Elementary My Dear Latham
Everyone's heard of the Latham layoffs by now. I wish all Boalties at or soon to be at L&W the best.
The interesting angle is the money to 3Ls to defer their start day by 1 year. Do you take this? My hunch is "hell yes!" If you have your loans through Sallie Mae or the DOE DirectLoans, you can get a hardship deferral (and I'm sure with private lenders as well). Then it's off to your dream job in Zihuatanejo of buying an old boat and taking tourists charter fishing. Are there any negatives that I'm not considering?
The interesting angle is the money to 3Ls to defer their start day by 1 year. Do you take this? My hunch is "hell yes!" If you have your loans through Sallie Mae or the DOE DirectLoans, you can get a hardship deferral (and I'm sure with private lenders as well). Then it's off to your dream job in Zihuatanejo of buying an old boat and taking tourists charter fishing. Are there any negatives that I'm not considering?
Labels: OCIP/Employment
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 11:35 AM
25 Comments:
Resume gap..
But screwing around in India is more important. I'd take it and spend half the time traveling and half the time at home for some quality time with my xbox 360.
12:11 -
I don't think a resume gap is looked at as a bad thing, so long as SOMETHING is there. "Traveling India" looks better than "CRUSHED n00b$ at Halo 3", but I think a cleverly worded "explored the California Coast with my iphone and surfboard" would show you're an actual person.
When I interviewed, I got far more comments out of my "personal interests: very fine ales, college basketball, Coen Bros. movies" section than I did out of my education or work experience (and I have some damn sweet work experience).
Having said that, a year would be a great time to volunteer with the ACLU/EFF, work on a political campaign, etc., something that would pay most of the bills. You could take that stipend and throw it towards your law school debt, making your life easier once you start work. And volunteer work always looks good.
But yeah, my backlog of video games and books is really starting to tower. So that's nice.
Toney, everyone knows your "damn sweet" work experience is "CRUSHED n00b$ at Halo 3."
I would take the hell out of that offer. Write a book, film a documentary, do all that crap you wondered if you could maybe do with a free year and enough cash!
Toney: the proper phrasing is "CRUSHED n00bs at Halo 3." Please don't insult the 1337 members of Boalt with your ignorance.
For some reason is auto-corrects spelling :'(
n 0 0 b s
Yeah, that's what happened to me too. You think I'm that weak? Your insolence makes me want to punch babies.
Only n00bs punch babies. I eat kittens. Soooo tender.
Bah :-(
I think the main downside of taking the money is that there might not actually be a job waiting for you on the other end. But, there might not in any case. I'd certainly take the money and try to go work for a public interest org. But it is a consideration.
if you take the 75k then i'd suggest you fill up your resume. with something law related. who knows what they'll base their criteria on when "hiring back." no way can they guarantee that all those who take the offer won't be laid off upon starting in 2010.
Or you could take the $75,000, apply it directly to your loans, and walk away from Latham before they walk away from you.
Man I wish I had accepted Latham now.
6:40, pretty sure you have to give it back if you don't end up starting.
to me, this offer shows just how worthless we are in the current market. why pay us $160k + overhead to come into work every day and twiddle our thumbs. here's half a boatload of cash NOT to work for us. crazy.
I'm beginning month number three of my involuntary "deferral year," and its getting pretty old. Know what else is getting old? Competing with recently laid off attorney's for my first job.
I'm pretty sure that hardship deferral doesn't kick in if you've got $75,000 coming your way.
It is also enough to knock out the deduction for student loan interest, if I am not mistaken.
Looks like Orrick is about to join the party. Again.
Recent grads: How bad is it out there? Do you have work? I realize that the economy is horrible, but Orrick and Latham both had huge securitization practices that obviously were especially hard hit. Are firms that didn't jump on that wagon also having huge problems?
11:52 - Yes. I'm a first year at an extremely well-respected firm that didn't get involved in much of the securitization funny business, and we're really slow.
Any wagers on the first firm to cut salary? It feels inevitable. And I'm fine with it.
Any speculation on why CA firms seem much harder hit...
It is mostly SF firms that are harder hit, and it is because the only major business in SF is banking.
Similar reasons to Charlotte, but not quite as bad.
re: 11:52AM
I work for the government. It's pretty awesome. Though kind of discouraging that incoming Lathamites will make more for NOT working than I make at my job.
McWho---That doesn't sound very accurate. My big firm doesn't really rely on banks, and it doesn't seem that any of my friends at other big firms do banking work either.
Banking may be big in SF, but aren't most of the banks still headquartered in New York? I would expect NY firms to be most reliant on banks, not SF firms.
I think SF firms are struggling because for the past several years they have tried to become more than SF (or California) firms. They have tried to follow the NY model, and to get more banking and related business, while growing their New York offices. Whoops. Seems to me they would have been better off staying as California firms, instead of trying to have 30 offices all over the world.
Maybe bump this back to the top given Orrick matched and this appears to be becoming more of a widespread option?
Hopefully it will spur comments that actually address the post.
Post a Comment
<< Home