The Superhumans

As many hours as I put in at the firm, it is still not the intense experience a summer clerkship or one's first job out of law school may provide. The atmosphere at my firm is considerably more laid back than in the largest firms in places like New York City or Atlanta. I make this claim based on talking with a couple of lawyers whom I met over the past few weeks.

About three weeks ago, the partners took me to lunch at a nice seafood restaurant in Tallahassee. One of their guests at the lunch was a law professor from a school in Texas. I sat across from her and had the opportunity to ask her many questions. She earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and her first job out of law school was with a large firm on Wall Street.

"Ah. How long did you work with them?" I asked.

She gave me a wry smile. "A year."

"Why? Why didn't you like it?"

"I really didn't know what I was getting into when they gave me a tour of the firm," she said.

The person giving her the tour showed her where the couches were, and then showed her the showers.

And she was thinking to herself, "Why are there showers in a law firm?"

She soon found out. She told me that it was not uncommon for her to work until 3 am. The partners gave her huge assignments that would be due on days like July 3rd or December 24th, so she never received a long enough break to see her friends and family during the holidays. The partners were impossible to please. Some were micromanagers who wanted you to check everything with them, other partners wanted you to leave them alone and make all the decisions yourself.

"And good luck if you wanted to get married and have children," she said.

She told me that someone would have to use cocaine to keep functioning in that system. I started laughing, but she said she was not joking.

So, she decided to quit the firm and become a law professor. . .

I met another lawyer in New Orleans during the Essence Music Festival. She worked at a large firm in Atlanta. I could tell that she was highly intelligent. She graduated from high school when she was 15, then finished college in three years before attending Florida State Law. Now 30, she has been a lawyer for several years.

"I've decided that the profession of law is mainly for men," she told me frankly. "It's kind of an unspoken proposition to a female in the field that you have to choose between having a family and dedicating yourself to the firm. It's really difficult to do both."

She talked about the long hours she put in at the firm in Atlanta. There are women who are partners at the firm, she said, "But when I see how they live, I don't want their lives."

So, she has recently quit the firm and has decided to go to medical school. . .

As for me, I'm not sure that I could survive in such an environment, either. I'm adjusting to the long hours at my firm this summer, but it is still not the hours these two women told me about. And I imagine they were expected to churn out more work products and in a shorter amount of time than what is expected of me. So far at least, my firm has not pressured me with deadlines that seem impossible to meet.

At Florida State, I've met people who can survive and thrive at the large firms where these two ladies worked. I call them superhumans, because they are incredibly intelligent and have an equally incredible work ethic to match. I had not met people like them until I came to Florida State. The amount of information that they can process and what they can churn out in such a short amount of time really amazes me. They are usually on the law review, involved in many other time consuming activities, and are at the top of their class in grades. One friend of mine whom I think fits this superhuman status told me, "I'm glad that I'm married. My wife reminds me to eat and sleep regularly."

If you are a student at an Ivy League law school, these huge firms will come looking for you. They will come to Florida State in the fall as well in something called the "On Campus Interview Program" or "OCI" for short. To get into most of the OCI interviews, though, you need to be in the top 10%, or perhaps the top 20% of your class.

Like I've said before, law school and the practice of law is extremely competitive. It is not for everyone. But I am happy to be here and happy to be in the competition.

Today is Sunday. I have to go into work in about an hour. I also put in about five and a half hours yesterday, Saturday. If I was at a Wall Street firm, however, I doubt that I would have had time to write this blog entry.

Universal Heath Care Now,

Nathan Marshburn