Cupcake Stop Is a Great Detour from the Legal Profession
Last week, we brought you the story of an intrepid New York Law School graduate who started his own business. Think cupcakes on wheels.
Today, the proprietor of Cupcake Stop, Lev Ekster, stopped by our office with his delicious wares. Yumyumyumyumyum.
[Ed. note: For the record, I really hate donuts. I don’t even particularly like sweets. I owe my girlish figure to (1) things that can be wrapped in bacon and (2) a zero tolerance policy when it comes to exercise.]
The most important part of the visit was the excellent food. Lev brought over his three best-selling creations: cookie dough, Oreo cookies ‘n cream, and red velvet. I’d never had a cookie dough cupcake, but its gustatory greatness cannot be denied. Lat preferred the cookies and cream flavor, while Kash opted to continue looking beautiful.
After we finished stuffing our faces, we sat down to talk with Mr. Ekster. Our notes from the interview, plus pictures of the cupcake-y goodness, after the jump.
Cupcake Stop is not the only small business Lev Ekster is running. He is also involved in Outlines.com, a site that is gaining traction among law students. You can’t eat an outline, but at least it’s law-related. We asked Lev why cupcakes seemed like a logical business venture:
Running the Cupcake Stop is more than just running a truck. I didn’t leave the law to start a cupcake truck. I have higher aspirations for this business….Every minute of every day for the next month is booked. I think I am working a lot harder than a summer associate or a first year. Cupcakes sound fun, but it’s a business.
Lev went on to explain that he is looking at this business from a macroeconomic perspective. He has already started taking catering orders, for weddings and other events. On a busy day, Lev said that he will field over a thousand emails from people inquiring what Cupcake Stop can do for them. The next step is to offer tea with the cupcakes.
There could even be a television show in it, about a disgruntled law student who starts his own business. Lev says there are people interested in the idea.
With all of this entrepreneurial spirit, why did he go to law school in the first place?
I graduated from Ithaca College. My mom is a doctor, and she told me not to go that route. I watched a lot of Law & Order growing up…. Along the way, I kind of went off course.
Given the current legal market, perhaps he took the right course — straight out of the profession?
I didn’t go around telling everybody from law school about this. A lot of law school people learned about it from your post on Above the Law… A lot of them still don’t have jobs.
Still, Ekster feels that New York Law School is somewhat unfairly maligned by ATL readers. He said that, just like anywhere else, there are good professors and bad professors. He credits one of his NYLS professors for mentoring him through the process of starting a small business, and throwing in a little free legal work (rent agreements, contracts) on the side.
While the recession could be hurting a lot of his classmates, Lev thinks there are a lot of benefits to starting a small business during a downturn:
You can hire people that are overqualified for less money than they would normally demand.
He said that he’s received applications from experienced chefs to work in his kitchen, Cornell hospitality graduates willing to work the counter in the truck, and even Harvard Business School applicants looking for an internship.
But of course, there is a downside to recession economics as well:
No one wants to spend any money. I had to hit up the parents for a bit of money, but we’re trying not to cut any corners. We’re doing it the right way… but I didn’t want to take out any more loans on top of my educational debt.
So, what advice does entrepreneur Ekster have for other law students looking at a depressed market for legal services?
Don’t be so close-minded. A lot of CEOs are former attorneys — just having a J.D. doesn’t mean you are limited to being an attorney.
There is money to be made, even in the middle of a recession. And yes, Lev is hiring.
Food Stuff: Cupcakes on Wheels [New York Times]
Earlier: Comfort Food for the Economy
(97) Comments
Comments
Figgiti FIRST!
Captain FIRST!
They look delicious!
Outlines.com is a great site.
I note, as the troll who has been posting about Elie's arrival and departure times, that this post was posted well after I left the office for the day. Well done Elie! I am glad my trolling got something accomplished!
4 -
MysTTTal only stayed late to finish the box of cupcakes.
How much did they pay you to post this?
I laughed out loud at Elie's self-deprecating comment about the donuts.
Elie, good for you for taking all the nasty comments in stride.
6 - a box of cupcakes.
[Ed. note: For the record, I really hate donuts. I don't even particularly like sweets. I owe my girlish figure to (1) things that can be wrapped in bacon and (2) a zero tolerance policy when it comes to exercise.]
Elie, how do you feel about bacon wrapped donuts with lard filling?
8 - apparently you are correct. I should have seen that coming.
This guy is also the heir to the Burt's Beeswax fortune.
Burt's Beeswax--The Earth Friendly Chapstick that does not relieve the chapping of your lips, but will ensure a wasp or bee stinging on your kissers if you go outside on a hot summer day.
11 is correct. Mr. Ekster's grandfather, Burt Shavitz, founded Burt's Beeswax--purveyor of "Earth Friendly Natural Personal Care Products."
Instead of using Burt's chapstick product, I like rubbing a white colored crayon all over my lips and teeth. It creates the same horrible effect.
Elie, you have a girlish figure? You're built like Jabba the Hutt.
Elie,
In all seriousness, it's hard to hate on a fella for loving bacon (mmmm). Plus, we all work desk jobs and more than a few of us are kind of tubby ourselves.
Therefore, know that when we call you a fat fuck, we only sort of mean it.
Fat fuck. (c'mon, you had to see that coming)
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but how is elie's name pronounced? ellie? eli?
Bacon is the most beautiful thing on Earth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaK9bjLy3v4
14 = pure gold.
16,
You are a murderer of God's creatures.
13 - Are you completely missing Elie's sarcasm?
(Or are you a troll, baiting the rest of us into telling you he was being sarcastic?)
13 -- Jabba the Hutt was a woman. A big, bull-dyke of a woman, but a woman nonetheless. Clearly you haven't been keeping up on your Starwars fanfic like me!
So ... this guy is smart but he forgets 1 thing 99% of attorneys are risk-adverse aholes with no vision.
(Cite: any large law firm with a shitty business model that is currently imploding)
BTW lay off Elie and everyone of the other writers for this blog please. The posts get me through the week.
Elie = cupcake
Elie, are you saying doughnuts can't be wrapped in bacon? You're obviously not from the south. (Bacon wrapped doughnuts, of course, must be breaded, deep fried, and sprinked with powered sugar. Anything less might sound of health food!)
so i herd u liek cupcake?
I agree with 22. ATL is great. Elie et al., keep up the nice work.
(22, you confused me at first - I thought you were saying that Elie should be laid off.)
Elie loves him some bukkake cupcakes
NY to Cupcakes!
Firing first-year associates?
"Let them eat (cup)cake...."
I wish him success however I think this might have been better during the boom times. In those days I was chained to my desk, getting fat off of Seamlessweb. I'm sure my firm might have thrown in some cupcakes.
Now that I'm soon to be gone from the firm I'm eating better and exercising more. I'm shedding my biglaw pounds and making up for all the sex I didn't get while a biglaw associate.
I'm now having a lot of gay sex. A lot. A lot a lot a lot I mean a lot of gay sex. Including some gay sex with David Lat. I'm going to Sotomayor his butt.
Okay, off to whore myself out now that I'm soon to be done whoring myself out to the firm.
obama buy me donuts and pay my car mortgage
I'm sure Elie had no problem devouring them as if they were tic tacs, but those cupcakes look like sh*t.
If you are going to charge $3+ for a "gourmet" cupcake, the least you can do is exercise some quality control.
Sprinkles is much better. Sorry NYC supremacists, but it's a fact.
Justice Sodomyer is a cupcake. A real lightweight. And crass, too.
30 - David Lat is gay?
Is he single?
Yolanda Young = Michelle Obama, who also failed the bar exam.
Speaking of Lat, his cousin makes cupcakes (and you can get them shipped to you - no need to wait for a truck):
http://cupcakesgourmet.com/
Watch yo mouf, 35, y'all cracka motherfucker. Brotha Elie, keep up the good work.
Why are cupcakes so trendy?
26 - 22 here, haha I actually re-read that post and you're right, I didn't phrase it correctly did I?
To clarify, to the jerks commenting on certain writers weight/bodies/writing/spelling please stop. It's not funny and its kind of annoying. I love ATL it gets me through the week and frankly, I would pay for it is it was a subscription based service.
If ATL were a cupcake I would eat it daily.
Seacrest out.
38 - I don't know but it all started in L.A. with Sprinkles. That store got Oprah's attention. She put the founders on the show and the rest is history.
Key take away: Oprah pwns everything.
38 - To be clear, I dont watch Oprah...
- 40
ATL please try to find some news, gossip, or produce some colorful commentary on law firms and the legal profession. Please?
42 - Fuck you.
This is an inspiring story. Good for this guy. JDs don't have to be lawyers - what a novel concept. I'm sure there are plenty here who will see this as fluff, but it's nice to see lawyers surviving out there - finding creative ways to make a living - when most of the well-paved routes to success have proven untenable in an economic meltdown.
Am I the only one who saw boobies instead of cupcakes?
I would also like to know how Elie's name is pronounced.
I say "Ellie" in my head, but that doesn't sound much like a guy's name.
ITTTaca Kollege
If you look at other sites, you'll notice the founder and/or his friends have been posting fake reviews saying how amazing these cupcakes are...I think I'll pass...
Mmmm ... I'd like to get me Lat.
- Gay Biglaw Associate
Mmmm ... I'd like to get me some Lat.
- Gay Biglaw Associate
15 and 46, I believe Elie is pronounced "Orca."
52nd cupcake for MysTTTal today
Elie is pronounced like jelly, belly, smelly......
This is truly an inspiring story. A wealthy child does poorly in school, attends a mediocre college and awful law school, finds he has no job prospects, and then asks his parents to give him money to start his own small business after pissing away a vast sum of money on an education that he will never use. The American dream at its finest.
wow... i had no idea that NYU career services wouldnt be able to find their students real law jobs. SOOOO glad i didn't go to NYU!!
37,
(1) Using photos that aren't you (pic of b-ball guy) and names that aren't yours (Michelle Obama) is pretty juvenile, stupid and, in my view, unethical.
(2) The above is also unoriginal, so it's not even creative, amusing or novel.
(3) Throwing racial terms or stereotypes around, like "cracker" or your take on "jive talk", is shitty, juvenile, stupid and unethical. The next time you're bored, take a walk. Step away from the keyboard.
(4) "Y'all" is second person plural. It makes no sense to refer to one individual as "y'all."
38,
I'm not sure why cupcakes are trendy, but think this star has burned too brightly too quickly. I'm short cupcakes and long biscuits. Biscuits are the next big thing. And plastics. Don't forget plastics.
34 / 49 - Go for it. Lat is single (at least according to his Facebook page).
56,
Get over yourself. You are what's wrong with lawyers. You take yourself too seriously and take the fun out of everything. Get off of your soap box, get a girlfriend/boyfriend, drink a shot of Tequila and enjoy yourself for a moment. It's not hard.
54. Those are my thoughts too.
When your mother is a highly educated Doctor you would expect that she has the knowledge (or ability to discover) that NYLS and other T3 schools scam most of their students. My father drives a taxi, when he's employed, which is about 15 weeks out of the year. When I got into Univ of DC School of Law and Thomas Jefferson School of Law with a "Full Scholarship" my family was ecstatic. Luckily, I did some basic research and went to a T2 state school instead. But maybe even that wasn't such a great idea.
This guy could have just taken all the money his parents pissed away on Ithica College and NYLS and retired at age 18.
not billing hours? put down that motion and check out my PSA http://tinyurl.com/ptfqfq
do something worthwhile with your life
Lat loves the cream.
Elie, do you have a Slap Chop?
King & Spalding Socked with $90k Discovery Sanction
This is one of those "think before you leap" lessons. Lawyer A says Lawyer B had obstructed discovery and misrepresented facts to the court. Judge says he's going to figure out who's telling the truth. He did so. Essentially, the court lambasted K&S's counsel for accusing Duane Morris's counsel of being uncooperative in discovery. The order in the patent infringement suit of CBT Flint Partners v. Return Path, No. 1:07-CV-1822 (N.D. Ga. Aug. 2008) is here:
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/Editorial/PDF/PDF%20Archive/Cisco-order2-081908.pdf
and the an article about it, is here:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423885428
Based upon my experience there, this is how they operate all of the time in all offices and in all practice areas - a cut throat, unprofessional, and, often, unethical law firm
Why would anyone in their right mind hire King and Spalding ?
63 - that news is almost a year old. Don't get mad because you couldn't succeed in law in ATTTlanta.
56-Fuck y'all cracka ass. My baby dadda gonna raise you motherfuckin taxes so brothas be able to speak the lingo as propaly as y'all.
56--although I agree with you, i know you're not from the Spouth. "Y'all" can be singular or plural; don't bring Yankee grammer to bear on folkways
37 & 65 - I can understand why you're so angry. It must be hard to know that your girlfriend, your wife, AND your mother are all thinking about Obama when they fuck you. Don't hate the playa, though - hate the game.
Yo, 67, i ain't got not girlfriend or wife, stupid cracka motherfucker. I be all woman.
"...the story of an intrepid New York Law School graduate who started his own business..."
"Intrepid?!" How much has this person paid AbovetheLaw for these reviews, and where do they get the money to do so? I admire entrepreneurs, as well as those willing to admit they do not want to become lawyers (even if only after graduating from law school), but this person seems like neither. Do mommy and daddy pay for publicity? Based on the photos, I cannot imagine they could make much money selling THOSE things!
People who think the Michelle Obama/Patrick Ewing schtick isn't funny are retarded. The worst thing about the liberal cause is the stick up everyone's butt when something may be, gasp, "offensive". And I voted for Obama and would do so again 100 times out of 100.
Trying to masterbate while listening to bar review lecture video in the background is really, really hard. Easier to read about Ellie's cupcake fetish.
I agree that intrepid is probably the wrong word to describe this kid. That suggests that there was some degree of risk involved. I'm not sure that I see anything fearless or bold about having your wealthy parents give you money to start your own small business. The guy is surely entrepreneurial, but intrepid? Gambling with your wealthy parents' money doesn't qualify in my book. The only think intrepid about this guy was the gamble he took (and apparently lost) on attending NYLS.
I'm on 54's team too.
69 - don't be a hater because you can't admit that you hate being a lawyer and secretly want to be like this guy.
72--How do you know this guy has wealthy parents?
75 - I read the story. He says his mother is a doctor and he didn't have to take out any loans for the venture because his parents gave him the money. I'd be willing to bet that if his parents had enough money to give him to start a small business, his father also has a high-paying job.
propaly
I, for one, admire this guy and am proud of what he has accomplished. Reading some of the nay-saying comments in this post just shows how little biglaw associates know about business. Creating a successful business is not as simple as just taking some money from an investor; rather, it requires many long hours (longer, even, than what many biglaw associates put in) and sacrifices. I wish his business much success!
--Biglaw associate and fellow entrepreneur
Congrats to him - I think it's a great idea and I wish him the best.
Congrats to him - I think it's a great idea and I wish him the best.
Sort of like Warren Brown of DC's Cake Love (which food network already did a television series featuring I believe)...
http://www.cakelove.com/about_founder.php
75,
I heard his family is of the Burt's Beeswax chapstick fortune.
Although, it is more like rubbing nasty hardened petroleum jelly on your chapped kissers.
Cake Love = major disappointment. After all of that wind up, the cupcakes were *okay*. I wouldn't make a trek over there for them, that's for sure (i.e., it's no Ben's Chili Bowl).
I liked this article. Shows what unemployed JDs can do other than wallowing in despair, waiting for document review. As for Burt's chapstick, that stuff is so not worth the money. I was given a tube as a gift, and it does not work to seal in moisture like Chapstick does. Might as well rub a mushy candle against your lips.
And now, I feel like going to buy a cupcake.
If this kid were my son, I would have given him the money to just go away and consent to a disownment.
Do we really want to encourage already overweight people to eat more cupcakes? Don't our legal brethren and sistren have asses fat enough already? I know more than a few pigs with JD after their names. Do we need even fatter asses around the McKinney's?
Do we really want to encourage already overweight people to eat more cupcakes? Don't our legal brethren and sistren have asses fat enough already? I know more than a few pigs with JD after their names. Do we need even fatter asses around the McKinney's?
Yes. Yes we do. Harder for them to compete for partner after missing 2 months for bi-pass surgery.
Mia Bauer, the founder of the hugely-successful CRUMBS Bakeshop, is also a NYLS grad.
So the moral is you can find work as an NYLS grad if you can bake? They should put that in the brochure.
#54:
Well played.
Apparently Worth Street producing more master bakers than barristers.
Going from Ithaca College (party school known for
Phys Ed and Drama) to NYLesS (legal equivalent of a clown college) just Brilliant!
63 - K&S once turned over thousands of pages of discovery to us... all printed on royal blue paper, so making copies would be impossible. Classy firm.
I thought the heir to the Burt's Bee's fortune was featured in LEWW last week.
Also, it has recently come to light that Michelle Obama was disbarred: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2154580/posts
CAKE LOVE came from American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia, United States of America.
is 93 a flame? please advise.
Wow, can someone say Baked By Melissa ripoff?
94: Okay. It's still mediocre.
--83