Today’s New York Times has a story, For Top Law Students, A Sidebar With the Arts. An excerpt:
It was the kickoff cocktail party for the Summer Art Circle, one of a handful of new initiatives meant to match law firms and arts institutions, which have long been seeking new blood (preferably with excess disposable income) to replenish their audiences and donor rolls. The law firms are paying $375 a head to participate.
The firms are doing it for the same reasons that have led them for years to lavish their summer associates with cocktails, beach parties and fancy boat rides: networking and recruiting. Now art has become the latest addition to this summer bonanza for the nation’s top law students, one more piece of evidence — if any was needed — that a life in the law is a good life after all.
I think the key point is that a summer in the law is a good life after all. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.
Pingback: the imbroglio » Blog Archive » If Only You Could Be A Summer Associate Forever
I thought I had the best job in the world when I worked at an internet company from 1996-1999, when IPOs were celebrated on the Spirit of Washington with cases of Dom Perignon, there were free sodas in the refringerator, and the “Chill-Out Room” had a widescreen TV, pool, foosball, and air hockey. Then I went to law school and landed a summer associate gig.
Prof. Kerr:
You say that “the key point is that a summer in the law is a good life after all. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.”
This sounds like another instance of the meme that was put more starkly by Professor Cameron Stracher of New York Law School, quoted in the article: “It’s another thing to keep summer associates happy to defray the reality of how miserable their lives are going to be.”
Why is it that law professors seem to enjoy spreading far and wide the notion that life as a law-firm associate is miserable? There are plenty of happy big-firm associates out there. (I’m married to one.) Many associates bill long hours, and many people become associates for a few years of high pay before they become disaffected and leave, but it doesn’t follow that everyone who chooses a big firm is choosing money over other values, or that they will be unsatisfied, unhappy, or have to “sublimate their true desires” (to quote Prof. Stracher’s histrionics). If you want to practice law, big firms–chosen carefully–can provide the opportunity to do interesting work with widespread impact, in an environment with good working conditions, ample resources, and (yes) a luxurious lifestyle. Not all big-firm jobs do, but not all public-sector, small-firm, non-profit, or solo jobs do, either.
I would go so far as to say that attitude counts for a lot–if people chose big law firms with an eye towards finding a firm and practice group that they’d be happy in long-term, and that reflected their longer-term career goals, they’d be much more likely to be happy than if they go in assuming they’ll be miserable and endure only until they pay off their debt. Life in a big law firm is not for everyone, but to say that it’s “miserable” frequently becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.
Given that many law professors have never practiced in a firm at all, there appears to be some danger that statements such as these arise from personal prejudice and self-justification rather than experience. By definition, law professors are people who would rather be doing something other than working in big law firms. (Given the qualifications necessary to teach law, virtually any law professor could get a big-firm job if they wanted one.)
Why do y’all think (and tell your students) that your preferences are universal?
(I mean “y’all” very generally–I recognize that your statement, taken literally, means only that the lavish life of a summer associate has little bearing on how good a life the law is later on. So I apologize if I’m improperly imputing Prof. Stracher’s position to you. But I believe it to be a widespread meme.)
(OK Comments: Well, I can’t speak for other law professors, of course. But in my case, I know probably about 1,000 to 2,000 people who are now or recently were big firm associates, and I have talked to probably somewhere around 500 of them about their experiences. So my own views are mostly based on their responses; I try to tell my students what I have learned from these severaö hundred conversations and experiences.)
I actually couldn’t stand being a summer associate; I found that kind of forced socialization completely hellish. Part of the problem is that I don’t play golf, I guess.
Did I get the only summer associate gig that doesn’t give us significant bonus perks (medium sized Cleveland firm, as a 1L)? Maybe next year when I’m in New York…
A lawyer was driving down the street in his Mercedes, and he was hit head-on by a drunk driver from the other lane. The lawyer died and went down to Hell. When he got there, it was full of beautiful women, free booze, and everyone was having a great time. After a couple of minutes the devil walks up to him and says, “I’m sorry, you were taken before your time. You are not supposed to be here.”
The lawyer then wakes up as he was recessitated by an EMT. After being revived, the lawyer says to himself, “Why am I working so hard at being good, when Hell is so much fun?” For the next thirty years of his life, the lawyer leads the most dishonest, hedonistic life. He finally died, and descended down to Hell again.
When the lawyer arrived in Hell, he was overwhelmed with the screams of pain and smell of brimstone. As he looks around at the sinners being tortured and suffering, he sees the devil. “What happened?” the lawyer said. “I was here previously, and it was a wonderful place full of free booze and beautiful women.” Satan turned to the lawyer and said … “That was our summer associate program.”
Someone please put a moratorium on that joke. Any lawyer who assumes that something too good to be true is nonetheless true deserves to end up at a firm where he’ll become embroiled in criminality and end up dead if he tries to escape.
Re: being a law firm associate versus a summer, if you found the daily smoothie run and lunch, weekly happy hour, semi-monthly party and monthly trip to be the best aspects of your summer experience, and didn’t care much for the research memos and managing deadlines, I bet you won’t enjoy being a real associate.