Any biglaw first years already bored and indifferent?
Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 10:53 am
So bored at work (if I'm not at heart attack levels of stress).
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My goodness, this post screams square toe shoe guy. There are plenty of ways that people can secure a strong income. The sad thing about law school/practice is that people have seen too many movies, watched Suits, or have had there old grandfather who was an industrial worker tell them about how great lawyers are/how easy the job is/how much cash they make. It is not true. I know pharmaceutical salesman in there mid 20's who make more than junior partners.Biglaw1990 wrote:Aren't there regular people who just want to earn a nice salary? I'm a 0L, but I find it hard to believe that there are only weird people with no social lives in Biglaw.TheHill5 wrote:I made it 2 years. Biglaw is essentially the following, at least in my opinion.
1. Young guys are either 1. Weird 2. Owe some school 150K, 3. Completely oblivious to creativity and have no social skills/ability to lead.
2. Mid levels are 1. Married with kids and are stuck 2. Weird AF (I have a buddy who is young/mid 30s who is now completely gray, has gained 30 pounds in last 2 some years and is frequently pulling all nighters and has 0 social life. 3. Guys who love grind (there are a few, they are usually the kids rocking the Jos. Bank suit, square toe shoes and think Tag Huer is a strong watch)
3. Junior Partners are 1. Married with 2+ kids 2. Have at least one kid who is a complete fuck up 3. Badly balding or completely bald 4. Majority, not all, terribly overweight. 4. Usually have a wife who stays at home or has some low income job and/or has a way too expensive house that he owes a shit ton of debt on.
4. Senior Partners are 1. A few divorces deep 2 have a few kids that go to some obscure private school out west or in the northeast 3. Fat and bald 4. Completely no social life and most are weird AF.
That is what it is, anyone who tells you differently is either delusional or cannot handle the truth or is a square toe shoe wearing guy.
Typos due to iPhone.
Trust everyone who has worked in Biglaw, particularly since you are a 0L. As has been thoroughly documented recently on this forum, it takes a special kind of person to thrive, not just survive, in the monotonous grind of Biglaw enough to keep advancing.Biglaw1990 wrote:Aren't there regular people who just want to earn a nice salary? I'm a 0L, but I find it hard to believe that there are only weird people with no social lives in Biglaw.TheHill5 wrote:I made it 2 years. Biglaw is essentially the following, at least in my opinion.
1. Young guys are either 1. Weird 2. Owe some school 150K, 3. Completely oblivious to creativity and have no social skills/ability to lead.
2. Mid levels are 1. Married with kids and are stuck 2. Weird AF (I have a buddy who is young/mid 30s who is now completely gray, has gained 30 pounds in last 2 some years and is frequently pulling all nighters and has 0 social life. 3. Guys who love grind (there are a few, they are usually the kids rocking the Jos. Bank suit, square toe shoes and think Tag Huer is a strong watch)
3. Junior Partners are 1. Married with 2+ kids 2. Have at least one kid who is a complete fuck up 3. Badly balding or completely bald 4. Majority, not all, terribly overweight. 4. Usually have a wife who stays at home or has some low income job and/or has a way too expensive house that he owes a shit ton of debt on.
4. Senior Partners are 1. A few divorces deep 2 have a few kids that go to some obscure private school out west or in the northeast 3. Fat and bald 4. Completely no social life and most are weird AF.
That is what it is, anyone who tells you differently is either delusional or cannot handle the truth or is a square toe shoe wearing guy.
Typos due to iPhone.
Yes, it's a bunch of bitter hyperbole. The fact that everyone in biglaw in that poster's mind is apparently a man should be your first red flag.Biglaw1990 wrote:Aren't there regular people who just want to earn a nice salary? I'm a 0L, but I find it hard to believe that there are only weird people with no social lives in Biglaw.TheHill5 wrote:I made it 2 years. Biglaw is essentially the following, at least in my opinion.
1. Young guys are either 1. Weird 2. Owe some school 150K, 3. Completely oblivious to creativity and have no social skills/ability to lead.
2. Mid levels are 1. Married with kids and are stuck 2. Weird AF (I have a buddy who is young/mid 30s who is now completely gray, has gained 30 pounds in last 2 some years and is frequently pulling all nighters and has 0 social life. 3. Guys who love grind (there are a few, they are usually the kids rocking the Jos. Bank suit, square toe shoes and think Tag Huer is a strong watch)
3. Junior Partners are 1. Married with 2+ kids 2. Have at least one kid who is a complete fuck up 3. Badly balding or completely bald 4. Majority, not all, terribly overweight. 4. Usually have a wife who stays at home or has some low income job and/or has a way too expensive house that he owes a shit ton of debt on.
4. Senior Partners are 1. A few divorces deep 2 have a few kids that go to some obscure private school out west or in the northeast 3. Fat and bald 4. Completely no social life and most are weird AF.
That is what it is, anyone who tells you differently is either delusional or cannot handle the truth or is a square toe shoe wearing guy.
Typos due to iPhone.
So he forgot to carve out room for law shrews. I think it's still fairly representative.Anonymous User wrote:Yes, it's a bunch of bitter hyperbole. The fact that everyone in biglaw in that poster's mind is apparently a man should be your first red flag.Biglaw1990 wrote:Aren't there regular people who just want to earn a nice salary? I'm a 0L, but I find it hard to believe that there are only weird people with no social lives in Biglaw.TheHill5 wrote:I made it 2 years. Biglaw is essentially the following, at least in my opinion.
1. Young guys are either 1. Weird 2. Owe some school 150K, 3. Completely oblivious to creativity and have no social skills/ability to lead.
2. Mid levels are 1. Married with kids and are stuck 2. Weird AF (I have a buddy who is young/mid 30s who is now completely gray, has gained 30 pounds in last 2 some years and is frequently pulling all nighters and has 0 social life. 3. Guys who love grind (there are a few, they are usually the kids rocking the Jos. Bank suit, square toe shoes and think Tag Huer is a strong watch)
3. Junior Partners are 1. Married with 2+ kids 2. Have at least one kid who is a complete fuck up 3. Badly balding or completely bald 4. Majority, not all, terribly overweight. 4. Usually have a wife who stays at home or has some low income job and/or has a way too expensive house that he owes a shit ton of debt on.
4. Senior Partners are 1. A few divorces deep 2 have a few kids that go to some obscure private school out west or in the northeast 3. Fat and bald 4. Completely no social life and most are weird AF.
That is what it is, anyone who tells you differently is either delusional or cannot handle the truth or is a square toe shoe wearing guy.
Typos due to iPhone.
Because surely having an absentee spouse/parent is delightful. Hence the low rate of divorce/estrangement.krads153 wrote:Being married to a partner or being the child of a partner is awesome; being a partner is much less awesome.
my parents are already divorced (not lawyers) and i'm already sort of estranged to one of them (no biggie), so not much different except having the $$$$ and being trust funded to do something i really want to do sounds awesomeMad Hatter wrote:Because surely having an absentee spouse/parent is delightful. Hence the low rate of divorce/estrangement.krads153 wrote:Being married to a partner or being the child of a partner is awesome; being a partner is much less awesome.
Managed to be even more misogynistic than the original post. Impressive.Anonymous User wrote:So he forgot to carve out room for law shrews. I think it's still fairly representative.Anonymous User wrote:Yes, it's a bunch of bitter hyperbole. The fact that everyone in biglaw in that poster's mind is apparently a man should be your first red flag.Biglaw1990 wrote:Aren't there regular people who just want to earn a nice salary? I'm a 0L, but I find it hard to believe that there are only weird people with no social lives in Biglaw.TheHill5 wrote:I made it 2 years. Biglaw is essentially the following, at least in my opinion.
1. Young guys are either 1. Weird 2. Owe some school 150K, 3. Completely oblivious to creativity and have no social skills/ability to lead.
2. Mid levels are 1. Married with kids and are stuck 2. Weird AF (I have a buddy who is young/mid 30s who is now completely gray, has gained 30 pounds in last 2 some years and is frequently pulling all nighters and has 0 social life. 3. Guys who love grind (there are a few, they are usually the kids rocking the Jos. Bank suit, square toe shoes and think Tag Huer is a strong watch)
3. Junior Partners are 1. Married with 2+ kids 2. Have at least one kid who is a complete fuck up 3. Badly balding or completely bald 4. Majority, not all, terribly overweight. 4. Usually have a wife who stays at home or has some low income job and/or has a way too expensive house that he owes a shit ton of debt on.
4. Senior Partners are 1. A few divorces deep 2 have a few kids that go to some obscure private school out west or in the northeast 3. Fat and bald 4. Completely no social life and most are weird AF.
That is what it is, anyone who tells you differently is either delusional or cannot handle the truth or is a square toe shoe wearing guy.
Typos due to iPhone.
"every single one"? does your firm have like 5 people?Anonymous User wrote:LOL what kind of ghetto ass firm the guy was at lol lol. My firm is not even a strong one - every single one of the associates are at least attractive, to say the least without taking into consideration of their brain. Senior people have less time, but they are no clown- I mean trust the power of money, few people still dont have a so called fashion sense with shit ton of money
krads153 wrote:"every single one"? does your firm have like 5 people?Anonymous User wrote:LOL what kind of ghetto ass firm the guy was at lol lol. My firm is not even a strong one - every single one of the associates are at least attractive, to say the least without taking into consideration of their brain. Senior people have less time, but they are no clown- I mean trust the power of money, few people still dont have a so called fashion sense with shit ton of money
most people past the age of 25 are overweight...
Different anon, but that's skewed heavily by lower social classes in rural populations. Once you go beyond bachelor degrees, obesity is fairly uncommon. I'm actually surprised by the attractiveness in big law. It's not that it's amazing. It's that this lifestyle should kill beauty: your metabolism is slowly starting to resemble that of an 85-year old little person in a coma, you have no sunlight, all of the muscles around your spine are weakening and you're pulling your hair out from stress. All we have to do is add some boxing to the mix, and we're all set for the pageant.krads153 wrote:"every single one"? does your firm have like 5 people?Anonymous User wrote:LOL what kind of ghetto ass firm the guy was at lol lol. My firm is not even a strong one - every single one of the associates are at least attractive, to say the least without taking into consideration of their brain. Senior people have less time, but they are no clown- I mean trust the power of money, few people still dont have a so called fashion sense with shit ton of money
most people past the age of 25 are overweight...
You should really start a thread in the Ask a Student/Graduate forum to talk about the biglaw life and your preconceptions of it. You should also search around this forum for people's experience. You'll get a wealth of information.Biglaw1990 wrote: I just find it hard to believe that every person is miserable and people generally only accept Biglaw offers to pay off debt.
YepAnonymous User wrote:So bored at work (if I'm not at heart attack levels of stress).
I really dislike it a lot, maybe it will be better for you. I doubt it.I've already been accepted to a T14, which gives students much better than a 50% shot at Biglaw. I understand that some people do not like the hours, but all high-level fields (management consulting, investment banking, private equity, and Biglaw) require long hours. I just find it hard to believe that every person is miserable and people generally only accept Biglaw offers to pay off debt.
Its not so much the hours its the complete lack of control, the progression and the exit opportunities. I am a lawyer, there are days I love what I do but I also realize there are better ways to make a buck. I have some golden handcuffs and I just want others to avoid them. The below is overly cynical for effect.Biglaw1990 wrote: I've already been accepted to a T14, which gives students much better than a 50% shot at Biglaw. I understand that some people do not like the hours, but all high-level fields (management consulting, investment banking, private equity, and Biglaw) require long hours. I just find it hard to believe that every person is miserable and people generally only accept Biglaw offers to pay off debt.
Don't Biglaw M&A and PE attorneys have exit options on the business side of M&A and PE? I've seen various Linkedin profiles of T14-->Biglaw (usually M&A)-->IBD (associate level)-->Private equityAnonymous User wrote:Its not so much the hours its the complete lack of control, the progression and the exit opportunities. I am a lawyer, there are days I love what I do but I also realize there are better ways to make a buck. I have some golden handcuffs and I just want others to avoid them. The below is overly cynical for effect.Biglaw1990 wrote: I've already been accepted to a T14, which gives students much better than a 50% shot at Biglaw. I understand that some people do not like the hours, but all high-level fields (management consulting, investment banking, private equity, and Biglaw) require long hours. I just find it hard to believe that every person is miserable and people generally only accept Biglaw offers to pay off debt.
- Management consulting - If you mean at MBB [if you don't, then just stop, you not a "management" consultant your just a temp worker who flies coach from Atlanta to Chattanooga], the pay is better the travel could be seen as a positive (saves you money + gets you points/miles you can use upon termination), they have a 401k match and they try to get you a gig when they up-and-out you after 4 years...and those gigs can be sweet compared to the in-house crap a 4th year associate usually lands.
- Investment banking - On a deal they are usually your boss. The client is paying them more, they get the $ or source the deal and they are the ones that get the zeros to line up. So yes, Chip, the 22 year old recent Duke UG, is telling you how the net working capital will be trued up at 3:00am. He hangs up, you get to work (thank god for law school). Further, if Chip survives IB hell he could land buyside (PE or Hedge Fund) and again be your boss (while making multiples of your firm's PPP), or if he just progresses at the IB (while making more then you), he can sh*t on you for the rest of your career when you work together (remember to bring up that 3:00am call when you get to take him to a Rangers game to "develop business"- he will love it -).
- Private equity - This is the financial worlds promised land. Most bulge bracket associates would sacrifice a child (yes, of course their own) for a spot at a mid-market shop. You call the shots, you raise the money, you collect the ungodly management fees. The upside is yours. Also, you get to drag PE lawyers from KE and Simpson around like well trained yellow labs (speaking of labs, remember to get 1 yellow and 1 brown for your winter house in Aspen - have them bark when doing Christmas day calls with your legal team who are sitting in a Manhattan conference room drafting and crying).