Power suits

So, for the past two weeks, lots of 2Ls have been running around in suits trying to do what they're expected of at law school. While they all wrote on their application essays that they all want to go to law school to (help people/serve the under-protected/protect the innocent/give back to their community/insert any other cliche here), this week is when their true colors shine. This is the time where 2Ls throw away the idealist mumbo-jumbo and pursue the real purpose of why they all really came to law school: FOR THE DINERO.

So, guys are in their navy suit, white shirt, and conservative striped tie (undoubtedly warned by career services not to be too flashy or show too much personality) and girls are running around in moderate heels and a nice skirt-suit combo, making sure not to show too much cleavage yet at the same time trying not to come off as a conservative prude and trying to give the interviewers (mostly middle-aged men) enough eye candy. At the end of the process called On Campus Interview Program (OCIP), they hope to land a job earning $135,000, the market rate for lawyers in big West Coast firms.

I do not have any experience to write about jobs or interviewing. But from what I've heard, law firms are hiring lots of new associates. They're hiring not because they're growing (firms nowadays grow only by merger). They're hiring to replace associates who have left the firm.

Food for thought...Ever wonder why associates would leave such cushy jobs? Could it be because law firms aren't really all they are hyped up to be?