Biglaw

Beware The Biglaw Lunch Interview: There Be Dragons

There are a ton of pitfalls before you actually receive an offer from a Biglaw firm.

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You guys. There are a ton of pitfalls before you actually receive an offer from a Biglaw firm. One of the biggest potential downfalls is not realizing that the oh-so-kind offer for a lunch is actually an interview in the flimsiest of disguises.

Last week, we asked for the worst of your interview stories, and boy, have our readers delivered. Today, we are focusing on associates who’ve had the misfortune of interviewing with miserable candidates. The common thread here is that the candidates have forgotten that while a fancy lunch may be nice, it is still, first and foremost, an interview:

One candidate actually licked his plate in a fancy Italian restaurant during a lunch interview. He bent down and full on licked the plate. He also double dipped his bread in the olive oil. My colleague and I were grossed out and recommended an automatic ding.

Ewwwww. That’s just nasty.

You also need to mind your Ps and Qs while dining with potential co-workers. Remember they aren’t your friends, you’re just hoping one day you’ll get to do menial tasks for them. Don’t treat them the same way you’d treat your bestie… cause that could be sexual harassment.

[A] girl violated our sexual harassment policy. Both the other lunch interviewer and I were female. We asked whether she saw anything good on Netflix and she talked for about 20 minutes about a porn industry documentary, at some points quite graphically. She didn’t pick up how I was silent and very uncomfortable the entire time. When we reported the incident, one of our firm’s partners had to call me up afterwards and apologize that I had to go through that, and how our firm doesn’t tolerate violations of our sexual harassment policy. The firm said the girl’s behavior was unacceptable and automatically rejected her.  Red flags also came up from a co-worker of mine, who reported that the candidate had admitted to cheating during a firm interview (pretending she got disconnected and then looking up an answer on her phone).

These candidates looked great on paper, but when it came to actual human interaction they both got a big, giant fail.

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This reminds me of a former associate friend who said, fundamentally, they made the decision of whether to recommend a candidate on the “pizza test.” If they could imagine sharing a late night meal (i.e., a pizza) with the candidate in the midst of a deadline, then they got a pass. It wasn’t designed to be a high bar (or one designed to identify potential buddies or romantic partners), but it was about imagining working in difficult situations with the candidate. Should be easy to ace, but a shocking amount would fail with downright bizarre behavior.

So, what’s your tale of woe? Or maybe you were on the interviewer side of someone’s epic meltdown? If you have a funny, mortifying, or otherwise interesting interview story, we’d love it if you shared it with us. Please send it our way by email or by text (646-820-8477). We’ll read all the submissions and share our favorites in these pages. Thanks, and good luck to both the candidates and the interviewers in the current recruiting cycle.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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