Notes from the Breadline: I Have My Freedom, But I Don’t Have Much Time (Part II)
Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of “Notes from the Breadline,” a column by a laid-off lawyer in New York. Prior columns are collected here. You can reach Roxana St. Thomas by email, at roxanastthomas@gmail.com, or find her on Facebook.
This is the second part of a two-part column. Check out the first part here.
As if the fruitless job search were not enough, there are also a host of other matters to attend to in my remaining days, which are passing quickly. I need to figure out unemployment, COBRA, what will happen to my 401(k), and whether to continue my life insurance. Clients have to be dealt with, cases must be delegated, and files need to be put in order. For better or worse, I do not have many cases to wrap up, but I worry inordinately about the few that are left.
I worry, for example, about Mr. Rodriguez, an incredibly sweet man who insists on calling me “Miss Roxana.” The matter we have been handling for him threatened the survival of his family’s business, but when I last met with him — the day before I was laid off — I told him I thought we were close to a resolution. I know that another lawyer will do a good job of handling his case, but I can’t help but worry that my unexplained departure will rob him of some peace of mind. I don’t know what to tell my clients and co-counsel; since I am trying to play nice, I feel that I should be sensitive to the “message” the firm wants to convey. They haven’t announced that they are doing layoffs, so I am faced with an unpalatable choice: either tell people myself (and reveal the dirty secret of our economic infirmity), or disappear without a trace (leaving the clients and attorneys with whom I work to wonder whether I did something to precipitate my sudden exit — for example, fucking up a case, like theirs).
In one of my cases, discovery is set to begin just after I am laid off. It seems like a logical time to pass it on to someone else, who will be able to revel in the joy of interrogatories and discovery demands long after I am gone. I relate this to the partner, and ask him whether he wants to talk to the client about the situation before I explain to them that someone else will be playing the part of Roxana from now on. Although it’s a tiny matter, worth $100,000 at best, he tells me that he’ll be handling it himself. Clearly, times are tough.
That night, I also think about the client, with whom I have a good relationship. Why shouldn’t I be straight with him? Why should he have to wonder whether his case was in good hands? And why should I have to slink away without an explanation, as though I did something wrong? The next morning I email the partner to tell him that I’d like to talk to the client, explain my departure, and say goodbye. A few hours later, I have heard nothing in response, so I call him. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” the partner says breezily. “I talked to them already.” I ask him what he said. “I told them that you decided to ‘move along,’ if you know what I mean,” he answers.
No rest for the recently unemployed, after the jump.
No, I think, I don’t know what you mean. His answer rubs me the wrong way, and I have an urge to call the client and tell him that, as it happens, I did not “decide to ‘move along,’” and, as a matter of fact, that I was let go because the firm is a sinking ship that can’t afford to pay its associates. I refrain, but the incident leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
But I have little time to stew. As the clock ticks down, I am pelted with a steady stream of requests for meetings, memos, timesheets, and other nuisances. I grow increasingly resentful; I am trying to look for a new job, and with each passing day I care less about the firm’s administrative needs. I didn’t ask to be laid off, I tell Giovanna; why do I have to spend so much time making their lives easier?
Among the things that I do care about is insurance, or, specifically, making sure that I have some. As I enter the final week, I still have not spoken to the woman who handles benefits, notwithstanding a concerted effort to do so that is beginning to resemble stalking. I call, I email, I stop by her office… and yet, she eludes me. Finally, I manage to make an appointment to see her on a Friday afternoon.
When I get to her office, she is on the phone. Although she assumes an authoritative tone when I walk in, it is clear that she is talking to a friend. “I’ll, um, touch base with you later about that, um, matter we discussed,” she says to the person on the other end, as though unaware that the sudden, overly formal recitation of non-sequiturs translates almost literally into, “and then, I was like, “Omigod, you did NOT say that!” Irritated, I have the urge to remind her that, if she really wants to pretend to be immersed in work, the “minimize” function on the computer can make zappos.com virtually invisible to the naked eye.
I sit down across from her and she begins to hand me forms: my 401(k) can stay where it is, she tells me (to which I can’t help responding that it has no place else to go), and, if I choose, I can continue to pay for my own life insurance. Then she hands me the COBRA election form. “COBRA is going to be $798 a month,” she tells me calmly. I feel something snap, and the rest of her words blur. “That’s ridiculous,” I interrupt. “I can’t afford that.”
“Yeah,” she says blandly. “We have an expensive health plan.” Are there any other options? I ask her. Is there anything that someone with no income, which will be me in a week’s time, can do to stay insured? I know that I am being obnoxious, but I pummel her with questions anyway. “I really don’t know what to say,” I tell her finally, and can almost see her thinking, “I wish!” I snatch the forms from her and walk out of the office.
This is the moment that I shift perceptibly, and gracelessly, from denial to anger. At first I am angry at myself for thinking that I could expect anything from these people, and for believing, even for a split-second, that if I showed enough decorum and diligence they might be inclined to cushion my fall. Then I am angry at them, for throwing me — us — out, in the worst market in recent history, like moldy cheese. I get it! I feel like screaming; you don’t need associates to work on the cases you don’t have, and you want to cut your losses before the partners’ precious distributions start to shrink. But the firm is not going under tomorrow; they did not have to pile us up and set us adrift, like dead Vikings. Actually, I think, dead Vikings fared better: at least they were sent to their next destination with booty.
Although I know that I am not capable of engaging in rational discussion, I storm up to the assignment partner’s office. I don’t care how uncomfortable I make him; I want him to look me in the eye and tell me that the firm stands by its decision to let us go with a mere two weeks to prepare. I want him to hear himself say something so patently ridiculous. Mostly, I want him to feel as bad as I do right now. Two weeks ago, I had a career. Now I have no job, no way to support myself, and health insurance that I won’t be able to afford.
Alas, the assignment partner is not in. I stalk down the hall to the department’s chair’s office; she is not there either. I go back to my office and slam the door, seething. I start to compose an email; if I can’t make them uncomfortable in person, perhaps I can do so via BlackBerry, while they are sitting in a deposition. If nothing else, I can enjoy the perverse thrill of interrupting a good game of Brick Breaker.
I have a sudden flash of clarity, during which I question the wisdom of dashing off an indignant e-mail that I will be unable to retract later if I think better of it. I should count to ten, or wait a day, or do something calm and measured, I tell myself. But the thought is fleeting; I am too angry to care. The need to express this kind of animosity is like taking a shit; if you don’t do it, you’ll explode, even if the product of your relief is something you would never want to put in your pocket.
I write the partners an email in which I tell them exactly what I think and what I want from the firm. I reread it when I am done, softening its sharp edges and emphasizing my plea for a little more assistance, a little help with my COBRA payments, a little more time to look for work. Then I send it and leave the office. What can they do? I think. Fire me?
Anyone who has worked at a law firm has experienced the BlackBerry’s insidious shackles: no matter where you are, what you are doing, or how important it is, technology has given partners the power to reach through cyberspace and deliver a (typically ill-timed) electronic bummer. Out on hike? Attending a baby shower? Watching a rare solar eclipse? The blinking red light on your BlackBerry is there to remind you that your after-hours freedom is merely illusory. When they want something from you — whether substantive input on a brief or help faxing a document — they will fire off an email faster than you can say “I’m on vacation in the backcountry.”
These rules, however, do not seem to apply if you (the associate) are waiting for an answer about a matter of some significance to your non-firm life; the response to my email is radio silence. Over the next few days, I busy myself doing a dozen other things: trolling through job listings online, signing up with legal temp agencies, and, somewhat guiltily, looking forward to some of the non-economic aspects of unemployment. For the past few months, “work” has been defined by the grinding stress of trying to wring as many billable hours as possible (or at least reasonable) from each assignment, wondering when the axe would fall, desperately looking for jobs that might offer more stability, and regretting the skills I never developed and practice areas I know nothing about. Since I got laid off, it has been a stressful flurry of exit planning and non-stop reconnaissance for the next place to land. Though I dread being unemployed, I will not miss the anxiety-ridden process of confronting my barren timesheets or occupying the strange netherworld between current and former associate, an artist’s rendering which might be called, “Bitter Associate in Sneakers Filling Dumpster.”
Still, my thoughts return repeatedly to whether the firm will throw me a buoy, even for a little longer. For a variety of uninteresting reasons (none of which have to do with overspending), I do not have a huge cushion of savings, and I know that if my joblessness goes on for an extended period of time I will not be able to afford health insurance. I am fully aware that being laid off carries with it the rebuttable presumption that one will not have these things, but I can’t help feeling hateful about it. Employment at a law firm is colored by (at least the veneer) of gentility; whether it is reasonable or not, the experience lulls you into believing that, as a trained professional, hard worker, and keeper of confidences, you will not be valued one day and kicked to the curb the next. Neither does it prepare you to cheerfully accept the fact that the firm will probably spend more on holiday entertaining than it would cost to buy an new organ. It has probably never occurred to the members of the management committee, since none seem to have an actual heart.
Finally, after several days, I get a response to my e-mail. “Roxana, we ran your questions up the flagpole,” it begins. I am already annoyed; I sent them requests for help, not a fucking flag. “Unfortunately, we cannot extend your employment or offer you any benefit commensurate with employment. We can, however, provide access to voice mail and email for an additional month, and your firm bio may remain on the website. Also, we can provide feedback on how to enhance the presentation of your resume, and direct you to recruiters who may be able to help you with your job search. Of course, these allowances are not to be construed as creating an employment relationship with the firm beyond the date of your separation.” As if to offset its coldly transactional message, the e-mail ends, “We wish you good luck!” No emoticon, probably, I think, because they couldn’t decide between a frowny-face (Bummer! Hope you don’t get sick or have other costly medical needs!) and its smiley counterpart (You may not have insurance, but you can get firm-wide emails for another whole month!!)
As soon as I finish reading the email, I call my friend Bo. “Why don’t cannibals eat laid-off associates?” I ask. “I don’t know,” he says. “Why?”
“Too bitter,” I tell him. I am definitely in stage two.
___________________________________________________________________________
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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Never do today that which will become someone else's responsibility tomorrow.
This is getting old.
Never do today that which will become someone else's responsibility tomorrow.
you are a self involved little bitch. deal with it.
Don't get me wrong, the situation completely sucks, but:
1. Sending off an angry e-mail, as justified as it might be, is something that could haunt you till the end of your career. That could very well have come back to bite you instead of getting what you got (as little as it may be).
2. Again, as little as it was, they're doing you a favor they don't have to do. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and complain; just take it. I **do not** mean this as an insult, but in this economy you may soon enough reach a point where you realize what value to put on pride; the sooner you learn it, the better off you'll be.
I sympathize with you, but this is by far the funniest, and at once saddest, line of your post:
" the experience lulls you into believing that, as a trained professional, hard worker, and keeper of confidences, you will not be valued one day and kicked to the curb the next."
Any associate who believes that is, in my opinion, willfully blind. I think I am well regarded at my firm, my bosses have said as much in effusive terms, yet I know that tomorrow, or any day, they could fire me, without a second thought. And I believed this long before the economy plunged off a cliff.
My favorite line, by far:
"The need to express this kind of animosity is like taking a shit; if you don't do it, you'll explode, even if the product of your relief is something you would never want to put in your pocket."
The above sentence deserves some kind of award.
In most staes, if you are young an reasonably healthy, you can get ok health insurance for far less than $798. Go to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Web site, or another insurance company web site. In the past, the BCBS process has taken about one to two months. I have some minor health issues and have been able to get policies that cost $200/month (tho my prescription coverage is capped at $2000, which is a little risky).
Please stop posting this crap. OMM's story deserves to be at the top of the heap.
My heart bleeds...
(I write this as I am sitting in my warm, cozy office in my cushy gov't job). ha-ha.
My heart bleeds...
(I write this as I am sitting in my warm, cozy office in my cushy gov't job). ha-ha.
I like this series.
best. line. ever.
"the firm will probably spend more on holiday entertaining than it would cost to buy an new organ. It has probably never occurred to the members of the management committee, since none seem to have an actual heart."
this is why I married a foreign girl. American women think WAY too highly of themselves.
My advice, marry an illegal immigrant. Thanks to the moron you undoubtedly voted for who is now running this country, we'll be paying for HIS health care before we pay for yours.
6 - well put. No one is irreplaceable.
love the last lines!
Co-sign 7.
Um, 14, we already do.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1508773/obama_stimulus_package_65_cobra_premium.html?cat=3
Under Obama's Stimulus Package, you might be eligible for reduced premiums in which the federal government will reimburse employers 65% of the COBRA premium and charge you only 35% of the COBRA premium. In many cases, this means the difference of you paying $245 - $280 per month instead of $700 - $800 per month for your health insurance coverage while you are unemployed.
-----
Don't know if you qualify, but this could make a difference.
4: of course she's self-involved. She's a blogger! they all are.
But you, sir, are a douche. Where's Douche Patrol when you need him?
You're probably aware of this now, but the stimulus bill includes a 65% subsidy for COBRA payments for up to 9 months. Ask me how I know this.
Stuff it 2, 4 and 9. Haven't you ever heard that misery loves company? If you don't like it, don't read it, but don't post nasty comments about it. A*******.
I love how the partner decided to hoard some lousy 100K case for himself instead of letting a junior or a desperate midlevel get some experience heading and score a few precious hours.
No emoticon? They were directed specifically to us the tongue sticking out emoticon.
: P
I went through this as well with COBRA. If the stimulus thing doesn't offer you a premium cut, try your local bar association. I did this in Philly. I paid for a non-voting membership in the Philly Bar Association (lower dues that way) and put together a high-deductible ($1000) HMO health plan for $300/month.
Great post! Keep them coming.
I also agree with 6. This sort of rage is a rather bizarre attitude to have towards an entity like a law firm. You were an at will employee. You were well compensated for your time, and I am confident no one gave you the slightest indication that the leaders of the firm felt any obligation towards you whatsoever. It certainly sucks to be laid off, and it could be argued that a certain amount of self-pity is justifiable, but the feelings of rage and betrayal are misplaced. These are better reserved for ex-boyfriends, etc.
As a side note, I feel like some of the comments here, including my own, touch on a basic male-female difference. I have a running disagreement with my wife wherein she says that she is entitled to feel any way she wants about something and then express that feeling, and I feel that certain feelings are simply wrong, and if you do feel that way about something, you need to take a hard look at yourself and make some changes. As I look at the author and say that some of her feelings are a poor reflection on her and her attitude towards life and employment, I can just hear my wife in the background telling me (in an appropriately shrewish voice) "she can feel any way she wants to."
Great article - the law students may not have much interest but anyone who is a mid-level or senior associate is worried about this kind of thing right now, even if they're relatively busy.
I know this is a big law blog, but which one is better:
(1) Getting laid off from biglaw a year or two after you start
or
(2) graduating with no offer and scoring a small firm job paying $50k the year after you graduate?
Wow, 27. Can you take a step back and realize that you just called your wife a shrew? You sound like a real gem. I wonder if she knows the extent of your contempt for her.
I like this series a lot. Keep it up. She is a good writer actually, and maybe should try and do somethign with that career-wise.
-Still employed for now.
23-
What's even funnier is that, if these really are the small cases she suggests, the thought has apparently NOT crossed her mind to try and take the cases with her out the door.
She shouldn't have been "oh Mr. Partner thank you for talking to them instead of me!"
Correct answer: "I am leaving the firm. You're allowed to continue with me as your lawyer. I will charge you less than the firm is charging you for me, because I won't have overhead. Sign here, please."
THAT is the parting "fuck you" to the firm, that she's so pampered that she doesn't see.
Also, why the hell are you wasting money on health insurance? Do you really think that you need more than $800 of care PER MONTH? If you're young and reasonably healthy, there's no reason to have coverage. Same for life insurance unless you have children. Wasteful.
29: go with the second option.. after 2 years in biglaw you have no experience to speak of that is worth anything and you are not employable outside of the biglaw circle. Two years in a small firm will give you a lot more real experience and a shot at going solo if the worst comes to worst.
I'm glad she got laid off. A real woman would STFU and go look for another job and quit complaining. These posts are so annoying.
Poor baby can't afford $800 per month health insurance? How about the tons of people who have NO HEALTH INSURANCE and have never have a six figure job? And have kids? And have a real life??
what this whiny bitch won't tell you is that she's got a lease for a $3500 a month apartment, a leased car, which she uses to got to the hamptons every year, jewelry, a rolex, and very little savngs which was all pissed away on $20 bellinis at the Peninsula.
Moral: When highly paid, save every dollar as if each one were a family member. this way, when laid off, you will not have to go on an anonymous blog and whine like a stuck pig about your loss of a $250,000 a year job when there are approximately 4 Billion people on this planet who do not know were their nex meal will come from and may have to sell their daughter.
My understanding is that the reason the firm's health care coverage is so expensive is that it is an average of the health care costs per person, not based on the individual. E.g., the older-lifetime-smoker who needs a lot of care pays the same amount as the exercises-every-day-22-year-old. A young relatively healthy person should be able to get health care for much less than $800/month.
Amen 35. Maybe she can eat her watches, shoes and $3k handbags when her savings runs out.
Besides the COBRA assistance program mentioned above (that might be useful for at least 9 months), you can consider other alternatives, like the local bar ass'n (NY City Bar has a strong program with many benefits including health care deals, networking, etc.). New York State also has a fairly inexpensive HMO program for unemployed and low-income people.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself, stand on your own two feet, and do some research. There will be no Biglaw savior who's going to take you back into the fold any time soon and care for all your needs. Grow some (figurative) balls and take control of your situation. Get out of your comfort zone--it's no longer an option. Many of us have already realized this and are moving forward.
If you're asked to sign a release, why not take your book of business with you?
35 got it. I tried to say this stuff after one of her earlier posts (I was the one saying she needs to look out of NYC and probably move out of there before too long). She's got family willing to take her in), but no one seemed to agree.
Sorry your sex-in-the-city lifestyle didn't work out for you, but it's time to move on and hustle for whatever. It's not fun, your big law career is probably over, but you'll be a better lawyer and person eventually. From your writing, sounds like this could be the best thing that ever happened to you.
32 - Young people need health insurance too because shit happens, you lucky, healthy, unwise mutherfutcher.
I am 30 and in excelent general health, but twice in the last 5 years I have had one-time, suprise medical problems that each ran up about $8K and $15K in medical expenses each. Without insurance I would have been badly screwed.
Its not about the minimal health costs in a normal, healthy month or year. Thats why its called INSURANCE. $800 is obscene but still.
This is a great and useful column. None of us big law associates is equipped to deal with the harsh reality of a job market in which there are no legal jobs (temporary or otherwise). As an unemployed former big law associate, I empathize with Roxana.
Two weeks is great much better than the miserly less than one week's notice my previous sh*t firm gave me.
Also, I guess I'm lucky that my firm was so cheap that it only provided $600/month health insurance. Cobra's a joke at those rates so I opted to take my chances on free health care.
Call (212) 206-5200 for the free health clinic on East 16th street, btw 5th Ave and Union Square. You're unemployed so you should qualify.
Also, unemployment, takes to the federal government, just increased $100/month. Take advantage of all of the taxes you've been paying on your associates salary and sign up asap. You can get your $ direct deposited to your bank account on a weekly basis
Good luck.
32 is right - she should be taking those clients.
On two weeks notice, the firm is doing her no favors and she should not be focused on making things any easier for them after she's gone, but rather on taking what she can from the place, clients especially. Hell, one client at $200/hr for 10 hours a week would be enough to live on! Think about it.
I work in BigLaw and dont have a ton of money saved up (outside of 401K) mostly because I have been agressively paying down my loans.
I pay $1600/month rent in NYC and have no car and I drink cheap booze. I only started building up serious cash reserves though when the layoffs began though, so not everyone is either 1. a big spender or 2. sitting on a pile of cash.
overheard on the street
Partner: Hey Jim, you still driving that Porche since your lay-off at big law?
Jim: Yep sure am
Partner: How are you managing that?
Jim: I got a job as a Valet at the country club.
I love this series and I hope that ATL is at least offering you a pittance for publication.
41, this is 32 here.
I know that this a lawyers' website, so asking for business and financial sense from most of the readers is a bit much, but I'm going to try anyway... it's about risk arbitrage.
Let's assume that you have a 1% chance of having something that costs $50,000 go wrong with your health in a given year.
Let's also assume that you have a 10% chance of having something that costs $15,000 go wrong with your health in that same year.
Thus, the expected cost of your health care for that year is $6,500 ((.01 * 50000) + (.1 * 15000)).
Insurance, at $800 a month, would cost you $9,600 over that same period. In other words, statistically, you're $3,100 WORSE OFF with insurance than you are without it.
Yes, what if something bad happens, blah blah blah. It's the same reason I have a 100/50 auto insurance policy rather than a 300/100: it is unlikely that something bad will happen, to the point that allocating money for that very unlikely result is not worthwhile.
Reasonably assess whether something bad WILL happen and then decide if paying for insurance is a smart financial move. For young people without a family or personal history of medical problems, it usually isn't; at most, a very high deductible plan is all that is needed to cover truly catastrophic injuries problems, not the comprehensive coverage that she's going to buy through COBRA. Then again, if she had made good financial decisions before, she wouldn't have these problems now, now would she?
Just like there's absolutely no point in term life insurance if you don't have any dependents, yet for some reason lots of people buy it.
Face it: health insurance isn't some basic human need like food. People can, and do, make a reasoned decision to forego it. I'm saying that she almost certainly should in the circumstances.
I can empathize with the feelings of betrayal. Employers all the time expect employees to be loyal, but demonstrate no reciprocal loyalty.
Thirty years ago in this country, one could generally count on working for their employer as long as they wanted (some exceptions, of course). Many young people today were brought up seeing their parents work for the same company the majority of their lives, so why wouldn't they expect the same? Both of my parents only ever worked for one employer during my first 25 years. Me, I've been through six in the last ten years (some my decision, some theirs).
Hardly any employer gives a crap about their employees anymore. Just remember that when you do find a job. Get what you can while you're there and always keep looking for something better.
Um, your 401K does have someplace else to go -- a rollover IRA. Shouldn't a Biglaw lawyer know that?
Wow, what a sense of entitled and a lack of coping skills. She wants the firm to take care of her health insurance, instead of taking 5 fricking minutes to think about what her health insurance needs really are. Besides the resources others have mentioned, the ABA has an excellent health care plan that is very inexpensive. I used it all through law school. It covers prescriptions too.
Her other failings were pointed out in previous posts. Stop expecting others to care for you. You are a freaking, well-educated professional woman, take care of your damn self. Make some realistic decisins, instead of whining and acting out.
27, I am not sure it is a male/female division. I am female. You might have noticed I am not thrilled with her behavior all that much. (I called her not shovel-ready yesterday)
@48 "Many young people today were brought up seeing their parents work for the same company the majority of their lives, so why wouldn't they expect the same?"
Because they can read a newspaper? Ever since I was in middle school, I have read and been told that mobility is increasingly important in today's world, and that people my age would hold an average of 9 jobs. Anyone who is surprised isn't paying attention. I constantly look to see if there are better opportunities, and also plan for what I would do if I were let go from my current position.
32 nailed it. You should be telling your clients (the small one's) that you are leaving and that they have a choice in who their counsel is. It doesn't take too many matters to give yourself some additional cushion and time to figure things out. Think about it, you'd handle that $100k matter for$75K - you're better for it and your client is too.
I've been there - it works and you never know where it is going to take you.
52-
32 here again. I'm still at biglaw.
She should tell the big clients that too; they usually have all sorts of small, low-priced stuff floating around that she MIGHT get a piece of in the future.
If you don't ask, you don't get. All they can do is say no.
Roxana, your discussion of female bowel movements: unappetizing
but in general an amusing post
Roxana, maybe I am missing something (admittedly I didn't read the entire post), but I think you missed a great opportunity.
It sounds like your role in the cases you were on before being laid off was fairly deep/involved. Instead of whimpering to a partner, you should have contacted the client! Get the client's business from the firm.
Be really creative (instead of cliched creative writing), step outside your self-imposed box of having to work for a firm, and go out on a limb. If it is a small 100k case, charge half the billing rate, and take the client out to lunch to sell him on it. Don't be intimidated if you don't know everything - leverage all your knowledge and contacts. With smaller cases or clients, this becomes very possible.
You don't have to do this forever, but consider what billing fees you could get in the meantime from just a couple clients. Setting up fax/email is a cinch, with whatever domain name you want to use. It just might make your ultimate job search less stressful, and perhaps open up more doors.
41:
Let's do some simple math. You said that in the past 5 years you have incurred $23K of unexpected medical expenses, and that had you not been paying for health insurance you would have been in trouble. $23K / 60 months = $383.33. In other words, I hope you weren't paying more than $400 per month for your insurance, otherwise you could have saved that money, paid for your expensive mishaps, and still come out ahead.
Of course that assumes that you would have actually saved the money and it also ignores any other benefits you get from insurance (e.g. check-ups, peace of mind). But the fact is insurance is a gamble, and if you are healthy you're paying more for peace of mind than anything. If you are unemployed, peace of mind not be worth $800 per month.
47: 31 again
I agree that a high cost, comprehensive insurance is the wrong choice for a single, helathy unemployed person. I would go for something much more basic and cheap, perhaps a catastrophic-only plan or a sickness and injury only plan, but not having ANY insurance at all is playing with fire.
I hardly think that inventing hypothetical medical costs and multiplying them by invented % chances of incurring those costs qualifies as profound "business sense." Insurance is not only about an "expected return"; it is also hedging against bad suprise disasters.
America's emergency rooms are clogged with people who have had to "forego" health insurance for various reasons.
Only someone who has been insured and/or very lucky throughout their life can dismiss health insurance as unimportant.
56:
I was in law school for the $15K one; you think I had that much money?
Lucky for me i PROBABLY could have gotten that from my parents, but not for for everyone. In an emergency situation I supposed taxpayers and/or hospitals end up getting the shaft.
Problem is the people who can't afford insurance are the same people who can't save up the funds to pay for unforseen disasters themselves.
57: No one is saying it is unimportant. But there's a a difference between saying it is unimportant and that it is not the highest cash allocation priority when you, like the author of the post, is unemployed, has no prospected for near-term employment, and has a very limited amount of savings to work from.
Some expenses need to be trimmed. Health insurance is usually a good first place.
Oh noes we need to hedge against bad shit! I will sell my 401k holdings off because the market is down and put it in a savings account! WHAT IS LOCKING IN LOSSES?!?
Wow, 34, 35, 37, ... what a bunch of sexist d-bags you are. What would make you think that she has a "sex in the city" lifestyle? If "Rex" St. Thomas were writing this column, you'd never attribute his discomfort at being laid off to the loss of his ridiculous luxuries.
And, for those of you who have never been given two weeks notice, asking the firm for a little more time DOES NOT equal helpless whining.
Jesus, don't you idiots understand that the point of health insurance is to avoid the HUGE bills?
Just because you "came out ahead" in your analysis doesn't mean that you made the right decision - you just got lucky and didn't get wiped out, although you could have been.
I can pay the ER bills for a broken arm - I can't pay $500k for cancer treatment.
This guy is a good writer (I don't think it's a woman).
If you "win" the health insurance lottery, you've already lost.
When don't talk about taking dumps. It just doesn't happen. Roxanna is a dude all the way.
To 27: Next stop, Divorce Court! I feel so sorry for your wife.
60 - 37, if the author was named Rex he would also probably have an inordinate amount of his capital invested in watches, shoes and handbags.
32, 43, I get the impression that these "small" cases and clients are pro bono clients. I'm guessing that the firm tried to tide her over with some pro bono work since there was not enough billable work, but eventually the lack of profitability was too much and led to layoffs.
This must be his/her first real job. ANybody who's switched jobs know that you can buy COBRA retroactively, so no need to pay unless you get hit by a bus while you're unemployed. First installment was great, these later ones are getting tiresome. We get it, they laid you off, it happens. Let's move on to some stuff about how you went to Hawaii and suntaned for a week and bummed around hostels or something...anything to take our gainfully employed but stressed minds away...
54 - Are we to assume that you find male bowel movements appetizing?
Aren't you glad your taxes are paying for single-payer universal health care for EVERY citizen of the criminal state of Israhell?
68 - Careful - that's not quite right. You can only retoractively elect cobra for the first 60 days after employed coverage. Eg, if you leave the govt, they give you one month of free coverage, and then you have to elect cobra within 30 days of that ending. (60 days of your termination date)
61 - Exactly.
I think we are dealing with people who took econ 101 in college but have never had big medical bills. Good luck to them
=P
Why do people pay off loans early? My government loans are now at a little more than 2%. That's almost free money.
I'm still enjoying reading these.
I knew that you had 60 days to elect COBRA, but wasn't sure if it could be retroactive - good to know.
73 - they aren't paying off federal loans early; they are paying off the private loans, which are all going to be at a much higher rate than your 2+% federal loans.
75. Thanks. Actually, I made a mistake -- my government loans were all paid off years ago. I have only private loans now, but a floating rate that is tied to an index that has them under 2% now.
The basic strategy for health insurance is simple:
1. Don't do anything until 60 days after you receive the required COBRA notice. If you end up having huge medical bills during this time, you can retroactively elect COBRA and submit the bills for reimbusement.
2. Shop for health insurance that will take effect at the end of the 60-day period. If you're youngish and reasonably healthy, you can definitely do better than the COBRA rates. And unless you have regular medical costs (like expensive prescription drugs you take every month) choose a high-deductible option. You don't need a bells-and-whistles plan; you just need something basic for emergencies. You can resume normal checkups once you're employed again. Even if you needed to visit a doctor for a checkup, it's really not that expensive, especially because high-deductible plans allow you to take advantage of negotiated rates.
Thank you #60 for having some decency and sticking up for our laid-off lady. As for 99% of the rest of you, with a few minor exceptions (probably no exceptions for all the health insurance advice posts - taking blogs a bit too literally are we?): shame on you. The comments on Above the Law just continue to get more spiteful, venomous and shallow as these intense days go on. It's yet another total disgrace to the profession, as if we needed any more disgraces.
Seriously: WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE!? YOU ARE MEAN, MORALLY DEGENERATE, AND ARE PROBABLY TOTALLY WEIRD LOOKING (which wouldn't bother me except for the fact that you're MEAN and MORALLY DEGENERATE so you TOTALLY SUCK and have no right being WEIRD LOOKING on top of how much you TOTALLY SUCK).
Roxana's column rocks. It's spot on in so many ways and completely relevant to what hundreds of thousands of people, lawyers or not, employed or unemployed, are going through. To accuse the writer of this blog, which is so full of self-deprecating humor and some great insight into law firm shenanigans (can we ever get enough of how darn strange this biglaw culture is? corporate law firms are like the twilight zone of socio-cultural dynamics), of being a naive, sheltered whiner just shows how little - if any - experience the rest of you have with the real world. Guess you're probably not allowed out of your cubby-hole offices to interact with the rest of society because you're so darn WEIRD LOOKING you would scare people. You already scare me (except not so much) with your vicious little fangs sticking out through your comments.
I hope R's column keeps coming, and I'm sure it will continue to keep me smiling and empathizing. And I hope the trash talkers go ba-bye by falling into a hole filled with week-old cabbage heads and lots of other weird-looking people.
"Thank you #60 for having some decency and sticking up for our laid-off lady."
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It's not a matter of sticking up for her, it's a matter of giving her useful advice and if her primary goal is to get another job (and in all likelihood it is) then she'll learn to take the advice of a few posters in this thread.
60 talks about "those of you who have never been given two weeks notice" . . . um, if you'll read through this, you'll find some of us have not only been given two weeks notice, but have already been in worse positions in the past.
These suggestions may hurt her self-esteem, but pride right now comes at the cost of making it more likely she'll be in a position a few months from now where she'll be genuinely desperate or will have given up. It's a difficult enough road as it is and this attitude (while by all means a perfectly natural reaction to have) will get in the way of it.
I mean this without the least bit denigration: Learn to take favors and be prepared to look for some positions that a few months ago you thought were beneath you.
I enjoy this column. I think it is a useful and interesting look at a path I hope not to have to take. It is also, for the most part, very well written.
I think this column is a terrific addition to ATL and I hope it stays. Best of luck to the author and to the many other in her shoes.
(And, seriously: only two weeks notice? She needs to out the firm as that is well below market for associate layoffs.)
it's 78 scroogette back again: so 79, do you really think she's looking for a crash course on the intricacies of COBRA, job search tips and "general career counseling" from ATL commenters, or do you think that maybe, just maybe (and this is a totally out-there thought, take it or leave it) she was asked/volunteered to write a humorous and semi-satirical recurring column from the land-of-the-layoffs?
Hey, I could be the one who's just not with the program here - maybe she is indeed so lost that this blog is her desperate cry for help, to be provided by way of useful tips and insults in the comments section. In which case I myself would also be most grateful if you guys could please provide any and all recipes for potatos and any and all instructions for how to make my own clothes out of old law books.
Except here's the thing: I'm not wrong, and the fact that a lot of people really, truly believe she's posting her trials and tribulations on ATL as if she's writing in to Dear Abbey or something makes me laugh so hard it's tough to make it to the loo before I piss my pants.
"it's 78 scroogette back again: so 79, do you really think . . ."
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Why bother with what I think when I can concentrate on what I know?
Whatever her goals are, whatever her purpose here is, whatever you get out of this - she displays an attitude here, both towards her situation and those who have done her at least some favors, that will be counterproductive towards her getting a job.
Now you can either cheerlead her in this effort or point out to her how this is problematic.
If you insist on cheerleading this, you will find someone a few months from now with a different attitude, someone much more despondent, and someone who won't uplift you so much as offer a consistently more depressing story to follow.
I wish her luck, but there's no need for her to rely on just luck, and there's little she'll get from either you or me enabling stuff that's just counterproductive, no matter how much you get a kick out of reading about her doing it.
Roxana - don't go back into biglaw and risk your talents being wasted again. If Lauren Weisenberger can write and publish vapid (and almost insulting) books like Chasing Harry Winston - then you certainly can too. Just add a bit of sex and drama to your storylines - and there you go.
As for health insurance, I've found really affordable options at ehealthinsurance.com .. I paid for policies to cover emergencies for less than $80/mo - but then again, that was when i was in my early 20s.
best of luck to you.
Look, let me make this simpler - whether she wants advice or not, she needs it.
She obviously didn't know about the medical insurance stuff, but, again, the attitude she'll bring towards her search for jobs will be more important.
I am speaking as someone who has been in a position similar to hers and once had the same outlook on it (I'd like to think I didn't have it to this extent, but who knows)...and as someone who has, at least to some extent, gotten out of it.
I know where this is going. If you'd like for this not to turn into a Dostoyevsky novel, I'd suggest not rooting for it.
82, I'm rooting for you to get hired to write a guest column. It would be really productive, and would lead the way out of despondency, and it would absolutely never enable any form of negative behavior - like learning how to laugh at life's curveballs. Because that's just not productive and can only lead to depression. And I bet it would be really funny too and tons of people would read it, to learn and to laugh and to learn some more. Totally have my fingers crossed for you....
85 - I guarantee you this is going to become much less humorous quickly enough.
I'd rather stop that, but there's not a shred of doubt in my mind about that.
What is the matter with you people, besides your inability to read carefully? What "counterproductive" attitude is she displaying? She's talking about her reaction to a situation AS IT HAPPENED. Like hearing about how much her COBRA would cost. We don't know what she did about it or what she learned since then, and, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, the conflicting "advice" about health insurance in these comments alone should serve as proof that it is a complicated topic that not everyone - lawyers included - understands instantly.
Also, do you people realize that she was laid off before the stimulus bill passed? And why shouldn't she have asked her employer to cover her benefits for a little longer? People do it all the time. I'm sure that if she hadn't asked her employer to extend her benefits you over-critical jerks would be lambasting her for not asking her employer to extend her benefits.
Just remember: hindsight is 20/20. The woman is writing (at least in this installment) about how she felt when this shit happened, not what she learned about COBRA since then.
I actually enjoy the commenters who offer useful advice (i.e. check out the health plan at the ABA). While the comment may be in response to Roxana's blog post, the information goes out to a lot of laid off associates who feel lost right now. That information can help.
The hateful comments and personal attacks on "Roxana" do not help or contribute in any way.
wild horses couldn't drag me away from http://twitter.com/COBRArules
I grew up in a small town in western Maryland. Folks got laid off. And you know what? Most of them didn't have money stashed away and 401(k)'s. I love it how millions of people in America have dealt with these types of situations for decades... but when you start laying off some yuppies, they write bullshit mellodrama that gets picked up on a bullshit legal blog which has - apparently hit bottom.
87 - I'm so with you. I have no idea what is wrong with these people. It's totally surreal and fascinating in a train-wreck kinda way.
Yesterday I was more pissed off about the stupid insults, but now I'm just baffled at how they just really can't seem to get a grip on the point of this column. It's like they're so far gone in their conviction that they're gonna be the ones to solve R's problems (and she better take their advice if she doesn't want to spiral into a lifetime of misery - they're like issuing suicide watch warnings in the event that she doesn't listen to their words of wisdom) that they've rounded some bend where they might as well be sitting around at Roswell waiting for the aliens to come pick them up.
Anyway, I guess they're just nutty and they sound pretty darn miserable themselves.