Travel / Vacation

The Skadden Associate Who Picked Up and Moved to Nepal: An Update

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A view of Kathmandu (via The Kathmanduo).

On Wednesday we wrote about the great departure email sent out by Brian Emeott, a former corporate associate at Skadden in Chicago. Emeott, a 2004 graduate of Harvard College and 2008 graduate of Harvard Law School, picked up and moved to Kathmandu, Nepal.

Brian’s wife, Claudine Emeott, resigned from her own job in December and moved to Kathmandu in January. She’s in Nepal to advance a worthy cause: as a Kiva Fellow, Claudine is working with a local microfinance institution for three months.

In our original post, we applauded the Emeotts for their sense of adventure. You can follow them at their (excellent) blog, The Kathmanduo, as they “work, write, and photograph [their] way through beloved Nepal.”

Some of our commenters, however, were more skeptical. They wondered (and so did we): How are the Emeotts making this work, in financial terms? Are they trust fund babies?

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Another Great Departure Memo: Skadden Associate Trades Chicago for… Nepal?

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Chicago looks nice -- why is everyone fleeing?

Young lawyers of Chicago: What the heck is going on with you people? You seem to be losing it. Has the brutal Chicago winter driven you crazy? Do we need to put The People’s Therapist on the next plane to O’Hare?

Let’s look at the evidence. You’re quitting prestigious and lucrative law firm jobs to hike across the country with dogs. You’re getting involved in embarassing litigation with your ex-fiances (after allegedly hooking up with shady Vegas ladies named “Danielle”).

And you’re leaving Chicago — a city with excellent shopping and superb restaurants (I was at Alinea a few weeks ago, and it was amazing) — to go “find yourselves.” In the Himalayas.

Check out this latest departure memo, from an associate who just left Skadden….

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Elie’s Vacation Memo: Time To Turn Over a New Leaf (And Try Not To Smoke It)

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As regular readers know, this is usually the time of year I go to Vegas, blow my bonus, and come back to work a week later angrier than ever.

Well, this year, it’s going to be different. Oh, don’t worry, when I return to Above the Law’s pages on March 14th, I’m sure I’ll be all kinds of pissed off. It just won’t be because a security guard prevented me from committing suicide by MGM lion enclosure.

No, for my vacation — which begins now and ends a week from this coming Monday, in case you’re wondering — I am going to start the process of quitting smoking….

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Out of Office Reply of the Day: Europeans Know How to Take A Day Off

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– A Parisian lawyer who knows the true meaning of work/life balance. Check out Roll on Friday to find out what firm this guy works for and to see his snazzy picture.

Want Out of Biglaw? Take a Hike!

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Wake up, Mabel - it's time for your walk.

Reading law firm departure memos is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.

Sometimes you taste bitterness. Sometimes the flavor is spicy hot. Sometimes you get a little Costa Rica crunch.

And sometimes you get… this, which was sent to everyone at Sidley Austin yesterday by an associate leaving the Chicago office:

Today is my last day at Sidley. You may keep in touch with me at gtcoulson@gmail.com, through Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tyler.coulson, or via Twitter, @ibuildnosystem.

Beginning next week, I am walking from Delaware to California with a tent and my dog, Mabel. I will have limited access to email, but will check messages frequently.

– Geo. Tyler Coulson

The Forrest Gump translation: “Once was a time when me and Sidley was like peas and carrots — not anymore. I’m not a smart man, but I do know what quitting is.”

One Sidley tipster had this reaction: “[T]he greatest reason to leave big law ever. Please keep my name and email anonymous, as I have no ambitions to leave my firm to walk across the nation.”

Said a second Sidley source: “Coolest ‘f**k you I quit’ email…. Note the ‘High’ importance.”

But is it really a total “f**k you” message? We reached out to Tyler Coulson, and he had a perfectly reasonable explanation….

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Columbia 3L Julia Neyman Brings Her ‘Buns of Steal’ to an End

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Julia Neyman paid for this drink.jpgLast time we checked in with Columbia law student Julia Neyman, she was sweating her way through a year-long exercise regimen. Her new year’s resolutions were similar to many: she resolved to exercise more and spend less money. Her unique inspiration, though, was to combine these two resolutions into one: she spent 2010 working out at gyms around Manhattan — gyms that usually charge a pretty penny — for free, taking advantage of promotions and trial memberships. She then blogged about her adventures on Buns of Steal.

We thought it was a brilliant idea. (If nothing else, it seemed like a clever campaign to shame Columbia into upgrading its “dark and dank” student gym.) Others were more critical, calling her a “mooching” “gym grifter.” Neyman says, though, that gyms were “actually really on board with the project.”

Other potential grifters, we advise you start blogs. Neyman says: “I’ve consistently gotten emails and offers from gyms offering for me to come in and work out for free. It was a win-win because for the gyms, my blog was like free advertising.”

Well, now the year is up. Neyman had planned to buy a membership to her favorite gym — revealed after the jump — but instead she has fled to Paris for the semester, where she is helping to turn Frenchmen against lawyers…

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The Grass Is Not Always Greener: Layoffs in Bermuda

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Apparently, it's not any better down here.

Nothing depresses me more than when bad things happen in the Caribbean (except for Haiti, ’cause I’m used to it, or Cuba, because they get better health care than we do). Especially during the winter months, I like to imagine that I could leave every material possession behind and move to the Caribbean and find work and happiness.

CORRECTION: The commenters have informed me that Bermuda is not only not a Caribbean island, it is not even a “tropical” island. I apologize for this grievous geographic gaffe. I should also add that my stated desire to move “to the Caribbean” referred to islands in and around the Caribbean. I do not wish to physically reside on the ocean itself, nor with any of the undersea civilizations that ATL commenter-cartographers don’t even know about.

Sadly, it looks like layoffs have a passport. Law Shucks is reporting that lawyers and staff were laid off from the Bermuda law firm of Conyers Dill & Pearman. Many of them were not native to Bermuda. :(.

There is no “paradise,” not in this global economy…

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Out of Office Memo

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To quote The Bard, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” So I’ll make this vacation memo witty. (Elie writes great vacation memos, but I don’t aspire to his standards.)

I’m going on vacation, from today until Monday, November 8. And unlike my usual “vacations,” which involve constant checking of the Crackberry, this time I’m going “off the grid”: no email, voicemail, Facebook, or Twitter (but feel free to friend me or follow me, and I’ll respond when I return).

Please send all tips, questions, corrections, and typo alerts to tips@abovethelaw.com. All emails sent to tips get forwarded to Elie, who will keep you enlightened and entertained while I’m away, and to me. (So in theory I’ll see your email when I return — but my track record dealing with emails that come in while I’m on vacation is spotty, to be honest.)

Thanks for reading Above the Law, and thanks for sharing your knowledge and insights with us. See you in November.

Open Thread: Bar Trips and Summer Vacations

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Hello? Anyone home? Right now it feels like everyone is on vacation, even though Labor Day is still two weeks away. C’mon, folks, this isn’t freakin’ Europe.

Maybe some people are still on their “bar trips” — multi-week (or even multi-month) post-bar-exam vacations, to some exotic destination (or destinations; I have friends who have traveled around the country, or even around the world, on their post-bar jaunts).

But wait. Do people still do bar trips? That’s the question we raised last August, when the Great Recession and pushed-back law firm start dates threw customary ways into chaos. Many of you answered in the negative last year, claiming that you were replacing Carmen Sandiego-esque globetrotting with more staid “staycations” — or even using the time to get an early start on the job search, for the many readers without employment already lined up.

This year, things seem to be returning to normal in law firm land, at least in part. Not as many lawyers are deferred, and some of the deferrals are shorter (or being ended early). Does this mean bar trips are back on? Let’s discuss — not just bar trips, but summer vacation more generally, since August is a big month for getting away.

Are you traveling this summer, or have you traveled already? If so, where? Do you have any travel tips or great destinations that you’d like to recommend to others? Or perhaps you’re in need of some advice and vacation ideas yourself?

Here’s an open thread for discussion. Bon voyage!

Earlier: Open Thread: Is the ‘Bar Trip’ Barred By the Recession?

Lawyerly Lairs: A Skadden Partner’s ‘Hideous’ House Causes Cape Cod Controversy

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Skadden partner Hilary Foulkes

Longtime Skadden partner Hilary Foulkes, recognized by Chambers and Partners for his expertise in cross-border M&A work, is quite distinctive-looking. And so is his Cape Cod vacation house, in Chatham — which is causing some trouble with the locals.

Hilary and Tina Foulkes — we thought they were lesbians, until we saw his photo — have given their house a very unusual paint job. The Cape Cod Times describes it as containing “[s]hades of neon green, lime green and citrus yellow.”

Village resident Norm Pacun calls the house “hideous” and “not what’s appropriate.” It certainly stands out in a neighborhood of New England white clapboards.

What do you think? Check out a photo and find out why the Foulkeses may have painted the house this way, below the fold….

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Elie’s Semiannual Vacation Memo

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From time to time, I find it necessary to give Above the Law readers an extended break from their tireless work as copy editors, issue spotters, and defenders of American values. That’s right — it’s time for me to go vacation.

What will I be doing? Well, to be honest, I’ve been inspired by the Bonobos ad campaign. It reminded me that there was a time when I was interested in a broad array of topics — like the behavioral proclivities of bonobo apes — that had nothing to do with the legal issues of the day. I used to care about things like ape sex, string theory, and Egyptian eunuchs. So I’m taking a bit of a cultural holiday. MoMa, Museum of Natural History, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking, here I come….

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In-House Counseling: Vacation Memo

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Ed. note: This post is written by Will Meyerhofer, a Biglaw attorney turned psychotherapist, whom we profiled. A former Sullivan & Cromwell attorney, he holds degrees from Harvard, NYU Law, and The Hunter College School of Social Work. He blogs at The People’s Therapist.

As some of you have noticed, his weekly Wednesday column has been on hiatus. He offers this memo to explain his summer vacation from Above the Law.

What is it about lawyers and vacations? Like the old saying about long-horn cattle and a Texas fence — they just don’t get along so good. It’s like a physical aversion.

I worked with a client recently who was planning, in utter frustration, to quit his medium-size firm in a medium-size American city. The partner was lecturing him about his billable hours, but business was dead slow so there was nothing to bill for. The lawyer found out later that all his peers were simply billing for work that hadn’t been done yet, on the theory that they’d be laid off by the time the proverbial cow-patty and the fan were joined in unison.

He couldn’t bring himself to fake his time records to that degree, so he was stomping mad, announcing in stentorian tones that this was it, he was quitting. I urged him to stick around and see if he couldn’t get laid off with everyone else, so he could at least receive unemployment. No, he insisted – he needed out now.

Well, I reasoned, then why not take some vacation, so you can cool off and kill time simultaneously?

That was unthinkable….

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