The Yale Club is probably my favorite of the various university clubs here in New York City. It’s elegant, it’s well maintained, and its public spaces are grand. In 2014, Above the Law hosted its first annual conference, and we picked the Yale Club as our venue.
Alas, it seems that there’s trouble in paradise — trouble reportedly started by a Yale Law School student, according to Page Six of the New York Post:
One member wrote in a letter to the club, “A horrifying example of this denouement, this sad decline in the atmosphere and spirit of the club, occurred on September 5 in the men’s locker room. A young man (a Yale law student) was wearing a tee shirt emblazoned in large letters with: ‘F - - k Forever.’ I was shocked and told him that it was offensive and inappropriate; that this was a club for ladies and gentlemen. He smirked.”
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(Random aside: September 5? What’s the statute of limitations on profanity-laced apparel?)
“Why was he allowed through the front door? Why did those on duty at the desk at the locker room allow him to enter? Why was he allowed to walk around the club dressed as such? Is there no decency at the club anymore, no class? Will the management be held accountable (and members)?”
Sounds to me like a 3L performance-art project based on Cohen v. California.
In all seriousness, if this story is accurate, I am appalled. Even though it’s not required, I always wear at least a blazer when I go to a university club. Showing up in a t-shirt — to say nothing of a t-shirt emblazoned with the f-bomb — is absolutely unacceptable.
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Reach out to continue the conversation on how to most effectively detect, prevent, and correct this or other types of fraud, cybercrime, misconduct, and non-compliance.
This might seem like an isolated incident involving one YLS student with no manners, but I can’t help wondering: is it representative of larger trends at Yale Law School? Do Yale law students — high on their prestige, reveling in their independence — no longer feel the need to conform to basic societal norms?
Note how Yale Law School dropped from #1 to #5 in our third annual ATL Law School Rankings. This was not due to any big change in methodology; it simply flowed from Yalies failing to obtain the coveted, conventional legal jobs, like federal clerkships and Biglaw positions, privileged by our rankings.
Wearing a rude t-shirt, turning down Biglaw for a funky startup, eschewing clerkships for esoteric academic projects — these free-spirited paths might demonstrate independence of mind, but they are not very… prestigious. Whatever happened to the insecure, approval-seeking, convention-following YLS kids from my own time at 127 Wall Street?
P.S. Yes, I realize that my own path of leaving the law to blog and to write fiction is not exactly conventional. But at least I paid my dues first — I clerked and practiced for a number of years before branching off into blogging — and I still draw upon my legal education and experience in my current work. So now, dear kids, please remove yourselves from my lawn.
Yale Club members fuming over ‘declining dress standards’ [New York Post]
Earlier: Stats Of The Week: Why, YLS, Why (Are You Only No. 5 In The New ATL Law School Rankings)?