Biglaw

Using Reply-All To Show Your Biglaw Firm You're A Jerk

What a douche.

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Check out the update to the story at the end of the article.

Lateral moves are a regular part of Biglaw life. Perhaps not surprisingly, the firm you selected before you’d even started 2L year is unlikely to be the job you one day retire from. So lots of lawyers move jobs — that’s just something the partnership and management of a firm must accept. And, as with anything built into the culture of a firm, there are certain traditions built around the process — the notice period, handing off cases, the goodbye drinks, and of course, the farewell email.

Now, some associates take the departure memo as an opportunity to burn all the bridges or show some personality at long last. That isn’t what is happening here. No, just a simple lateral move from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to Cooley. And the associate in question sent a perfectly appropriate email to the offices and practice group she’s worked with.

Everything almost seems too normal to comment on. That is, until WSGR’s chief financial officer, Jonathan Fayman, decided to insert himself into the conversation. Fayman joined the firm last year, and according to his WSGR bio, does not seem to have any other Biglaw experience.

Mr. Fayman, let me introduce you to Above the Law.

See, when you do dumb things, like send a mean-spirited mass email ripping an associate for having the common courtesy to send a goodbye email to colleagues, we’re going to have something to say. Our network of tipsters is large and we’ve gotten many tips complaining about the email you sent in response to this farewell email, calling it “horrific,” “awful,” and “rude.” One source went so far as to say:

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If he doesn’t get fired for this kind of a behavior, I am leaving.

It seems Fayman fancies himself the email police, and sent an absolutely douche-tastic reply-all response to the farewell email because he doesn’t like emails that don’t directly relate to his position. Rather than deal with the mass emails that are an inevitable part of life in a large organization like an adult, he responds in the nastiest possible way that you absolutely have to read to believe:

What a dick.

Seriously, he only joined the firm in 2017. Did it even occur to him that the accepted standard of behavior is a little different than whatever asset management hell he came from? Also complaining about too many mass emails by sending a mass email is a classic dumbass move that is almost guaranteed to generate even more mass emails in response.

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Fayman must’ve KNOWN that email was a jerk move filled with biting commentary, so what the hell possessed him to hit send… oh wait…

Never fear — Katharine (Katie) Martin, chair of WSGR’s board of directors and an actual attorney at the firm familiar with the traditions of the firm and basic human dignity, shut down Fayman’s nonsense in the most pitch-perfect and delightfully passive aggressive way possible (even though tipsters report the response took 30 minutes while associates were “freaking out about how awful it was”):

I only wish I could have read the backchannel email you know she sent him.

UPDATE 5/29/18 3:21 p.m.: Since we published the story we’ve received additional information. On Friday evening managing partner Douglas Clark also responded with his own mass email letting the firm know — in no uncertain terms — rude emails like the one Fayman sent will not be tolerated by WSGR:

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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