If you do a google search for BIGLAW, you’ll find quite a few blogs condemning BIGLAW attorneys and the “BIGLAW lifestyle.” I would assume that these posts usually come from jealous people, except that my research adviser was a successful Jones Day attorney and loves to warn against joining BIGLAW.

Okay, so you have a giant international firm with a seemingly infinite amount of resources. Does it necessarily follow that your employees are arrogant and the firm wants to suck all the joy out of your life? Not necessarily, it seems.

I consider myself to have pretty good gut instincts. I think that it stems from a childhood growing up around shady neighborhoods and people. One of the easiest things for me to detect is when someone is being fake. That said, I arrived at my interview for the Reed Smith Fellowship really early. I got to witness some attorneys talking, people interacting with the secretaries, and just general firm life. It was nothing like I had expected. Interactions weren’t forced; there was no fake cordiality — these people genuinely like each other. Everyone was really relaxed, and I witnessed the random people walking down the stairs while reading cases at a rate of 25 stairs an hour or so. I always thought deep down that firms in general participate in pro bono for egoistic purposes (for bragging rights, mostly), but it was obvious that, at least my interviewers, are genuinely interested in the helping out where they can.

I should probably admit that I selected my law school based primarily on the students. I turned down full scholarships at two schools because I didn’t like the confrontational and hyper-formal atmosphere. At the same time, I’m a hard worker, and I need to be around other intelligent, hard workers to be happy. Penn State was a great match for me, and luckily, they offered me the scholarship that I needed. If you think that’s stupid, that’s fine. If you’d prefer to pick where to spend the next three years based on a number assigned by some magazine, more power to you.

I’d prefer to select a firm based on similar criteria, but alas, with the fleet of law students fighting for jobs, that’s probably not going to happen. Imagine my elation then, when I ended up sitting in one of the firms that would have survived my imaginary “firm cut.”

After the interview (which I think went pretty well except for the, “So, what happened in property?” question), I decided to take Kim out for some real sushi. I got her hooked on sushi here in State College, where even the best sushi place is arguably terrible. She’s never had anything better, so I thought it would be a nice treat. We found Zento on Yelp, and had an absolutely amazing sushi meal. Hopefully we’ll have reason to go back.

Related posts:

1. Interview on Interviewing ITE with Glenn Manishin
2. The New Trend of Contingent Offers for Law Students