Meta-shame May 27, 2009

It is a tough time to be a young attorney.

For one, a good lot of us have been laid off.[FN1]  For another, the few of us who haven’t been laid off have been slammed with so much work we barely can keep up.  With so many Associates gone, somebody’s had to pick up the slack.  Young Associates today are either 1) no longer Associates, or 2) no longer aware of what daylight looks like.

Which is a shame.  I have blogged extensively about the embarrassment I have felt at losing my job and at being regarded as less than a lawyer.  But I haven’t blogged about the other side of the Great Disaster, and that is the meta-shame.  Meta-shame is the feeling that kicks in after I’ve cried my eyes out about losing my job and then moved on to feeling bad about crying my eyes out.  Meta-shame is what happens when I realize I’m actually quite well-off with my income, my Captain, my apartment, and my ability to satisfy my urges to shop victoriously.[FN2]  Meta-shame, in other words, is yet another way I’ve been made to feel bad about myself by a bunch of incompetent managers.

And I know I’m not the only one.  My friend the Lathamette is, as you’ve probably guessed, one of the lucky few still working at Latham and she’s definitely been earning her keep.  Thirteen hours at the office here, last-minute flights to client sites there – she’s probably already made up the deficit she was running earlier this year.  Nevertheless, she still feels bad complaining, especially in front of me, because she still has a job.

Which I think is just a bunch of hooey.  Honey, they took away my job only to make you feel worse about yours.  They created for the both us a mantle of guilt, guilt designed to distract us from seeing that, actually, none of this was our fault.  At all.

So cast off thy meta-shame and raise with me your middle finger.  This is all a bunch of hooey.

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FN1.  As of yesterday, LawShucks estimates the grand total to be 10,000 since Cadwalader got the guillotine going last January.  Ten. thousand.

FN2.  A recession is a recession, after all.  No full-price Ferragamos here.

Bravo! May 20, 2009

Or, rather, Brava!

Today I found out that my good friend Christina, you know her from the Comments, just got a snazzy new job up in Boston, where she lives with her husband (and puggle!).  She was let go from her firm after a year’s worth of service, but now she can put that all behind her because she’s moved on to something new.  She’s been a great person to vent with and I’ve appreciated her support during my own Unemployment Journey (her words).  I couldn’t be happier for her.

Though I wonder if this means she now won’t be baking as much.

Alas.  There’s a trade-off to everything.

Congratulations, again!

Something in the water May 2, 2009

There must be something in the water, because yet another friend of mine has struck out on his own and begun his own practice.  Well, not entirely on his own because he’s teamed up with two friends of his to start a three-person law firm.  Given that they’re all former federal law clerks and went to Harvard and Stanford Law Schools, they’re not your everyday single shingle.  But fearless they are as they commit to what they believe is the most meaningful form of their practice, which is appellate litigation.  The firm is Watkins, Bradley & Chen LLP, and my pal is the Watkins.  Watkins and I used to sit next to each other in Constitutional Law – the undergrad version – and we also used to get our friends together every Wednesday to watch [unnamed, embarrassing teeny bopper drama].

I thought about naming that embarrassing teeny bopper drama, but if the point of this post is to help my friend’s practice, I probably shouldn’t be revealing something so mortifying.  That’s the problem with having really old friends – we know that stuff.

Bonne chance, Watkins.  And don’t forget the little people when you’re big.