Law Firm Life as Treadmill? Not Just a Metaphor
Say Hello to the Treadmill Desk
The treadmill desk of Aaron Craig, a litigator at Quinn Emanuel in Los Angeles.
Comparing Biglaw life to a treadmill is a cliché. But to some attorneys around the country, it's truly the best description of how they pass their days (and nights, and weekends). From the New York Times:
Terri Krivosha, a partner at a Minneapolis law firm, logs three miles each workday on a treadmill without leaving her desk. She finds it easier to exercise while she types than to attend aerobics classes at the crack of dawn.
And she's not alone. From our law school classmate, Aaron Craig, at litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel in L.A.:
I'm now spending the majority of my billable office hours walking on my treadmill. I set up a monitor directly in front, and hooked up an arm with a keyboard and mouse tray to the frame of the treadmill....I find that 1.5 mph is best speed if I'm typing -- slightly faster if I'm just reading. Billing by the mile, not by the hour....
Check out our interview with Aaron, plus a slideshow of treadmill-desk porn, after the jump.
Where did this treadmill trend get started? From the NYT:
[Terri Krivosha is] part of a small but growing group of desk jockeys who were inspired by Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic. In 2005, Dr. Levine led a study showing that lean people burn about 350 more calories a day than those who are overweight, by doing ordinary things like fidgeting, pacing or walking to the copier.
(We bet that this Cravath partner is rail-thin.)
To incorporate extra movement into the routines of sedentary workers (himself included), Dr. Levine constructed a treadmill desk by sliding a bedside hospital tray over a $400 treadmill.Without breaking a sweat, the so-called work-walker can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour, Mayo research shows.
Very cool! Maybe a few treadmills could be set up in a conference room, so that everyone at a deposition -- witness, counsel, court reporter (okay, maybe not the court reporter) -- could burn calories during the depo. Exercising during depositions might give witnesses and lawyers an outlet for their rage, reducing the number of profanity-laced outbursts and tirades. (Litigatrices, pack your sports bras.)
And now, our interview of Aaron Craig of Quinn Emanuel, concerning his treadmill desk. Pics at the end of the post.
When did you start using a treadmill desk?
I don't know, whenever I emailed you about it. July, I think.
[Ed. note: Given the volume of email we receive, sometimes it takes us a while to get back to people. If we owe you an email, please feel free to email us again -- or try calling! Thanks.]
What gave you the idea? Why did you decide to do it?
I've been gaining weight slowly but surely for the past few years. I'm 6'4" and I'm about 15-20 pounds more than I want to be. Finding time to go to the gym was difficult -- I wanted to be spending those non-work hours with my family. Then my son figured out how to turn on and use the treadmill, and that became one of his favorite games, and since he's two, we had to get the treadmill out of the house.
From these two parallel developments, an idea was born. I looked around on the internet and saw that a few other people were doing the same thing, but the few sites out there weren't any help. I found an IT guy/handyman/engineer on Craigslist, and he helped me pick out and order the components and assemble them. Hi Hector, you da man! By far the hardest part was moving my treadmill from my house to my office -- that sumbitch is heavy.
How has it worked out so far?
I love it, but I'm not losing much weight. The Lexis people keep bringing Sprinkles cupcakes to our office.
How far do you go in a typical day?
On a good day I'll walk 5 or 6 miles -- but if I'm writing a brief I'll usually sit at my desk and work. My office computer is still at my desk -- the computer hooked up to the treadmill is my own.
Do people think you're a freak show for doing this?
People generally seem to think it's a cool idea. Of course, they might be saying otherwise when I'm not around. Other people have done some innovative stuff to their offices, so there's some precedent. Anyways, I think it's an entirely defensible decision -- it's not hurting anybody and helps me be a happier, more productive employee.
Any issues with respect to colleagues or clients?
None.
Any funny anecdotes arising out of the treadmill desk?
I'd like to thank NBC for putting so much of its Olympic coverage live online. I have fond memories of those August nights watching handball and race walking from Beijing.
Thanks, Aaron -- happy trails!
I Put In 5 Miles at the Office [Well / New York Times]
(93) Comments
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first
first
Running for first?
it must suck to be fat
Deadwood poster...small mini-fridge...t-shirt and jeans to work... is this an office or a dorm room?
4 - It does. Just ask your MOM!
I bet that setup is absolutely anathema to Fatty Mystal.
Those picture should be called gay porn.
great idea, but it doesn't seem to be working very well.
I'd hate to have to be wheeling that thing through the office on my way out when I get laid off.
But how can you keep your hands on the heart rate handles and type at the same time? How can I type and stay in the "fat burning zone?"
10, LOL - hysterical imagery.
4:20 DOOOODS
Finally, an entertaining post. Don't leave us, Lat.
1.5MPH? Better than nothing I guess, but still... he should just get Dragon for dictation instead of trying to type.
This is jaw-droppingly horrifying. I need to get out of this business.
Suck it, Mystal!
Bow down to Lat and pray he doesn't treat you like the filthy GULCer wiper of ass that you are!!!!!!!!
I think this is awesome. I wish I could do this.
I guess I sometimes do, since I bring lexis printouts to the gym and read while on the treadmill. But the lighting at the gym sucks, and the music is distracting.
I spend way too much time sitting. It makes me restless and it isn't healthy. (And I agree with the attorney in the NYTimes article--it helps me to focus/get rid of the OCD issue.)
But, alas, as an associate I shall continue to sit at my firm assigned standard desk.
What a bunch of wackos
This guy is exactly what is wrong with the legal profession.
I'd think something non-impact--like an eliptical or stationary bike--would be better. It's hard to read on a treadmill even when walking b/c you bounce a little with each impact.
First to say that walking 5-6 miles a day doesn't burn shit for calories.
first!
This is pathetic. No respectable law firm would permit an associate to sweat on a treadmill during regular business hours while there is work to be done.
Walking 5-6 miles a day burns more calories than sitting at your desk and staring at the computer. However, this is everything that is wrong with biglaw. I mean for the love of god people. You could also get a feeding tube permanently implanted. Saves time cause you don't have to buy meals, more billable hours! yay!
20 he's from quinn emanuel and thus needs attention, from both his co-workers and from peers at other firms. you know the whole quinn emanuel different thing...
22 - Shows how little you know. Walking 1 mile equates to roughly 100 calories burned for someone weighing 180 lbs. Therefore, 5-6 miles/day is the equivalent of 500-600 calories burned. That's a fairly significant number, and would work out to the loss of nearly a pound of fat per week.
22- walking 5-6 miles burns as many calories as running 5-6 miles.
i could instantly tell that this was a lat post instead of a cheesy elie one
Ass spread is hot. You can always gauge seniority of the ladies by butt girth.
Fantastic idea.
And yes, walking -- or even puttering around -- is much, much better than sitting at your desk all day.
NY/DC/LA/CHI to treadmills!!!!
28- WRONG. Running consumes more calories per unit of distance than walking. For a person who weighs 70 kilograms (about 154 pounds), walking at 5 kilometers per hour (3.1 miles per hour) consumes 50 calories per kilometer, whereas running at 10 kph (6.2 mph) consumes 78 calories per kilometer.
"22- walking 5-6 miles burns as many calories as running 5-6 miles."
You're kidding, right?
Running > Walking > Sitting on your arse objecting to commentors who say that walking = running.
And what are these "kilometers" anyway?? I'm American. I run in miles. Long, long, miles.
There are plenty of these machines over on the Lido Deck at S.S. Heller:
http://hellerdrone.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/are-some-life-perservers-more-golden-than-others/
This is, without question, the most asinine thing I have ever seen.
This screams for a photo contest.
NY to the metric system.
That's one of the Craig brothers who created Rumpus Magazine, back in the day. He used to be funny -- and less fat.
Freak. Show.
40, great comment
Lat to EIC (again).
Good one, 28. Obviously you're not a golfer.
This is pathetic. No respectable law firm would permit an associate to sweat on a treadmill during regular business hours while there is work to be done.
__________________________________________
But they wouldn't have a problem at all with the way he's dressed or his mom's basement decor.
I'd drop my lawyer in a heart-beat if I knew he was on the treadmill while working on my case. Not only is it unprofessional to charge clients while multitasking on personal matters, it shows that the lawyer has poor time management skills. If you can't find an hour three days a week to go to the gym, I don't want you working for me. I doubt you're working so hard you don't have the time. More likely you just lack discipline, can't stay on task, and spend too much time on hear commenting on how Lat just pwned Elie.
Great idea, great post.
Unfortunately, I went and checked the by line and it was by . . . not Elie Mystal.
Lat, you're still the best.
Kash, you're still hot.
Elie, . . . .
This is cool, but my office isn't big enough for one.
Quinn seems like a cool place to work. A little Ally McBeal-ish, but cool and fun.
46, you only work out three hours a week? You nasty fat ass, stop posting on ATL and go to the gym.
Does this fly in his office because it's Cali? Laid back freaks.
1 mile walking burns fewer calories than 1 mile running. However, most people burn more calories by walking than by running, because you can walk far greater distances than you can run. If you run 2 miles and decide you're tired and done for the day, you won't burn nearly as many calories as the guy who walks 5 miles.
Did he file a patent on?
If not...........................loser!
Get off the treadmill!
-- Guido Calabresi
I'm sure clients want to pay for a billable hour with an associate or partner doing any kind of work, including just reading a case, while RUNNING on a TREADMILL.
I can't believe any associates/partners anywhere would go public with this. Stupid.
that workstation doesn't look very ergonomic.
i thought quinn attorneys were called "trial lawyers" not litigators?
Get Mrs. Mystal on that treadmill pronto.
26 - If you're use of no caps was intentional, very funny.
I know, I know. It's "your".
- 59
After reading this post, it's clear that quinn emanuel lawyers are neither "litigators" nor "trial lawyers."
They are "outrageous homos."
Definitely Elie's best post yet. Things are looking up.
What?
oh...so close, 46! you sounded almost like a real client until you used "hear" instead of the correct "here".
back to Torts class for you!
45 obviously you know nothing about QE. It's actually a good thing there to be ..."different."
I tend to agree with the comments here. Come on man, get out from behind your computer screen and go run outside for 20 minutes. You live in LA, the weather is always great for running outside.
assinine....really, he can't spare an hour a day 3 days a week to go to gym? I work directly across the street from Quinn in LA and I take walks around the block during the day to 1) get some sun, 2) get some fresh air ( insert joke here re smog ) and 3) just get out of the f-ing office.
assinine....really, he can't spare an hour a day 3 days a week to go to gym? I work directly across the street from Quinn in LA and I take walks around the block during the day to 1) get some sun, 2) get some fresh air ( insert joke here re smog ) and 3) just get out of the f-ing office.
Y'all just continue hating while Quinn continues winning cases. If it makes you feel better, you can even criticize their denim and office decor as those "wackos" wipe whatever firm you work for all over the courtroom. Just hope your client will value that suit you're bursting out of more than they value the money you just lost them.
Plus, juries hate fatties. And their opinions are the only opinions that count.
With flashcards in hand, I put in quite a few hours for the bar on a treadmill.
Man, did Tom get it right during the judging, or what? Lat is so much better at this job...And, to make matters worse, with no good salary information coming out, the site is going to have to rely on nonsense posts like this one for content, which requires skill to make entertaining. The horror, the horror. David, can't you get them to pay you double to write for this site and manage the others?
I've heard that you do burn the same amount of calories whether walking one mile or running one mile. Sure, if you ran for an hour v. walking for an hour, you'd burn more calories running. But if we're talking distance, as opposed to time, I hear they're the same (i.e., walking you burn calories at a lower rate but at a longer period of time, so it comes out to the same as if you ran expending a higher rate of calories over a shorter duration of time).
70 - you are correct sir.
You burn the same amount of calories walking one mile as running one mile. The catch, of course, is that it may take you 20 minutes to walk a mile and only 8 to run it. So in other words, you burn the same amount of calories walking 20 minutes as you do running 8 minutes.
In addition, your heart rate will not be as high when you walk, so you will not get as good a cardiovascular workout.
Should kill themselves. That is all.
54 - perfect comment.
TTT's, you are not supposed to get it.
46: You're fake and completely full of sh!t. My clients know that I work round the clock for them - they get the emails at 2 in the morning. I'm pretty sure that they aren't going to care that work doesn't leave time for going to the gym. They don't care about my work/life balance -- in fact, the less of a personal life I have, the better. They care about THEIR work/life balance. From me, they just want the work done on the schedule they need, because they pay an exorbitant rate per hour for it. So, late nights, weekends, vacation -- those don't hold any weight with them.
"-- in fact the less personal life i have the better."
You wrote that? You should kill yourself.
This is way FitClub!!!
The issue isn't whether using a treadmill in the office replaces going to the gym; it's whether using a treadmill in the office replaces sitting on your ass all day. If I didn't think it would look weird for a third-year to bring my own treadmill into my office, I would definitely buy a cheap one and walk on it as often as I could while I was working. I've gained 20 pounds since I started, and a few hours a week at the gym is not enough. That doctor who says you have to keep moving throughout the day has it right.
80: the issue isn't whether having a treadmill will keep you from sitting on your ass all day; it's whether you are a fatass wholly lacking in the ability to prevent yourself from eating everything in the vending machine.
This is re-arded, and confirms that the legal profession is full of idiots.
I bet his undies are totally swamp at the end of the day.
83: People at Quinn go commando.
The problem with his goofy rig is that he can't do either of what he's trying to accomplish very well. He's not really exercising and he can't be totally focused on his work while he's clopping along. Dumb.
I believe they also have these tredmill desks at Quarles & Brady.
82 - I bet it's the kind of thing where once you get used to it, you can concentrate just fine.
I've got a treadmill in my office for daily walks, but naturally its rigged like this QE guy's so I can bill at the same time. To save bathroom time, I wear a truckers friend and recently had a colostomy bag installed so I never have to leave my billing station to answer nature's call. I've jury-rigged a surgically implanted Wii controller to manipulate my computer. I have an IV permanently hooked up to my veins to provide basic nutrients for when I don't have time to eat the carry-out food that my secretary buys me. My deskchair reclines into a fully flat position for the few hours of sleep I need. I never have to leave the office -- my secretary even empties and cleans my truckers friend and colostomy bag.
I am truly a billing machine! My firm's management committee is considering making these amazing lifestyle improvements part of their "work-life-balance improvement" program available to all who ask. Who knew that you could balance so much work!
Elie: You are not the biggest loser.
Awesome view of the parking lot. "Of Counsel."
Who are you negative people commenting on this? THis is not insane, and, whether you've worked at a firm or not, you probably know people who have to have music on, or have to get up for 10 minutes an hour or have to be online all day in order for them to stay at their desks and do stuff. . Those are all distractions, but some of them offer just enough stimulation to keep someone doing the work they are supposed to be doing. Most of the posters appear to be posting during working hours-- I should hope you weren't billing for that time, but you must have some justification for thinking that taking a break to check this website during the day doesn't really detract from your ability to focus on what you're doing. So this guy's going really slowly-- I am pretty sure I could type and read and think at the same speed with my legs lazily moving as I could sitting here at my desk, and I personally would rather get the benefit of the exercise than the butt-spread that I get. So what's the problem? At Quinn, most of the attorneys work very long hours and a certain level of quality and productiveness is expected of them. This guy is a senior associate and I imagine he does pretty damn good work or he would have been made to get rid of the contraption. I congratulate him for figuring out a way to be a bit healthier while getting his work done and leaving whatever scarce time he can carve out of his schedule for his family. I'd appreciate that ingenuity in an employee and in a boss (as long as the employee is making it work, of course).
Treadmill desks work great and they increase your productivity while burning fat. You can read about the benefits at http://www.trekdesk.com, I think you will be amazed.
I'm a solo with a home office. I have an active law practice doing contract work for other lawyers and also run three side businesses. I love what I do, but it does take time. You can find pictures of my treadmill desk at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36945&l=fda23&id=647379799 (public link).
I don't have any problem concentrating on work while walking (on the other hand, I can't listen to music while working).
I'm a solo with a home office. I have an active law practice doing contract work for other lawyers and also run three side businesses. I love what I do, but it does take time. You can find pictures of my treadmill desk at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36945&l=fda23&id=647379799 (public link).
I don't have any problem concentrating on work while walking (on the other hand, I can't listen to music while working).
As a (former) Akin Gump partner, I continue to be impressed by the calibur of QE attorneys, such as this one.
ke ke ke
Unmentioned is that OSHA has apparently opined that treadmill desks at work contribute to an unsafe workplace. Workers comp, you know. In any case, you can get some pretty fancy ones at http://www.treadmill-world.com/trek-desk.html