Friday, July 23, 2004

 
I just got into the office this morning, after not nearly enough sleep last night.  We did a pub crawl for the summers, and I tagged along for a while.  It's getting close to the end of the summer, so the events get ratcheted up a bit in terms of expense.  The final sales pitch, to make sure we get a good conversion rate on the offers we hand out.  Plus a couple of summers are ending today to go back and work a few weeks for the firms they worked for after 1L year to make sure they get offers.  We did a $100/per person dinner and then were scheduled to hit about 4 bars, on the firm's tab, for an hour each.  I left after the second stop, but still didn't get home until after 1 A.M.  I found myself in a conversation with a couple of summer associates who insisted that the salaries we pay to first- and second-year lawyers aren't nearly high enough to support a reasonable lifestyle, especially with housing prices so high, and paying off law school debt, and the cost of a luxury car these days -- they asked me what percent of cars in the parking lot I'd guess cost under $30,000.  I said I wouldn't know. They apparently went out and counted one day.  10%, at least in the lawyer spaces.  They didn't look at the support staff area.  So they need to buy a nice car, rent a nice apartment or put a down payment on a nice house, food's expensive, vacation, taxes... it adds up.  It used to be that the salary was the one thing no one would complain about.  I guess we're finally reaching that point though.

Comments:
I agree, time for another salary bump.
 
When is more money not required?
 
C'mon, AL, Skadden's been at 140 for a couple of years now, and Freshfields and Fish are both over 130. Rumor has it that even Deckert is about to break ranks with a raise. A buck-and-a-quarter will barely cover a baby lawyer's coke habit.

Get with the program!
 
And don't forget the escalating cost of psychotherapy with its attendant anti-depressant medications, marital counseling, child support/alimony, etc.!
 
Yeah, for real. A good government job pays 60k to start--thus, the firms better pay A LOT MORE if they want the talent and don't want the most talented people to wise up and actually go get some experience!
 
11:10am, if you're that jackass whose supposed from Columbia who decided he "saw the light" conveniently around the time he washed out of Cravath, you need to change the string on your one-note harp.
 
"Whose"? Don't you mean, "who is"?

And what's up with your negativity? Positive energy, dude, *positive* energy.
 
Uh, is 11:23 making any sense?

Je croise que non.
 
It's "Je crois" not "Je croise." Come on, snobby lawyers should know better.
 


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