Life, Death, and Halter Tops

There have only been a handful of moments in my legal career—nay, in my life—when I’ve felt there was a decent possibility that all the people surrounding me in a particular space were about to collectively crouch down, bare fangs, and storm forward in a sweeping, feral frenzy of rage, ripping out the throat of whichever poor bastard happened to be in charge.  Typically, this feeling has only kicked in while, say, waiting on the tarmac at O’Hare during a blizzard, or sitting in my 1L Property Law class on the day my professor announced that she didn’t believe in teaching black letter law. But last Thursday, it happened in a 6th floor conference room in my tense, hungry little corner of BigLaw. [Read more]

What Do I Do with a Rescinded Offer?

Q:  I’m a second-year law student at a Tier 1 school. I finished my 1L year in the Top 10% and I’m on secondary journal and moot court. During OCI, I thought all was going well. I had about 25 interviews and received 15 callbacks. Then the economy came crashing down. I struck out on callback after callback until I finally received an offer from a mid-sized firm paying market. Hooray for me, right? Wrong! Recently I was told (surprisingly this has not made ATL) that they were rescinding my offer. To make things worse, my grades suffered from all the callbacks and I dropped from 10% to 25% (I got a dreaded C). So right now I’m applying to each and every single job that I can get my grubby little hands on.

So…all that being said, am I completely shut out of BigLaw? I mean, now my resume for 2L summer won’t say something as glamorous as Summer Associate, and who knows what I’ll be able to get my hands on with such short notice. Thanks! [Read more]

What’s Good Headhunter Protocol?

Q:  I’m an associate at a NY-based firm that just finished massive stealth layoffs, firings,  fake “performance terminations,” whatever you want to call them.  I didn’t get shown the door this time around but I have to try to get out of here if I can—everyone around here is sure there’s going to be more layoffs soon and I want to take advantage of whatever little is available out there in the market.   I’ve been getting calls from headhunters but am not sure for the protocol on how to deal with them at work, and I don’t want to ask any of my colleagues in case they think I’ve secretly been laid off.  (I know this is paranoid, but that is the state of things at my firm.)  Is it a bad idea to conduct headhunter calls from work, use work emails, etc.?  I’m not going to majorly obvious about it, of course, but I’m just not sure what the proper protocol is here.  Thanks. [Read more]

The Layoff Code

You may not be aware of it, but you have the same problem I do: Them.  We see Them every day—in the firm’s dining room, in the hallways, in the elevator banks.  Even if we don’t realize it, They’re all around us.  Hell, some of Them are us.  They’re a constant reminder of our BigLaw mortality, a reminder that no matter how much of a superstar you may think you are at your firm, you’re always just a few billable hours away from joining Their ranks: victims of stealth layoffs.  And no, I can’t figure out how to act around Them, either. [Read more]

How Do I Handle a Bad Law-School Hook-Up?

Q:  OK, so I did something bad. I’m at a top 30 law school and I hooked up with a classmate.  He’s been kind of distant and is now saying we should just be friends.  I know it was just a bad bad idea to begin with, but, what’s the best course of action from here on out? Block him from Gchat, Facebook?  Or just act like nothing happened and forget about all of this nonsense?  I’ve just never been the type of girl to hook up with a guy without being in a relationship so I’m kind of at a loss about why he doesn’t have feelings for me and what to do from here on out. [Read more]