Harvard Law School Student Learns Law Firms Can Be Real Jerks

Check out the updates to this story!

(Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

(Scroll down to the bottom to check out what the law firm has to say about this story and why the law student was disinvited from callbacks. There’s also an updates response from the student involved.) 

It’s rare that someone from Harvard Law can garner your sympathy, what with their bright shining future just staring at them and all that, but this is the story to do that. See, this poor Harvard kid just got OWNED by a firm he interviewed with. It’s at once awful and entertaining, so obviously it’s perfect fodder for Above the Law.

Picture it: you’re Harry Harvard and you’ve survived the gauntlet of screening interviews. You’ve even managed to secure some callbacks and you’re well on your way living the summer associate dream. After meeting you at OCI, the powers that be at Edelson PC contact you for a callback interview. Then in the midst of trying to coordinate schedules — seemingly apropos of nothing at all — the recruiting contact drops this line:

At this point, I think bringing you in for a callback interview would be a waste of your time, and ours.

That’s way harsh, and super inappropriate. Like how hard is it for the firm to fake it through a few interviews? Maybe they had a good reason to cut off this interview process but how can a firm professional write something like this and expect to be taken seriously by future law students seeking a good faith interview.

Poor Harry responds in a much more cordial and professional fashion than many in his position would:

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Got it. Thanks.

And oh yeah, we’ve got the receipts.

 

The utter lack of additional information is also perplexing…. like what did Harry do? Does he not have the GPA they thought he did? Did they confuse Harry with another student they do want to callback? Is the price of an interview lunch just too damn high?

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In any event, at least Harry appears to be in good spirits about the whole fiasco. And that’s the real lesson here: getting lots of callbacks and offers might be nice for your ego, but you only need one job. No matter how bad any one interview is, just pick yourself back up and try again, try again.

UPDATE: Given all the attention the law firm’s brush off has received, Edelson founder, Jay Edelson reach out to Above the Law with the firm’s side of the story. (An earlier version of the article misidentifies the firm as Edelman.) As per longstanding ATL tradition, we’ve redacted the name of the student involved:

For those who follow the law school gossip circuit, a letter we sent withdrawing a callback to a Harvard 2L named [student] has been making the rounds. [student] posted the withdrawal on some facebook group for T14 law students which generated a range of comments (from us being supposedly mean to people pointing out that, even in the single email he posted, it was clear that we had justifications for withdrawing the offer).  There is now something up on Above the Law.  (Ironically, although[student] made this public, Above the Law does not share his name with its readers, though it does mention our name (kind of), calling us Edelman P.C.  ATL: that one hurt.)

Partly because my internet is for some reason struggling to find new cat videos for me to watch and partly because some people are being asked questions about this, I wanted to send this email to provide the full context of what happened and our thoughts more generally.

So, who is this rascally [student]?  We met [student] as a 1L at OCI at Harvard.  He showed up about 5 minutes late to his 20 minute interview and was wearing sweatpants.  (Although we celebrate our casualness, we read the sweatpants to mean that he wasn’t taking the interview with a ton of seriousness.)  We did not give him a call back.

[student] sought to interview with us again at OCI this year.  At the urging of our favorite Harvard Law professor, we gave him a clean slate.  He amazingly showed up late again but otherwise did a very good job at the interview.  He was smart, thoughtful, and prepared.  The summer associate committee (me included) was very split on what to do.  We like smart prepared people.  We don’t like people who come across as entitled, which was one read of his behavior to date.

We decided that Eli should call [student] and have a blunt conversation making clear both that we liked him but that, if our read was correct, he was not a good fit for the firm. [student] said he heard the message loud and clear and that he would course correct.

We then sent him a letter inviting him for a callback.  Four days later he responded by saying, in essence, that he would get back to us with some dates that worked.  Over 2 weeks after that (and about 3 weeks from our initial letter asking him to visit the firm), [student] called Kelsey and then immediately followed up with an email.  That was at 1:38 a.m. yesterday (August 28, 2018). [student] told us that he could “come in later this week, say Wednesday or Thursday? Thursday morning is preferable, Wednesday afternoon also doable.”  To paraphrase our hero, Lil Dicky: “Thanks,[student].”

At that point, it was clear that [student] was not a good fit for the firm.  We like people who, not only are smart, but also have passion for the work we do and have the type of internal time urgency that is necessary on the plaintiff’s side.  And, while I will not pretend to know what was in [student]’s mind, we read his further actions as consistent our concerns that we voiced to him earlier.

[student]’s decision to post the email further confirmed our view about our decision.  He was not a good fit for the firm and it would have been a wast to continue the process.

I have more to say, but the cat videos are calling.

-Jay

It seems like the firm did have its reasons for giving the student the brush off they did. But there’s a substantive legal lesson to be learned here. Emails are artifacts and no matter what external conversations you have, when it’s unearthed it will be judged on its four digital corners. Many a deposition hour has been spent recontextualizing emails like this. So if there’s something else behind your words, it’s worth at least throwing a lampshade in there so you don’t end up having to explain it all away after the fact.

UPDATE #2: Seems the student involved in this kerfuffle also has some additional words to share:

I wanted to set the record straight on a factual issue in Mr. Edelson’s response: I have always worn 100% wool slacks in my interactions with his firm.
In addition, to quote what seems to be a shared professional inspiration, Lil Dicky, I can see why Mr. Edelson “hate[d] my demeanor.” But I was at all times grateful for the opportunity to interview with his firm and did not mean for my slow callback scheduling to cause offense.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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).