Awkward

A Mass. Lawyer You Don’t Want to Work For and a Law Student You Don’t Want to Hire

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UPDATE (May 30): Law student responds via YouTube, and shows off his very impressive office.

A law student in Massachusetts is looking for a job. He found a listing on Craigslist to work as a paralegal for a bankruptcy attorney. He applied, got an interview, and got an offer (kind of). But then he got into a spat with the attorney via email, preserved for posterity by The Docket.

The law student interviewed on Monday. On Tuesday, the female attorney sent him a rather candid email:

I have to confess, I am on the fence about offering you a position. This is a thought I had…tell me your thoughts.

The thought was that she would have the law student do a few freelance projects for a month, and if those went well, she would offer him a full-time position. He responded:

I can do any type of Motion, and research. I do not think a 30 day trial period is necessary. I would prefer bring me on full time to show you my capabilities.

That’s really not the right time for a grammatical typo, my law school friend.

In response, the lawyer laid out exactly why she had reservations about him, and wished him “best of luck in [his] job search.” That just made him crankier…

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Psyching Yourself Up For Final Exams
A University of Oklahoma 2L Knows How To Motivate

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For most of our readers, this is just a regular week. The only noteworthy event is Elie’s birthday on Monday on Sunday (Mother’s Day — we hope you’ve done your filial duty and sent a card or mailed her some home-made pancakes.) For our little law student readers, though, this is a week that may make them hate Mom… for encouraging them to seek success through a JD. A premise that now seems flawed and that requires at various points in the year, like now, the taking of exams.

Students have all kinds of methods for preparing for exams. We advise abstaining from the devil’s water in the weeks before tests. Our co-editor Elie tells us he had a more specific routine. Before every finals period, he watched Rocky 1 in full. Then, on every test day, he’d start the morning by rewatching the final fight on his “vcr/dvd.” (Aw. Elie went to law school before the existence of YouTube.) Then, halfway through the exam, he’d blast Cake’s “Going the distance.” Perhaps using his “walkman” or “discman.”

If Elie had had a laptop and access to YouTube, he could have subjected his classmates to this routine, watching the fight with the volume turned up and sharing with others what it is to be beaten but not bowed. According to a source at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, there is a 2L who has mastered the art of psyching himself up as public spectacle.

After reading the article on the douchy Dukies earlier today, I had to write you about an experience I had with a fellow law student. Words won’t do the story justice, but I’ll do my best to paint this masterful portrait of douchiness appropriately.

Oh yes, please do…

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A University of Oklahoma 2L Knows How To Motivate“

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Quote of the Day: Different L Word

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I am a lawyer, not a lobbyist. Goldman Sachs has hired me as a lawyer — to provide legal advice and to assist in its legal representation — and that is what I am doing.

– Greg Craig, former White House Counsel and now a partner at Skadden, explaining why he is not bound by the president’s ethics policy barring former White House officials from lobbying for two years after leaving office.

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An Exorcism at Bryan Cave?

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Last month, Midwestern firm Polsinelli Shughart raided Bryan Cave. Approximately 22 attorneys from Bryan Cave’s Phoenix, D.C., and Chicago offices spread their wings and flew over to Polsinelli. The Phoenix flock was the largest, consisting of 12 partners and associates.

When a big group of attorneys leave, it sometimes spooks those left behind. We hear that one partner at Bryan Cave was really spooked.

The attorneys that left had all been on the 22nd floor, the main floor of the Phoenix office on which clients are greeted. Their departure left the floor eerily vacant, so the firm asked some partners and attorneys to move into the empty offices. One of those asked to move was longtime partner Bob Shely. He felt his new office was tainted, though; according to reports circulating widely at the two firms, he said it had an “evil feeling.”

I see defected people?

According to the rumor mill, he wanted the carpets torn out and the office renovated. But a recruiting coordinator at the firm offered a cheaper solution: a do-it-yourself spiritual cleansing kit….

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Partners of the Day: Linda Smith and Chuck Diamond

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Linda Smith and Chuck Diamond, of O'Melveny & Myers

While it may be tempting to date — and even marry — a law firm colleague, it can create some awkward situations. Like having someone walk into your office when you’re busy billing coital time. Or like going through a horrific break-up while working together on a huge matter.

The latter was the case for Linda Smith and Chuck Diamond, partners in O’Melveny & Myers’s Century City office. From the Los Angeles Business Journal:

O’Melveny & Myers LLP partners Linda Smith and Chuck Diamond were in the unusual position of being married while representing Advanced Micro Devices Inc. against Intel Corp. in one of the largest antitrust cases ever.

What’s even more unusual, during much of that four-year legal battle, the co-lead lawyers on the case were going through their own private battle at home: a long and bitter divorce that’s still ongoing.

Journalist Alexa Hyland notes that “some law firms don’t even allow married couples to work at the same firm.” We haven’t heard of this being official policy anywhere — if it is at your firm, let us know — but we do know it’s often the informal policy. As in, “Congrats on your union… soooo which one of you is planning to stick with us?”

It’s not such a bad informal policy. Two lawyers going through a divorce can be War of the Roses-style ugly. But Diamond and Smith managed to stay civil while litigating the billion-dollar tech antitrust suit…

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