Notes from the Breadline: And You May Ask Yourself - Well… How Did I Get Here?
Ed. note: Welcome to the second installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a new column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. To those of you who have been wondering, it is not fiction; we’ve just altered a handful of details to preserve the author’s anonymity (since she’s still looking for work).
If you missed the inaugural post, check it out here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email, at roxanastthomas@gmail.com, or find her on Facebook.
It is December. The office feels empty, abandoned. I have finished every shred of billable work I could dredge up, and, as of a few days ago, exhausted the non-billable possibilities as well. My few pro bono matters have been reviewed and researched thoroughly, and I have no CLE requirements left to fulfill. I wonder idly if I can spend 70 or 80 hours on CLE, and then roll it over for the next few years, like cell phone minutes. Or maybe I can spend some time “organizing client files,” which, incidentally, my cabinets are choked with.
One of our biggest clients, a huge lending institution, collapsed suddenly a few months ago, and the raft of cases that had been keeping me afloat burbled and sank virtually overnight. Most of them, which involve holding companies or subsidiaries that have not yet declared bankruptcy, are not officially dead: they are simply moribund, the paper equivalent of carrion. My office is an abattoir! I think. Though unfortunate, I wonder, does this present billable possibilities? How about “Administered last rites to dying cases; prepared dead matters for cremation and burial; performed obsequies for same”?
I try to tell myself that we are experiencing an early, holiday-related slump, but the truth is that things have been this way — painfully slow — for several months. We are all on edge, and growing progressively more nervous as work gets harder to come by. Associates spend the time not devoted to billable work complaining, worrying, regarding each other jealously, or trying to read tea leaves: why did he (or she) get that assignment? Does everyone know I’m looking for work? Why hasn’t that case, mentioned in passing by a partner, materialized? Where did it go?
Making matters worse, the firm insists that business is booming, although we all know by now that several associates were axed during the last round of reviews (for unspecified “performance-related” reasons) and that, more recently, there has been a spate of staff layoffs, also unacknowledged. At our last litigation meeting, the department head announced cheerfully that things were “great,” and that our group was “going like gangbusters!” In the stunned silence that followed, the associates looked at each other incredulously. Although, with few exceptions, no one was busy, a palpable sense of doubt settled over the room. Maybe, everyone seemed to wonder, it’s just me.
Read more, after the jump.
So, for the past few months, most associates have occupied a strange netherworld. We are employed, but unable to believe that we have anything resembling job security. We come to work every day, but there is nothing there to do. Still, we can’t bring ourselves to leave the office at a reasonable time, just in case someone happens by looking for an associate to do something — anything — after hours. We end up leaving late and tired, even though we have accomplished nothing.
My best friend at the firm, Giovanna, tells me every day that she is definitely getting fired; she spent the better part of three years working on a shareholder derivative class action, which settled over the summer. She is beginning to sound like Dustin Hoffman’s character in “Rain Man.” Definitely getting fired. Definitely. Ten minutes to Wapner. “That’s crazy,” I tell her. “You did a great job managing that case.” She is adamant. “I don’t do anything that someone younger and cheaper couldn’t do,” she tells me. “I’m fungible, like a widget.”
Even as I try to convince her that she’s safe, I am sure that I will be the next casualty. At my last review, I got a positive evaluation and a good bonus, and they told me it was one of the better bonuses given — a “way of saying, ‘we’re happy to have you here.’” It suddenly feels like a liability, since I have struggled to bill 150 hours a month since then, and the work I do manage to put on my timesheets has a distinctly fig-leafish quality. The night before Thanksgiving, for example, I went to visit a pro bono client in jail; although I usually try to time these visits not to coincide with the frustrating, time-sucking prisoner count, I am secretly relieved when I arrive just after it has started and have to wait for 45 minutes to see my client. When people ask me how work is, I quote Woody Allen: it’s terrible, and the portions are too small.
So, as Christmas approaches, we try to balance the demands of eking out an existence with the imperative of staying sane, with mixed success. Giovanna and I bring lunch, purloin beverages from conference rooms, and decide to cut out Starbucks, all of which seems reasonable. We also seriously discuss making macaroni frames for Christmas gifts, and I wonder whether, at 34, it’s too late to donate eggs to infertile couples, which seems very lucrative (if the subways ads are to be believed). These are a few of my stupider ideas.
On this particular day in December, I am antsy and nervous. I spent most of yesterday trolling the halls, knocking on doors and starting one conversation after another with anyone who might have work to give me. After a while, these interactions take on the cadence of a televangelist’s pitch. We chat, I laugh at jokes, I feign interest in a lengthy disquisition on John McCain’s crucial strategic errors, the recession, whether “Quantum of Solace” is a worthy Bond movie.
At some point, relevant or not, I bring the conversation back to work, and how desperately I need some. The partners are all in the same, undignified position: they’re toiling away on tasks that, in years past, they would have delegated to someone much, much lowlier. As they review their own documents, write their own briefs, and do their own research, it becomes painfully evident: they have nothing to give.
Finally, Giovanna and I decide to go to TJ Maxx and look for bargains. Although we feel guilty leaving the office, we realize that a huge case with significant staffing demands is unlikely to come in while we are out buying our Christmas presents. Neither of us has billed 100 hours for the month, and there is no work in sight. We decide that we will call our excursion “personal time,” which is non-billable, but at least explains where part of the day went.
When we return from the store, I stop by the assignment partner’s office, prepared to beg for something — anything — that I can put on my timesheets. He is gone, as is the head of our practice group and, for that matter, everyone else I attempt to stalk. I wonder if they are all at TJ Maxx, buying fuzzy slippers on sale.
The next day I look nervously at my hours, which are hovering near 75 for the month. I decide to resume my offensive on the assignment partner, who, I tell myself, has to return to his desk at some point. I know that he is being pursued by every associate for the same reason, and that he probably spends much of his day delivering anodyne promises about big, document-heavy cases that will come in “soon!” and dodging the anxious whimpering of associates desperate not just for work, but for a whiff of security. On my first trip upstairs, I find his office empty, and picture him crammed into a bathroom stall, shuffling papers and balancing his laptop, careful to make sure that his feet do not dangle into view. You can hide, motherfucker, but eventually you’ll get hungry, I think. You can’t stay in there forever.
An hour later, my phone rings. It’s him — the assignment partner! He knows that I am desperately in need of work and is calling to tell me that someone needs help on an order to show cause, which will invariably turn into protracted, time-consuming motion practice. I pick up the phone, and he asks me to come to his office. I leap up from my desk and start upstairs, realizing as I do that something doesn’t feel right. There were no pleasantries, no “what’s your schedule like?,” not even an “I heard you were waiting outside the bathroom for me, and, as it happens, your hard work and persistence have paid off!” When I get there, his door is closed. I am too rattled to knock, so I barge in; he is sitting with someone I have never met.
“This is Bob, from Human Resources,” the partner explains. “Nice to meet you, Bob,” I say, because it seems inappropriate to say “Bob, I would prefer not to meet you, today or any other day.” As he points me to a chair, I think of the scene from Lethal Weapon in which the bad guy calls one of his associates in for a meeting, tells him to stand on a strategically placed sheet of plastic (put there by “the painters”), and then executes him. I know, from the look on the partner’s face, that the one thing he regrets right now is that he never installed the trap door — just on the other side of his desk, right under the chair where I now sit — that he has always dreamed of.
As the realization of what is happening settles on me, I find myself oddly focused on two thoughts: don’t cry, and don’t throw up. I repeat the words in my head like a mantra: don’t cry; don’t barf; don’t cry; don’t barf. I know what the partner is about to say, and am not surprised when the words land around me like sheepish little mines.
“Roxana,” he starts out (in a tone that would be equally appropriate if he was announcing that “it looks like we’re going to have to amputate”), “as you know, these are incredibly difficult times, with the economic downturn and all.” He tells me that “the firm has been struggling,” and that it has decided “to let a number of people go.” The way he says it makes it sound benign, as though the firm is waving us through at a traffic light, or setting us free in the wild. “Unfortunately,” he explains, “you are one of those people.”
Suddenly, I wish I could, in fact, barf — with eruptive precision, like an oddly-endowed superhero striking back at her enemy. The power to summon thunderbolts would be sexier, I think, but I would settle for projectile vomit. Instead, I hear myself asking whether other attorneys are being “let go.” Yes, they tell me; in addition to staff, there are a number of attorneys being “released,” though they are not at liberty to say which ones. I’m not sure why this detail seems important, but it is oddly comforting.
Having delivered the news, the partner begins to recite a stream of apologies. He is sorry; they are all sorry. This is a purely economic decision, and in no way reflects on my worth as an attorney, or, for that matter, as a person. The firm will write me a recommendation that makes it abundantly clear that I was let go for financial reasons. Do I want help with my resume? How about the name of a recruiter? I stand up. I do not want their suggestions about my resume or their referral for a recruiter; I want to leave the room. If I can’t barf on these people, I want to be alone in my office, away from their mendacious pity and superficial offers to help me out of the tar pit they have just pushed me into.
Before I go, however, they must address the matter of severance. I feel myself holding my breath, praying that they will give me at least three months. I have heard that many firms are not being nearly as generous these days, but the associates who were axed in the last round of cuts were given three months, even though they were — at least ostensibly — let go for “performance-related” reasons. Three months, I repeat silently. In this market, it’s hardly anything… but at least I’d have a chance.
My hope is short-lived. “You’ll have two weeks in the office, so that you can get your affairs in order,” the partner tells me, “and two weeks out of the office.” In total, I am being given one month, which, they explain, starts from today. Not so long ago, I was being given a nice bonus, and with it a reassurance of my place at the firm. Now I have one month to finish what I am working on, clean out my desk, and move on.
I walk back to my office, stunned. I sit down for a moment, but the room feels too small, and I having the unpleasant sensation that I am drowning. I wonder idly whether my seat cushion would make a good flotation device. I get up and go downstairs. Although I quit a while back, I buy a pack of cigarettes and stand outside, smoking, and wondering what to do next.
Earlier: Notes from the Breadline: You May Find Yourself Living in a Shotgun Shack
Roxana St. Thomas is a laid-off lawyer living in New York. You can reach her by email, at roxanastthomas@gmail.com, or find her on Facebook.
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Really fine writing. Second paragraph of the post is superb prose. Love the line about administering last rites to dying cases.
quattro!
just like i imagined it would be - and hope to never experience. good luck to all those who have gone through this.
Nice. More interesting than Deirde Dare fiction....
i trashed the intro earlier this week.
i take it all back. well written. scared the bejeesus out of me. i'm going to close this site and get back to work now so i don't join Roxana!
I have all the same symptoms.
Promising. Style is a little bit florid (could be tighter and still have the same impact--perhaps more), but this is far superior to the usual guest-columnist dross.
definite fan of this although reading it makes my breakfast come up due to the anxiety it's inducing...
I concur. Excellent writing.
One month severance? What a cheap-ass f***** firm! That's shameful for an associate.
This is scary sh*t. I only billed 101 hrs. last month.
Agree with 7 - a bit long-winded - but in general, very well written. Are firms really giving one month severance? I thought three months was the minimum.
Since I've billed less than 100 hrs/mo since November...and recently was informed that I need to let people know more often that I am available (as if the monthly time reports weren't enough?!?)...this makes me want to vomit.
Back to doc review...
Great column. Scary stuff.
Best new feature on ATL since Legal Eagle Wedding Watch (or maybe Pls Hndle Thx).
better than the first installment, although there is room for improvement. could use more details on the dialog in the firing room - that tension should be golden writing material.
Wow. This woman has far more tenacity than I've ever had. The second I sniffed something going wrong with the firm, I would've channeled all of my energy into finding another job - foolhardy in some ways in that doing so would absolutely have rendered me among the first to go because my hours probably would have gone to crap.
can you give us some sense on the size/rank of your firm? friends at NY V-20s have had several months with less than 100 billables (esp. transactional) and they're still there. also, what was your seniority?
i thought this was amazing. and amazingly scary.
16 - no one's hiring.
There's promise here but this column needs editing. Both for length and those pesky SAT words.
I thought this paragraph was great:
"Roxana," he starts out (in a tone that would be equally appropriate if he was announcing that "it looks like we're going to have to amputate"), "as you know, these are incredibly difficult times, with the economic downturn and all." He tells me that "the firm has been struggling," and that it has decided "to let a number of people go." The way he says it makes it sound benign, as though the firm is waving us through at a traffic light, or setting us free in the wild.
You CAN roll over some of your CLE credits into the following year, I believe (but in a limited amount, and not for Ethics).
22 - way to miss the point of the article.
What a douchebag to lie to her and say that he had work for her in order to get her to come to his office.
I am amused.
This article has inspired me to build up a bigger cash reserve than I currently have, just in case.
Which of course will be bad for retailers etc. And I am still employed at a good salary. Vicious cycle, ain't it?
19: If by "nobody" you mean the U.S. Attorney's Office and other large firms, that's true. I work at a small firm (left a large firm to work here) and these kinds of firms have not been hit nearly as hard as the bigger firms.
I understand it's tough to find a job - it took me about fourth months to find this one - but I found my fellow BIGLAW associates' utter unwillingness to take a step down in name recognition (for whatever that's worth these days) to be a huge hurdle for them. Recruiters feed into that, as well. I actually had a recruiter tell me that I was making a huge mistake when I left my old firm because "nobody had heard" of my new firm. I wasn't hung up on that and, as a result, had a much easier time finding a job that I actually ended up liking where I'm learning how to be a lawyer (a first).
24: Work on the reading comprehension. He only asked her to come to his office. She was *imagining* that he had a new assignment for her. Jeez.
This was well-written and realistic. Pretty much the way I experienced it recently, especially the firm posturing that everything is great, and associates pretending they're busy (why?) except for the few you really talk to who admit they're billing in the double digits. The only difference for me was, I was scheduled for a meeting for me with the associate review committee but it was before the annual review process began. So I had even more time to stew and freak out.
26 - it would be hard to transition back into the big leagues from a small firm. i can see the value in holding out for a thaw in the market in order to lateral to a peer firm rather than taking a step down. of course this all depends on the length of the recession and the size of your cash cushion.
That was fantastic. Made me want a cigarette right now.
Best line: "You can hide, motherfucker, but eventually you'll get hungry, I think."
Wow, no severance. That is a shock to the system, for sure. Keep up the good work!!
I enjoyed this post. Ms. St. Thomas is an excellent writer. IMO.
i was "downsized" last year. reading this definately brings back the awful feeling of being laid off.
Beautifully written. Ignore the people who self-importantly believe their job is to critique you. Tell your story - we're all listening.
I think Elie should be downsized to a size 50 waist.
26 - where did you find these? word of mouth? they don't seem to get listed in the sites i hit up. just that solicit for the g-ddamn thai fluent contract attorneys post that has made it to every site east of the mississippi...
Evan here, writing from Miami, packing up for another Asia trip this weekend.
Like others, I was none too impressed with the first round. This, however, was damn good. It scared the shit out of me!
Evan here, writing from Miami, packing up for another Asia trip this weekend.
Like others, I was none too impressed with the first round. This, however, was damn good. It scared the shit out of me!
This reminds me of my situation a year ago. when I was hired at my firm, along with 3 other associates in a small satellite office of a larger firm, it was because the firm thought it was going to have a huge influx of cases. After six months, it became clear that the 'huge influx of cases' wasn't coming and I struggled to bill 6 hours a day, while my boss complained and bitched at me for not billing 10 (although where he expected me to find such billable work was a mystery, he complained whenever I did something that wasn't 'specifically authorized' by the client).
I had already determined I was going to look for a new job when while on a medical leave, I received a 'have to let you go' letter from the firm. Two other associates were also leaving due to lack of work, although one was by her own decision (but she wasn't replaced either), and at least 3 staff members of the satellite office were let go as well.
Fortunately, I got a 3 month severance and as it was in the very early part of the recession, found another job fairly quickly. I will say that when the hours are low, due to lack of work, that's a real clear sign that you'd better start looking elsewhere.
Layoffs at Holland & Knight
SkaddenLA stealth layoffs of staff and associates.
When, I got this same call, I didn't have the luxury of going right up to the office.
I got the call in the morning and the partner said "What is your schedule this afternoon?" I had seen the writing on the wall for the past couple of months so I knew what was coming but the anxiety of waiting 5 hours for the talk was worse than the talk.
This is great, same happened to me, though I saw it coming and got the 3 months- but there is NOTHING out there, good luck to Roxanna and everyone else looking.
A lot of people are billing MUCH less than 100 hours per month. This is frightening.
I think Roxana is a guy.
Why? Because guys at my firm are billing. None of the women are. Wonder if that is coincidence.
100 and 75 hours per month is paltry, but the women I know at highly prestigious firms (myself included) are billing much less than that. I guess it's nice that we're still employed, but probably not for long.
BTW- excellent writing!
Best of luck,
--Scared Shitless
This is great writing. Best thing on ATL since...the salary wars of a few years back.
I have to say though, the associate gig is not worth getting so worked up or down about. Life will go on, and you may even find a job you like better than biglaw associate.
Very good. For a minute, I had the same feeling in the pit of my stomach as on review day or during our first stealth layoff day.
It captures the dread that comes with months without work. You know it's not sustainable for the firm and you know the ax is coming. The only question is whether your own head will be the one on the chopping block.
I didn't get through the first half of this crappy story. We are all layoffed out. Just stop the sob stories already. I don't want to hear about anymore "faces of the economy". If you want a handout go ask a question at an Obama rally.
best column written on this site
OBSCURE WORDS MEAN I'M SMART!
abattoir!
obsequies!
purloin !
anodyne!
mendacious!
What you need to do is go out and find work. I had a simliar situation and joined several organizations (some paid some free) and was able to squeeze in over 600 extra hours a year.
What you need to do is go out and find work. I had a simliar situation and joined several organizations (some paid some free) and was able to squeeze in over 600 extra hours a year.
really fine work.
suggest that you write full time.
My firm rents a big Hollywood mansion and all the associates are placed in a central holding room where they await their fate. Each associate, when called, then takes a long walk up a flight of stairs and through several corridors, until they reach the managing partners' lair, where the managing partners sit on red thrones and deliver the news to each associate. When the partners cannot decide between associates, they have each associate review a stack of documents in front of them. The slowest associate is typically retained.
45, easy to say until it's you. Almost everyone that leaves the world of biglaw ends up happier in the end. But if you have a mortgage or lease, student loans etc., it's a terrifying prospect. I think anyone would get a little worked up about getting thrown out on their ass in this economy.
Wow, that sounds exactly like my December...
The writing is spot on.
"You did a great job managing that case." She is adamant. "I don't do anything that someone younger and cheaper couldn't do," she tells me. "I'm fungible, like a widget."
I'm getting canned, a punk 2d year is taking my spot. How do I know he's a punk? B/C for the past month I've been cleaning up his mess as I've been "transitioning" out of the firm.
I saw the writing on the wall when I learned that the senior partner I was working for was answering rogs and RPDs.
44 - now, now, let's not bring the gender wars into this. it's a coincidence, or if not, maybe the guys are inflating the size of their billables.
Did I write this?? Because it's exactly what happened to me. Wow.
Prose still too purple. Don't quit your day job.
She's blogging because she doesn't HAVE a day job, you putz.
She's blogging because she doesn't HAVE a day job, you putz.
I was laid off last month, and this is exactly how it went down for us, too. The slow work, trying to convince ourselves it was the holidays, listening to the partners insist that business was great... exactly. Well done, Roxana. This is a great addition to ATL.
"26 - it would be hard to transition back into the big leagues from a small firm."
26 here. I guess that's where we differ - I have absolutely no desire to go back to a large law firm and know that now. It felt risky at the time, but doesn't anymore. I do estate planning and there are very few large firms that even have those kinds of departments anymore, so it truly doesn't matter. Yes, I took a pay cut and, yes, nobody except those in my field know who I work for, but once I narrowed my focus I stopped caring about the opportunities that weren't available to me and focused on the ones that were.
If you know you want BIGLAW, though, I completely understand your concern.
34: I found my job in the New York Law Journal - very common listing place for small firms.
She's blogging because she doesn't HAVE a day job, you putz.
You need to stop writing "I think." You obviously don't know how to use it and every tiem you try it spoils your flow. Aside from that, very nice writing, although the last paragraph you wrote "and I having..."
I never comment but wanted to say I really like this column. Makes those of us who still have jobs appreciate our luck, and empathize for the unlucky ones. Also, I like the talking heads quotes.
The sad part of this story is that we were deprived of this writer's talent while he/she reviewed documents at some law firm. Probably thousands of these people still working as lawyers. What a waste.
63 - were you doing T&E at your previous firm? how big was the paycut?
44: Because guys, perhaps wisely, have the balls to overbill while women generally don't. My $.02.
Fantastic writing! Congrats on escaping from Biglaw. Forget about the Starbucks and hair stylists and write more. Considering how many folks read Elie's crap, you should be able to make a living at this.
I feel like this is my story... I could have written my account of my experience and it would be identical to this.
Great story, it really gets the emotions of the terrible experience down.
67 - no worries, I have a feeling there will be many more contributors to this genre in the near future.
this is the best post ive ever read on ATL
68: I didn't do T & E at all - I got trained at the new firm. The paycut was substantial - about $60K - but I feel it's a long-term investment in actually getting a practice area. It's still a decent salary. I miss a lot about my old job - the money, the transparency, the support staff - but I much, much prefer the work.
Reading her story makes me want to vomit because I've been slow. I'm corporate, now doing endless doc review to survive. My hours are fine, but once the doc review ends... YIKES!
Precision barfing. That's our only hope.
Small firm 6th year associate here. I have so much work to do I could put in 100 hrs a week. But I'll stick with knocking out 40hrs per week because there is more to life than work. You don't know what you are missing in Biglaw.
The story makes me queasy, like the terror I felt last week when the firm I'm joining in July called me to tell me that a number of associates have been laid off, but they don't "at this time" anticipate rescinding any offers.
When I was offered the opportunity to make a career out of clerking, why didn't I take it? The only concern would have been keeping my Judge alive.
28 - Better for your resume and your bank balance to be in a small firm for a year than to have a year long employment gap. When things do pick up, recruiting partners at big firms are going to be used to seeing people who were laid off for economic reasons - there won't be any stigma in saying you went to a small firm because you got laid off.
Yea, yea...she write good.
'Sugar' can't write so good, but 'Sugar' know what it like to sit in a room and be told to get the fuck out!
79: how do you know?
Very well done story.
Much better than the first installment, especially the second half describing the events. As some other commenters, I thought the intro was over the top and without content. This installment delivered much better and told a good story (although the drama of the first half is still excessive). Keep it up!
Much better than the first installment, especially the second half describing the events. As some other commenters, I thought the intro was over the top and without content. This installment delivered much better and told a good story (although the drama of the first half is still excessive). Keep it up!
Finely written post. Best I've seen since Mystal took over this blog.
LOL at 53
Love this post, and beautiful writing. As a 3L poised to enter Biglaw, this scared the shit out of me. But I think that's a good thing.
Great piece.
*Projectile pukes into coffee mug after contemplating similar fate"
Nice work. Eerily similar to what happened to me. Word to the wise: if your work starts slowing like this, start looking yesterday. Everyone I know (including me) who's lost a job has seen it coming -- and I don't mean seen it coming like "oh my god people are getting laid off am I next" I mean seen it coming like "I just spent the entire day doing crossword puzzles and didn't get a single phone call asking why I was wasting time."
And there's actually quite a lot out there if you can get your head out of your ass and open your mind to the possibility of non-biglaw work. Admittedly, it took me a while to become "okay" with the idea of making less than 200k (or 160k for that matter), but when you're facing the business end of a 0k income, you can relatively easily do the math and realize you can live quite comfortably on anything over 100k (and, yes, if you have a few years of experience you can find 100k work in any major city). Get over yourselves and realize there's more to life than biglaw. In fact, once you finally let go and embrace reality, you'll find you're much, much happier make 125k at a small firm with billables of 1750 (no weekends EVER) than you ever were making 210k at biglaw.
Your firm must have hired the same HR consulting outfit as mine... "Unfortunately there is a resource action. Unfortunately it affects members of this group. Unfortunately it affects you."
Great article. Well-thought, well-written, timely, and a joy to read. Of course, the topic is not so joyful, but if we can't have fun in these dismal times, then we'd go crazy. Of course, the downturn has given me plenty of time to get my affairs in order, refinance my mortgage, do my taxes, etc.
The mixed metaphors need work, and pruning. It makes zero sense to say a deal wasn't really dead...only to call it carrion in the next sentence. Carrion is a carcass - definitely dead. The $30 words are also a little excessive. This piece definitely gets better when Roxana stops trying so hard to Be A Writer and just narrates.
1) This is a great article.
2) Anyone who thinks a year-long resume gap looks better than a year at a small firm is fooling themselves.
3) There is work out there right now, though you will likely need to accept a paycut. One thing you can do is follow the stimulus money - to the recipients and to the government agencies that monitor the recipients.
Best of luck all.
good essay
loose the obscure word references, unless you know your target audience would use that word in that situation [in this situation that answer is no], or that the word is really the only one that fits just right - and i thought it was a great word choice
As someone who recently got axed from biglaw, this article is spot on. The practice group leaders saying everything is great! The offices mysteriously empty! The pressure to hang around the office even though you have nothing to do. And walking into the partner's office for your goodbye session and being surprised to find a second person in there.
And good for you for taking a TJ Maxx trip on office hours! I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to your updates.
I don't understand these people that say if work slows down you should start looking for another job. Where are we supposed to find another job? EVERYONE is slow and no one is hiring! And don't tell me small firms are hiring, because I know several people that would take anything they could get right now, including a job with the Dogbite Lawyer, and still haven't found a job
I don't understand these people that say if work slows down you should start looking for another job. Where are we supposed to find another job? EVERYONE is slow and no one is hiring! And don't tell me small firms are hiring, because I know several people that would take anything they could get right now, including a job with the Dogbite Lawyer, and still haven't found a job
i feel sick....as a 2L (with a summer job... for now) i am acutely aware that i have no real legal skills at this point and that everyone at the firm will consider me a total waste of time and money. no one needs us when real lawyers are being let go.
any thoughts on going to school instead of job searching? maybe getting a foreign language degree?
*Begs for forgiveness for the double post.* Thought I'd figured out how to avoid that...
Good story, but put down the thesaurus, please. Who are you trying to impress?
Good story, but put down the thesaurus, please. Who are you trying to impress?
100 & 101. Use the of the big words is an interesting literary technique with this group. It says, "I use words in my every day writing that you have to look up, and I've ALREADY been fired. What does that say about your fate?"
It actually helped scare me more. That and Friday the 13th coming up in 10 hours or so. Speaking of bloodbaths, anyone going to see the new Jason movie?
Abattoir and obsequies etc. give the piece an appropriate tone of Poe-like gloom. The word some of you are looking for is sesquipedalian.
TPW alum
Black comedy. I laughed out loud at these lines:
-- "This is Bob, from Human Resources," the partner explains. "Nice to meet you, Bob," I say, because it seems inappropriate to say "Bob, I would prefer not to meet you, today or any other day."
-- He tells me that "the firm has been struggling," and that it has decided "to let a number of people go." The way he says it makes it sound benign, as though the firm is waving us through at a traffic light, or setting us free in the wild.
And last but not least:
-- "Unfortunately," he explains, "you are one of those people."
People, if you haven't accrued a strong harassment or and other legal claim against the firm already, you're fucked.
After reading that I want to go buy a pack of cigarettes and I don't even smoke
great post. At first i thought it looked really long, but you had my attention throughout. best of luck finding a job. Maybe until then, you can tutor, work at a LSAT test prep, or do something else that has a flexible schedule.
I'm at a small firm and have at least 80-90 hours of work per week. No slow down here. Suck it, Big Law. You make more money than I, no question, but I have job security and I'm not gnawing at my nails wondering how I'll pay my mortgage. There are pluses to every choice.
How do we know that Roxana wasn't already looking for a new job when this happened?
because we can read
109 - because we can read
Dear Jesus:
Thank you for this box of documents I am about to review. Amen.
Where does it say that she wasn't looking for work before this?
I feel like most laid-off people were looking for new jobs before the axe fell (even if they were doing something of a "soft search").
Boring. Long winded.
outstanding. keep it coming, roxana.
It happens exactly this way: the fear, the anxiety, the suspicion . . . Having lived it, I empathize with the author. While I enjoyed the story, it was certainly florid. Best of luck to all.
180! This site was excellent today.
Oh Lawyers!!!! Do you now realize how disposable you all are! That is because, when it comes right down to it, you don't actually possess any unique skills at all. I'm not saying you don't possess ANY skills, just not unique ones that will keep you from being fired. You don't make or design anything. You don't create anything. You don't keep people healthy or heal the sick. So what in the world do you do besides review stacks of documents and write more documents that comment on the documents you've reviewed? The fact that upper year associates can so easily be replaced by new grads should be a frightening wake up call for you and the minions that are slothing their way into and through law school.
Unfortunately, our society and way of life is so complex that some of you bottom-feeders will be needed. However, it is quite clear that we don't need the sick number of lawyers that are presently sloshing around the system and will be vomited out of law schools each year.
92 - Can you direct us to examples of your fine prose?
this line made me laugh out loud in class
like an oddly-endowed superhero
I think all of you Big Law associates need to take a hard look at the business model of the big firm. You are entirely dependent on others to provide for your livelihood. Develop your own business....get out and market and build your own book. That's the only way you won't be reliant on these assholes to make a living. They don't give 2 shits about you. You are a commodity, nothing else. What % of associates make partner? Would you bet the rest of your career with those odds? No.
That was fantastic. You can hide, motherfucker, but eventually you'll get hungry. Classic.
Why all the literary criticism of this piece? Is that what BIGLAW partners do--edit Associates' writing for style?
I hung out my shingle straight out of law school. No BIGLAW firm would want me. I have a conscience. What I also have is experience--trial experience, client experience, and business experience. Work is slow, however.
Nicely done, Roxanne.
108: You are a moron. What do you think is going to happen to you at your SmallLaw firm when the cases you are working on settle or when your biggest client goes bust? Answer: The same thing that has happened to the BigLaw folks. Partner will be showing you the door - and don't let it hit your @ss on your way out.
And btw, I work at SmallLaw and the firm is hoppin' busy...but that's for now. Who knows what will happen next week? Next month? Nobody is safe.
So stop ripping on the BigLaw folks who just got laid off. You just might be joining them one day.
yup, pretty much how it happened to me. The partner who gives assignments gave assignments to those he wanted to protect, and so, my hours being low and my seniority up (22+ yrs there)...oh, and I forgot to kiss up to him. The three partners who lowered the boom on me in my "performance review" decided they would consider my request for mercy, and asked me to return to the conference room at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. 1:30 p.m. 3:30 pm and finally at 4 p.m. said, no, really we meant it. goodbye. Here's hoping that karma catches up with us all!
No, this is the best line:
"You can hide, motherfucker, but eventually you'll get hungry, I think."
Great posting.
Great article and shows how important it is to live modestly - a few years ago everyone was running around demanding huge compensation packages and now those same people are getting cut because their firms can't afford those packages.
Y'know, those of us stuck in contract attorney hell don't have that much sympathy. It not like there is a big gap in the level of intelligence or competence between someone that has BIGLAW on their resume and someone who doesn't.
For some of us, these things happen pretty regularly. You get used to it. It still hurts, but every one of us is only worth the amount it would take to replace us.
Welcome to the real world.
129 - Well put.