Retirement from the Law at 26: True Story.

A Canadian Lawyer, Chris Graham, won the law school jackpot. He scored a Big Law Job as a Corporate Lawyer.  For the first few months, his position was admirable:

Ever leave a meeting at 2 p.m. and read about it on the New York Timeswebsite before dinner? (To be fair, this is more likely to happen when a major investment bank has recently declared bankruptcy.) Ever worked pro bono for hedge funds? Savour that for a moment. Then savour the case of champagne that arrives in your office when the project is finished. “Thanks for all your effort.”

Need to get documents to a client on short notice? “No problem. We'll send the corporate helicopter.” Just for documents.

That's exactly what many lemmings dream of when they enroll in law school.  But they don't realize the collateral damage that it causes:

That spring I found and lost a beautiful woman, then spent the summer thinking about what she had showed me about time, which turned out to be my side of the bargain with the firm. I get serious work and a generous salary; it gets my time, whenever it wants, as much as it wants.  

Yes.  Big Firm Life, lack thereof, is a tumultuous one.  Mr. Graham explains it beautifully.  Once you scored the job, your life is no longer linear.  It begins to have as many up and downs as the U.S. economy.  Sometimes you're working late into the night, and showing back up at 7:00 a.m. to "finish a deal."  Other times, you're twiddling your thumbs--terrified that you're never going to find enough work  to meet your billable hour requirements.  The unpredictability is agonizing:

Think of a graph showing your hours worked each day for a year. The regression line is not especially high, but the standard deviation is outrageous. That's life as a corporate lawyer.

For some people (perhaps many, judging by the number of corporate lawyers in the world), this sort of arrangement is fine. Standard. Life would be boring if you always knew what was coming.

It took a year to realize this is not me. Reacting to changing circumstances is one thing; being told how to react, and when to react, is another. My graph was a cardiogram, all heart attacks and comas. 

So this Canadian did what so many lawyers wish they could do.  He quit and went back to college to get a different B.A.   He went to Oxford, actually.  He majored in History and Politics so that he could do what he tried and failed to do in his limited free time--read and write.  It's funny because so many law students choose this very same major and find that it doesn't lead to gainful employment.  Maybe it doesn't lead to gainful employment when you already have loans for college?  But Mr. Graham had an advantageous position.  He used his BigLaw salary to save up for the additional schooling.  I suspect that he didn't have loans from law school either.  So, he was free to pursue intellectual satisfaction.  I hope he reads this post and corrects me if I'm wrong.

So, he retired from BigLaw at 26.  Lucky Canuck.  Good luck and a big thank you to him for putting out a realistic portrayal of life in BigLaw.

The Myth of Partnership

I realize that most of my readers can only dream of working at a large firm--so what happens once you get there is probably beyond the scope of what you can think about today, when you're unemployed and living in your parent's basement.

However, it's something that should be discussed in light of the theme here: the law school scam.  When you sign up for law school, when you're a bright eyed and bushy tailed lemming, you think about the prospect of making partner.  That's the way that you decided you may make your millions.  You have a chance, right?  Wrong.

When I signed up for the dream, I was told that you could potentially make partner in five years. I understood the "over and out" Cravath System--probably not as well as I know it today.  But the chance, the glimmer of hope, was there.

Since then, the track for partnership has lengthened:
An associate may have to wait as long as 9 years before the decision is made as to whether the associate "makes partner." Many law firms have an "up or out policy" (pioneered around 1900 by partner Paul Cravath of Cravath, Swaine & Moore[2]): associates who do not make partner are required to resign, either to join another firm, go it alone as a solo practitioner, go to work in-house in a corporate legal department, or change professions (burnout rates are very high in law[3]). [as per Wiki]

Fast forward several years, to when I was working in Big Law. I noticed that the only people who seemed to become partners were outsiders.  The criteria for becoming a partner seemed to change from working hard and making your billable hour requirements, to your ability to bring in business.  I will be the first person to say that law firms are inept at business.  However, this trend makes sense.  It just sucks for those who devote 9 years of their life and their most productive years, only to be pushed out by a stranger to the firm. I guess it's the difference between those who appreciate Derek Jeter as a home grown Yankee to A-Rod, a great import.  Some people say that A-Rod will never be as loved as Jeter, because he's not really a Yankee in the way that Jeter is.

Then, in combing the news on google, I noticed the trend to take in high powered outsiders with influence and clients is the way to become partner at a large firm.

So, how does this tie into the scam?  If the partnership track has lengthened from five years, to nine and then perhaps not at all, why has the cost of a law school education quadrupled?  I'm not saying that everyone that goes to law school thinks they are going to become partner, or even wants to.  However, if it's not longer a part of the plethora of options as a J.D., why would you pay more for the J.D.?

Do you know anyone who has made partner at a top 200 law firm?

Food for thought.