Each Saturday we reach into the fridge and pull out the best leftovers to eat. That is, the most-read posts of the past week, which for the week ending June 29, 2012, include:
Looking for more? Start here or dig into the Bitter Lawyer archives, featuring more than 1,600 articles, comics, videos, and podcasts.
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Rather than redacting, I’m listening to a Hippie temp tell me that we could win the war in Afghanistan by encouraging the farmers to grow pot, when the Tool walks into the room.
The Tool hovers over us.
“You sure you know to redact only personal information?”
“I thought we were redacting everything but the personal information,” I say.
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Each Saturday we reach into the fridge and pull out the best leftovers to eat. That is, the most-read posts of the past week, which for the week ending June 22, 2012, include:
Looking for more? Start here or dig into the Bitter Lawyer archives, featuring more than 1,600 articles, comics, videos, and podcasts.
Post image from Shutterstock
I just want to get through bar review hell. It’s miserable and mind-numbing, but not that hard. You go watch the video, you study your ass off, and you basically have no life. That’s it–just the “W”s: Wake up, watch, wish you weren’t born. Repeat.
But my summer had an extra wrinkle. My class was in one of those “satellite” locations with all the lectures on DVD.
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Each Saturday we reach into the fridge and pull out the best leftovers to eat. That is, the most-read posts of the past week, which for the week ending June 15, include:
Looking for more? Start here or dig into the Bitter Lawyer archives, featuring more than 1,600 articles, comics, videos, and podcasts.
Post image from Shutterstock
The 2012 U.S. Open starts today. If you think we’re talking tennis or surfing or karate, you’d be wrong. It’s golf. And while we don’t have stories about picking up golf balls with your naked butt cheeks, we do have two posts tucked away in the archives about lawyers who attempt to play the game. To wit:
1Matthew Richardson: Golf Is for Winners. “It dawned on me that your golf game is pretty much commensurate with your station in life. You hear that cliché sometimes, but I was playing it out in real time.” Read more.
2Ex-Bitter: I Suck at Golf. “Partner invited me to play golf at his country club. Problem is I suck. I mean, I’m really bad. Heard the partner is good. Like a 5 handicap or something. Should I play?” Read more.
QI’m a 1L at a top-20 school hoping to get a summer job someplace. Here’s the issue: I did some modeling during college. Nothing major, but I was in Vogue, Elle, and a few other magazines. Other than law school and a brief stint as a waitress, it was the only real job I’ve ever had. Should I put this on my resume, or is it cheesy? If I don’t, I’ll have nothing to put down and it will look I’m a slacker. If I do, I fear that I’ll be judged negatively or that I’ll sound conceited.
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Ah, the cover letter. That piece of paper intended to introduce yourself and to persuade the reader to, well, read further. Or to explain something obvious that you’ve attached or enclosed. Whether you’ve given up on cover letters because they are useless or whether you swear they are necessary, here are our best posts on dealing with them, writing them, and ultimately responding to them.
1“I believe I received the worst cover letter ever written last week. It wasn’t that the job seeker, a soon to be graduating law student, was unqualified. It was just the liberties that he took in trying to convince me (as well as everyone else that read this form letter) that he should work for my firm.” From Responding to a Form Cover Letter.
2“Here’s the deal. You forward my resume to the hiring partner or committee, with a note that the firm should take a close look at me. If hired, I become your bitch. I’m not talking sex. I’m talking the following. From Nix the Crappy Cover Letter, Let’s Talk Kickbacks.
3What does a lawyer’s cover letter to another lawyer actually convey? A Bitter Lawyer infographic lays it all out. View One Lawyer’s Letter to Another, Explained.
Even for a boutique lawyer, there’s no way to ever get 100% away from work. Even if the other lawyers in my firm had the time or inclination to help me out—which they don’t—there’s a lot of “getting up to speed” in a case that is required to make effective arguments. And by “getting up to speed,” I mean none of my files are sufficiently notated for another associate to jump right in. Most of the big-picture strategy is locked away in mi cabeza. I’m generally not playing a team sport.
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It’s the time of the year when most law students are packed up and gone, whether on a quest to find work, back home to chill, or mixing it up again with regular folks we call normals. Over the years, we’ve collected stories of associate abuse and have also weighed in on what you need to know—and what not to do—as a summer associate. Take a look.
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