Note to Mr. Juan Valdez and the authors of that article: Morgan Lewis is not a "white-shoe firm."

Sorry Juan, you kinda' fugly.

BANG!!

Oink!

3 - by law school standards he is teh hotness

Juan is cute. Any chance he's gay?

7, It takes "Juan" to know "Juan"

6 -- I don't believe in "law school" hotness. As far as human beings go, fugly.

OMG, poor Juan! He is ONLY getting $60K for a year and will then get $160K after his public service stint and has $60K in student loans! Now he has to move in with his parents! Where is the outrage! I mean, how is someone supposed to afford living a FULL year on $60K and have $60K in student loans! Why isn't Juan contacting the ABA, Glenn Beck, and NPR News with his plight?! I never thought I would see the day that a lawyer was ONLY making $60K - even if it was only for a year!

But HLS is ranked #2 in USWR!!!! Don't all HLS grads go to Vault 20 firms????

10, stop GULCing up these comments with your bitterness.

12, I thought the proper term would be GW'ing, as 10 is bringing these comments DOWN!

Juan, it wouldn't take a lot of money to get some decent shoes.

FML
- GW Law School

Didn't read the link. But wouldn't the HLS low income protection plan at least ordinarily kick in for someone working for 60k?

"Valdivieso said he knows of 20 to 30 fellow Harvard students (the graduating class numbers 575) who have had their employment postponed"

subtle anti-NYU trolling

Juan Is the Loneliest Number

2, Morgan Lewis may not be a top firm. But it's still a white shoe firm. Stuffy and proper.

Wachtell and Skadden, on the other hand, could never be said to be white shoe firms. They were started by miscreants with the wrong pedigree who were rejected from white shoe firms. Culturally, they are very different from Sullivan & Cromwell and Cravath to this day.

Is SMU a white shoe university?

what rank must Juan have been in his class to have to work at morgan lewis?

Doesn't he get AA at firms too? He should be at a v20 at minimum.

10: Well, he's only "on the way" to success at this point. I'm sure his shoes will improve once he gets this pesky public interest year about of the way.

That picture made me want to kill that dude, for the record.

10: Well, he's only "on the way" to success at this point. I'm sure his shoes will improve once he gets this pesky public interest year about of the way.

That picture made me want to kill that dude, for the record.

Copyright should die. information is meant to be shared and promulgated. Should creatives be compensated? Of course! But the real pirates are the corporations profitting off of others works.

Ban copyright. P2P forever!

Is LockeLord Houston prestigious compared to other peer firms in Texas?

Come on, Jaun. 60,000 dollars in debt?? That is NOTHING. That's peanuts, especially considering you will have a Harvard Law degree.

And this is affecting much more than 10-20% of Harvard 3Ls, no? There's gotta be more Harvard grads going to big firms.

He's wearing jeans and sneakers, you morons. Should they be Prada sneakers?

The best this Harvard student could get was Morgan??? What a waste of a degree - comes to show that the bottom of the class even at a school like Harvard doesn't equal auto-prestige.

Juan = swine flu delivery system

We need Jack Bauer.

What a pig.

READERS:

Please feel free to comment on anything but the new post on ATL Career Centers.

We feel just fine spending our lives posting threads and allowing comments on other company's business practices, but not ours. Thanks!

--ATL

Welcome to the Suck.

ATL

32--if you open the site using the Firefox browser platform (the browser preferred by those I associate with), you can comment on the career centers post.

The Firefox browser is superior to Internet Explorer and Netscape.

Juan took the job at Morgan Lewis because they were very liberal in their pro bono allowance. He had offers and tons of V20 firms. Plus, for the record, he is very handsome and many girls are obsessed with him. Also, he was in the Olympics. And even if he is only "law school hot", you all are probably law school ugly. Think about what that means. I know you're dumb so take your time.
-HLS 3L

35 = juan

Does anyone else think it's ironic that this Harvard 3L who aspires to work for Morgan Lewis would like to pursue "consumer protection" work during his public interest year? Morgan Lewis has had a decent product liability docket in the past: they defend companies whose products injure consumers (or are alleged to injure consumers).

I am surprised that more people are not questioning the public interest commitment of all these deferred 3Ls. These are people who focused their 3 years of law school on obtaining jobs dedicated to defending large, powerful, rich corporate interests. That alone does not bother me (to each his own). What bothers me is their about-face when they claim they're passionate about working for the the marginalized and relatively powerless little guys. Bulls**t.

im not juan, though i wish i were. he's a great dude and is very nice and cool and smart

-35

38,
Do you wish you had Juan's job prospects too?

34- You're a liar.

I don't know about white shoe, but it is a little hyperbolic to refer to Morgan Lewis as "top-notch."

I mean, maybe you could argue that they are second notch. But top?

35: wow, i don't think it could be any more obvious that you are Juan. You are a fellow HLS student and his life is so much better than yours that you wish you were Juan?! come on now.

prediction for comment 45:
"dear comment 41, juan is the most handsome, intelligent, dreamy, athletic, personable person at HLS. he had offers at wachtell and a scotus clerkship, but morgan lewis offered him amazing opportunities that nothing else could match. their pro bono and diversity were the best of the best. i would like to reiterate that i am not juan, but he is so awesome, i wish he were inside me"

Juan seems like a nice enough guy. And I have no idea whether he chose Morgan Lewis or for what reason or he got "stuck" there. But if he went for the pro bono, that was a mistake. Morgan Lewis' pro bono policies are nothing special. No better than many firms, including some V10 firms.

Juan seems like a nice enough guy. And I have no idea whether he chose Morgan Lewis or for what reason or he got "stuck" there. But if he went for the pro bono, that was a mistake. Morgan Lewis' pro bono policies are nothing special. No better than many firms, including some V10 firms.

42:

juan would not say those things, but they are accurate. morgan (at least pre-ITE), beyond having a solid DC office, let summers do half-time or something quite significant at public interest organizations.

-not 35

I am "law school" unbelievably handsome. Which makes me only slightly above average in the real world. Oh well. Is there a "Law School Hot or Not" webpage out there? (as well as a "Law Firm Hot or Not" of course)

I am "law school" unbelievably handsome. Which makes me only slightly above average in the real world. Oh well. Is there a "Law School Hot or Not" webpage out there? (as well as a "Law Firm Hot or Not" of course)

SMU = Hofstra of Texas

I've had classes with Juan. He is a smart guy and he's respectful of everyone. I don't think there's anyone at HLS who thinks poorly of him. That people here are talking shit about his choice of shoes is beyond moronic.

49 = juan

@37: Exactly. And I think they are questioning the commitment to public interest of these deferred associates. I just interviewed at a volunteer job fair for deferred 3Ls and those without jobs yet at my Tier 1 school. Two of the four interviewers pointed out that they were happy to see a resume like mine (with tons of public interest/gov't experience and law review) cross their desks, and that they didn't really care to have free employees if they weren't really interested in public service.

So, I think public interest employers are catching on that a year with someone who is biding their time might not be such a good deal in the long run.

51 = 37

x = 5

Sorry #52, guess again. Thanks for playing. Please collect your stipend at the door.

54 = 37 (= 52)

Juan's a good guy, and I don't understand why people are incredulous about the Morgan Lewis decision. Not everyone at HLS just goes wherever the Vault guide tells them.

35 = 49 = 56 = Juan

I know Juan personally, and though I don't know his class rank there is no question of his abilities as a legal mind. He has devoted much of his time at HLS to public interest activity. Perhaps he chose a non v20 firm because he didn't spend his entire law school career trying to prepare himself for a corporate career. He is very well regarded by many students and at several professors.

By the way, the olympic swimming thing is also true.

--HLS 1L

Hi, I'm tempted to just give my name to avoid accusations that I'm Juan, but I don't really want to get that involved since I don't really know Juan all that well and it'd be weird to admit my sense of my protectiveness towards a classmate who is a really nice guy. I'm another HLS 3L, and am just going to try to lighten the mood here by stating simply that Juan is a pretty kind and charismatic dude that says smart things in class and that yes, is pretty good looking, even by Olympic Swimmer standards (I'll leave law school standards aside as they're irrelevant in Juan's case). I'm sitting in the library right now and would guess that everyone here would agree with me; Juan is pretty well liked. I'm not really sure why everyone on this board is so hateful towards what he said in the article; he didn't come off as a douche I didn't think. But if you disagree, I'm sorry -- I'm going to try hard to disconnect Internet and finish my fed courts reading for tomorrow instead of checking this blog again tonight and getting into a flame war with you.

- another HLS 3L

1. as those commenters who know him have already said, juan is a well-liked, intelligent, and very nice guy. I'm not sure why his looks should be relevant at all, but he happens to be universally thought of as one of the best looking people in law school and is good looking on non-law school standards as well. i'm confident he is a superior human being to the flamers in virtually every possible way.

2. ATL -- this is ridiculous. you need to clean up the comment board or disable it for posts that involve name or photo attribution of law students or young associates. I can see partners (e.g., pillsbury partner) as being a different issue. But law students and young associates have reputation concerns and should not be subjected to mean spirited and inaccurate flame wars on your comment board. This should be especially true for law students or young associates who did nothing out of the ordinary to invite such comments, other than -- e.g. -- give a perfectly routine and ordinary interview to the boston globe.

My 2 cents on this. I have nothing against Juan - in fact, from the comments, it's quite clear that he's a smashing lad but you guys really, really have to lighten up. When someone gives a full-blown newspaper article interview with his face plastered on it, he cannot then expect to be shielded from critcism or critique purely on account of being a law student (and I don't see how being a partner, as opposed to a law student changes anything). Although much of the critcism here is no doubt facile and unwarranted, much like how the NYT wedding pictures serve as grounds for praise or unwarranted critique, a person becomes fair game when they pose for a picture in the newspaper.

I didn't insult him in any of the previous postings (because I see nothing wrong with his dress sense or his looks) and some of the comments, I agree, are just plain silly, and he does seem like a level-headed guy but the way the world works is that you give an interview, you can expect the good with the bad. Otherwise, don't give the interview. To be honest, although your intentions are no doubt pristine, I can't help but feel all this attention that you guys are putting on Juan by defending him so zealously would be counterproductive and lead to even more trolling by people who have nothing better to do, or worse yet, make the people who would otherwise laugh off the earlier comments wonder whether it is indeed Juan who is so zealously defending himself (though I stress again, that's not the impression I'm getting at all, but I can imagine how some people might nonetheless come off with that impression).

Not sure if all comment threads are like this, but just a general comment to 60 and 61, or others who think similarly. 60 -- you're probably just making an argument about reputation in the hopes that it will sway Lat where human decency won't, but I'll try the human decency approach. Lat: the reason we should delete hateful and mean things about random students who give interviews and say reasonable things isn't because it hurts their reputation or whatever, but because those comments are senselessly mean and you're complicit when you provide space for them. Lawyers/law students read these boards, and their friends within the community read these boards, it's gotta be uncomfortable to be cut down in this space. To 61 -- I hate that we live in a world where apparently any sort of communication with the press is an invitation for public mockery on a message board that all your friends read. If indeed we do live in that world, and if I'm ever covered in the press, then certainly I hope that my friends do not heed your call to "lighten up," and rather that they wade into the fray and support me as I "become fair game" for these sorts of comments.