| | I found this campaign (http://firmlyrefuse.tumblr.com) at Harvard to get students to think about why they are choosing to work for firms to be interesting, particularly given the themes of this course and our conversation today about grades.
Grades for me have served to stand-in for concerted thought as to what I'm actually doing here. I have convinced myself that if my grades are good enough, I'll have options because a strong transcript resonates across different realms of employment (this is essentially the point Ben made today about the fear of having paths foreclosed). No matter what it is actually decide I want to do with my practice, I consoled myself that having a strong strong transcript wouldn't be a detriment. Probably that's true, at least in bureaucratic employment fields where such factors matter, but focusing on grades has meant that I've spent little time thinking about my purpose in earning this license. This makes it more likely that I'll funnel into EIP, because it's easy and because I haven't really thought about what I would do instead. Grades aren't the only reason I haven't set about designing an alternative, but they are a part of it. | | | I think many of the issues raised by Agnes, Matthew and others about the disconnect between what training is perceived to provide and what it may end up being in actuality is closely tied to Lissette’s point about the importance of knowing what you want to get out of a firm job. I think training at the most basic, essential level is simply exposure and experience and that doesn’t necessarily require that you work at big law. Similar to Arlene, I gained a lot of experience and exposure to law as an industry and as a system as a paralegal. After college, I worked at a boutique public interest firm that specialized in employment discrimination class-actions. As a function of the modest size of the firm, I was responsible for putting together the first drafts of complaints, motions, discovery requests and responses. I had a caseload, spoke to clients regularly and went through bankers’ boxes of discovery material. So I think things like externships and coursework can provide the exposure and experience to inform and inspire people to discover the areas of law that they may be interested in. I think having these experiences or having some idea, as Lissette noted, is really key before jumping head first into that first job post-grad, despite the overwhelming majority of people in the administration, particularly careers services, who insist that you can figure it all out when you start your firm job. | |
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< | Especially in big law, I think that sense of freedom to explore is misguided. As a member of a group of attorneys, your role and opportunities to learn and grow are a function of the needs of the group. People are staffed on cases, they don’t choose them and they don’t dictate what their role is. In the large corporate firm I worked at, it was common for junior associates to rotate from practice group to practice group well into their third year and beyond, if they were still with the firm. Rotations are presented by firms as the gift of choice to law students, but what they fail to say is that the ultimate choice remains with the firm. Whether you are accepted by a practice group or continue to rotate is mostly not your choice to make. The partners in the group determine which associates they want to keep and which ones can keep rotating. Before long, rotations are more a source of anxiety than freedom. But in the end, almost everyone leaves. Senior associates are a rare breed in big law, because usually people know rather early in their careers whether they’ve been tapped to make partner. For those who have not and choose to stay, it’s just a matter of killing time. Killing time and paying dues. Work becomes perfunctory and comfort settles in. The associates I knew who didn’t necessarily come in knowing what they wanted, admitted that as law students, they couldn’t have asked for anything more than where they ended up. They got their dream firm offer, but after a few years into the job, that sense of achievement and prestige wanes, and all that remains is time, with the question of what to do next, still lingering. This is not to say that there aren’t opportunities, but without some idea of what you want out of the firm experience, it will be difficult to meaningfully engage them. | >
> | Especially in big law, I think that sense of freedom to explore is misguided. As a member of a group of attorneys, your role and opportunities to learn and grow are a function of the needs of the group. People are staffed on cases, they don’t choose them and they don’t dictate what their role is. In the large corporate firm I worked at, it was common for junior associates to rotate from practice group to practice group well into their third year and beyond, if they were still with the firm. Rotations are presented by firms as the gift of choice to law students, but what they fail to say is that the ultimate choice remains with the firm. Whether you are accepted by a practice group or continue to rotate is mostly not your choice to make. The partners in the group determine which associates they want to keep and which ones can keep rotating. Before long, rotations are more a source of anxiety than freedom. But in the end, almost everyone leaves. Senior associates are a rare breed in big law, because usually people know rather early in their careers whether they’ve been tapped to make partner. For those who have not and choose to stay, it’s just a matter of killing time. Killing time and paying dues. Work becomes perfunctory and comfort settles in. The associates I knew who didn’t necessarily come in knowing what they wanted, admitted that as law students, they couldn’t have asked for anything more than where they ended up. They got their dream firm offer, but after a few years into the job, that sense of achievement and prestige wanes, and all that remains is time, with the question of what to do next, still lingering. This is not to say that there aren’t opportunities, but without some idea of what you want out of the firm experience, it will be difficult to meaningfully engage them. If not control, there's still the possibility of agency. | | | On a separate note, I share Lizzie’s experience about grades as a means to opportunities that would otherwise have been foreclosed to me. Growing up a product of the public education system, I’ve seen such metrics as grades and exams used by the system to calmly and coolly separate the deserving from the non-deserving. I found the statement on how part of the concern about grades is being captured in an identity that is not our own, striking. In part because, from my experience, good grades are what make you matter in a system that would otherwise not care. Grades and exams may not capture our identity but they have defined in my life the scope of and access to opportunity. In the US, education may be universally available, but opportunity is much narrower. I recently learned that the high school I was zoned to attend had I not been accepted to a charter school, is closing down at the end of the year because it failed to meet the required 60% graduation rate. I don’t think there’s much that separates me from those kids who will now have their school life abruptly interrupted that warrants the difference in our paths in life. I could have easily, unremarkably been in their shoes. In some ways, I don't view possibility as a burden, because I don't think I've ever really had the chance to appreciate its vastness. My life has been defined more by what is probable than what is possible. |
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