"I'd like to work in biglaw for a while..." Forum

[patogordo]

I took paternity leave my second month in.

2 weeks paternity leave?

I took 2 weeks because I was worried about taking it so soon. Everyone thought I was an asshole for not taking the full four weeks.

you have to make up the hours?

[dresden doll]

My mother stayed at home until I was maybe 8-9? Like most parents in her generation, she parked me in front of a TV all day or let me run around with the other neighborhood kids. The over parenting that's in vogue these days, doing "enriching activities" with your kids, wasn't a thing back then.

Entirely accurate, and thank God for that. I couldn't have even imagined having to do "enriching activities" with the parents. I loved being left alone.

[patogordo]

let's keep a little perspective and remember that all these people saying they were raised by the TV and supposedly "turned out fine" ended up going to law school

[worldtraveler]

My mother stayed at home until I was maybe 8-9? Like most parents in her generation, she parked me in front of a TV all day or let me run around with the other neighborhood kids. The over parenting that's in vogue these days, doing "enriching activities" with your kids, wasn't a thing back then.

Entirely accurate, and thank God for that. I couldn't have even imagined having to do "enriching activities" with the parents. I loved being left alone.

My husband spent so much time with extended relatives as a kid that he didn't know which one of his aunts was his actual mother until he was 10.

[dresden doll]

let's keep a little perspective and remember that all these people saying they were raised by the TV and supposedly "turned out fine" ended up going to law school

TBF, we're using a very low standard to measure "fine." As in, not cognitively challenged, on drugs or in prison.

[rayiner]

let's keep a little perspective and remember that all these people saying they were raised by the TV and supposedly "turned out fine" ended up going to law school

TBF, we're using a very low standard to measure "fine." As in, not cognitively challenged, on drugs or in prison.

Throw in "not a stripper" and you have my full list of parenting goals.

[patogordo]

srsly though if you take 4 weeks of parental leave do you still have to bill 2000 hours?

[PepperJack]

Remember that you can't point to a specific thing a parent did that led to x.

Parent time is not unlike naming. Someone whose birth name is Destiny is something like 10x more likely to be a stripper, but in all likelihood the parents who name their kid Destiny do a whole lot of other things as well that lead Destiny to choose to be a stripper.

Most statistics about parents who are not at home very often is obsolete, because those parents might prioritize being out with lovers, drinking, drugs etc. over spending time with their children, which makes them also more likely to do nutty things to the children. Parents who work 14 hours a day aren't necessarily more likely to say shoot heroine in front of their child, beat their child, forget to feed their child etc.

Unless the big law hours requirements are different now then it shouldn't matter, and you could look at big law babies from the last generation. The growing number of big law female attorneys might change it - I don't know if there would be a tangible difference to not having a mom around often vs. not having a dad around often as long as one is around often. Societally there are different pressures on a woman to be around than there is for a man. Whether or not they are fair is one thing, but it seems fair to presume they're impacting people's decision making on big law.

[patogordo]

did you just learn about social sciences or something

[Anonymous User]

srsly though if you take 4 weeks of parental leave do you still have to bill 2000 hours?

1.) No firms have 2000 as a set in stone requirement.
2.) That's basically like an indirect prevention of maternal leave so I doubt it. I just couldn't see the women's lawyers groups being cool with that. I'm also not sure that would be cool under The Civil Rights Act.

[worldtraveler]

srsly though if you take 4 weeks of parental leave do you still have to bill 2000 hours?

New plan:

Go to big law, adopt kid every few months and take paternity leave every time.

[patogordo]

srsly though if you take 4 weeks of parental leave do you still have to bill 2000 hours?

1.) No firms have 2000 as a set in stone requirement.
2.) That's basically like an indirect prevention of maternal leave so I doubt it. I just couldn't see the women's lawyers groups being cool with that. I'm also not sure that would be cool under The Civil Rights Act.

appreciate the anonymous issue spotting but i didn't say anything about 2000 hours being a set in stone requirement. it was an exemplary number. but anyway, plenty of firms have minimums for bonus eligibility, and 2000 isn't an unusual number in that respect.

[patogordo]

srsly though if you take 4 weeks of parental leave do you still have to bill 2000 hours?

New plan:

Go to big law, adopt kid every few months and take paternity leave every time.

ivy league welfare queen

[IAFG]

did you just learn about social sciences or something

Mind was apparently recently blown by Freakonomics

[patogordo]

did you just learn about social sciences or something

Mind was apparently recently blown by Freakonomics

ironically wasn't there a whole chapter of freakonomics debunking the idea that kids' names affect their future success

[rayiner]

2 weeks paternity leave?

I took 2 weeks because I was worried about taking it so soon. Everyone thought I was an asshole for not taking the full four weeks.

you have to make up the hours?

I don't know what other peoples' firms are like, but at least at mine, nobody was looking over your shoulder at your hours. We had no minimum hours for bonus, and when we started in the litigation department, the partner charged with herding the first years just said "shoot for 1,900 to 2,100." I had no reason to believe this was a fake number.

[ChardPennington]

question to the associates ITT, if you could do it again, would you have taken a lower-ranked school with money? Is it merely about hedging against getting lower grades a lower-ranked school? Assuming you could have gotten your BigLaw job from a lower ranked school with less debt, do you think there was any value to going the T14 with sticker? Is it just about getting to BigLaw as cheaply as possible?

I took a full ride at a so so school and still ended up working for a firm and paying off loans. Rent/food/clown porn aren't free.

[northwood]

question to the associates ITT, if you could do it again, would you have taken a lower-ranked school with money? Is it merely about hedging against getting lower grades a lower-ranked school? Assuming you could have gotten your BigLaw job from a lower ranked school with less debt, do you think there was any value to going the T14 with sticker? Is it just about getting to BigLaw as cheaply as possible?

I took a full ride at a so so school and still ended up working for a firm and paying off loans. Rent/food/clown porn aren't free.

Those middeling, scheming clowns... always gotta ruin everyone's plans

[whereskyle]

let's keep a little perspective and remember that all these people saying they were raised by the TV and supposedly "turned out fine" ended up going to law school

TBF, we're using a very low standard to measure "fine." As in, not cognitively challenged, on drugs or in prison.

Throw in "not a stripper" and you have my full list of parenting goals.

I say subtract not a stripper. You can be a stripper and still get a 170 on the LSAT.

[wert3813]

So if you were fortunate enough to graduate with no debt and you knew in law school what you know now would you do anything differently? What sort of jobs would you target?

poster has been outed for inappropriate use of Anon Feature

[wert3813]

So if you were fortunate enough to graduate with no debt and you knew in law school what you know now would you do anything differently? What sort of jobs would you target?

poster has been outed for inappropriate use of Anon Feature

Didn't even realize I was anon, sorry.

[nygrrrl]

So if you were fortunate enough to graduate with no debt and you knew in law school what you know now would you do anything differently? What sort of jobs would you target?

poster has been outed for inappropriate use of Anon Feature

Didn't even realize I was anon, sorry.

We figured you didn't realize it; no harm no foul.

[rubberplant2020]

I wonder if would could do a poll on the lines of

" like big law and held a full time job before",

"like big law and never held a job for more than 2 months"


"hate big law and held a full time job before",

"hate big law and never held a job for more than 2 months"

[09042014]

No it just sucks. I had the same theory. All the bitching is just k-jds who never worked a day I. Their life. Not so.

[Anonymous User]

I am interning currently at a boutique firm in NYC. From what I gathered from this thread is that most of you in biglaw right now are staying to pay off the loans/support family/stuck there. I was under the impression that some firms pay your monthly loan payments for you, but apparently the headhunter(family friend) I gathered this information from was completely wrong. The firm I work for is roughly 10 attorneys, but they pay 6 fig (probably around 120k) and pay your monthly loan payments. Is this rare? Do biglaw firms not do this?