Now that the New York Times has covered it, it’s official: the recession has hit the legal profession.
Here’s more evidence. Yesterday afternoon, while walking along 53rd Street in Manhattan (between Broadway and Eighth), we came across The Man in a Van. Aaron Heideman, aka The Man in a Van, is traveling around the country, collecting stories of how people have been affected by the recession. Contributors write down their narratives on a giant poster (which, when unfurled, spans 50 yards). Selected stories are written on the van itself.
Here is one person’s story, from a former law clerk — someone who would usually have no trouble landing a job:
Two additional pictures — a larger shot of the banner, plus one of the van — after the jump.
The Man in a Van Project [official website]
first!
my first first?
Lat,
This shit is weak.
My balls itch terribly.
tear tear
6th!
Game over man, game over!
LOL. Poor law grad. “21 years of education plus J.D. equals unemployed and enough debt to scare anyone” HAHAHAHAH!
Hey poor law grad, you just described 90% of new law grads (including myself a few years ago).
Thanks Obama. Your socialism will ensure we never recover (but that’s the plan now, isn’t it?).
Somebody call the Wah….bulance.
Nobody cares that you entitled T14 grads can’t find jobs. There hasn’t been jobs for lower tier grads since 1985. It sucks, but nobody owes you anything. Quit whining.
I would say that unemployment as a lawyer is a gift. Law is for suckers. Get out why you can.
Jaime’s self-entitlement oozes from the very ink he used. As if “twenty-one years of education plus a JD” entitled him to anything.
first
If you are unemployed, you are not that great to begin with. Let that be a lesson for you. HTH
first to say 13 is not first
I’m now chastised on a mediocre blog for being deferred and self-entitled
I think the fundamental problem lies with how law schools lie through their teeth about how many students get hired and how much they make. I went to Oregon, and from what I know, I am one of maybe five students who landed big law jobs.
Thank goodness the G20 Summit will be here soon and they will fix all this recession business.
Yes, absolutely. Expecting a return on an investment is so ENTITLED. Unbelievable that someone would engage in such an unbecoming public display after investing years and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in a legal education only to discover that, thanks in part to a bad market, they are unable to realize the expected return on their investment. Also this has something to do with ELITE vs. TTT schools or something. FEEL THE GENIUS that is the vocal readership of ATL.
9- Hey dumbass….if you need to thank anyone for the mess- try the Party whose mis rule started this in December 2007.
But hey, you gotta blame someone for your unemployment- so why not those liberals who support affirmative action. Much easier to blame some one else for your short comings, right?
As long as associates remain expendable, this recession will not affect the partnership. If revenues are low, we unload the dead weight and preserve our PPP. As long as I can live my current lifestyle I say what recession?
I know a former biglaw associate, who graduated order of the coif and law review at a T5, clerked for SDNY and second circuit, and still can’t get a job.
The recession has affected me because our country is filled with idiots who believed that repeating the words “Yes, We Can!” would magically solve our problems. This stupidity led to the election of the second coming of FDR. Not the FDR everyone loves who won WWII, but the FDR that didn’t have a clue about economic realities and led a rich hunt full of prosecutions against those that disagreed with his views. The idea that stronger unions forcing companies to pay workers more while increasing the tax burden on those same companies will return the economy to greater prosperity has already been proved wrong once. Unfortunately, it appears my country may not be strong enough to survive the same mistakes again.
Latham NY laid off over half the first year class only 4 months after they started. Many have not found new jobs.
“I’m now chastised on a mediocre blog for being deferred and self-entitled[.]”
Oh, I’m sure that people better than us have chastised you too.
22
I’m guessing — though I could be wrong, and if I am, then I apologize — that the former big law associate you know with those credentials is only looking at other big law jobs, and probably only in NYC. He may also be looking for high-level DOJ/government jobs in DC. If that is the case, the difficulty he is having with his job search is not surprising. Those markets are way too saturated.
However, I’m willing to bet that he could land a job in a smaller market within a reasonable period of time (i.e., a few months). Let’s face it, not everyone can be a big law NYC lawyer. But there are many markets out there for lawyers to practice in at a decent firm with decent pay. At some point, most of us will have to determine what is more important — being a lawyer or being an NYC lawyer.
n the words of Lumberg…AH YEAH, law schools are like carn folk, the cleverest of all folk. They get you in by cooking their numbers worse than Enron and when you report to them that your unemployed their stats magically still rise. I also am about to finish a FEDERAL clerkship and my co-clerk and I cannot find ANY work. The situation is so bleak that I am going back into accounting, at least number crunchers at the Big 4 take care of their own and there is, omg, a clear track to partnership.
Law firms and law schools got so out of control with their RE-tard (go see the Hangover gunners) OCI programs that recruit “talent” in the first year. Name me one profession that does something with such a lack of business sense and planning? Its like signing a pitcher that has only developed a 92 mph fastball to a $100 mil contract and hoping that in 3 years he is a superstar. It only took an economic crisis of epic proportions to make these firms, who supposedly hire the best and brightest, to figure out that this is a terrible business model. And now the poor suckers in law school have come to realize that (1) your not entitled to shit in this world, let alone $140k + a year; and (2) your law school lied to you about this “wonderful” profession.
Looking back on lie/law school makes me think of this Chris Farly skit:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4154/saturday-night-live-schillervision-hidden-camera
Note to all of the current law students: Should have got a business degree to fall back on or started your own business. Trust me, you would be much happier than working for some wasp partner who could give a rat’s ass about “work-life balance” (where the fuck did this term even come from?) or “mentoring” you.
I live in a van down by the river!
At least some of us have not lost their sense of humor….
Well, the stock market is back up, home sales are up, and durable goods orders are up, so the legal sector has to start turning around too, right? Pretty please?
- Fed clerk heading to the bread lines next week
Too true PE. Now, please tell me what you intend on doing about the chronic itching of my balls.
“Yes, absolutely. Expecting a return on an investment is so ENTITLED.”
Actually, yes. Ever expecting a guaranteed return on any investment is entitled. You bought into a system with self-reported results, where only a small percentage of graduates make the salaries bragged out here, and supported by an unsustainable economic bubble. The odds were stacked against you from the beginning. What did you think would happen? That you would magically land a job at the end of all that?
28=win
22 here, I can’t even get a job in f ing Des Moine Iowa.
Do not be fooled by my son’s braggadocio. His “current lifestyle” consists of living in the family basement on a subsistence of Ramen noodles.
21-years of education and a J.D. and $1.89 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. HTH.
I believe you PEmom. I’m sure between his Ramen meals he jacks off repeatedly to internet porn.
17 is correct. What the law schools are doing is fraud. The adults who should be protecting them are failing an entire generation of young lawyers.
14
Bullshit. 90% of Lathamed first years are better credentialed than you. They just had the misfortune of being at a poorly managed, sadistic toilet firm.
Well, I went through the same thing: 21 years of school, a law degree from a “Top 50″ school and crushing debt, only to be unemployed when I graduated. That was a few years ago when the economy was booming. The fact is that this is how most law grads end up, unless you attend a T14 or are top of your class at a decent regional school.
Thankfully, I left law after practicing for 1 year at a small firm doing CRAPlaw and now make 3 times as much as I did as a lawyer and more than every single lawschool classmate of mine except for the few at top firms (who still have a job), who make about the same as I.
Good luck to the 95% of graduates not from a T14.
22…no jobs in Iowa? Fuck me, I am packing my shit to move there to look for work…hahahha
Will TTT students/grads (any lawschool ranked equal to or lower than Alabama) please refrain from commenting on ATL.
We are really getting sick of the entitlement BS.
26 – I don’t have quite those credentials, but I can tell you that it’s not so easy to land a job in a smaller market when you are already living in NYC/DC. I worked for a year in a smaller market and am barred in that state (and it’s not a very desirable state either, judging from the comments on this board). I’ve been applying for jobs in that state and in others for several months now. It’s been my experience that no one is interested in bringing people in from DC or NYC, unless those people have significant connections to that smaller market. The assumption is that you’re only looking in that market because you’re desperate and will run back to your original location the second the economy gets better. Plus, there are usually enough qualified people in that state where they don’t have to take a risk on someone outside that market.
Are you people from some alternate reality where reading comprehension doesn’t exist? “Jaime” never wrote about being “entitled” to anything.
My unemployment is costing the government an awful lot of tax revenue it could have made off me.
I know its difficult for these people but why don’t any of them have undergrad degrees they can fall back on? Oh right, they wanted to inflate their grades by majoring in psychology or Estonian basket weaving. I’m a 3L now, but not sweating it because I know my Computer Science degree will still get me a decent job. Stop this sense of entitlement. Oh use your intellect and do a little cost benefit analysis. I can’t understand why students are taking on so much debt.
46, glad you have a marketable degree, but I don’t think Computer Science is any tougher than Psychology. It’s not like you majored in Chemistry or Astrophysics, you know?
46 -
interesting analysis. So you think your computer science B.S. entitles you to a decent job, but anyone who thinks the same thing about their J.D. is a grade-inflating fool. Okay then.
Can some explain to me the ‘21 hours PLUS JD’ degree comment that ‘Jaime’ and another poster here wrote about? That means that she went to school for 24 yrs. Correct me if I am wrong, but 13 yrs kindergarden/elementary/grade/HS, plus 4 yrs college, plus 3 yrs JD equals 20. Where did the extra 5 yrs come from? A PhD?
Huh??
40 – what do you do?
46 here.
47 – computer science is definitely more difficult then psych. The mathematics, computer engineering, etc. that were involved, at least at my school, far exceed what psychs did. At my undergrad psych took the place of the liberal arts major.
48 – comp. sci. BS doesn’t entitle me to anything, but like 47 said, it marketable.
26: I suspect you’re absolutely right. Pre-recession, I remember deciding to leave BIGLAW and hearing my colleagues say that there were “no jobs out there”. I went to a lower-tiered school, had decent grades, no clerkship, and just a couple of years under my belt – essentially, a lot less to offer than my complaining colleagues. Naturally, I was panicking. Nevertheless, I got quite a few interviews (considering) and found a job fairly quickly. I realized that “no jobs” to these people meant “no jobs at Cravath or as an AUSA in the Eastern or Southern Districts of New York.”
I know it’s much tougher to find jobs now, but people with 22’s friend’s credentials aren’t getting jobs simply because they wouldn’t deign to work in the DA’s office or for the city or something.
A comp. sci. BS is marketable now, 52, just like a JD and a law clerk position were marketable until this year.
But if the computer science field collapses in a couple years, and is flooded with cheap comp. sci. degrees, and your BS is no longer marketable, I’d like to think you’d agree that your decision to get the degree represented sound cost/benefit reasoning at the time, and wasn’t just the product of some ridiculous sense of entitlement. Markets change. What’s marketable today might be worthless tomorrow.
i feel sorry for those Lathameds. Their futures were looking bright, then Bob Dell took a huge Latham allover everything.
How has the recession affected me? Well, I was laid off in late 2008, a year in which I earned a total salary of just north of $200,000 (pro rated due to the layoff) which immediately followed a year in which I earned over $300,000. During 2008, I got married, bought a house and in 2009, I estimate that I’ll earn (if my current contract gig does not implode) approximately $40,000 gross, which is less than the annual payments on my home.
With all this talk of people “struggling” I realize that I am one of those folks. Good luck to all of you,
56- cue smallest violin in the world playing my heart will go on….
I am a Suffolk Law grad and I can’t find a job as a paralegal.
56, it’s a good thing you married a nice woman who is willing to work and sacrifice for the family, right?
I’d love to read the stories surrounding Jaime’s for the full effect of how myopic he is.
Heck, we don’t even qualify for those nice new 20% set asides of “affordable housing” in developments for the poors….because they take into account your pre-tax income for income cut offs, and do not factor in mandtory student loan repayments. Many of us take home less than these people who qualify for affordable housing after we pay orur loans.
Can we at least write off 100% of student loan interest???
forgive me for my lack of sympathy for the guy who earned six figures and now makes a higher salary than I have ever made ($40k) and calls that struggling. yes, it sucks to have to sell your house. but have some perspective. I have ZERO income right now and don’t know how I’ll pay my rent after this month. and even I’m relatively well off compared to the folks who have had to go live on the streets. at least I have family to help. please realize that making $40 k is MORE than enough to live comfortably on, even if it’s a giant cut from what you’re used to. most of the world lacks clean water/sufficient food/safe housing. perspective, please!!
59– 56 here. Yes, luckily and happily my wife continues to work and earn a decent living. She’s wonderful. And 57, fuck you.
62
if 40k is the most you’ve ever made than you are a moron. why should smart people be happy just because they’re making the shitwages of a retard?
41 will never find a job.
62, 56 here. Unfortunately, guys like me (heads of household) with children on the way do not have family we can fall back on, and contrary to your belief, $40,000, in the greater New York area is not “more than enough to live comfortably on”, unless you have live alone in a rent-controlled apt and/or live with relatives or in a trailer. Good luck to you though,
55- right back at you, fuckface
–56
55- right back at you, fuckface
–56
sorry 56, I just can’t feel sorry for you if you admittedly banked nearly $500,000 in the last 2 years. A lot of hardworking Americans work very long hours and will never see that money in their lifetime.
And no, I didn’t vote for Obama.
Cry me a river…
sorry 56, I just can’t feel sorry for you if you admittedly banked nearly $500,000 in the last 2 years. A lot of hardworking Americans work very long hours and will never see that money in their lifetime.
And no, I didn’t vote for Obama.
Cry me a river…
Wow… I was actually *not* expecting a picture of what I had written on that banner to show up on this blog (or any blog, for that matter), but since it has, I thought I’d at least clear some things up…
1. I wasn’t duped into taking out mounds of debt by some overrated top tier law school who promised me $150K upon graduation. I considered carefully, took time off, and went to an incredibly affordable but well-ranked state school. I’m not *drowning* in debt, but it’s still *debt.*
2. I’m not trying to get into a big firm. I never have, and I never will. I went to law school because I wanted to do non-profit advocacy work. I still do. I spent the year before my clerkship working for a stipend at a non-profit. The big firms are collapsing, and guess what, the entities that fund the non-profits I hoped to work for are collapsing too. No funding = No jobs.
3. I knew the kind of profession I wanted to go into, and I planned my budget accordingly so that I’d be able to afford it. See answer 1. However, affording it still requires SOME sort of job. See answer 2.
4. I don’t believe I’m “entitled” to anything. I *do* believe that hard work and a good education should at least get you a job in the profession for which you were trained. Trust me, I’m not being picky right now. Paralegal? Research assistant? Local government? Temping? I’ll take it. If I could find it.
I went to apply as a waitress yesterday. They told me that they had over 250 applicants during their 6-hour open house… and that since I’ve worked as a valet, but never as a waitress, they will probably take someone with serving experience instead of me. Probably one of the millions of other law/grad/college grads out there whose hopes at a meaningful and decently-paying career are being crushed by the economy.
In any case, not all lawyers want to earn six figures at a law firm. Some of us actually went to law school because we hoped to improve the conditions of life for our communities in the best way we thought we could. Perhaps check yourself before assuming we are all self-entitled brats.
Sincerely,
Jaime
58, I’m a Northeastern grad and I can’t get a job in Suffolk’s placement office. What does that say?
64, you are an ass. That is all.
46 is dead on. Unfortunately, so many people these days go to college and throw their time away majoring in something worthless like philosophy, some sort of “studies” program that can only make you a professor of those studies, etc., in other words, stuff that can’t make you contribute to society.
The hard disciplines: sciences, (some) business majors, trades, etc. are actually useful to society and thus those who majored in them usually have no trouble finding gainful employment.
The federal government should take the lead on this by revoking pell grants, subsidized student loans, etc., for anyone who chooses to major in something “soft” that cannot lead to a positive return on the taxpayers’ investment.
“sorry 56, I just can’t feel sorry for you if you admittedly banked nearly $500,000 in the last 2 years.”
Perhaps unfamiliar as you are with the concept of gross versus net income, certainly you understand that not all of the gross figure was “banked” as you put it. Moreover, the cash amount I initially referred to was built up through assiduous saving and investment over a 6 year period. By way of example, the year in which I earned the most, over $300,000, was a year in which I owned no property and thus, absent deductions, paid well over $100,000 in state, local and Federal income taxes. That was in one year, mind you.
And to the persons trading “fuck you’s” with me, well, fuck you again.
First?
“The federal government should take the lead on this by revoking pell grants, subsidized student loans, etc., for anyone who chooses to major in something “soft” that cannot lead to a positive return on the taxpayers’ investment.”
Yeah, 74. Excellent plan. Anybody majoring in History or English should receive no federal loans or grants!
@46
I take “plus a JD” to mean to mean she has a law degree, not counting it as an extra 3 years of school. Elementary+secondary=13, law school=3, some people take 5 years undergrad or she did hers in 4 and is counting the internship as a year of education, so there’s 21 right there.
sorry that shouldn’t have been @46
Who needs or wants a former law clerk? Most of them are dumbshits anyway. If they were worth anything at all, they would have gotten a job in BigLaw, where all the true winners go for glory and money. Well, I guess someone has to be a law clerk, but that doesn’t mean that they should be allowed to work in a law firm. Pound them all in the ass, I say.
71/Jaime
Federal or state clerkship?
I am a former Biglaw associate and went solo when my biglaw firm dissolved last year. I’m at the point where I can’t handle any new business and while I’m not making as much as I made at Biglaw, I am a free man now and wouldn’t ever go back to Biglaw.
I’m in the same boat. Blows.
I am a former Biglaw associate that specialized in estate planning for high net worth individuals. Unfortunately the $$ clients were real estate developers (both commercial and residential). I had ZERO work for a couple of months. At least they waited until after Christmas to can me.
NOW, I partnered up with my best friend and I do consumer bankruptcy work. At first I had no idea what I was doing, but my partner helped me out, I studied hard and have brought in many clients through online advertising. I have an office in a business center for $600 per month.
I have had my ass handed to me by some bankruptcy trustees, but it is no different when I first appeared in probate court and had my ass handed to me.
Overall, my life has greatly improved. I sold my downtown condo and actually broke even. I don’t have to work with people that I absolutely cannot stand, I don’t have to sit around waiting if I am going to be called into a conference room to be fired.
I have been practicing for about 8 years and I look very young. Sometimes when clients first meet me they seem surprised. Then once we start talking their confidence builds.
Some of my clients are executives that lost their jobs and have massive mortgage payments and tons of underwater real estate investments. I am hoping that once they are back on their feet, I can pick up some estate planning business.
I actually had an interview with another Biglaw firm, but I called around and heard that the partners in the group were monsters. I will never go back to that.
Overall, my perspective on life has changed. When I first started practicing, I had a different attitude. I felt that I was better than the people around me. I was living in the fast lane.
When I was a 6th year, I was so stressed out and hated every minute of my job. Some of the partners I worked for were great, but one was an absolute monster. I would wake up in the morning and my entire body was in a knot. I started drinking a LOT and was forced into rehab by my family. When I got out, my firm put me on probation. The monster partner hated me and unbeknownst to her, I had inside information that she wanted me gone. At the same time, I was working with a great partner that protected me from her craziness. (I think she was bipolar with borderline personality disorder.)
Well, back to how the recession has affected me, I am happy, healthy, don’t come home and drink 24 beers a night, and don’t have my destiny in someone else’s hands.
My outlook on life has changed and I am a different person. I am humble, kind and feel that I am helping people make their lives better. My first client told me that I have finally made them see a light at the end of the tunnel. Another asked me if I would be her friend because I made her feel good and she trusted me. I rarely got that feedback in Biglaw.
For three years I honestly contemplated suicide every day. I will never go back. I now have a soul.
valet = poledancer
I can’t help but wonder if Jaime wasn’t a very good law clerk. If it’s a state clerkship she was at, why didn’t the Judge ask her to stay on, like most have in dc local courts? I find that it’s not often that local trial court judges hire in the fall for the following year. Often, unlike a federal clerkship, state judges wait until the spring, or until the law clerk gives them notice. If the Judge already hired in the fall, then a local Judge’s rec usually goes a long way in the non-profit world…the world Jaime says she wants to work in. At least, i know enough DC trial level clerks who have gotten jobs at non profits with their Judge’s rec in this market. the problem, i believe, is her. .
If it’s a federal clerkship, then again, did you not receive a decent rec? I guess what confuses me is that you say you want to work in the non profit area…and I’m assuming you are looking in DC, where some of the smaller places have been hiring (WEAVE, Ayuda, UDC clinic, etc.)
As a side, you’re not the only one who went to law school to help people. Furthermore, just cause someone wants a high paying big firm job doesn’t make them any less committed to helping people. I find your entire attitude, entitlement, arrogance, and so forth highly insulting. Maybe this is what employers are picking up on. Don’t act like you are somehow better than the firm goers just cause you want to be in the non profit world. work harder, take initiative, and please, stop wasting your time writing on stranger’s vans. And please don’t make a non profit employer regret their decision to hire you.
I can’t help but wonder if Jaime wasn’t a very good law clerk. If it’s a state clerkship she was at, why didn’t the Judge ask her to stay on, like most have in dc local courts? I find that it’s not often that local trial court judges hire in the fall for the following year. Often, unlike a federal clerkship, state judges wait until the spring, or until the law clerk gives them notice. If the Judge already hired in the fall, then a local Judge’s rec usually goes a long way in the non-profit world…the world Jaime says she wants to work in. At least, i know enough DC trial level clerks who have gotten jobs at non profits with their Judge’s rec in this market. the problem, i believe, is her. .
If it’s a federal clerkship, then again, did you not receive a decent rec? I guess what confuses me is that you say you want to work in the non profit area…and I’m assuming you are looking in DC, where some of the smaller places have been hiring (WEAVE, Ayuda, UDC clinic, etc.)
As a side, you’re not the only one who went to law school to help people. Furthermore, just cause someone wants a high paying big firm job doesn’t make them any less committed to helping people. I find your entire attitude, entitlement, arrogance, and so forth highly insulting. Maybe this is what employers are picking up on. Don’t act like you are somehow better than the firm goers just cause you want to be in the non profit world. work harder, take initiative, and please, stop wasting your time writing on stranger’s vans. And please don’t make a non profit employer regret their decision to hire you.
84’s sentiments are all too common… Oddly enough, the implosion of the legal industry may be a blessing in disguise for many laid-off attorneys.
77, it’s a great plan. How many philosophy, psych, English lit degree holders do you really need?
I am an American who spent my formative years in a more than half-dozen industrialized and now newly industrialized countries. There, for the most part secondary and tertiary level education was directed at medicine, physical sciences, and engineering. The best and brightest competed to get into an engineering program, the also-rans studied law for a first degree. The transformations I have seen on return visits are astounding.
Very little resources were spent on “studies” and liberal arts. What the rich and the poor countries had in common was educational programs for preserving traditional culture in general, music conservatories, and for their own philosophy, religion, and literature in the wake of the U.S. media onslaught. None of these required a college degree.
I think somehow much of the liberal arts curriculum in the U.S. is meant as a substitute for culture – a poor one, IMHO. What skills does a English lit major bring to the table that an engineer does not? Being able to write? My engineering program required more writing than anyone ever needed. Research? I have done plenty of technical and non-technical research.
I am glad that I broke rank with generations of my family to become the first to major in engineering, the trades as everyone sneered.
A half-hearted commitment at a law school’s night program and then the regular program after 1L landed me at a V30 firm. I don’t know much longer I will be since I don’t do IP, but I am cracking the books to study for the patent bar.
To everyone who lost a job or who never will in law, I feel for you. I wish you the best. I think you were steered wrong by the educational establishment. To paraphrase the tag line in the VISA commercial, having real skills: priceless.
89 is a flame.
Jaime, you seem like a good person. I hope you find a job soon.
Hello — doesn’t say “judicial” clerkship.
As a May grad who is just trying to break into ANY firm any way i can right now to start a family with my new wife, I loved what you wrote 84. Maybe this current situation is a blessing in a way. I can’t say that I would not have gone to law school if I had the choice again knowing what I know now b/c I meant my wife there. Also, maybe not getting the big firm job that my credentials would have probably given me in any other market is a blessing, because I don’t have to spend all of my time with the monsters that work in biglaw.
Thanks 84, a bit of humanity on this souless board (cue making fun of my grammar and spelling – but I will never edit a comment on a blog you pedantic cretins)
84 here, thanks 93, I appreciate that. I don’t want to completely bash Biglaw. There are a lot of good people in Biglaw that have a normal perspective on life. Unfortunately, I had many bad experiences (I worked for a partner that actually referred to me and our secretary as his “concubine” and I previously described the situation with the crazy woman). Another firm I worked for is being investigated by the IRS and SEC.
I was also fortunate to work with a partner that is truly the greatest human being I have ever met.
Right now most young attorneys will have to accept whatever job they can to survive. The only advice I can give is that you learn everything you can in your early years. Find a mentor. If you change jobs, do your homework on the people you will be working with. My headhunter warned me about the crazy lady and the turnover because of her. I didn’t think anyone could be that horrible (I was wrong). At the time, all I cared about was money and I paid the price.
I never felt like a human in Biglaw, even when I worked with nice partners, I felt like a copy machine that would be easily tossed away.
Some of the posts I read really make me feel sorry for the author because that was me, when I didn’t realize what is really important in life.
This was some good late night reading. Until I got to 42’s comment. I don’t really pay attention to the comments on this site, but wow, there are some a-holes posting on here.
“Will TTT students/grads (any lawschool ranked equal to or lower than Alabama) please refrain from commenting on ATL.
We are really getting sick of the entitlement BS.”
Let me tell you a nice story about my life. My partner and I attended a SHIT law school. It is a state school, so we probably had 80k less debt than you do. Somehow, I managed to get a job at large national firm (let’s just say I have unique skills). It sucked.
I just hung out a shingle with my best friend (since age 12) and life is fantastic. He has been practicing in our area of law for about 8 years and he is mentoring me. Last month my partner said he had a bad month because he only made 42k. He made 70k in June.
I ALREADY make more than I did at my old firm and get to work with someone I actually like. SWEET.
Finally, I want to mention that I have a perfect body, a perfect face, a perfect ass, perfect tits, gorgeous eyes, etc. Basically, if I were taller I would be a Victoria’s Secret model.
Attending a T-14 school doesn’t make you special and better than everyone else. We all have our gifts.
Chew on that one for a while.
P.S. My fiance is hot and basically a genius. He works from home and is able to build computers, watch baseball, surf the net, etc. and makes more than I did after 7 years of Biglaw. He sells tecnology equipment that I doubt you would ever begin to understand. He attended the University of Iowa.
Seriously, you people that think you are all high and mighty because you attended a T-14 school need to be taken down a notch.
There is obviously something wrong with the Bigfirm business model. I predict a more even playing field in the future and you whiny little brats will go nowhere when you are required to fend for yourselves.
Unbelievable. To the a-holes: Do you honestly not realize the lifetime benefits of being kind and compassionate? Do you have any clue the success you could achieve with a little empathy? Ego is nothing but a reflection of loneliness, and for that reason, I pity you. There’s so much more to our short lives. Wake up!