&gt; Specifically, he said of lawyers like me (the not-harvard crowd) &quot;You cannot make a purse out of a sow&#x27;s ear&quot;.<p>According to the NYT source, he actually said, &quot;you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse&quot;, referring to the Harvard crowd as silk purses but not to non-Harvard lawyers as sow&#x27;s ears. He seems to be referring to his disdain for the quality of the education at the most selective law schools while complementing their qualifications of their students.