Firm Rejection Letter: II

Actual Gchat conversation with a mutual friend of Cat & yours truly...xxxxxx is a first-year associate at a BigLaw firm:

...
xxxxxx: also

law firms are so great

me: haha. well, [the firm you work at] sent me a rejection letter yesterday, after *I* REJECTED *THEM* three or four weeks ago.

xxxxxx: HAHAHA

that's awesome

i told them to do it

i said it would be awkward to work with you

me: ahhh

xxxxxx: i'm a pretty big wheel at [my firm]

me: oh yeah? a squeaky one?

xxxxxx: i get so much grease

me: eew?

xxxxxx: i'm not sure what that even means

Decided.

Yesterday I finally made a series of "Thanks, but no thanks" calls to law firms that had generously offered me a place in their summer associate class but where I wasn't ultimately going to accept an offer. Basically, I was anticipating the most awkward phone calls ever.

Fortunately, every HR person I spoke with was absolutely wonderful; while expressing regret that I wasn't going to be joining them, they were friendly and encouraging and welcomed me to get back in touch down the road if my career plans changed [I don't know if that's just part of the schtick...but it sounded nice at the time].

So now, I'm settled; I know which firm I'll be at next summer. I have a city whose Craigslist apartment ads I can start perusing when I want to procrastinate [just doing my research...]. And I can hopefully be at least something closer to a real student, and not a vagabond who hasn't slept in her own bed in literally 14 weekends. Hooray.

**

Firm Rejection Letter

I have gotten a lot of rejection letters from law firms. Most were really polite, but there have been some doozys. Up until today, my favorite was the firm that sent me a rejection letter postdated two days after I had withdrawn myself from consideration at their firm. (I guess to show me just where I stood.) However, I can't resist sharing my new favorite:




In case you can't read it - I think it expands if you click on it, but posting this pushed the limits of my technological abilities - it says:

"Thank you for taking the time to meet with our Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher recruiters on campus at [school name] last August [September for Penn]. Please accept our apologies for the delay in communicating with you following our on-campus interviews.

We are now coming to the end of our recruiting process, and we do not anticipate extending additional callbacks. However, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for your interest in our firm and also to wish you all the best as you complete your degree and begin your legal career."

I'll point out that their legal recruiter was actually very friendly when we met on campus, and it seemed like a great firm to work for. Still . . .

Time for a Break

Today's the official beginning of fall break - formerly known as fly-back week - around here. It's not really fly-back week anymore, since most of us 2Ls are finished with interviews and happily settled (or happily unsettled) on our summer job details for next year. Without official business to attend to, we're free to decide how much work to do over the next week or so. The dramatic drop-off in new messages flowing into my inbox today suggests that a lot of people really need - and are going to take advantage of - a real break.

I am SO excited to be going away on vacation, even if the weather forecast looks like it'll be a bit wetter than we'd like on our Caribbean island of choice. Still, unlimited fruity drinks & no-alarm mornings are luxuries that are welcome in any climate. Today I spent about an hour making photocopies of my tax and insurance readings so that I don't have to lug a huge law book around the beach. And I have grand plans to *finally* finish The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer - almost 11 months after starting. Plus I've been speeding through Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo, who might just be my new favorite author.

Off to pack...
**

An Ode to Clinicals

HLS offers some amazing clinicals. You can work in local Boston legal aid offices, for foreign war crimes prosecution tribunals, for a professor about to argue before the Supreme Court, for the child protection unit of the D.A.'s office . . . the list goes on and on. If pressed, I would say that clinicals are my favorite part about 2L year (although it's pretty hard to pick). Keeping in line with SB, here's a list about them. Specifically, a list of the benefits. I can think of no downsides, unless you're just not interested in doing a clinical. Which, to be honest, may be a bit crazy.

1. 2-3 credits. No exam. No reading. No notes. Need I say more?

2. The opportunity to work somewhere totally awesome.

3. The opportunity to work somewhere that you want to work after graduation.

4. This may be clear from 1., but honestly, I find it to be a giant relief to spent part of my week actually working. I love law school, but at the ending of the day, most of it is just busy work to prove you're smart enough to get job X.

5. There is usually an attached class to clinical. The class will (probably) be a lot of fun, as you spend time reading and talking about the things you're doing.

I could go on, but . . . I've just realized I've got to hop in the shower and head off to *my* clinical today. Happy Wednesday!

Fell Off the Wagon

I had been doing really well with staying caught up on my class reading this semester. Better than I had all last year - even better than during the first few weeks of 1L fall, when I was pretty much just overwhelmed. For the past four weeks, I'd done all my federal tax reading! All my neuroscience & the law reading! Even (okay, almost) all my insurance & public policy reading!

Then something happened. I don't know what it was. Probably the nine & counting straight weekends of traveling. Maybe the change in weather. Maybe the explosion of my inbox while I was in dialup-only internet access territory this past weekend. Maybe the realization that if I didn't do all my reading last year and it turned out okay, I probably don't need to do all my reading this year. Whatever it was, I hit the proverbial wall some time on Sunday/Monday and just decided to take it easy this week. Inevitably, that means I won't probably ever get back to my studious start-of-semester self, but that's fine with me.

Sometimes - like yesterday morning at 9:05am as I sat bleary-eyed and dreadfully in need of caffeine near the back of Federal Income Tax - I see the eager to please transfer students with their perfectly organized binders of printed case briefs and think, "Wow, they are so on top of it - if they can do it, surely I can do my reading and show up to class prepared, too." Then I snap back to reality, where the transfers largely come from schools where it's expected that you brief cases ahead of time and be ready to answer grueling Socratic questions or else you won't stand out and be impressive and get the teacher recommendations that you need to do xyz... And I sort of pity them because, well, as I look around the room, nobody except the transfers (including the 3Ls who transferred last year...I guess old habits die hard?) seems to have case briefs neatly organized in a binder.

I don't really want to venture a guess as to what that says about the rest of us, who don't have 100% perfect attendance and sometimes beg off answering when called upon. We were raised by the law school equivalent of wolves? We generally feel like we have more important things to do than prepare for class? We're just not morning people? I don't really know. But it makes me feel better not to be the only one who's quickly and relatively shamelessly fallen off the wagon.

**

Totally Awesome

Tom Cruise came to Harvard. Really.

Some Quick Updates

2L year is very very busy, so this will be short:

1. I've accepted a job. It is exciting and a relief. For some people, this means law school is effectively over (although maybe not in this economy). For me, law school is basically just beginning.

2. Even if I never have to change/edit/check/see/touch/be near a law article footnote again, I think I will have dreams about managing an article team for the rest of my life. My dad swears he still has the "I forgot to drop a class in college and now I have to take the exam dream." My dream will involve a source list spread sheet.

3. Being busy with things I am interested in (footnotes not on that list) is so much better than being busy with 1L Property. I love being a 2L. I just wish it involved more sleep.