I’m sure you’re all very familiar, by now, with the story of one Heather Eisenlord, an attorney in the employ of the prestigious Skadden Arps law firm. It’s been grist for the Day Club mill for a few days now. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, the gist is, her firm is paying her $80,000 to take the year off to do anything she wants, in lieu of receiving her normally higher salary while putting in those torturously long law firm hours. In true Day Club fashion, she took it. I think the funniest part of the story was when one Mr. Mallow, speaking on behalf of the firm about the response to its offer said, ‘I think it’s fair to say that the numbers are in excess of our expectations.’ Buddy, if you expected anyone NOT to take the offer, your expectations were lofty, at best. But what do we know? (Here’s the link for the full story.) Well, as luck would have it, The Day Club has stumbled upon its very own Heather Eisenlord. (One whom we actually know in person, that is. Although we still claim Heather as our own, at least for her year of freedom.) We sat down with a friend of ours, a recently minted attorney, on the cusp of greatness, to talk about his own chance to play hookey and get paid for it. For the purposes of this discussion, and to keep our Day Club attorney friend out of hot water with his firm, we’ll call him……Bill.
The Day Club: So, um….”Bill”, word on the street has it that you got a pretty sweet offer from your law firm recently. Care to comment?
Bill: Yeah sure. I was first hired by the firm in fall of 2007, to do a summer internship in the summer of 2008. At the end of that summer they made me an offer to come back full time in the fall of 2009, which is pretty much standard procedure for these big firms. They essentially do their hiring 2 years in advance through their summer programs, and not making offers to the summers is very uncommon. So the firm basically decided during a great year, 2007, to bring me and a bunch of others in during 2009, which ended up not being a very good decision because the work dried up, leaving the firm with tons of associates, sitting around playing Spider Solitaire and no reason to add more expensive help to their ranks. They were in a tough spot because they couldn't fire us without it attracting negative attention (see
The Day Club: Where do we sign up? How long does law school take anyway? Like a month or two? Is it expensive?
Bill: Sounds like a dream right? But most people ended up not taking the offer. The fact is that none of us trusted the firm to have jobs waiting for us in 2010. And the legal market has basically shut down, making it hard to find something else to do with the year beyond just sitting on the beach. Still, I applaud the firm for trying to think up creative ways to save its business while minimizing harm to its new hires.
The Day Club: Uh oh. Something tells me that when you say ‘most people’, you’re talking about yourself. (Crestfallen)
Bill: Yeah, so what I am doing now is pretty much the standard offer that most firms are making people take. Nearly everyone is deferred to sometime this winter, and most firms are giving some amount in the low teens to tide them over until then. In a normal year, they'd give me that same amount to cover summer expenses and pay rent till starting in September or so, but now it has to stretch til the winter.
The Day Club: So they pay the bills till the New Year. Not too shabby. Yer still one of the coolest lawyers we’ve ever known. Ever. Right up there with Spencer Kiggins (whom we’ll hear from later.) Welcome to the Day Club, “Bill” the lawyer. You’re our new Day Club All Star. Just remember to clear outta here by January 2010.
This has been a Day Club exclusive. You heard it here first.
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