I hate to be the guy who questions whether this is newsworthy...but is this newsworthy?

The sum and substance seems to be that one or two summers showed up late to an event because they had been drinking the night before.

Unprofessional and inappropriate? Sure, a little, but summers show up late, or miss completely, events all the time.

Guys at my high school used to get drunk and hook up with ugly Proskauer bitches instead of performing public service all the time. It was no big deal, except of course for those families who had to live in a trailer for an extra day becuase some stuck-up self-entitled d-bag couldn't get off and so stayed up too late raw-dogging some girl with whom he is in competition for a job and then threw her under the bus by not helping her get to work on time the next day. Like I said, no big deal.

This is weak sauce.

5:03(2) = Comment of the Day.

Hilar

I'm more embarrassed for the firm over this tacky press release touting their so-called altruism than I am for the Summer Associates, neither of whom appear to have done much if anything wrong here.

5:03 - Since when is the standard for SA stories "newsworthiness"?

i'm a summer at Proskauer and was on the trip. New Orleans is still so devastated and I think it's amazing that the firm has gone down there 3x to help out a city that most people have forgotten about by now. this post probably ruined the chances of future trips. hope it was worth it to you. sucks for the people in NOLA.

Just out of curiosity and laziness, how is the $160,000 annual paycheck broken down on a bi-weekly basis in NYC, DC, CA, TX for a single tax payer? I know 401k contributions, insurances, etc vary between firms and individuals...need a ballpark figure. Thanks!

5:08 - Why didn't you at least wake up the ugly broad before turning over to hit the snooze button?

stupid story

5:08 - If the NOLA trips are discontinued, blame the 2006 summer associate who got arrested and the 2008 summer associates who screwed up.

It's not ATL's fault that the PR summers can't behave themselves.

this barely qualifies as SA misconduct. if this is the worst of it, then summers must gotten the message to behave themselves

What's the deal w/the guy who got arrested two years ago? That sounds like a REAL summer associate story.

Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper and more efficient to just buy 3 houses rather than fly in a pile of very expensive summer associates and attorneys?

5:06,

...since Lat relies on people coming here to read his posts.

Forgive me if I don't want to see "Summer Associate Eats at Nice Restaurant" as the next installment.

WHICH RESTAURANT???

I have a question about the whole new policy of banning IP addresses that give out information related to the stories. I would assume that people that post from their firms would most likely all share the same IP address, at least within a single office, right? So if they ban that IP address they would in effect ban an entire firm (or office) from commenting?

As a summer at Proskauer, I was honored to go to New Orleans to work for people whose lives were so devastated by Katrina. The firm is doing something amazing, something all firms should be doing. I agree with the other Proskauer poster that this blog post will ruin the reputation of the program, possibly leading to its cancellation. Hope this was worth it Lat. The families the firm could have helped thank you too, a-hole.

I think what 5:06 was trying to say is that SA stories aren't meant to be "newsworthy" (not even the good ones).

They're just gossip. You aren't going to see them on the front page of the NYT.

And even if within a single office there are several different IP addresses that are shown to the outside internet, any single computer wouldn't necessarily be assigned to the same IP address every time, would they? And how would they deal with dial-up internet or any commenter with a dynamic IP address?

"Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper and more efficient to just buy 3 houses rather than fly in a pile of very expensive summer associates and attorneys?"

This is a good question.

Not to mention the measly 7 hour work day that probably included 30-60 minutes for lunch.

I can't imagine that much of anything was actually accomplished. It would have been better if they just wrote a larger check.

5:10,

God help you if you can't figure that out for yourself using an online calculator. In fact, it would have taken less time + effort than it took you to post a comment.

HTH

5:34 - This post is giving good publicity to the program. Lat just cut and pasted their entire press release into ATL.

I didn't know about this program before today.

LOL at 5:34. You sound like a fun person.

This banning IP addresses thing is a ruse. IP addresses are not unique to individuals posting from a law firm. Even if you post from home, most service providers give you a dynamic IP address that changes from session to session. Banning an address is silly.

Why are people blaming Lat? Someone on the inside tipped him off. Although this story is about as exciting as watching paint dry, Lat was just the messenger here. And why should this stop Proskauer from continuing to go down there? Just because some idiot summers got drunk and blew off one day doesn't mean that they should cancel the entire program.

For those of you who overlooked it, the Habitat for Hummanity graphic is hillarious.

5:34 -

Douchebag. Didn't Nixon make the same argument about how the media was undermining the Office of the Presidency of the United States?

The SA's did it. Lat reports it. Go whine to the SA's about their conduct, not to Lat for reporting it. Self-righteous douche.

The firm is not going to cancel the program because of some stupid post on some stupid blog. Get real.

If your wonderful firm cancels this terrific program (though that seems unlikely as it would deprive them of at least one ridiculous, self-congratulatory press release every summer), you only have the firm to blame.

5:34, it was worth it. Maybe those people should try harder to avoid hurricanes next time.

Good call 5:41

GOOD CALL ON THE GRAPHIC! Hilarious!!!

5:26 and 5:36 get a big "yeah you right" from this NO native.

Please just send money. No self-important do-gooders, no guilt-ridden yuppies, and certainly no indentured law students. Just money.

The people who come down to "help" are idiots who don't know how to build shit anyway. The best part is when you take them through a warzone-like neighborhood that was relatively unaffected by Katrina, and they comment on how "devastated" the area is because of the Hurricane. No, dumbass. It was that way for years before Katrina; where the fuck you been?

@5.37 answer the f@#*ing question or short the f@#* up tard. I used the online calculator, but I'd rather get accurate info than rely completely the calculator....jeez!

5:35,

I don't think newsworthy was meant to refer only to worthy of mention in the NYT or other MSM.

Newsworthy means interesting enough to warrant mention. The question would therefore be whether this item was interesting enough to warrant mention on ATL.

I totally agree with 5:26 and 5:36(2). From an economic perspective, a program like this is a complete waste of resources. Three houses? That's nothing. The firm could instead donate all the money it spent getting the summers down there, plus the billable hours that it gives up, plus the cost of accommodations and transportation while in NOLA, etc., and then Habitat could use this money to give much-needed jobs to minimum-wage construction workers, who could then could build far, far more than 3 houses. The firm is obviously just doing this for the PR, plus the benefit of adding it to their list of fun "events" for the summers. I don't blame the firm, of course -- it's a great business decision. But it's a shame that they're pretending that they are doing so much more good than they really are for the people of NOLA.

5:53, how can you "short the f@#* up?" Does this involve a shrinking machine?

Actually, wouldn't the best allocation of resources be for a law firm like Proskauer to donate their attorneys' time to help out, say, the public defenders in NOLA? Instead of taking some lawyers and trying to teach them how to build houses? That'd be like taking some home-builders and putting them in the public defender's office to help out. It just doesn't make much sense and isn't efficient at all.

The general line I've heard on the 2006 incident was that he either got drunk, groped a woman, and was caught red-handed (so to speak) by a cop, or actually groped an undercover cop. In either event, said associate ended up calling one of the partners to bail him out. That pretty much ended his SA experience. Whatever - kid was a mega-douche, and dumber than a 15-year old sweatshirt I have in my closet.

5:58... although maybe by taking those summers and showing them the conditions down there, the summers will later be motivated to donate $ or take other charitable actions. I'm not saying it offsets the costs that you listed, just that the benefit was more than the value of those three houses. Plus, the housing, food, carousing, etc pumped $$ into the NOLA community.

I'm going to be volunteering at a soup kitchen at 9th Ave. and 28th St. on Saturday morning. I will be available for interviews and photographs for 20 minutes beginning at 9. There will be a separate check presentation ceremony commemorating my efforts at 10:15.

The real point of this story is that the summer has sucked for SA stories. We've had summers hook up at our firm and I didn't even blink. Who cares? I hooked up when I was a summer. Who cares?

Someone needs to do something major--being the sole rising 3L to have a great summer story is something you can do. Believe it and be it!!!

This press release is absolutely horrible. For one thing, $75 K is pocket change for this firm. BFD. Additionally, if you want to do something good like this, don't go bragging about it. When you send out a press release for an event like this, one seriously questions your motivations. It's unbelievably tacky. The most altruistic, goog-hearted people are those who do good things without asking for props.

Furthermore, come up with something better than a check signing ceremony. Those oversized checks are a cliche. Finally, the fact that the firm paid for all of its little summer associates to fly to New Orleans makes one seriously wonder whether this was done as an excuse to pay for these spoiled idiots to party in the N.O. rather than to actually perform some good.

People complaining that summer associates don't know how to build houses... that is the POINT of habitat for humanity.

@ 5.59 excuse my typo, 5.53 clearly pissed-me off all i did was ask a simple question....

The press release is embarrassing.

6:08:

"@ 5.59 excuse my typo, 5.53 clearly pissed-me off all i did was ask a stupid question...."

There, fixed it for you.

Forget newsworthy, this isn't even gossip-worthy.

Two people I've never met, and never will meet, had a few drinks, hooked up and were late to work? Who cares?

6:03(1) - I laughed

Wait -- so was it the fat bitch who overslept or the dude she slapped? Did they both get no-offered or just him? I'm very confused.

NOLA is and has always been a ghetto-ass shithole.

Not to mention the environmental impact of flying all those summer associates to NO. The carbon footprint must have been astronomical. And it was global warming that caused the hurricane to begin with. How ironic.

The comments on this thread, which started off annoying, have improved greatly in quality. Kudos.

5:34--wtf? The best thing that could happen would be for them to cancel this stupid trip. Rebuilding the 9th ward is one of the stupidest ideas to come out of a politician's mouth in recent memory (oil crisis bandaids aside). I would respect the firm much more if it had just said, we're taking our summers down to NO to get drunk and hook-up. Kudos to these two summers for standing up for what's right.

Went to law school with the 2006 summer associate got completely wasted, was apprehended for disorderly conduct, got a little bit sassy with the apprehending officers, and was placed in the slammer to sober out. In the morning, the S.A. didn't show up for the volunteer project, people panicked, and eventually the partner located him and bailed him out. He was sent back to Boston, but he was allowed to finish out the summer. Offers went out around the last day of the program and the summer was no-offered.
Hope this helps.

Is 6:39 a joke?

what's the over-under on whether they used protection? im trinking in a skank city like NO, 1-4 no trojan.

I hope that the respective summer associate that leaked this speculation gets what's coming to them. Ultimately, law firms will create some type of "programming" for their summer associates. If a program at least has some benefit to a community, particularly one that needs it, so be it. I think 14 hours of community service per person is more than most of us posters have done this year. In addition, it's a pretty good team building experience. If the poser, yes I used the word poser, had any intelligence (except his/her ability to memorize material given to them in class and make a pretty outline for exams), they would recognize that value, rather than exploiting some young folks mistakes, which isn't indicative of the whole program.

Also, PR folks thrive on any content. They will take any news to start a dialogue..and that's not a bad thing. Law firm marketing is here to stay. It's a competitive marketplace and firms need to distinguish themselves. If folks don't step up, other people will.

I don't blame you David, you're doing your job. And you do it well. To the tipster that "leaked" this, congratulations. You've only tarnished the reputation, oh wait, of a group of summers you probably belong to. Maybe you should accomplish something in your life before you go and blab like a fourteen year old girl who is desperate to get attention.

The bigger Proskauer gaffe was in 2007. A partner and member of the executive committee gave a slideshow presentation to the summers and made derogatory remarks about Asian Indians. This so infuriated the summer class, the Chairman made a public policy to the entire firm and the partner was forced to resign from the executive committee.

ALT, thanks to you, we now have to kill the two summers involved, and drown this puppy.

Hope you are satisfied.

--The management

Granted I am a former PR attorney, but I found this to be the biggest non-event ever posted on this site. A summer associate gets drunk, hooks up and oversleeps or is too ill to do volunteer work? And this is blog worthy why?

I was at PR in 2006 when the kid got arrested, now THAT was embarrassing. Heck, when I was a summer tons of my associates hooked up. Indeed, rumor has it, one summer hookup resulted in...gasp...marraige. Stop the presses. Proskauer Summer Associates hook up, get married 3 years later and leave NY for LA!!!!

also ridiculous - LW has been running "buildable hours" programs w/habitat for years.

http://www.buildablehours.com/

Proskauer Summer Associates have a propensity to "hook-up"?

In fact, in 2006 "tons of [SAs] hooked up", and one was arrested under "embarrassing" circumstances.

Now THAT is a STORY!

Thank you 8:18 PM for giving us a glimpse into PR firm culture.

Tell us more 8:18 PM, we need details, especially about the SA who got his/herself arrested.

This is almost as bad as that time they opened an office in New Jersey. *So* embarassing...

I hate these stories. I can just imagine, a couple of ugly 2Ls, heeving and grunting somewhere, the room filling with the stench of b'dussy (booty dick and pussy).

My summer, at the retreat, a couple of ugly sas hooked up. It's even more traumatizing when you can put an ugly face to the story.

*shudders at the horror of ugly people f*cking*

I walked passed their room in the morning when they opened the door, and I guarantee you, it smelled like b'dussy in there.

Claude B'Dussy, the famous composer?

Still poppin collars large in da UVA hizzzllle

PR just got pile drived by Skadden, brother.... snap into the 9th Ward! YEah

The press release is more embarassing than the late-arriving summer associates. Glad to know that the firm pimps out its summer associates for press interviews.

A quick aside to all the people who question whether this is news worthy. Ahem, this isn't a news site. This is a gossipy little hole in the wall that draws us in because it isn't earth-shattering. It's fun. Lighten up.

I am just shocked that the summers actually agreed to go and perform manual labour for the benefit of poor people. I, for one, would have flat out refused to subject myself to that kind of cruel, unusual, and degrading treatment. I'm so glad that when I was a summer, the sickening public service/clean up the ghetto event was truly voluntary. Indeed, it turned out that only the self-righteous/d-bag caucus actually hauled their asses out of bed at 9am on a saturday morning and went up to the South Bronx to perform manual labour. Shame on PR, way to ruin an entire summer. I hope that future summers inquire about this at OCI next year to ensure that they won't have to do this kind of thing.

im willing to bet $ i know which girl it was that did this.

tho i have to agree- people got drunk and overslept? in new orleans? as summer associates?

in other news, someone in my summer class took a really long lunch yesterday! top 20 firm, top5 law school... 3 hour lunch. look into it.

This makes as much sense as sending summers to the third world to perform surgery...send money or real contractors not some assTTTards who cannot even land a job at a top firm...

8:02. The point is that it was a SUMMER event, not a CHARITY event. Most firms just throw money at their summers in exchange for their summers acting like spoiled pricks. At least in this event, the firm threw money at their summers in exchange for the summers attempting to help someone else. If the firm had "just sent money or real contractors," as you so brilliantly suggest, how would that be a summer event?

The 2005 (2006?) summer associate who was arrested got completely wasted in public, was arrested, and Proskauer's New Orlean's Managing Partner had to bail him out. He went to Northeastern Law School in Boston and was working in the Boston office. Needless to say, he was a complete douche bag who did not get an offer. In fact, it is questionable why he was even hired in the first place. He's one of those guys who probably was a real tool in college and had to have his "college experience" in law school. He thought he was a real hot shot.

I call bullshit! Last year my summer class built homes for habitat as well; the only difference is that we didn't feel the need to obscenely pat ourselves on the back with a press release. Oh and we all showed up.

9:39- how the hell would you know whether there was a press release? You were a summer, not a member of the public relations staff. Or do they have the summers handle the public relations as well at your firm? I'm sure none of the Proskauer summers would ever have known there was a press release about this except for the fact it got on ATL. But good job "patting yourself on the back" anyway.

5:08 and 5:34 - The 2006 summer is the one who got arrested; the 2008 summers are the ones who got drunk and no-showed; and PR is the entity who will decide whether to continue the program or not.

Yet you will blame Lat if PR cancels it. You have poor reasoning skills for lawyers, and this is the kind of logic (if you can call it that) that will reinforce the notion that PR is a TTT firm.

Would you really want to be hungover and dealing with power tools, hammering, sawing, etc? Sounds like a liability for PR to me, probably better to not show up. (And continue hammering the other SA instead.)

/Bang things!

8:20 is right; there are a ton of firms that do this every summer.

Just to clarify, by PR i meant public relations - not PR the firm. Hate to say it, but the fact that the firm's point of view is embedded within this story shows why it was effective. Most of the time, press releases just serve as a messaging default, a place for people on deadline to get information in short amount of time.

And trust me, if they didn't put out a press release, you know the comm dept of any law firm would mention this story to any journalist asking about their SA programming.

Although I hate press releases and think they outdated pieces of garbage, apparently they are still effective. The firm got some of their talking points in here, didn't they?

As I recall, the 2006 SA lived in a 2BR, 2BA duplex in Boston... by himself. Tool.

(While he was in law school, not after graduation). I'd say rent was easily mid $2000's, and this was two years ago (rent goes up dramatically each year in Boston).

This post is a joke: Live and let Live! You people need to lighten up, life is far too short for garbage blogs like this.

Perhaps Proskauer would benefit the area more by having its SAs build better levies, unless the goal here is to maintain a perpetual market for good deeds.

they should have done their hooking up in the houses they were building. then this would be a good SA story.

Is that fourth stick figure in the logo puking?

You should check the houses they built for the stench of b'dussy. They may need to be disinfected.

Habitat is a joke - a colossally inefficient use of resources. Getting people to donate money for real work crews would a) allow for more houses to be built, b) ensure higher-quality, professional work was done on the houses, and c) create construction jobs. As it stands, Habitat is a way for upper middle class people to feel good about themselves. Pathetic.

3:01 - Yes. And that's why the photoshopped logo is awesome.

Nice work Lat.