QI’m a fairly new associate at a large firm. For now I do a decent amount of motion and litigation work, which I like. I’m not a natural litigator but I find it interesting, engaging, and challenging. The problem is with a much more senior associate who cannot stop cursing, calling people names, and going out of his way to insult opposing counsel (though not to counsel personally). I’m talking pretty bad stuff, and frequently said. I’m not a prude, but I generally don’t like off-color language in the office or even at home. Should I say something to him and risk being labeled the office prude? Should I address it to a partner? I can deal with the whole macho atmosphere that pervades a lot of litigation, but the incessant cursing and bad-mouthing of others is a complete downer. Advice?
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QI’m a mid-level litigation associate at a no-name firm in a no-name mid-level city. You can tell I love my job. I’m also a big drinker. Like take a shot before court. Party at night. Normally, it doesn’t interfere with work but two work friends recently said I “looked like shit.” Verbatim from both friends, different days. I also recently missed a court appearance in a pretty insignificant matter, not because of drinking but because I overslept. Honestly. That led to the firm’s managing partner having a sit down with me. Not that I revealed that I was an alcoholic, but I did say in my defense I had been up late drinking the night before because of work-related stress. I know, bad admission, and I suspect I’m on the short list now for a layoff or I’m being closely watched. Probably both. Advice?
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QI am about to enroll at a state-accredited law school because the cost is a fraction of the cost of an ABA-accredited school. Plus, my LSAT scores aren’t as competitive to obtain a decent amount of scholarships at an ABA school.
I have average grades and an average LSAT score, but a wealth of experience in engineering, an MBA, and a good rapport with customers. People skills are my strongest attribute.
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QI’m a 2007 grad from a top 50 law school, live in Boston, and am licensed in New York and Massachusetts. I’m also unemployed. Or barely employed, actually, because most of the time I exist by slogging through miserable hell-hole document reviews or taking the T to downtown Boston to work in a back room as some Dockers-wearing no-name temp at a big name law firm. I graduated with a little more than $120,000 in debt and have managed to knock it down to just under $118K. Woo Hoo. Now I just want to say fuck it all, default, and move to Greece. Why the hell not? I didn’t go to law school to spend my days in a warehouse tapping away at a computer screen as I look over documents. Or being a fly on the wall somewhere else. What gives? Any advice?
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QI’m a first-year law student and just have a general question. A lot of kids from high school who thought they were “cool” ended up getting fat and stuck in dead-end jobs. That makes me wonder, what happens to gunners when they grow up? Do they ever make partner? Or do they just curl up into a ball of douchebaggery and die?
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QI’m an attorney five years out at a nondescript law firm in a forgettable city. In other words, I’m just a lawyer, nothing special, nothing big, and I like it that way. I’ve had a colorful past but nothing extreme. Experimented with every drug known to my generation, wandered through Central America and Mexico, drove a tow-truck for four years, did some amateur boxing. For the most part, that’s all behind me and, though some of my friends find it strangely humorous, I’m satisfied that I’m employed and practicing law.
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QMy Legal Research and Writing class is driving me insane. I understand why it is important to get citations exactly right. I do not understand why I have to use em dashes (which I’d never even heard of until last week) instead of parentheses or why my ellipses need to include extra spaces between the periods. I’m being told that my writing structure and legal analysis are generally quite good, but I’m being marked down for minute differences in word choice and other things that make no sense to me. Please tell me that there is actually a point to all of this. It has been suggested in class that if we don’t have near-perfect memos to use as writing samples, we’ll find it hard to get jobs this summer. What’s a 1L to do? Just how important is the em dash anyway?
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QI’m a mid-level associate in a big firm, where I’ve done well. I generally have no complaints except one: I’m surrounded by brilliant and powerful people, all of whom are incredible attorneys. Two attorneys on my floor advise Fortune 100 CEOs. One attorney regularly advises Congress, another is friends with very well-connected politicians. My complaint, actually, is not much of a complaint but a realization. I am a sidekick among superheroes. While most days it does not bother me (and I genuinely enjoy the success of my peers and colleagues, and they obviously care for me and for my career), there are some nights at home over a glass of wine where I wonder: could I do more and “be more,” especially at a firm with less notable talent?
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QI’m a 3L at a lower tier law school, not a Cooley or NYLS, but not a whole lot different. I’ve racked up $90,000 in student loans, am doing well in school but got absolutely no on-campus interviews, either last year or this year. It’s not that I didn’t try. But the big firms, the ones that actually have money to spend on salaries, bypassed my school. And there’s not much out there anywhere else, even locally.
I came to school thinking I had a pretty good chance of a job after three years, especially when the placement office had impressive stats on how many grads actually got jobs. Now it seems those numbers were baked. Should I sue my law school for fraud?
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QI have a C average at a second tier school. While I have good work experience, I’m worried about finding a job out there when I graduate. I’ve interned each year during law school and I’m currently a clerk for the in-house counsel of a large (Fortune 500) corporation. I have decent experience in a specialized field (information privacy law), have received scholarships and additional training in my field, and have a good personality with plenty of optimism. Any chance a law firm will overlook my relatively low grades in favor of experience and solid recommendations from my supervisors?
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