An Invisible Man's Blog

Week 2 Thoughts June 16, 2010

Thought #1

I can’t work in government.

Rather, I can’t work in government straight out of law school.

My mom went to law school in the 80s, the impression I get is that between working for a local bankruptcy firm (which she did) or working for the government was the better choice.  I don’t think she understands that the way things work has changed a bit in the intervening 20 years.

Anyhow, it’s not that I don’t like my job.  They do crazy work, things that are fascinating.  It’s missing the one thing most useful to a law student though, which is training.  I often get the feeling that being an intern is a nuisance to the attorneys.  They are understaffed, tend to stay on cases for years at a time, and don’t have the time to teach me to write or bring me up to speed on the local rules of procedure.

Thought #2

The types of people in the office is a bit odd.

You have the people who went to local law schools in the area, they tend to do most of the work.  They generally worked in local firms, or local judges before getting their jobs.

Then you have the people who tend to run things.  They tended to go to so-called ‘elite schools.’  Many of them passed up being partners in the firms, or in some cases stepped down from being partners to run departments.  They were generally appointed to their positions rather than hired.

This seems to cause little tension, because most lawyers apparently don’t use law school as their main topic of conversation.  These three years get forgotten so quickly?

Thought # 3

You really need to get a lighter suit.  My suits are designed for the winter so I don’t need to wear a coat (over my suit jacket that is) unless it’s bajo de 40 degrados.  So let’s talk mens style for a second.

See, we men have somehow avoided wearing uncomfortable clothes.  We’ve seen women squeeze into jeans, seen straps dig into their shoulders, and cringed seeing them walk miles in high heels.  As far as fashion goes, it seems we get off easily….. except when it comes to summer business wear.  For some reason us North Eastern men never figured it’d be a good idea to wear Seersucker in the office. So you need to make sure you have a suit or two that’s made of wool that you can still wear in the 85+ degree weather.

Although my friends who are still in Manhattan have it worst.  You don’t want to take the sauna subway in the summer.