Date: February 10th, 2006 10:57 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I find xoxohth and message boards like it reprehensible. They have ruined the once-noble practice of law by turning it into a naked status contest.
I'm a hiring partner at a northeastern law firm. Recently, as you all may know, salaries in "big law" have been increasing, lately, and $145k is likely to become the new standard. This I find sickening: do you kids realize how privileged you would be to earn $100k at 25, much less $125k? My parents were both lawyers and didn't crack six figures until they were in their FIFTIES, and they brought me up just fine.
Websites like this one allow law students to "comparison shop" on salaries and status. It turns hiring and recruiting, for us, into an immoral numbers game. It has ruined the ability of small firms to recruit top law students, and the obsession over "Profits Per Partner" means that a firm that has a couple of bad years goes into the toilet in terms of reputation, clientele, and standing. It's utterly offensive to any person with even a smidgen of conscience.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves, you shallow, materialistic, spoiled fucking brats. You have no souls.
Date: February 10th, 2006 10:59 PM Author: deep up-to-no-good quadroon black woman
perhaps when you stop treating associates as costs, we won't look at law firms as institutions.
considering the salaries other kids our age who didn't have to go to law school get in ibanking and trading, i'm sure you can understand our insecurity.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:06 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
So why are you comparing your salaries to those of I-bankers and traders, who have to work inhumane hours at tedious work? Lawyers actually get to have a life outside of work, and the work is significantly more interesting.
We don't look at associates as costs. We look at them as future partners. Of course, most of them don't end up as this, but that's not our fault.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:10 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
No. If associates want to become partners, they'll do what it takes to make sure we know they deserve it. You don't just "fall into" partnership because you spend enough time at a firm. You have to earn it. Your generation just isn't used to earning things-- grades, material possessions, jobs-- but instead you have everything handed to you. That's the problem with your generation. Well, don't cry about it to me. If you had wanted to be partner, you'd have done the work to earn it.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:18 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Law school costs what it does because it provides unparalleled earning opportunities. Business school students may earn more on average, but with much more risk (and when you're an adult, you'll realize that risk is not a good thing.) Don't complain about the costs when you're having opportunities that other people would pay twice as much to have.
Date: February 11th, 2006 9:55 AM Author: shimmering haunting abode mad-dog skullcap
So law school costs what it does because it provides unparalleled earning opportunities, but law students are spoiled brats because they expect the unparalleled earning opportunities?
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:19 PM Author: Amethyst newt
wrong, flamer. even if every one did that, you wouldn't make them all partners. the only way you can get out of that fact is to introduce a tautology into "what it takes to make sure we know they deserve it."
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:30 PM Author: Amethyst newt
it's not moot, you mediocre flamer, because it demonstrates that firms would not make everyone partner even if everyone were qualified.
you probably write -- not wrote -- stupid shit like that on your exams. you tell the professor that his fact pattern is silly because it would never happen.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:36 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Trust me, if we could recruit a class where everyone was qualified to be a partner, we'd be ecstatic. We'd have so much money coming into the firm that we probably WOULD make a lot of partners. The fact is, though, that this will never happen. Most people are stupid and lazy, even from top law schools.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:46 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
No, they're stupid because they fuck up at their work. This is a business where you only get one chance, a lot of the time. It's not for everyone, and most people don't have the intellectual endowment it takes to be a lawyer. The LSAT is not a great screen, in my opinion.
Date: February 11th, 2006 7:06 AM Author: Startled indecent round eye university
what the fuck? of course it's the fault of the partners--if they weren't so damn greedy their leverage would be lower and there would be a lot more partners.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:15 PM Author: appetizing frisky queen of the night
"This I find sickening: do you kids realize how privileged you would be to earn $100k at 25, much less $125k? My parents were both lawyers and didn't crack six figures until they were in their FIFTIES, and they brought me up just fine."
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:58 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
They had values other than money; they actually cared about making a positive difference in the world, and they did. They mattered more to their community than I do to mine.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:15 PM Author: big khaki toaster old irish cottage
why to NBA players make millions?
because the owners make hundreds of millions.
overpaid partners earn their fat undeserved salaries off of associates' backs. the $125k-$250k that 1st through 10th year associates make is a SMALL fraction of the amount the partners rake in from the billables they generate.
if you wanna give the associates a paycut, take a paycut yourself.
or, more to the point, when you want to post shit flame, learn some basic law firm economics before you mouth off.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:24 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
No, because it actually costs a lot of money to train and recruit associates. What, do you think those fancy restaurants provide the meals in the summer for free, as some gesture of good will? No.
During the first three years, associates are huge money-LOSERS, especially given all the things they fuck up that we have to fix. They're money-winners in the next few years, but they should be; they have to pay off their debts.
"if you wanna give the associates a paycut, take a paycut yourself."
This makes no sense. If everyone's pay were cut, then the money would just go back to the equity partners. Do you have any idea how partnerships work?
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:24 AM Author: deep up-to-no-good quadroon black woman
"No, because it actually costs a lot of money to train and recruit associates. What, do you think those fancy restaurants provide the meals in the summer for free, as some gesture of good will? No."
This is the typical crap that law firms dish out. We had a long thread debating this at one point, and I tended to agree with the people who say that this is bullshit. You guys still earn tons of money off first years. That PPP number doesn't come entirely from partner's schmoozing.
" If everyone's pay were cut, then the money would just go back to the equity partners. "
I think the poster was suggesting that you raise associate salaries, which would end up reducing your PPP because you'd have less profits.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:26 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
"I think the poster was suggesting that you raise associate salaries, which would end up reducing your PPP because you'd have less profits."
Now, why would we do that? When I was an associate, partners didn't cut their salaries so I, special little me, could have a fatter paycheck. If I cut the current crop a break, I'm putting myself at a severe loss.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:20 PM Author: razzmatazz jade step-uncle's house cuckold Subject: Cost
How much did your parents have to pay for lawschool?
Do you realize through the magic of interest, people can come out with HUGE six figure loans, which just keep magically expanding every single month, (a 7% interest rate is nothing to joke about).
You say kids are privileged to be making that much money, but is it really a privilege to be basically an indentured servant to your loan creditor?
Times have changed, and the world needs to keep adjusting.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:40 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Right, and that's combined. Also, they were in a line of work (PI) where money came in spurts, and might not come at all for some time. So there was a lot of risk involved (by "risk" I mean variance, aka standard deviation) and they spent several decades making much less than that.
$200-250k is solid for a couple in their fifties, but it's not extravagant. Two biglaw associates make that in their first year. My point is that it took them three decades to get up to a level of comfort you kids take for granted, and often consider not good enough.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:52 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
They never chased an ambulance, ever. They were always sure to be respectful of their client's needs and well-being. Unlike your generation, they had values, and they treated each of their clients as a person rather than as a cash cow.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:02 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
No. They helped people who had fallen into terrible situations recover from them. Unlike you selfish brats, they WANTED TO HELP PEOPLE. I know that this concept is impossible for your generation to understand.
This is the worst thread I've ever read. You sir, are an arrogant, ill-minded, smug old fucker who thinks your age makes you superior to other people because, after looking back upon a failed life, you've realized that years are all you have.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:09 AM Author: Cerebral skinny woman piazza
I think he's serious. While what he has to say is certainly offensive, and frankly the guy reminds me of Bill O'Reilly, I think he's quite serious in saying it. His opinions are not that far outside the mainstream for a "tough love" conservative in his 40s.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:09 PM Author: effete nursing home
No. He's an xoxoer. Partners are smarter than to do this kind of shit (even if they might share these sentiments) and more importantly the guy is using all kinds of abbreviations specific to the board.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:44 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Oh, $45-50/hour at 25, for intellectually stimulating work with no risk of physical injury in comfortable conditions, and with great exit options. Woe surely is you!
When I was growing up, we HAD to take real jobs in order to pay for college: UPS, truck driving during the summer, and bartending during the year. (You could bartend at 18 back then.) So we appreciated law because we had a basis for comparison. You kids have never worked real jobs before, so when you come in and it's not like undergrad, whcih babies you, you shit your pants.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:49 PM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
If you worked hard in REAL JOBS with real people, you'd know that $45-50/hour, with low variance, for a 25-year-old is a sweet deal. This is especially true when the work is intellectually stimulating and safe. Last time I checked, lawyers fall into machinery and die at their jobs.
If you will "continue to do so", work hard that is, you shouldn't have any objections to what I'm saying, because you'll have no problem making partner.
Date: February 10th, 2006 11:50 PM Author: stirring tantric gas station striped hyena
While it is true that our generation has never performed manual labor. We have not been living slothful or unproductive lives. We have focussed on our studies exclusively, and as a result, we are all Philosopher Kings.
This is the necessary path to take in contemporary times. With the world a smaller place due to globalization, philosopher kings are needed at the nucleus to serve the 6 billion+ international market. Needless to say the world's nucleus, or financial center, is America.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:00 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
"We have focussed on our studies exclusively, and as a result, we are all Philosopher Kings."
"Philosopher Kings"? Do you brats even know where that phrase comes from?
I can't believe you just said that. You kids don't have the right to call yourself "philosopher kings"; you let MTV and Comedy Central pass as philosophy. As for your "studies", most of you study such useless garbage in college, and don't even go to class half the time. You're not fooling anyone.
"With the world a smaller place due to globalization, philosopher kings are needed at the nucleus to serve the 6 billion+ international market."
Yes. I'm sure 6+ billion people, 75% of whom just worry about getting the day's food, are all going to stop in unison to listen to a bunch of spoiled, jejune, smarter-than-thou "philosopher kings" for how they should conduct their lives. At least the beatniks and the hippies knew they were irrelevant.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:08 AM Author: Concupiscible goyim love of her life
dude you are a an American dont pretend that you know hardship because you have no fucking idea. You did shit to earn your position in life when compared to what some people go through, okay. Bartending and working for UPS is nothing compared to what people in other countries consider normal. Go dig with a handmade shovel for 8 hours a day in a Ukrainian coal mine for a few years while earning an engineering degree at night and then get back to me.
Americans are a really funny people when it comes to thinking they know hard times because there isnt a person in this country who has went through truly hard times. Even the homeless in this society are in the top 20% of income earners world wide!
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:13 AM Author: stirring tantric gas station striped hyena
Damn kids. They're all alike...
But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of a philosopher king or hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a philosopher king, enter my world...
Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...
Damn underachiever. They're all alike.
I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."
Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.
I made a discovery today. I found a computer and database of infinite knowledge, known as the internet. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...
Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.
And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...
You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
I am a philosopher king, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:27 AM Author: stirring tantric gas station striped hyena
Thank you if things go my way I will run for the presidency. I will not have any xoxo'rs on my cabinet. EXCEPT for those that have displayed traits of PKs. Call me picky, hehe.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:32 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Why would I know anything about "The Hacker Manifesto"? Unlike your immoral, busted generation, I don't romanticize antisocial behaviors such as computer information theft.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:35 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
You don't have to know about it. I didn't. But I knew that asking the question you did was stupid. You only have to know how to use the most popular tool on the internet.
Old people sure are stupid these days.
Then again, you're not old. You're an xoxohth poster.
It was actually the original Greedy Associates who fucked things up in the OP's view, a decade ago. Trot out the old diatribes against Gunderson and the $125K starting salary.
Renada is far more to blame than the law students posting here. In fact, so is the OP. Since the 1st years' salaries were jacked up, the salaries of more senior associates were jacked up in proportion, to stop their whining and crying.
So, OP, look at the greedy thieving bastard in the mirror before you post here.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:01 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
The difference, though, is that partners take home only the money they make for the firm. Associates are given tenure only on a provisional basis; considering opportunity costs, they're money-losers.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:06 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
This is so inaccurate. Not only did partners prove themselves through an exhausting climb that took years, but they spent the time to nurture the contacts. Partners are the source of clientele, and without them, all the work would leave. Do you really think a roving band of socially-awkward 25-year-olds, who know fuck-all about law outisde of the classroom, could entice blue-chip clients to give them work? Obviously, the answer is no. Partners are the source of work.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:18 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
You clearly don't understand the working world. When you're 45, and have worked hard for decades to establish a reputation and nurture social relationships, you won't want some 25-year-old kid coming in and feeling entitled to the clientele and good name you broke your back to earn. It is a PRIVILEGE for them to be able to work with the clients we earned and associate with the good name we built.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:29 AM Author: lascivious confused sanctuary indirect expression
After the cows have received the privilege of delivering their milk to the farmer, they receive the further privilege of being ground up for the baloney that the OP is trying to peddle here.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:35 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Your analogy is utterly worthless; it makes no sense. Cows are milked heavily and then slaughtered for beef. Associates are given lots of money in a cushy job, only to be promoted to partner where they can be given MORE money for a cushy job.
Cows don't survive slaughter. I survived my associate years; I made extra efforts to do the work well, and I enjoyed them.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:44 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
My associate years were good. I like being a partner better, obviously, but it was better than mere "survival". I think, though, that my wife and my faith were invaluable in making me as productive and optimistic as I needed to be to become this successful.
Billables have gone up because people have gotten lazier and are doing less work per hour. Out of 100 billed hours, 15 are spent on the Internet, at this Fark.com site or whatever is all the rage these days, 10 are spent discussing movies on the cell phone, and 10 more are spent on extraneous trips to the coffee machine. So, of course billables are going up, given all the stuff that gets billed as "work" around a firm.
Partnership opportunities are dim for the same reasons: law schools have relaxed their standards, and associates are dumber, lazier, and with worse values than ever. Fewer of them make partner because most of them don't deserve it at all.
My time as an associate was NOT cushy. The percentages may have been better, but the competition was steep. People worked hard, real hard. Today, you kids can half-ass it and still get partner by your 9th year or so.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:51 AM Author: metal fear-inspiring trump supporter
right and clients don't complain?
if anything associates are getting more efficient. The very technology that you deride only serves as an electronic leash on today's "soft" associates. Hitting the books? Why bother when you have westlaw and lexis, which enables us to work at an efficiency your generation could never dream of. Blackberries? cellphones? we can even do work at home! We are on call 24 hours a day, to fully "service" the client, the very one you think we disrespect. Kids today work hard, damned hard. And we're twice as efficient as your generation.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:03 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
We give you those Blackberries and cell phones to make your lives more convenient, and the privilege of working at home should not be underestimated. Even when I was going through the process, if I wanted to work on a Saturday or Sunday, I had to spend 30 minutes, each way, getting into the office. So please don't complain, because we're giving you great opportunities, and to whine about the fact that we give you TOO MANY of them is just idiocy.
I'm sorry, but I don't think you kids work hard. You were raised by MTV, and you think posting on Fark.com constitutes acceptable workplace behavior.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:43 AM Author: lascivious confused sanctuary indirect expression
If the ratio of associates to partner is 5 to one, but the firm grows at only 5% per year, then only one of 20 incoming associates can make partner. The rest are culled and slaughtered.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:46 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
They aren't "culled and slaughtered"; they have great exit options. They aren't even fired, most of the time. If they want to stay on at an advanced associate salary indefinitely, they can.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:51 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Most associates don't go to work in the meatpacking industry, actually. They go in-house at companies, or to smaller firms, or into investment banking. It's a pretty fucking sweet life and only a bunch of spoiled brats would be unable to appreciate it.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:55 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
You've obviously never worked in a law firm. Associates come out of them, even if not promoted to partners, with much better lives and life prospects then they had when they entered. If "by onto the sidewalk" you mean, sent into great in-house jobs, at smaller firms, or in banking, then you might have some fraction of a point.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:57 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I wouldn't want to be an analyst at one of those, but most attorneys are hired at the associate level, which allows them to bypass the worst of the hours and pressure.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:37 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
It's probably rare because most lawyers don't want to suffer the long hours and pressure of investment banking. Law wins in terms of lifestyle and job security.
A mediocre student at a good school can become an investment banker right out of college. Whereas law takes brains and effort. So, pretty much any lawyer can be an investment banker if he wants.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:55 AM Author: lascivious confused sanctuary indirect expression
I forgot to address this issue: when you're 45 and spent a dozen years schmoozing instead of working -- living off the backs of others -- you ought to feel ashamed of yourself.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:06 AM Author: hot mauve blood rage stead
Finally, someone speaks the truth. You are all a bunch of whiney fucks who know absolutely nothing about the real world, let alone the legal world, and you certainly wouldn't know a god damn thing about actually doing something called work. You expect everyone to hand everything to you and then fucking whine about it when it isn't handed to you in that idealized little packaged form that you have created in your twisted, demented little heads. I hope every single one of those coveted firms ding you at OCI or fire you within the year after you are hired when the firm finds out what pathetic little ingrates you people really are.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:28 AM Author: hot mauve blood rage stead
If by that you mean whining and expecting everything to be handed to me like a child, you are correct. If your powers of imagination are taking you elsewhere in this conversation by assuming I am a partner or an associate waiting to be a partner or whatever else you choose to assume about me to justify your own obvious guilt about being a worthless pathetic fuck, then you might want to actually base that on something resembling a fact.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:11 AM Author: Concupiscible goyim love of her life
there is absolutely nothing in life that you need to be grateful for because you either a)earned it with your own sweat or b) it fell into your lap thanks to the law of large number in which case there is no point in being grateful to the law of averages since it isnt a living breathing thing.
Conversely when bad shit happens you either a)did something that brought it on or b) the law of large number fucked you for a change.
Gratitude is a TTT religous/philisophical/puritanical idea for which there is very little logic basis.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:15 AM Author: seedy puppy nibblets
"the obsession over "Profits Per Partner" means that a firm that has a couple of bad years goes into the toilet in terms of reputation, clientele, and standing."
yeah, i heard that chase is severing all ties w/milbank because someone here said they were a ttt.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:29 AM Author: Cowardly fortuitous meteor
POW! you get the big prize. it's a little known fact that nobody talks about xoxo in law school, or at work. they may visit, sure, but nobody talks about it. this guy is flame.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:59 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I don't think it's that bad. I had only heard it mentioned in passing by a couple of associates, and not as if it were anything dirty. It wouldn't seem like such a big deal to me.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:02 AM Author: hot mauve blood rage stead
Let's just say that if you stuck around long enough to see more of what goes on here, you'd see why no one would admit to coming here, especially in the context of a professional environment.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:36 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I overheard, and it was only mentioned in passing. Given the behaviors I see on this site, I can understand that someone wouldn't want to admit posting to it.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:25 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
then don't pay so much. it's your firm; take control. no one's forcing you to pay $145k. go ahead an pay $100k. go look for those earnest souls with justice in their veins. there's nothing stopping you.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:28 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
The problem is that if we set salaries at $100k, not only will associates not want to work with us, but it will hurt our image. Image means a lot in this business, and associate payscale is often taken to represent the health of the firm. This is exactly why we pay you kids such inflated, undeserved salaries.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:53 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Yes, and those loans were taken because the loanee paid for an EDUCATION. He got something in return; it can't be said that he spent that loan money on something he didn't find worthwhile and useful.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:57 AM Author: lascivious confused sanctuary indirect expression
The loan is the cost of processing an asset into a useful form. Lawfirms should pay law students' tuition, since the firm derives the benefits from their education.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:24 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
No, really we shouldn't pay a dime for their tuition. They go to these schools because they want to work for us and employers like us, and know full well that they'll have to pay for the privilege of having such an elite education. There's nothing wrong with the system as-is; it shouldn't change.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:01 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
And law firms spend money on electricity, water, and office space. They get something useful from it. But they aren't so foolish as to think that the money spent on those things is income. They're requisites of doing business, just as a law school education is necessary for a lawyer to go about his business. And we shouldn't be so foolish as to think that the money spent on that education should count as income.
And don't ever use an unnecessary shitball of negatives like that again.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:28 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
The electricity and water are necessities; that's different. Education is a luxury. It's a PRIVILEGE, and one that the average blue-collar worker would be thankful to have.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:50 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Office space is also a necessity for a firm.
Law school is necessary if you want to work *as a lawyer*, but you didn't have to enter law. You could have chosen to work as something else, like a teacher or doctor. Entry into this profession is a privilege, not a right.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:58 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
"Office space is also a necessity for a firm."
A legal education is necessary for lawyers.
"Law school is necessary if you want to work *as a lawyer*, but you didn't have to enter law."
Electricity, water, and office space are necessary if you want to operate a business *as a law firm*, but you don't have to run a law firm.
"You could have chosen to work as something else..."
You could have chosen to run a different business.
"...like a teacher or doctor."
...like a gas station or hot dog seller.
"Entry into this profession is a privilege, not a right."
Irrelevant. You're getting your ass kicked. You either will be or are a shitty lawyer. There's no doubt about that. The point is that costs of doing business are not properly called income in this case.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:01 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I agree that costs of doing business are not usually counted as income. However, consider all the things that come along with a law school education, all the privileges, even outside of the ability to work in this great profession. You get three years to associate with bright, interesting people. You get an education that improves you as a person as much as it does you as a lawyer. You get an all-around great experience. It'd be worth it even if it weren't lucrative. It's a luxury, an asset to one's life, and it counts as a benefit. If anything, law school is underpriced.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:10 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
No, my point is valid. Education is a luxury and a service, and usually priced below the actual costs. You're privileged if you get the chance to attend a law school, especially if it's any good one.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:11 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
Yeah, there are benefits to electricity, water, and office space, too. The point, to which the first sentence of your post concedes, is that my claim regarding the accounting of income was right.
"If anything, law school is underpriced."
It's so underpriced that applications to law school are dropping!
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:19 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
They're probably dropping because websites like this make partners sound like horrid assholes (when, in fact, I find my fellow partners to be a great group of people) and biglaw sound like a labor camp. No wonder fewer applications are being sent.
Date: February 11th, 2006 7:38 AM Author: Startled indecent round eye university
right, the idea that biglaw is like a labor camp has nothing to do with how associates are actually treated and everything to do with internet message boards...
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:33 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
Of course they'll want to work for you! You're going to look for those earnest souls, remember?
But then you say, "This is exactly why we pay you kids such inflated, undeserved salaries." Then quit bitching. You're being rewarded for what you're paying.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:27 AM Author: Mind-boggling rebellious shitlib
I find it amusing to think that, if the OP were to compete in the current law school admissions climate, he wouldn't have gotten into his school. The OP forgets who he is talking to: the upper rung. We know how to work for success, we wouldn't be elite if we didn't.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:08 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I enjoy my work too much to think about retirement. Plus, I'm not saying that the associates would be at $65k the whole time. It's just that I'd start them there.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:04 AM Author: saffron excitant church background story
$65k! Hah, hah, hah. After accounting for loans, that's about the equivalent of $47k. Sounds like a great deal. I'd love to go to 7 years of higher education for a whopping $47k/year. Then again, maybe I'll just go to Hamburger University and become a manager at McDonalds.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:15 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
A lot of people would go through 7 years of higher education for that salary. Your teachers and professors would think $47k is pretty good for a 25-year-old. Postdocs don't pay that much, nor do residencies.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:52 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Professors have almost no geographic mobility, and a 50% or worse chance of putting in all that time on the PhD NOT to get any academic job at all. Moreover, their perceived autonomy comes at a price; if they want tenure, they better find the "right" area and work in precisely it, because in anything else, their futures are doomed.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:15 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Yes, but I would argue that, because doctors have to go through more rigorous training, higher admissions requirements, and take on more risk, they deserve higher pay.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:37 PM Author: razzmatazz jade step-uncle's house cuckold
an engineering PhD will get you six figures. I don't know about other PhDs but I know a lot of engineering PhDs and they all have gotten 6 figure salaries.
Date: February 11th, 2006 3:25 PM Author: Out-of-control Lime State
"A lot of people would go through 7 years of higher education for that salary."
This makes no sense. The only reason someone would go through 7 years for that kind of salary is if the difference between that and the salary they could have gotten otherwise was substantial. You are completely ignoring the opportunity cost here. Since many law students could easily have achieved $47K after merely 4 years of higher education, there would be no incentive to go through the work and struggle of three more years of school.
Date: March 3rd, 2006 10:51 PM Author: Irradiated cuck Subject: This is all BS
A friend's son linked me to this particular post which he got off of the greedyassociates site.
This guy is either pulling your collective chains or he is the most misinformed partner I have ever encountered.
Partnership prospects: any intellectually honest partner will acknowledge that partnership is not a pure meritocracy (or even popularity contest)... luck, business environment, and the firm's overall business plan play a pretty large role in the partnership decision and if you are in the right place at the right time, your chances of partnership are better than a more meritorious associate who is in the wrong department. The idea that they would make every associate a partner if they had the raw ability and worked really hard is total bullsh*t and most people realize it by the time they are mid-level associates.
career oportunities, you guys are all over-paid BUT the likelihood is that after about 5 or 6 years you will be taking a pretty large pay cut and will have saved AT MOST a couple of hundred thousand dollars, your I-banking counterparts see the axe fall a little sooner (about their 4th year) but they can squirrel away a million in that time if they do not live extravagantly. The idea that any significant percentage of biglaw associates go to i-banking, in house positions and become partners at lower tier firms is just not true. You are very likely to take a significant pay cut some time around your 5th or 6th year, when I left biglaw in my 6th year, there were only 6 people left from my first year class. Today, less than 10 of the 70 first years ended up at an I'bank or as partner in a firm with a name you would recognize, NONE made partner at the firm we started in. The rest end in various other places that involve a pay cut of some sort.
65K is just a ridiculous starting salary. If the poster is indeed 43 years old then this is approximately what his starting salary was when HE was a first year associate.
quality of work: the work is not really all that interesting and intellectually stimulating, there are just really big dollar figures attached to the deals. The deals are really complicated and neat to start with but by the time you are doing your 5th similar deal at 10 p.m. on Sunday, its stops being so much fun.
profitablity of associates: don't fool yourself, you are utterly unprofitable during your first year; most of you will be profitable by your second year. Leverage is an indispensible part of biglaw's economic formula, you just don't get to 3 million dollars in profits per partner without leverage.
Anyone who thinks of professions (especially biglaw) in terms of nobility is even more of a prestige whore than first year assocaites tend to be.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:09 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I think people like he and pensive are going to get smacked in their first 6 months in a real law firm. After getting humbled, they'll probably be fine. I was somewhat cocky when I was 23, as well. I took a year off between college and law school, because I really needed to mature.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:14 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I don't know enough about them. If I were in a position that I could hire them and not have shit fall on me if they pissed anyone off, then I would. Pensive seems to have an analytical mind, and 174 is pretty knowledgeable. Both of them are pretty funny, too, so if they interviewed well I'd assume their offline social skills are better than their online personae.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:48 AM Author: Razzle-dazzle Meetinghouse Ape
A prestige whore is someone who bashes lower-ranked schools and firms and will sacrifice things solely for prestige. 174 bashes lifestyle firms all the time and says if you don't work for a Vault 10 in NYC you are a loser.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:00 AM Author: Razzle-dazzle Meetinghouse Ape
Pensive bashes people based on social class and calls them "loser-fuckers." Pensive is a math grad student and doesn't care about law school. 174 is allegedly a 2l or 3l at a top law school.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:35 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
Right, but you should start a thread to let the board know that you suspect 174 and pensive to be the same person, so they can't try to play themselves off as two different people.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:37 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I had heard "third-tier toilet" before. I just never made the connection.
I wouldn't call myself "versed", but I've read sporadic threads and there were some where people were called pensive or 174 when, at least by name, they didn't seem to be.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:14 AM Author: hot mauve blood rage stead
What are the top three things you look for when interviewing a potential new associate? What are some of the wrong things to do that wouldn't necessarily seem obvious? How can someone really ace an interview?
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:20 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
1. We look for an analytical mind. That's different from being smart. A person needs to make it clear that he has the analytical sort of mindset law requires. Most law students don't.
2. We look for evidence of a work ethic. Too many kids these days skirt through law schools... especially Harvard and Yale. We look for someone who can stay late or put in extra effort to get a job done right.
3. Good judgment.
Wrong things: don't talk about money or class, even by indirect association. Don't try to show off your knowledge of sailing or your prestigious lineage. We're not that impressed. We just care about the work you will do for us.
Acing an interview: be who you are, but be your best self. Treat the interview with seriousness and respect as if you were meeting a prospective wife's parents.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:23 AM Author: hot mauve blood rage stead
How much of a disadvantage will a non-trad student (a little older but not a lot) have if they have good grades and a previous career in the same type of legal field that they are interviewing for now? Should they play down the non-trad and play up the previous career, or does it matter?
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:29 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
"Non-trad" students have an advantage because they are more mature and, most importantly, have worked in real jobs before. However, we're not particularly ageist. We just care about the work you can do.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:44 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I don't talk about my faith much, nor about my sexy, briliant wife (she's a writer) but I think that, in general, the 26-33 years are very trying. You go into them with unrealistic expectations, and they come upon you with crashing force. So, I think that religion helped me put everything in perspective and keep a level head. I needed to go into work every day with my best self, and that's not always easy.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:48 AM Author: deep up-to-no-good quadroon black woman
What were your unrealistic expectations? Sounds like you made partner - not too shabby.
I always think going to a firm and hoping to make partner is, in itself, an unrealistic expectation these days, especially at a V10 in NYC.
I only ask about the faith thing because I am not married and probably won't be until i'm in my early 30s... but i'm pretty pissed at the church so i'm currently on my own as far as the self sorta stuff.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:57 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
I thought that I was going to make major waves in politics and culture, be writing articles for The New Yorker every month, and have a dazzling life full of fun parties. That didn't happen. Instead, I have a wife and two kids. I read a few novels a year, go to a board games group, and take two trips for flyfishing per year. It's a good life, but I'm not famous and important the way I thought I was going to be.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:01 AM Author: deep up-to-no-good quadroon black woman
that's fair. I think I've given up on most of that already, except the occasionally dream that i'll be a Senator or a CEO. But I think that is more of a daydream than an expectaion.
unfortunately, most law school kids want to be partner, and given the statistics their chances are awful low. I think its a little distressing that you think so many kids show up and are lazy. I know a fair number who are not, but I'm not sure we are going to do any better as far as partnership is concerned.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:13 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
These kids, who seem hardworking and don't make partner, aren't. They got into Ivy League colleges and top law schools by making it look like they were doing something important, that they were smart and on top of shit. They really have nothing to them whatsoever, and when they have to get set to real work, that actually affects the world, they can't do it.
No one who works hard gets shut out of partnership; the system is entirely fair and meritocratic. People who can't handle meritocracy, because they come up on the short end in talent, are the ones who end up complaining about the supposed unfairness of the system. If you work hard, you will make partner.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:19 AM Author: deep up-to-no-good quadroon black woman
hmm... now I really think you are a partner.
well, I didn't go to an ivy league college so perhaps this is an advantage. my theory on this, though, is to go into it and work hard - if i make partner, great, but given that is at least 10 years down the road its stupid of me to worry about it now.
Date: February 11th, 2006 1:51 AM Author: lascivious confused sanctuary indirect expression
This is the first thing you've posted that's not bullshit. Ages 26-33 are very trying, and you need a core belief to help you put up with the daily bullshit and disappointments.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:07 AM Author: Umber contagious psychic jew
You should try just deciding to enjoy work. There's a saying about a lie that makes itself true.
School conditions us to think of work as unpleasant, but when you get into the real world, it's the only thing there is. Relationships are work. Art is work. Even religion is work. Everything is work; it takes a lot of effort to do anything useful. So if you don't enjoy work, you're fucked for life.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:21 AM Author: Grizzly Boyish Personal Credit Line Affirmative Action
Thanks for dropping by to talk with us. I recently saw a graph indicating a sharp recent drop in respect for lawyers in the United States relative to other professions.
Date: February 11th, 2006 2:54 AM Author: supple dead school
To my way of thinking, that is a necessary but not sufficient condition. We partners demand much of those who seek to become our esteemed peers in this noble calling.
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:12 PM Author: Translucent cruise ship
Although I'm inclined to agree with you about the flame--it's heavy handed and not very funny--at the same time, it seems like a bit of flame that attracts 300+ posts in a couple of days is by definition successful, right?
Date: February 11th, 2006 12:43 PM Author: Jet-lagged space
Law school in general is a huge waste of time. The OP mentioned that law school is so expensive because it opens a host of opportunities - I certainly haven't seen those opportunities nor have most of the people I go to school with. We are still waiting for those "opportunities" while taking worthless clerical jobs that pay perhaps less then we made then when we went to law school. Law school only pays off for the top 14 schools and the top ten percent of the other schools. For those of us gullible enough to go to other schools, law school is nothing less then a tremendous disater.
The posters who attacked PES Vine were right to do so. The generations above-- Baby Boomers are the worst-- have sold this country out by turning the professions into pyramid schemes. This isn't just a problem with law, but banking, consulting, and academia. Under the guise of meritocracy, they use an almost Prussian "toughness" philosophy to sell declining conditions (longer hours, shittier prospects) to the rising generation. Of course, no one's "allowed" to complain about this in public, lest they be depicted as weak for not being able to hack the tougher system.
A few people-- rich, old, selfish fuckers-- are making out like bandits under this system, as are a few "stars" among the younger generation... these "stars" are not chosen by merit (except possibly in academia... and I say this without interest because I'm not an academic star) but manufactured in order to create an illusion of upward mobility. It's a pretty disgusting system, but it's not going away unless those who can do so take this country back by force. Even with economic expansion, the past couple decades have been a period of depressing sociological contraction: fewer good job positions, rising healthcare costs, housing inflation. A small unscrupulous set of people are getting really rich off this. (Honestly, given than something like 20% of college grads end up unemployed, and another 20-30% underemployed, and a lot without health insurance, this situation is very close to deserving forceful-- even violent if necessary-- opposition.)
I do agree with P.E.S. Vine that $125k is nothing to complain about. The conditions I-bank analysts and firm lawyers face are pretty shitty, but the money is not something that deserves complaint. And yes, I do think that people who complain about the money-- rather than other things that deserve complaint-- in biglaw are pretty spoiled. I also think most people on this board tend to lack perspective, because the "pyramid scheme" phenomenon isn't limited only to biglaw; the whole society has become that way.
Date: February 11th, 2006 5:18 PM Author: trip den
Hello Pensive,
It was indeed a good flame. I must say that I concur with the fictitious moniker’s sentiments that there is a sense of entitlement among many younger people and that many of the people on the board have never worked real jobs and hence have no basis for comparison when they deride the number of hours that people are supposed to work in Biglaw.
However, you are absolutely correct when you say that the way this country is presently run amounts to nothing more than a gigantic pyramid scheme. We see this in the general decline of the middle class during the past couple of decades. Forty years ago a person could afford to support a spouse and children on a working class income. Today, we often need to breadwinners simply to make ends meet. Sure, we have bigger houses and many more technological gadgets such as cell phones, cable Internet, and satellite television that we did not a generation ago. Nevertheless, the decline of the middle class is obvious to the canniest of observers.
We find a situation where the wealthy are becoming wealthier and the middle class is vanishing. At the same time, the ranks of the poor are increased by those that have been displaced from the middle class and the hordes of immigrants that are lowering our standard of living with their cheap labor and permanently scaring the country. Of course, I do not fault the immigrants from coming here (I want all of them kicked out), though I do fault the international oligarch of criminals that run multinational companies for their presence here. These people want to transform the world into something along the lines of a giant international plantation in which the people of the world are enslaved to a handful of grossly wealthy individuals.
There is much more to this phenomenon than I have outlined in this post, so my explanation is somewhat incomplete. Nevertheless, it is up to the aspiring leaders of this new generation to destroy the present corrupt order and replace it with something better. Otherwise are lives will have little meaning as we do nothing but try to amass as many things while we leave the next generation with a world that is far worse than the one we inherited.
By the way, I was recently accused of being you. I am not sure how people arrive at such notions. I suppose it is simply because you use numerous monikers in order to convey certain points.
Date: April 28th, 2006 3:16 PM Author: Stimulating pervert
I don't know or care who Patrick Vine is...but I do agree with what he is saying regardless of who he is. My personal experience w/friends who are lawyers conforms with Patrick Vine's words.
I agree we are rapaciously greedy, the loans just make us more so. Even without HUGE loans and debts most of us lawyers and law students especially the ones who attend the top LS would still bitch about how crappy 100K salaries are. All we talk about is money...we try to get into the best law school possible because it increases our chances of getting 125K starting. I "feel" lawyers are the greediest of the bunch.
Date: April 28th, 2006 3:44 PM Author: Stimulating pervert
"125K is garbage."
125K in 2006 dollars puts us above 95percentile in earning in the USA, so that's not garbage.
"get with the times"
Currently i work in teh engineering field and make around 60K. So becoming a lawyer coming out of a top 10 is a sweet deal.
"what self-respecting T14 grad would accept such a TTT starting salary?"
This statement makes no sense. If you come out of a top 10 or 15 law school, and forego the opportunity to make 125K but isntead make 45K and work represent poor people...that's pretty honorable in my eyes. If you have debt and still take a 45K work that's saintly.
Date: April 28th, 2006 4:07 PM Author: Stimulating pervert
I do know CAlifornia and Texas...and coming out of a top 10-15 law school i can probably get a job paying 100K or more in CA or Texas and i know there 100K will give me a comfortable living once debts (if there is any) are paid off. 10 years down the line being a lawyer from a top 10-15 law school will beat being an engineer (in terms of making cash). I have nothing to complain about. The reason why I agree with Patrick is because of my observations of my friends who go to the top law schools (top 10) and myself. I know I am greedy and patrick does hit the note. I'm a smart guy who wants to make lots of money. I have no care for others. But I feel bad about what I've become. Guys like Patrick regardless if he's a real or phony makes you think about yourself and your goals and how I've grown different from what I used to be in elementary school or junior high. Priority <--> $.
I still want to make money, but I think what I have to really consider is, when the day comes and I'm semi-wealthy, will I continue to try hard to rake in cash...or will I devote a substantial amount of my energies to pro bono and helping the poor. I doubt most top 10-15 LS lawyers will do that..heck even the top 100 LS lawyers if they could, would prefer making more $ then helping out others, even when $ becomes irrelevant to their survival becuz they have so much of it. What will be the choice then? If I already start out complainig about making 125K, knowing fully well my top law degree and hard work will pay off, what will become of me once I everything is paid off..I'll still be complainig about my 250K a year job...these habits of greed we develop don't go away because we make more money and $ becomes irrelevant. At least part of what Patrick is trying to do is to get us to understand if we are to become noble lawyers we have to start out on teh right path...and complaining about 125K is not starting out on teh right path.
Date: April 28th, 2006 6:25 PM Author: effete nursing home
This was actually a good flame idea, but it's sad that it wasn't a better-executed. Whoever did it gets props for the concept, but getting into the whole 174/pensive/moniker debate was a really silly error and he should have done more research. This would have been a better thread coming from an elderly partner. The young ones these days were greedy associates raised on the same model we were. "I-bankers" was a bad move too. I don't think I've heard a lawyer call them that - it's always just bankers.