Big law attorneys: living life Q Forum

[TTTooKewl]

So, from reading this forum, the consensus seems to be that while in biglaw, you are completely at the mercy of your firm, no time is your time, can't make plans and stick to them, etc.

So I'm wondering:

do you go to movies? do you turn your phone off during a 3hr movie?

do you make dinner reservations? are you constantly canceling them? does opentable hate you?

[KM2016]

So I'm wondering:

do you go to movies? do you turn your phone off during a 3hr movie?

Wait, does anybody, attorney or not, actually turn their phone off during a movie?

do you make dinner reservations? are you constantly canceling them? does opentable hate you?

If you're at a firm with minimal face-time requirement, you'd be surprised how much control you have over your schedule. While I may have to work late into the night, at my firm I can leave at 6 and go to dinner or go home to have dinner, and then log in and work from home. Sometimes there are fire drills and I have to cancel, but it's pretty rare (again, I know this depends largely on the firm/market and face-time policies).

[dixiecupdrinking]

Depends on your practice. In general, in my lit experience, dinners or other events that are scheduled for an hour or two are generally ok, though you may have to unexpectedly work afterward. Its rare to get something that must be done suddenly in that tight a timeframe. Weekend plans do get ruined if you hope to spend the whole day doing something. Corp folks seem to get sudden ASAP deadlines at any and all times.

[bl1nds1ght]

So I'm wondering:

do you go to movies? do you turn your phone off during a 3hr movie?

Wait, does anybody, attorney or not, actually turn their phone off during a movie?

[/quote]
Yes? Otherwise society as we know it ceases to exist. I'm there to enjoy the film while ruining it for others by talking about each scene after it ends and laughing during srs moments. I'm not gonna waste time on my phone. aintnobodygottimefodat.jpg

[Anonymous User]

Big firm litigator. I work most evenings and sometimes work quite late, but I typically can make time to get out for an hour or two if I need to (ie for dinner, to go to the gym, to go to a therapist appointment, etc.). I have true fire drills (80% of the time they involve a TRO or some other emergency motion, 20% of the time its some document review emergency) maybe once every six weeks, but I may have just gotten lucky so far. I don't typically go to movies during the week, but I did once and it was NBD. (If you're worried, see them on a weekend - the odds of getting an email you need to answer immediately are much, much lower). I also work most weekends, but typically it's catching up on projects that I didn't have time for during the week or decided to put off. Friday and Saturday nights are pretty sacrosanct, Sunday nights are usually fine too as long as we don't have a production/filing on Monday that needs last-minute attention.

[Anonymous User]

So is weekend day drinking completely out of the question as an associate? While being able to day drink on the weekends isn't a crucial part of my life, there are definitely times in the last year where if I got an email on a Saturday afternoon asking me to complete an urgent task that I would have been too hammered to complete said task. I'm assuming, "I can't do that right now I'm drunk at 1pm on a Saturday" isn't a great response.

If anyone has specific stories about times they had to do work while drunk, I know I'd enjoy them.

Anon because my alcoholism.

[North]

Yeah, also interested in the above

[Philafaler]

Yeah, also interested in the above

+1

[Desert Fox]

Depends who you work for. But unlike Corp work, there aren't sudden deadlines on the weekend. If you are working on saturday, you generally knew about it before you went to bed. It's never "We need the commas checked in this document STAT" stuff you might get as a trannylawer.

It usually, "ah fuck, this is due tuesday but it's going to take 40 hours" or "Johnson, take a look at this over the weekend and lets talk monday morning."

Occasionally a partner will start sending order Saturday night, but at least at my firm, I wasn't expected to answer right away.

Unless its business hours or you know shit is going down, you can turn your phone off in the movie.

The real problem is that they give you so much dam work you won't have time to go to teh movies normally.

[desertlaw]

So is weekend day drinking completely out of the question as an associate? While being able to day drink on the weekends isn't a crucial part of my life, there are definitely times in the last year where if I got an email on a Saturday afternoon asking me to complete an urgent task that I would have been too hammered to complete said task. I'm assuming, "I can't do that right now I'm drunk at 1pm on a Saturday" isn't a great response.

If anyone has specific stories about times they had to do work while drunk, I know I'd enjoy them.

Anon because my alcoholism.

Billed 2500+ last year and had plenty of day-drinking on the weekends. If a deal/case is moving or hot, you'll understand and you'll plan accordingly and stay sober. Rarely do things come in on a weekend that are both unexpected and urgent; usually it can wait until the next day if you're unavailable.