woman could fit in a law school and legal job market that does not mainly privilege those qualities. Today she's graduating from Temple Law.

She has a thousand reasons to celebrate, but the one I am quietly rejoicing over is that she'll be starting in the fall as a lawyer in Community Legal Services family advocacy unit.

That's a huge gift to the city (CLS lawyers have done so much incredible work over the years) and it is completely inspiring to me to see someone who struggled so much and who now could have access to the high salaries of private practice, instead forge her own definitions of sucess.