Biglaw, Christopher Slowik, Job Searches

Is This Depressing, or What?

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We’re still feeling under the weather, and it’s overcast oustide. And now the Wall Street Journal wants to plunge us even deeper into the doldrums:

This is the second installment of the Online Journal’s Diary of a Law-Job Seeker, by Christopher Slowik, a 37-year-old Brooklyn Law graduate who is looking for his first law job. Read the first installment here, and offer your thoughts on Mr. Slowik’s search on our Law Blog here.

Slowik’s tale is a dispiriting one. He’s a Yale College grad who was earning a six-figure salary from a good job in tech. But then he decided, in his mid-30’s, that he really wanted to go to law school. So he did. And now he finds himself in this boat:

At Brooklyn Law School, top-tier Manhattan firms come to campus to make offers to the most highly ranked students. Other students seem to scramble. Although I landed a much sought-after position as a law review editor, I did not place at the top of my class and did not get a look from the big firms. I worked part-time for a solo practitioner during my last year of school, and he might still offer me a job, but he isn’t sure if he will have enough work. So it’s up to me to rustle up my own position.

We’d offer our reaction to this — but it’s time for lunch, and we’re hungry. So we’ll just turn the floor over to the commenters from the WSJ Law Blog, who are quite amusing (intentionally or not):

Aren’t you a little bit old to be looking for your first law job. I know partners at major New York firms who are younger than you. —Anonymous

Why couldn’t he get a job through on campus interviews? —OCI Guy

because, oci guy, he went to brooklyn, where we have to do well to get a job through oci. only the top 10% get offers. —Anonymous

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!! CONGRATS ON GRADUATING FROM LAW SCHOOL! DON’T LISTEN TO THESE IRROGANT PEOPLE’S COMMENTS!! YOU’RE BY FAR ON YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS!!! —Your brother’s friend

the big elephant in the room is that you went to Brooklyn Law School and didn’t even do that well. sorry man, but you’ll probably hate being a lawyer. you’re a pretty good writer, why don’t you take that up instead? —captain obvious

Our suggestion: Why not write a “Dear Abby” letter to Ann Israel, of Advice for the Lawlorn? That lady’s omniscient!
Job Hunting, One Row at a Time [Wall Street Journal via WSJ Law Blog]
Diary of a Law-Job Seeker: Starting Over (At Age 37) [Wall Street Journal]

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