Patrick Campbell was born and raised in poverty in Mountain View, Kingston, where as a boy he had seen the bodies of more that 20 murdered victims. Crime drove his poor family away from Jamaica and today he is the third black man and first Jamaican to partner in U.S. based firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.Mr. Campbell graduated, cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1992. He then attended Stanford Law School. An editor of the Stanford Law Review, he was awarded the Carl Mason Franklin Prize for the most outstanding paper in the field of International Law. He concentrates on corporate transactions and regulatory matters in the communications and technology areas.
He shares his journey with us in an interview with Avia Ustanny.
I WAS BORN in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up on Mountain View. My mother, Daphne Samuels (now Allen) was a dressmaker who earned $60 a week.
My father, Maurice Campbell, worked for Grace, Kennedy. He did not live with us, but he visited from time to time. We were very poor, and for the first 10 years of my life six of us my mother, stepfather, three siblings and I shared a one-room house in a tenement yard.
But, we were always taught to take pride in everything we had and did. One of my happiest memories in childhood is going to summer camps run by the Missionary Churches. I attended First Missionary Church on Queen Street, and was an avid Bible study and Bible-quiz winner at an early age.
My other most vivid recollection of childhood is not a pleasant one. It is being a nine-year-old boy during the 1980 election, and watching brutal violence and death unfold before my young eyes. We lived in one of the worst areas of Kingston, being close to Wareika Hill, Jarret Lane, Jacques Road, and other warring neighbourhoods.
A statistic
I have not seen the body of a murder victim in the United States in the 18 years I have been here, but I probably saw 20 as a child, many of them close to my doorsteps. It made be determined not to become a statistic.
I left Jamaica in 1986. My entire family was emigrating to the U.S. then, in stages, and we just fell in line. My mother had left two years before that, and sent for us as soon as she could.
In Jamaica, I had gone to Central Branch All-Age, then Jamaica College, where I made it to the fourth form before I left for the States. I was taking accelerated Maths and English at the time in preparation for taking exams in those subjects one year earlier than normal.
I then went to Georgetown University in D.C. (home of the famous Hoyas -- Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Motumbo and Alan Iverson; I actually went to school with Alonzo and Dikembe).
After graduating from Georgetown, I went to Stanford Law School in California. I was fortunate to get into Stanford, which is considered among the top three law schools in the country, along with Yale and Harvard.
Application
When I got accepted, the acceptance rate was around seven per cent, which meant that only seven out of every 100 applicants were accepted.
While in Jamaica, I did not have any big career plans -- just to get out of the ghetto and find some kind of office job. As a kid I always played office, using a piece of board over a rock as my desk, and an old door handle from the inside of a car as my phone (we didn't even have a house phone at the time).
I also thought I wanted to be a teacher, and always enjoyed gathering the neighbourhood kids around a chalk board and pretending to teach. But, after moving to America and seeing the additional opportunities, I began to think in bigger terms, hoping to become some kind of business manager.
At some point in high school, I met a successful black corporate lawyer who had gone to my high school, and that planted a seed in my head that anything was possible.
Then, I took a Street Law class which allowed me to participate in a mock trial competition in front of real judges in a real courtroom. My team won the competition, which was among all public high schools in Washington, DC. It was, at that time, the proudest moment in my young life.
It made me decide, at age 15, that I wanted to become a lawyer the first one in my extended family. I never let go of that dream.
Becoming a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP was indeed a tremendous accomplishment, and in the process I set a few "firsts" that are worth mentioning. In addition to being the third black partner ever in a firm of roughly 500 lawyers with roots going back to 1875, I am the first black partner in the Washington office.
I am also the first partner of any colour in the Washington office, and the first black partner in the entire firm, to be completely "home-grown," that is, I started my career at the firm, first as a summer associate in 1994, then as an associate in 1996, and spent my entire career at the firm (some other partners are not home-grown, but join the firm in the middle of their careers as "laterals").
On the job, the biggest challenge I faced was really the economy. Although telecom is a thriving area of our economy, the industry has felt the negative effects of the decline in the tech economy (some describe this as the burst of the Internet bubble). Over the last few years, telecom has not always thrived as it used to. We are seeing a comeback, but things are not quite back to where they once were. I think the resurgence will continue.
Telecommunications
The world relies heavily on telecommunications, and the industry is always reinventing itself with new, cutting edge services. Next on the horizon is voice-over-IP, which will allow cable companies to provide telephone service in competition with incumbent phone service providers.
Satellite communications will also continue to grow and provide additional alternatives for high speed Internet access, television, radio, and other applications. The conversion from analog to digital broadcast television will also revolutionise the broadcast industry. These and other developments promise to keep our industry thriving for years to come.
When I am not at work, I enjoy playing and watching golf. I am also a gadget junkie, and cannot get enough of the wonderful electronic toys available.
Flying lessons
I have recently taken up flying lessons, and hope one day to become a private pilot and own my own aeroplane..
I have a beautiful family. My wife's name is Natasha. She is from Trinidad. She makes my life complete by being a beautiful, wonderful, supportive, loving companion. She is also a great cook. We are expecting a baby, Patrick II, in May (on Mother's Day, actually).
In the next decade, I hope to be an important player in the world of telecom lawyers, and become a leader within my firm. I also hope to be active in my local community, doing lots or pro bono and community service and giving back to a community that has been rather kind to me.
I would like to develop strong contacts in Jamaica, and would love an opportunity to play a role in the development of the country. I do think it is important for those of us who have moved away to remember our roots, and do what we can to uplift the country.
