Akin Suicide
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:11 pm
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?
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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?Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:11 pmHeard 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?
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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:55 pmI 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.
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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:29 pmI’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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:55 pmI 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.
Brave anon. This is a garbage take.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:52 pm
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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:52 pmPeople 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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:29 pmI’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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:55 pmI 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.
Agreed.Excellent117 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:55 pmBrave anon. This is a garbage take.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:52 pm
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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:52 pmPeople 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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:29 pmI’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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:55 pmI 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.
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).Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:00 pmWell, 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?
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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:11 pmAs 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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:52 pmPeople 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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:29 pmI’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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:55 pmI 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.
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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:16 pmI'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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:11 pmAs 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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:52 pmPeople 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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:29 pmI’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 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:55 pmI 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.
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.
Agreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:48 pmThis 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.
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?Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:36 pmAgreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:48 pmThis 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.
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.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:02 pmSeems 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?Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:36 pmAgreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:48 pmThis 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.
^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?)daolivesea wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:36 pmRegardless 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.
We need a TLS Bill of Rights with a First Amendment.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:02 pmSeems 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?Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:36 pmAgreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:48 pmThis 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.
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.avenuem wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:22 pmWe need a TLS Bill of Rights with a First Amendment.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:02 pmSeems 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?Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:36 pmAgreed. This thread and speculation feels really gross and tasteless.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:48 pmThis 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.
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.