Akin Suicide Forum

[Anonymous User]

Heard through the grapevine that a junior in Akin Rx committed suicide last week possibly related to work? How are people not talking about this? Any insight into what happened?

[Anonymous User]

That's brutal. Condolences to their family. Makes sense given the pressure/work BL attorneys are putting up with right now.

[Anonymous User]

Heard through the grapevine that a junior in Akin Rx committed suicide last week possibly related to work? How are people not talking about this? Any insight into what happened?

This is terrible. Goldman just had some bad press re overworking juniors, I'd imagine this would hit the mainstream media, if not at least ATL?

Anyone at Akin can confirm this? I'd imagine the firm released a statement

[Buglaw]

This is a tragic. I realize this is the internet, but maybe we shouldn't go around speculating about this. If people close to him want to say something, that's one thing, but I don't know that we should go on a fishing expedition from his co-workers or people at the same school, etc. If this was one of my family members who killed themselves, I'd prefer privacy.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

[Anonymous User]

That's awful. May they rest in peace. If they did indeed take their own life, I hope that Akin stands to the task to honestly communicate with level with their attorneys about what happened and takes steps to ensure that, to the extent there was any egregious behavior by its own firm/partners that may have been an unnecessary stressor, that such behavior isn't repeated/condoned.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

I’ve heard some terrible things out of Akin Rx esp lately. If this is true they need to seriously think about their culture.

[Anonymous User]

This thread really should get shut down. I think hardly anything OP said is accurate. My understanding is that a junior associate in Akin's litigation department recently passed away, and the cause of death is unknown. It really is gross to randomly speculate about this type of thing. No matter what happened, it's an incredible tragedy. Let's leave it at that.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

I’ve heard some terrible things out of Akin Rx esp lately. If this is true they need to seriously think about their culture.

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

[Excellent117]

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

Brave anon. This is a garbage take.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

I’ve heard some terrible things out of Akin Rx esp lately. If this is true they need to seriously think about their culture.

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

No one is saying brief-writing or diligence are what potentially lead juniors down this path.

[Anonymous User]

Well, if I owed $350,000 at 7% interest, and had to do "Rx" at "Akin" ....

I've joked about killing myself with family and friends if I lost my job and had no way to pay off my debt. I mean, seriously, how are you going to do it?

[nixy]

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

Brave anon. This is a garbage take.

Agreed.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

I’ve heard some terrible things out of Akin Rx esp lately. If this is true they need to seriously think about their culture.

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

As someone who has struggled with my own mental health issues and see a therapist on a regular basis to work through it, all this tells me is you have no idea what mental health is all about and, likely have never seen a therapist in your life. People take their life for countless reasons - a failed relationship, losing a job, demands of work, harassment, bullying, a rouge online comment, or countless other reasons. Maybe underlying, unaddressed issues are also to blame but such a blanket statement does nothing but reinforce that their is a problem in our high-expectation, high-stress, high-demand work environment.

[blair.waldorf]

Well, if I owed $350,000 at 7% interest, and had to do "Rx" at "Akin" ....

I've joked about killing myself with family and friends if I lost my job and had no way to pay off my debt. I mean, seriously, how are you going to do it?

Get another job. Barring a terrible recession, no one in biglaw is going to be unemployed for long. Between severance and unemployment you'd probably barely notice that you didn't have a job for a month or two (assuming you couldn't immediately find a new job).

Also with PAYE, IBR, etc., loans aren't going to be the death of you.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

I’ve heard some terrible things out of Akin Rx esp lately. If this is true they need to seriously think about their culture.

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

As someone who has struggled with my own mental health issues and see a therapist on a regular basis to work through it, all this tells me is you have no idea what mental health is all about and, likely have never seen a therapist in your life. People take their life for countless reasons - a failed relationship, losing a job, demands of work, harassment, bullying, a rouge online comment, or countless other reasons. Maybe underlying, unaddressed issues are also to blame but such a blanket statement does nothing but reinforce that their is a problem in our high-expectation, high-stress, high-demand work environment.

I've had very close family members who have dealt with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and schizophrenia. Is that a good enough cred signal for you? I've seen it.

The only point I and several others are making is that people like this are always one bad environment away from making that fateful decision. There's nothing particular to biglaw that causes this and it isn't biglaw's responsibility to change its structure because of it. The same result would have occurred, hypothetically, if this person were working in banking or a fire department or the military or as a surgeon or countless other high stress / high intensity environments. Or, you know what, maybe the environment had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever and it was just a question of time.

I always lol when burnt out associates project when something like this happens and start wringing their hands about the "toxic culture." Culture didn't cause this. Again, this is a tragedy and a very sad course of events but it wasn't because of anything that was happening inside of Akin or any other firm. It was something inside that person.

[daolivesea]

I am aware of a 2020 grad who worked at Akin who passed away last week. I wasn't aware it was a suicide, although I didn't see any news regarding it (so probably wasn't a car accident or something similar). That's incredibly tragic. NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. IF IT IS THAT BAD, PLEASE JUST QUIT.

I’ve heard some terrible things out of Akin Rx esp lately. If this is true they need to seriously think about their culture.

People don't kill themselves because of work load. People kill themselves because of unaddressed issues, usually mental health stuff. To be clear, anytime a young person takes his or her life, it's a tragedy, but I get frustrated with the navel-gazing analysis that occurs after about "work culture" as if having to write briefs or review diligence documents for 70 hours a week causes people to end their life.

As someone who has struggled with my own mental health issues and see a therapist on a regular basis to work through it, all this tells me is you have no idea what mental health is all about and, likely have never seen a therapist in your life. People take their life for countless reasons - a failed relationship, losing a job, demands of work, harassment, bullying, a rouge online comment, or countless other reasons. Maybe underlying, unaddressed issues are also to blame but such a blanket statement does nothing but reinforce that their is a problem in our high-expectation, high-stress, high-demand work environment.

I've had very close family members who have dealt with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and schizophrenia. Is that a good enough cred signal for you? I've seen it.

The only point I and several others are making is that people like this are always one bad environment away from making that fateful decision. There's nothing particular to biglaw that causes this and it isn't biglaw's responsibility to change its structure because of it. The same result would have occurred, hypothetically, if this person were working in banking or a fire department or the military or as a surgeon or countless other high stress / high intensity environments. Or, you know what, maybe the environment had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever and it was just a question of time.

I always lol when burnt out associates project when something like this happens and start wringing their hands about the "toxic culture." Culture didn't cause this. Again, this is a tragedy and a very sad course of events but it wasn't because of anything that was happening inside of Akin or any other firm. It was something inside that person.

Regardless of whether culture was the sole cause in this particular instance, we can acknowledge that the biglaw environment is not conducive to good mental health. We can advocate for making our industry a better work place regardless of whether there are other high stress environments. I don't see why we wouldn't want to improve our culture. Just because someone may commit suicide elsewhere doesn't mean that improving the biglaw environment wouldn't reduce at least some number of unhealthy decisions.

[Anonymous User]

This thread really should get shut down. I think hardly anything OP said is accurate. My understanding is that a junior associate in Akin's litigation department recently passed away, and the cause of death is unknown. It really is gross to randomly speculate about this type of thing. No matter what happened, it's an incredible tragedy. Let's leave it at that.

Agreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.

[Anonymous User]

This thread really should get shut down. I think hardly anything OP said is accurate. My understanding is that a junior associate in Akin's litigation department recently passed away, and the cause of death is unknown. It really is gross to randomly speculate about this type of thing. No matter what happened, it's an incredible tragedy. Let's leave it at that.

Agreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.

Seems like there's a healthy discussion going on about biglaw work culture and almost no speculation about this individual person. If we can't talk about this here anonymously where should we talk about it? In the confessional booth?

[12YrsAnAssociate]

I presume this was Akin's New York office? I never thought of Akin as a sweatshop, but the other terrible partner thread had lots of hate for Akin. So maybe it is/

[2013]

This thread really should get shut down. I think hardly anything OP said is accurate. My understanding is that a junior associate in Akin's litigation department recently passed away, and the cause of death is unknown. It really is gross to randomly speculate about this type of thing. No matter what happened, it's an incredible tragedy. Let's leave it at that.

Agreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.

Seems like there's a healthy discussion going on about biglaw work culture and almost no speculation about this individual person. If we can't talk about this here anonymously where should we talk about it? In the confessional booth?

The first few posts should be deleted (it essentially identifies the person and speculates that they committed sucicide). The rest of the thread is fine.

[nixy]

Regardless of whether culture was the sole cause in this particular instance, we can acknowledge that the biglaw environment is not conducive to good mental health. We can advocate for making our industry a better work place regardless of whether there are other high stress environments. I don't see why we wouldn't want to improve our culture. Just because someone may commit suicide elsewhere doesn't mean that improving the biglaw environment wouldn't reduce at least some number of unhealthy decisions.

^this. Also, there’s a really wide range of mental health experiences out there. Sure, some people have issues such that they’ll commit suicide even in the most objectively pleasant of circumstances, and some people never would regardless of how miserable things get. But situational depression is a real thing, and situational depression actually changes your brain and rewrites your pathways to make you more prone to depression in the future. There are also healthier and less healthy environments. Chronic stress and overwork aren’t healthy for anyone and can definitely influence people, even if that person has some issues of their own regardless. (I mean damn, who doesn’t have issues in 2021?)

[Anonymous User]

The identifying posts should really be removed from this thread. I agree that a forum to discuss Big Law culture and its effects on one’s mental and emotional health, coupled with work from home, is an important topic to be discussed and dealt with. But there is no reason whatsoever that this person has basically been identified short of a name. That is downright despicable and very disrespectful to the person and their family.

[avenuem]

This thread really should get shut down. I think hardly anything OP said is accurate. My understanding is that a junior associate in Akin's litigation department recently passed away, and the cause of death is unknown. It really is gross to randomly speculate about this type of thing. No matter what happened, it's an incredible tragedy. Let's leave it at that.

Agreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.

Seems like there's a healthy discussion going on about biglaw work culture and almost no speculation about this individual person. If we can't talk about this here anonymously where should we talk about it? In the confessional booth?

We need a TLS Bill of Rights with a First Amendment.

THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO DISCUSS SERIOUS SUBJECT MATTER SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. THOSE WHOSE SENSITIVITIES ARE HURT SHOULD SIMPLY NOT READ THE THREAD.

[Anonymous User]

This thread really should get shut down. I think hardly anything OP said is accurate. My understanding is that a junior associate in Akin's litigation department recently passed away, and the cause of death is unknown. It really is gross to randomly speculate about this type of thing. No matter what happened, it's an incredible tragedy. Let's leave it at that.

Agreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.

Seems like there's a healthy discussion going on about biglaw work culture and almost no speculation about this individual person. If we can't talk about this here anonymously where should we talk about it? In the confessional booth?

We need a TLS Bill of Rights with a First Amendment.

THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO DISCUSS SERIOUS SUBJECT MATTER SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. THOSE WHOSE SENSITIVITIES ARE HURT SHOULD SIMPLY NOT READ THE THREAD.

NO ONE IS SAYING PEOPLE CANNOT DISCUSS ONLY THAT THEY HAVE RESPECT TO THE PERSON AND THEIR FAMILY DURING THIS VERY DIFFICULT TIME. WHY BE A JERK ABOUT IT. SOMEONE SHOULD DELETE THE IDENTIFYING POST AND LEAVE THE OTHER POSTS IN TACT. DEAR GOD.