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Stop Holding Out on Us: Lady Godiva and Other Summer Associate Stories

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 12:36 PM - By Kashmir Hill

lady godiva.jpgWe love summers at ATL. In addition to warm weather and the guys at Hollister going shirtless, we’re usually inundated with stories of summer associate adventures. This past summer was a disappointment when it came to crazy SA tales. There was a dearth, with the exception of Baker Botts’ Curious George, McDermott’s tempermental immigrant, and Cadwalader’s stripper seekers.

We know there were more stories but that summer associates were hesitant to share, given the environment of fear this summer. But with yesterday’s Autumnal equinox, the summer’s officially over. Most offers (or no offers) are out. Let go of your fear, former summer associates! More importantly, let go of your secrets.

We noticed one summer associate story set free in the comments on the No Offer Open Thread on Friday.

We give you the summer associate tale of Mayer Brown’s “Lady Godiva” after the jump. Feel free to expose other summer associate stories by sending them to us at tips@abovethelaw.com. As always, we will keep those involved anonymous.

Do not reveal the identity of “Lady Godiva” in the comments or we’ll make you ride a horse naked through the streets of New York City. Or we’ll just ban your IP address.

Here’s the story as told by commenters. The “Lady” is a male summer associate who worked in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office. He did get up on a high horse of sorts, according to one commenter:

One Thursday evening, we had an event at a venue of which we had rented out only a portion. There happened to be a number of people from McDermott Will & Emery at the bar, who were approached by the individual known as “Lady Godiva.” Assuming that they were summer associates, Lady Godiva proceeded, unprompted, to rail on MWE, blathering like a drunken asskabob about how it was a terrible firm, that they laid people off, cut salaries, and that nobody was going to get offers. The MWE people were so steamed that they left the bar

Except…most of the people were actually associates. Word of his douchebaggery spread like wildfire. Within days, people at Mayer (summers as well) were getting calls from MWE people asking about Lady Godiva. Attorneys were asking about it at lunches, and recruiting committee found out about it as well. Even worse, the Einstein decided to bring the incident up in conversations with attorneys, seemingly BRAGGING about how he had put the MWE people in their place.

So how did Lady Godiva get his name? From a commenter:

godiva-dark-chocolate.jpg

Kid brought in a bunch of very nice small boxes of Godiva chocolates for everyone on the recruiting committee on the last day.

Apparently it worked. Commenters on the thread suggest that Lady Godiva did indeed earn an offer.

One commenter speculates:

I’m not Godiva, nor am I affiliated with Oscar Mayer Wieners in any way. I’m just pointing out something that is worth noting. Kid did something right, apparently. And for the record, I think the boxes of chocolates are much more douchey than badmouthing MWE. True, trash-talking MWE shows a certain lack of class. But I’m guessing that MB folks were secretly (or maybe not-so-secretly) proud of the fact that this dude was so enthusiastic about their firm, even to the point of putting down their competitor in public.

You have to treat a firm right to get it to marry you these days.

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Posted in: Mayer Brown, McDermott Will & Emery, Summer Associates

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