Posted in ADD and attorneys, BigLaw, associate life, billable hours, career tools, lawyer dysfunction, lawyers & depression, lawyers and Attention Deficit, tagged deadlines, Driven to Distraction on September 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
If you’re unhappy in law because you
hate the lack of creativity in it,
despise having to show each tiny piss-ante step of reasoning when it’s freaking OBVIOUS how you got there,
get bored and pissed with all the pointless bickering back and forth about commas and such–except when you’re really exorcised about something you wrote,
rail at all [...]
Posted in BigLaw, associate life, law firms, lawyers & depression, money, soul's needs, tagged pessimism and lawyers, creativity, Martin Seligman, Authentic Happiness, Positive Psychology on July 15, 2008 | 5 Comments »
When I was thinking about leaving law, I focused a lot on all the things I would lose:
Money
Status
Long hours
Working weekends regularly
Achingly boring work
Colleagues who were anything but collegial
A known career [...]
Posted in BigLaw, associate life, billable hours, law firms, lawyer layoffs, money, tagged associate merit pay, Sonnenschein Nath Rosenthal, TR Shine, working rich on June 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
So Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal axed 37 attorneys not long ago. Plus another 90 or so support staff. If you are one of those people and reading this, my condolences to you. Getting laid off sucks, no matter how bad the job.
[Aside: Don't miss this funkalicious article in the WaPo written by a guy who [...]
Posted in BigLaw, associate life, lawyer dysfunction, lawyers & depression, money, soul's needs, tagged Amelia Rawls, Ivy League, mean people suck, soft skills, Yale Law School on May 1, 2008 | 6 Comments »
My new hero for the day is Amelia Rawls. She is a 1L at Yale (don’t roll your eyes yet), and wrote a piece that appeared in today’s Washington Post about whether Ivy grads are, well, nice people or not. Now, she isn’t making a completely broadbrush statement that everyone who attends an Ivy isn’t [...]
Posted in BigLaw, associate life, filling the well, soul's needs, tagged alternative legal career, Cake or Death, choral singing, Eddie Izzard on March 19, 2008 | 3 Comments »
It used to be normal, even expected, for adults to have hobbies. You know, something you pursue just because you like it, not because it could land you a job, a client, or whatever eventually. But in our mad-rush existence, hobbies are one of the first things to go. And that’s more than a shame, [...]
Posted in BigLaw, tagged intellectual property lawyers, legal writing, perfect lawyers on March 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For the 3 or so of you still reading, no I have not died. Or abandoned this blog. I’ve even been thinking a lot about lawyers, as I’ve been busily interviewing some intellectual property attorneys for a profile series. One of those “Top Brilliant Amazing Lawyers You Can Never Be” kind of deals.
Yeah, it’s a [...]
Posted in BigLaw, Friday Files, associate life, billable hours, law firms, tagged Carolyn Hax, law school, Tell Me About It on February 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s another one of my guilty addictions: Carolyn Hax’s Tell Me About It columns and online chat. I’ve been reading her since her very first column appeared in the Washington Post. Strictly coincidentally, her column started about a year before I left law. I remember reading the column in the firm library on Fridays. Good [...]
Posted in BigLaw, Friday Files, law firms, lawyers & depression, tagged alex berenson, brad berenson, eli lilly, new york times, pepper hamilton, portfolio.com, prozac, sidley austin on February 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes, you just feel for people. Even though you know that most BigLaw partners are huge pains in the tookus, when one screws up so majorly and publicly, you feel something. Gratitude, if nothing else, that it wasn’t you who did it.
It’s the worst nightmare of every attorney: an email goes astray to a reporter. [...]
Posted in BigLaw, Friday Files, tagged Clearview, Helvetica, law firm marketing, typography on February 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The thing about so many lawyers is they are very, very knowledgeable about one or two things, but think that means they know everything about everything. Which leads them into trouble when it comes to non-linear things like, say, typography.
In reality, I know precious little about typography, but having edited magazines, I’ve picked up bits [...]
