if you’re not a lawyer, amy chua might look like a chill underdog who just wanted to host dinner parties with students! let me explain briefly what you might be missing:

a massive part of the appeal and power of yale + other elite law schools is their ability to place students in prestigious clerkships, which means working for one or two (and sometimes three!) judges early in your career. clerkships are huge resume and network boosters ...

there’s a formal process and timeline to apply but the more prestigious your school, background and network, the more room you have to circumvent both. this shadow elite club within an already elite club places less connected and often poorer students at a disadvantage ...

that’s where chua comes in. besides being the tiger mom who deposed her own daughter in a clerkship with kavanaugh, chua is widely known for being a master puppeteer at yale when it comes to placing students in fancy appellate and supreme court clerkships ...

this gave chua ENORMOUS power at yale, which is the #1 law school in the country and known not for teaching law best, but for its wild clerkship placement record. this is the context in which you need to view chua’s home dinners and reading groups ...

forget that her husband was a bit of a creep. chua herself was the queen bee on top of an ecosystem that aggressively handpicked winners, and not always based on merit. the dinners and reading group were opportunities to kiss the ring and endear yourself to chua ...

sure, maybe yale law students don’t deserve your sympathy because in the long run, they will be just fine. but chua certainly doesn’t need your compassion either.

/end