Biglaw client interaction experience Forum

[MichelleMichelle]

Finance bro is a great reminder nobody is the bad guy in their own head. The human ability to justify horrible actions is truly amazing.

I don't know why people assume the neurotic finance person is a bro. Could be a bro or a gal. Actually, the tone reminded me perfectly of some horrible female midlevels/seniors/clients I worked with.

Brave use of anon. You're right that finance bro could be finance gal. But finance continues to be very male dominated, so I don't think it's a crazy stretch to assume its a guy.

[Liquox]

Late to the game but this thread is hilarious, and a big thanks to FND for reminding me why I’m not a transactional attorney. I feel sorry for whichever poor associate had to put up with him. Unless the associate works at a really unreasonable firm, I doubt even the partners would take this guy seriously.

[albanach]

Note: when I worked in finance I once told the associate I was working with he wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom, because the documents were expected any minute and had to be turned around right away.

I'm not in finance, but for anyone thinking this is an okay way to treat colleagues, if I got word of this as a client you'd no longer be working on my deal. And the firm's relationship manager would be working hard to retain any relationship. When you act as counsel, your behavior reflects on both your firm and your client's.

Now maybe I'm misunderstanding - perhaps this was a deal that had to close on 12/31 and you needed one last document, and it was 11.30pm, so you said "hey, hit the bathroom now, because I need folk at their desk for the next half hour." But, if it was anything like how you made it sound, it's not okay, regardless of what you're paying folk.

[SGTslaughter]

Capital markets associate at a V10. Deals with bankers on a daily basis. It’s one thing that they expect an answer to everything or have things done “ASAP” and show little to no appreciation to good work, but totally another that many of the bankers seem to think it’s completely fine to act jerkish /unnecessarily mean or just outright personally attack us lawyers. Just wondering what’s other folks’ experience been like. Do your partners also ask you to bite your tongue and just put up with them?

there are dicks everywhere, and quite a few bankers are dicks. For the most part, they're just in a hurry, which can come off mean. But personal attacks do come, and you're gonna have to take it. You're being paid too much money to care.

Note: when I worked in finance I once told the associate I was working with he wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom, because the documents were expected any minute and had to be turned around right away. I've also once called the attorney literally every 5 minutes asking if he was finished. We weren't paying $$$ for an associate's excellent legal acumen, but for the associate to be at our beck and call, to be able to provide us with the requisite service at the requisite time. I never yelled, but, you bet that if he didn't deliver as required, we'd have asked his supervising partner for a different associate - and you can only imagine what that would have done for his career.
"We" had gotten people fired at other companies for insufficient/inadequate performance - including a V.P. at a bank.

Bumping this legendary post as a reminder of how horrible some of the people you'll deal with in this profession are.

[DukeMountain]

This thread is pure poetry