Laid-Off Biglaw Attorneys

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. That’s why we need to reopen economy

Lol. Big law!

what does this even mean?

Big law attorneys already make a shit ton of money! You should’ve saved for a rainy day!

When I worked in BigLaw, I spent over $200k paying off my law school debt. It wasn’t uncommon for up to 50-75% of my take home (depending on year)
To go to loans. I definitely saved, but not all BigLaw associates are living large like you think.

where's my violin? You poor people!

When the pitchforks come out one day, I heard the lawyers will be right next in line after the bankers. Theres too many of you already, perhaps growing food would be a more useful application of your time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have a law degree. hang out at court and take cases of people who need rep.

hang up your shingle, work from your home.

Courts are closed right now except for some emergency matters, Einstein. Potential clients aren’t hanging around the courthouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. That’s why we need to reopen economy

Lol. Big law!

what does this even mean?

Big law attorneys already make a shit ton of money! You should’ve saved for a rainy day!

When I worked in BigLaw, I spent over $200k paying off my law school debt. It wasn’t uncommon for up to 50-75% of my take home (depending on year)
To go to loans. I definitely saved, but not all BigLaw associates are living large like you think.

where's my violin? You poor people!

When the pitchforks come out one day, I heard the lawyers will be right next in line after the bankers. Theres too many of you already, perhaps growing food would be a more useful application of your time.

No one is asking for sympathy just that you do some simple math.

[Anonymous]

Associate from earlier here. I was informed more time is possible, but not guaranteed. Should I be doing work for the firm during this time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Associate from earlier here. I was informed more time is possible, but not guaranteed. Should I be doing work for the firm during this time?

It depends on the work.

You certainly should make sure smoothly to transfer all of your pending matters and assignments. If you have particular institutional or client information, be sure to write a detailed transition memorandum. Leave on the best possible terms. Say a sincere goodbye to everyone, particularly anyone you may have some friction with. Thank everyone for all they have done for you during your time at the firm, even if a particular person actually never did anything. Strive to be remembered as a class act.

As for continuing to work on substantive matters, there’s a difference between having what should be transition time exploited and continuing to carry your weight and maintain the goodwill of people you will need as references and/or network points. You’re the only one who can decide the proper balance, but leaving dissatisfied people behind can yield bad dividends for a very long time, just as a tidy departure can net you the referral that gets you your next, better, job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Also, let me add to this that lawyers in DC might have to set their egos aside and take a gig that's a fair distance away, or even in another city, to keep employed.

The need for food, any kind of food at all, is already driving this migration.

Facetious, but with a kernel of truth. You sometimes have to move for a new/better job.

Another uniquely terrible thing about the
Legal profession is having to be admitted to practice in a particular state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate from earlier here. I was informed more time is possible, but not guaranteed. Should I be doing work for the firm during this time?

It depends on the work.

You certainly should make sure smoothly to transfer all of your pending matters and assignments. If you have particular institutional or client information, be sure to write a detailed transition memorandum. Leave on the best possible terms. Say a sincere goodbye to everyone, particularly anyone you may have some friction with. Thank everyone for all they have done for you during your time at the firm, even if a particular person actually never did anything. Strive to be remembered as a class act.

As for continuing to work on substantive matters, there’s a difference between having what should be transition time exploited and continuing to carry your weight and maintain the goodwill of people you will need as references and/or network points. You’re the only one who can decide the proper balance, but leaving dissatisfied people behind can yield bad dividends for a very long time, just as a tidy departure can net you the referral that gets you your next, better, job.

Nice job not splitting the infinitive, but it really would have sounded better if you simply wrote “to smoothly transfer” - or “make sure that you smoothly transfer” - language rules change and this one you used has got to go.

[Anonymous]

I can’t say I disagree PP but really? It’s 11:30 pm!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Associate here. Firm gave me 3 months to find a new job. True layoff/not performance related. How do I negotiate more time?

Sorry that you're going through this. Just ask. Even though it's a true layoff, they should want you to land well. Also ask to use their executive coach and career counselor to help you with interviewing and resumes. And, no matter what, ask them to keep you on the website until you have a new job, even if it takes longer than 3 months. It's so hard to find a job if it looks like you are currently unemployed.

But then what do you do when the interviewer asks you what your current employment is, and when they check your references and find out that you were terminated even though you're still on the website? Won't that dishonesty be worse?

The guy this happened to at my old firm was still an employee, just unpaid. Not sure if they paid health insurance costs or not.

Never heard of this kind of arrangement in other workplaces. So, the firm is not paying you, but pretend you are still employed by them? Can the employee file a lawsuit to require salary (for example, after leaving the firm)? Are you sure law firms can do that?

It’s what law firms do. It’s perhaps unique. But done all the time.

It’s done in journalism, too.

[Anonymous]

Are patent lawyers being laid off as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. That’s why we need to reopen economy

Lol. Big law!

what does this even mean?

Big law attorneys already make a shit ton of money! You should’ve saved for a rainy day!

When I worked in BigLaw, I spent over $200k paying off my law school debt. It wasn’t uncommon for up to 50-75% of my take home (depending on year)
To go to loans. I definitely saved, but not all BigLaw associates are living large like you think.

where's my violin? You poor people!

When the pitchforks come out one day, I heard the lawyers will be right next in line after the bankers. Theres too many of you already, perhaps growing food would be a more useful application of your time.

$200k poster. Don’t feed a violin, but also don’t need a pitchfork.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

troll

No, not a troll. I wish I were. He was hungry and disheveled. That's Big Law, April 2020.

I do not believe you. I do not think anyone who is educated would do that now, not to mention a highly educated big law attorney, because he knows picking through a garage can will increase his chance of coronavirus exponentially. You are still a troll.

I saw it and I am not the only one. We know him. It was a sad sight. You are the troll. Where is your compassion for this hungry man?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

troll

No, not a troll. I wish I were. He was hungry and disheveled. That's Big Law, April 2020.

I do not believe you. I do not think anyone who is educated would do that now, not to mention a highly educated big law attorney, because he knows picking through a garage can will increase his chance of coronavirus exponentially. You are still a troll.

I saw it and I am not the only one. We know him. It was a sad sight. You are the troll. Where is your compassion for this hungry man?

NP, I am not saying it is not possible for a former biglaw attorney (or anyone of any career) to reach a point of desperation. But I think the idea that a biglaw attorney has been driven by a pandemic related job loss to trash picking in less than two months is preposterous absent preexisting (or sudden onset) mental illness, which would make it nothing to do with the pandemic and the state of biglaw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw a big-law attorney furtively picking through a garbage can, presumably looking for scraps of food. When I said hello, he was startled and tried to pretend he was merely glancing into the can. #compassion #tacos

troll

No, not a troll. I wish I were. He was hungry and disheveled. That's Big Law, April 2020.

I do not believe you. I do not think anyone who is educated would do that now, not to mention a highly educated big law attorney, because he knows picking through a garage can will increase his chance of coronavirus exponentially. You are still a troll.

I saw it and I am not the only one. We know him. It was a sad sight. You are the troll. Where is your compassion for this hungry man?

NP, I am not saying it is not possible for a former biglaw attorney (or anyone of any career) to reach a point of desperation. But I think the idea that a biglaw attorney has been driven by a pandemic related job loss to trash picking in less than two months is preposterous absent preexisting (or sudden onset) mental illness, which would make it nothing to do with the pandemic and the state of biglaw.

Well then you are wrong. We saw it, as did other passersby. He was eating garbage; foodstuffs-garbage, yes, but garbage just the same. That is a very telling portrait of Big Law, April 2020 (and of the desperation of hunger.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. That’s why we need to reopen economy

Lol. Big law!

what does this even mean?

Big law attorneys already make a shit ton of money! You should’ve saved for a rainy day!

When I worked in BigLaw, I spent over $200k paying off my law school debt. It wasn’t uncommon for up to 50-75% of my take home (depending on year)
To go to loans. I definitely saved, but not all BigLaw associates are living large like you think.

So what? There's a difference between living large and knowing to save for a rainy day.