First-Year Corporate Lawyer Can't Believe His Job Is THIS Soul Crushing

BI ^ | 11/28/2012 | Law & Order

[GlockThe Vote]

"You know it's going to be boring, but you just don't appreciate how boring it actually is," one first-year associate at a large New York law firm tells us.

The young lawyer describes long days of reading dense papers, which he only barely understands, and which seem to have no bearing on any actual case.

"Doc review is the most boring experience of your life, but strangely nerve-wracking because you know you're messing it up, but you just can't bring yourself to care that you're messing it up. And you're probably going to mess it up even if you did care, so [screw] it, why even bother," he says.

This is why Biglaw is often described as "soul crushing" and why even as many lawyers struggle to get jobs one recent grad is complaining about the one he has.

[PapaBear3625]

I tell kids coming out of school to pass on the big firms and go to work for a smaller firm. That way, they get actual experience, work with clients, even go to court, as opposed to their friends who go to the big firms and get big bucks, but bill over 200 hrs a month, buried in paper or in the library with no client contact, no real work experience and no chance to really learn how to practice law.

It's not just in law. Software development is the same way. You go work for a small operation, and you're doing everything from doing client presentations, writing documentation, writing big pieces of software. Go to a big operation, and they're likely to pigeonhole you into a very narrow specialty.

[Hot Tabasco]

if there’s not enough grunt work to keep everyone busy, shouldn’t they lay a few people off?

It's the grunt work that lands approx. 30% of a multi-million dollar settlement. What have they got to lose by keeping him on?

As a side note, have you noticed the increasing number of attorneys advertising "if you've ever been ........." regarding a class action lawsuit? Keep this in mind, that law firm collected 30% of the settlement while all the alleged plaintiffs merely got dollars............

[PJ-Comix]

When I was about 13 I thought I would become a lawyer, mainly from watching Perry Mason on TV. I quickly realized how incredibly boring lawyering is when I took a look at some law books. To this day I go into a complete state of ennui just looking at a law book.

[Fast Moving Angel]

hiring scores of young lawyers as cannon fodder out of the law schools, and then profiting off their billing hours. (snip) Thus, the Big Firm brings in a score of new lawyers each year, and sweats them to death. Many of them are then discarded five years later after they’ve been burned out, often having mental problems, divorce, and substance abuse issues.

Some law firms do that with their paralegals, too -- I know some great paralegals, very qualified and excellent at what they do, but are they really worth $150/hour??

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

Dollars? I have a class action check for 14 cents. That’s right, 14 cents. The lawyers got over $600,000.

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

Dollars? I have a class action check for 14 cents. That’s right, 14 cents. The lawyers got over $600,000.