September 10, 2007

Aimee Custis, an Honors graduate in Political Science from the class of 2007,  recently interviewed Clegg Ivey, an Honors graduate of the class of 1993, who had the distinction of graduating magna cum laude with degrees in Political Science, Classics, History and Philosophy. After attending  Tulane, Mr. Ivey obtained a law degree from the University of Chicago and clerked for the Hon. Alice M. Batchelder, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Ivey has founded several technology companies, including Voxeo Corporation, one of the world’s leading standards-based Internet telephony firms.  Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Mr. Ivey was an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the nation's leading technology law firm. While at Wilson, he specialized in technology law and served as a technology lawyer for clients including Google, HP, Apple, Borland, and Netscape (founded by another Tulane alumnus). He currently lives in Orlando, Florida.

You had an impressive academic career at Tulane – why did you choose to study and graduate with majors in Political Science, Classics, History and Philosophy?

I was awarded a full tuition scholarship for four years, and I entered with a significant number of credits as a freshman from advanced placement and community college that I had earned in high school.  Thus, I was able to start taking high-level classes right away – I even took some 600-level classes in History and Political Science as a freshman.  It seemed prudent to utilize all four years of tuition funds, so as I began to run out of Political Science classes early in my undergraduate career, I started taking more and more classes in Classics, and then History and Philosophy. 

Why did you choose to study Classics, History and Philosophy in particular in addition to Political Science?

All of these disciplines are in the liberal arts tradition.  I found that by studying these related fields, I was able to get a broader, more well-rounded education, allowing me to understand what I was learning in Political Science that much better.  Furthermore, pursuing such a broad, tradition liberal arts education is still one of the best things students can do to prepare themselves for life in the ‘real’ world.  A liberal arts education teaches you critical thinking and how to analyse and work through a problem, rather than a more limited set of skills that may not always be applicable to the situation at hand. 

After graduation, what were your plans, and how did they match up with what you ended up doing?

Like many Political Science majors, I initially saw myself working for government in some way – with the Foreign Service, for the State Department, or on Capitol Hill, etc.  After graduation and a year working for Tulane Housing and Residence Life, I attended law school at the University of Chicago before going on to a clerkship with Judge Alice Batchelder in the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals – the best job of my life! -  and work with a Silicon Valley, California law firm.  I left that firm to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, and have been working in such a capacity ever since.

What did you find most interesting in the field of Political Science?  How did that translate into what you do now?

I’ve always been interested in technology, and was fortunate to be graduating from school at a time when I had some great opportunities to be involved in some technology issues.  I took a class with Professor Thomas Langston called Science, Technology and Public Policy (POLA 480) in which I discovered I could combine both of my passions – Political Science and technology.  Looking back, taking that class is the point at which I realized I could combine the two, and the first step in my career path of working in technology law and policy, and eventually getting multiple technology-based business opportunities off the ground.

You mentioned that you took a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals clerkship and work in technology law – what was that like?

The clerkship was one of the most positive experiences of my life.  Post-law school, I took a year to complete the clerkship.  The judge with whom I clerked, Alice Batchelder, is one of the most respected in the country and is perennially on the short-list for nomination to the US Supreme Court.  The law firm for which I worked in Silicon Valley, starting while I was still in law school, presented me – the young kid in the office who understood computer software - with the opportunity to contribute on all manner of important issues -- whether being involved with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from the very beginning, or helping the DOJ fight the good fight against the Microsoft Monopoly.  I was also heavily involved in the first of the mp3 player cases (pre-Napster), defending the Diamond Rio mp3 player – largely because I was one of the only lawyers in the firm who knew what an mp3 was!

How has your Tulane education prepared you for the things you’ve done since leaving here?

Well, first and foremost, I learned to write well, to articulate ideas clearly, and to think critically.  I suppose it doesn’t matter what major you choose, so long as your professors do a great job, as mine did, of teaching you to think, to write, and to speak like a learned professional.  I still use the research skills I learned at Tulane, even though I am more likely these days to use the Internet than I am to go spelunking through the citations at the end of a journal article or Penguin paperback.  Of course, I happen to know from working with the guys at Google that the world’s largest search engine actually started out as a college paper on how to figure out which academic sources are most relevant by looking at how often they are cited by other academic sources.  So, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same!

I’ve also found that even though I’m not in a traditional Political Science field, the things I learned in my Political Science courses are still of use to me every day – for example, the lessons I learned studying deterrence theory, nuclear brinksmanship, and even the game theoretical aspects of political economy are all applicable in my life is a business guy.  After all, these ideas and theories apply in almost any negotiating situation, and at every level of analysis, regardless of whether the actors are nation-states or corporate entities.  Furthermore, the development of my rational skills (again with the broad liberal arts education) has served me in everyday life solving problems of any and every nature.  It’s also taught me that lessons are interdisciplinary and universal – in my technology ventures, for example, I’ve learned just how much of an impact technology can have on public policy, and vice versa. 

Any advice for Political Science undergraduates?

No matter what subject or subjects you study in college, and no matter what you end up doing in the world, your field of study will continue to have relevance to your work.  Learn to make the connections between the academic and the practical. You’ll never have a better opportunity than as an undergraduate to intern and shadow in whatever field you want – do more of it!  It’s the best way to figure out if what you think you want to do is what you really DO want to do.  Finally, while you’re in college, learn how to write, speak and articulate your ideas.  People who can do these things are head and shoulders above their peers when it comes to getting their ideas adopted in the workplace!