Monday, November 08, 2004
I'm stuck here late reading through a memo a couple of my associates put together about a new client matter we just took on. I wasted too much of my afternoon interviewing a potential lateral hire, a mid-level associate from a peer firm. I don't normally deal with real estate people, but the partner this guy was supposed to interview with had a last-minute meeting and so they sent him down the hall to talk to me for little while. I spent most of the time asking him why he'd want to leave a firm with the reputation for the nicest offices in the city. Especially since as a mid-level associate aiming for partner he knows how much time he'll be spending in the office. It's the commute. Which makes sense, I suppose. It's always the commute. The work's the same. He seemed too excited. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that he seemed genuinely excited to be thinking about new opportunities. Maybe that's what I need. A new opportunity to make life interesting again. We should switch places. He can work here, and I can go do employment litigation. It would be exciting to learn a new practice area. This was fun back when I started. Before it was the same, day after day. Even just for new gossip. I know all the gossip here. This guy today was good though. No gossip. It's much more entertaining when the laterals hate their firms and tell me why. One woman once told me she got sexually harassed by a partner, and that was one of the reasons she was looking to leave. And, with a little gentle coaxing, she named him. And I knew him. Small world.
# posted by Anonymous @ 7:54 PM 
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Yawn. C'mon. Don't make it a waste for me to have to come here. Write something worthwhile.
# posted by 
: 10:45 PM
: 10:45 PM
AL, I hear you. Things can get so mechanical and routine you can do it with just half a brain. Some people, bosses espcially will say, you can do the same thing different ways. Yeah right, how many different ways are there to read emails, act on them, prioritise the recruitment needs, prep candidates etc. what a nutcase. Sometimes I feel like recording what I say on a regular basis on a tape, and play them and let one of them run automatically when the need arises and save me the trouble of having to repeat it to different people. And gossips are good, a brief respite from the monotomy. You know what's better? Inter-office politics ie when you get sucked into politics from another office. An activity that would be classified as 'very unproductive' but it breaks the cycle of predictability. Gossip sells.
I think I know which woman associate he's talking about. I'd like to bang her too.
# posted by : 7:37 AM
: 7:37 AM
Are you thinking it's that major firm with its name on its building downtown? I too have heard there are some hotties there.
# posted by : 9:31 AM
: 9:31 AM
I think you're right about the firm he's referring to. But they don't have hotties near as hot as at Latham. Plus, their real estate department is supposedly losing one of its biggest stars, although I don't think it's the guy AL is talking about. I hear they work like dogs there.
# posted by : 4:42 PM
: 4:42 PM
I enjoy the bizarre code posters keep in their comments for when to refer to firms by name or by thinly veiled allusion.
# posted by : 4:52 PM
: 4:52 PM
I enjoy the fact that these people refer to good lawyers as "stars" and attractive ones as "hotties." As if.
# posted by : 5:22 PM
: 5:22 PM
spend 19 hours a day in an office 47 stories when 90% of your coworkers are male... it's amazing what you'll class as a "hottie".
# posted by : 5:28 PM
: 5:28 PM << Home
