Anniversary
I'm a bit late in putting this post up, but Monday marked an anniversary of sorts: six years of employment with my current firm. That might not sound like a lot to most of you, but six years is like forty-two years to a lawyer; we're like dogs in that way (and numerous others). In the legal profession, turnover is extremely high, especially at big firms, so I was a bit curious to see how many others from my starting class had made it as far as I had. This morning I pulled out an old firm facebook and was surprised to see that four other attorneys from my starting year are still in the mix. To be honest, I had suspected that the number might be smaller, but it still means that only five people out of a starting class of about sixty have made it this far. To put it another way, for every dozen people that started with me, only one remains. You'd face better odds than that going into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.
Over time people leave firms for a variety of reasons: health concerns, children, divorce, moving out of town, other offers, changing fields, etc. Still, it really hit me how few of us were left, and it gave me the slightly uneasy feeling that everyone else knows something that I don't. It's like I'm on a plane watching a movie, and all of a sudden I look up and 90% of the passengers have already jumped, and I'm the only one still on board without a parachute....
Update: I just realized that of the five remaining associates from the Class of 2001, three of us graduated from Tulane Law School (although one of them graduated two years ahead of me and got an LLM in tax before starting work). I'm not really sure what that says about my alma mater.
4 comments:
Maybe Tulane alums are very loyal and therefore even more like dogs than regular lawyers.
Monday also marked the 6th anniversary of the first time I took Ariel out on a date.
Six years ago, as I was getting ready to go meet this beautiful woman, my older brother called me to tell me all about his first day at work and his apartment that he had found and New York in general. After about 10 minutes of talking, he finally asked, "How are you?"
"Well," I replied, "I have a date tonight. And I think I'm late for it now."
"You idiot!! Why are you talking to me? Go!"
And with that, I sprinted over to Ariel's place, where I showed up flushed and out of breath in order to be on time for my first date with my wife.
Later that night, I ordered a dish with raw onions in it. I'm amazed she agreed to see me again after that.
Derek, we're all amazed that Ariel continued to see you, but not just because of your onion breath that night. There are so many, many other reasons.
In any event, I had completely failed to connect the dots that my first day of work was your first date together, Ariel. Not to say that my employment here will be ending soon (I'm currently in negotiations to extend my contract for another year, after all), but I'm sure that your relationship will last longer than my job at my current firm. Happy belated anniversary!
Okay, my turn. Tomorrow marks the 6th year anniversary of when Michael and I first smooched. Hopefully, I'm not embarassing my husband. October rocks.
Happy 6 to Lee & his job and Derek & Ariel!
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