Comments on: How Has the Recession Affected You?

By: guest

guest — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:32:51 +0000

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!

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:32:41 +0000

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.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:50:59 +0000

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.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:00:13 +0000

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)

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:47:20 +0000

Hello — doesn’t say “judicial” clerkship.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:39:02 +0000

Jaime, you seem like a good person. I hope you find a job soon.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:29:06 +0000

89 is a flame.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:44:06 +0000

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.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:20:08 +0000

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.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:37:48 +0000

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.