Homeless Harvard Lawyer Reflects On Fall From Biglaw Prestige

Harvard-educated lawyer on the prestige of Biglaw life, and everything that comes after...

You get into a firm, it’s prestigious. And when you lose that position, it’s like suicide. It’s all over. It’s atrophy. Or as accountants say, it’s to be obsolete. You know what that means? Obsolescence. Beyond your useful life. I was beyond my useful life.

— The heartbreaking words of Alfred Postell, reflecting on his life after his psychotic break. Postell graduated from Harvard Law School at the top of his class in 1979, with Chief Justice John Roberts. Postell worked at Biglaw firm Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge (now part of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) before his ongoing battle with schizophrenia came to define his life.

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