BigLaw attorney dies...

<p>In</a> Re The Passing Of A Skadden Associate Above the Law: A Legal Web Site ? News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and Courts</p>

<p>Hopefully, things aren't really this bad at all BigLaw offices. I heard a lot of Skadden and other M&A - heavy top firms being notorious sweatshops. Then again, I heard certain firms are for more life/work balance than others, and certain practice groups have lighter hours than others. (Tax/IP Lit vs M&A or Cap Market) I actually talked to several current attorneys who seemed to be content with hours and saying that things were manageable at their firms, while many others seem to be 'slaving away'.</p>

<p>I don’t disagree that many in biglaw firms work crazy hours but I would be very careful about blaming this poor young woman’s death on the firm. This article has been circulating like crazy on the web and everywhere I’ve seen it posted, the same kind of insinuation has been made. If you read her obituary, it states that she died peacefully in her sleep. Sudden deaths like these, in young people, are almost always the result of an undetected, congenital heart issue. Chances are very good that this would have happened regardless of her career path.</p>

<p>It’s been suggested by some of her acquitances that this poor lady has been under extreme stress and pressure due to overwork in recent months, and was in the process of trying to lateral out to an in-house attorney position in search of a less stressful and intense work environment. You are right; we won’t know if she would’ve escaped this fate had she chosen to work at a different career or not, and her death may have occured regardless. But, I am sure being at Skadden M&A working 100 hours a week, under demanding partners/clients, did not help.</p>

<p>Heart attacks may be caused by 1) severe amount of stress, 2) lack of exercise, 3) unhealthy eating habits, 4) smoking/ alcoholic consumptions, among other possible factors. I feel comfortable with the assertion that BigLaw work environment may lead an individual to adopt most, if not all, of those alarming criteria as daily routine. Many big firm attorneys complain of intense hours and stress. Many rely on take-out food (unhealthy) in order to avoid time consumption while dining, and many wouldn’t have enough time/energy left over to head off to a gym on regular basis. And, many people smoke/drink heavily to escape excessive stress.</p>

<p>LazyKid, I’m well aware of what a biglaw position entails. My H was at a biglaw firm for 20+ years prior to joining a client as GC. There are thousands of biglaw associates who work like this young woman worked, with long hours and lots of stress. It’s, unfortunately, the nature of the job, and it doesn’t get better the further you are into your career. However, it’s a mistake to blame her employer for her death, which is what this post that’s been flying through the internet is doing. It was written by someone who didn’t know her, her family, or her situation personally. Listening to random ‘sources’ about how hard she was working or what was expected of her or nasty senior partners or an uncaring firm with any sense of actual accuracy is probably unwise.</p>

<p>It’s a very sad situation but her death is unlikely to be related to the type of career that she chose. Lastly, no one is working 100 hour weeks on a continual basis, even in biglaw.</p>

<p>Heart attacks at age 32 – (do we even know that cardiac problems are what happened?) – are generally not caused by the factors you mentioned, which apply more once folks start getting older. Heart attacks that young tend to be associated other underlying illnesses. Hers is not quite a typical story; classically, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy would present during something like a basketball game, and Kawasaki’s would present at even a younger age. But of course, not everything presents “classically.”</p>

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<p>Her employer - Skadden, has the reputation to be a notorious sweatshop even for BigLaw standards. Among many law students, Skadden would pop into anyone’s mind immediately when one thinks “anti-thesis of life/work balance”. </p>

<p>Again, I agree with your analysis that this lady’s death may have occurred regardless of who her employer was. The point of this thread is not to blame Skadden for her death; rather talk about the importance of considering life/work balance work environment in choosing your firm, job, or career. Also, I wish more prospective law students and lawyers know what they are getting themselves into. I see far too many heading to law schools simply because they can’t figure what else to do with their life, and they figure being a lawyer is a nice way to make a living. They are the ones most likely to be dissatisfied with their careers.</p>

<p>It’s been suggested by some that regulatory practices (Tax, etc) are much ligther weights compared to hard-core transactional practices (M&A, etc). Thus, one seeking to avoid those crazy, unpredictable, pressurized hours should take notice. The fact that the clients within transactional practices tend to be I-bankers et al, who would likely to be highly demanding of their lawyers due to the fact that they have a lot of deals to be done ASAP, and I-bankers themselves work insane hours, lead to the situation in which lawyers are on ‘call’ and work all the time. Many lawyers hate their jobs and switch out of their jobs. But, not all lawyers hate their jobs. Hence, I think more people need to do due research and pick the right firms/ practice areas/ careers for them. </p>

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<p>For transactional, it could be from 70 hours to 120 hours a week, depending on the work flow. When deals pick up, M&A lawyers tend to work like dogs absolutely, usually surpassing 100 hour weeks for consecutive weeks or months. The issue here is not only the hours, but also the stress and unpredictability of those hours. Many lawyers can’t control the work flow and can’t forecast their exact work hours in advance. Which, frankly, sucks.</p>

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<p>I am no expert on this. However, my uncle is a heart sergeon and he always keeps on telling me to eat healthy, eat in small portions, exercise at least 3 times a week, and avoid smoking at all costs. He attributes unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, excessive eating, smoking, and severe stress as the primary causes of his patients’ illnesses. However, it is indeed true that most of the patients that he deals with are older than 40. (Although he told me recently that a mid-30ish patient nearly escaped death through some serious procedures) I would be interested to know the cause of heart ailures among younger population.</p>

<p>The precise role of diet and exercise in heart disease is poorly understood, although everybody generally agrees that they play some role. Major risk factors (things we ask every patient) include tobacco, family history, and background conditions such as hypertension or high cholesterol. Once one already has coronary artery disease, stress can cause chronic heart disease to have an acute exacerbation, but this generally isn’t something we bother asking patients about. (Perhaps because after they come into the hospital with chest pain, they’re all pretty stressed out already.)</p>

<p>In this case, the key consideration is her age. It would be highly unusual for any of these factors – diet, stress, smoking, background conditions – to have kicked in enough to cause a cardiac arrest. Things that can cause myocardial infarctions (“heart attacks”) at such an age are usually not lifestyle associated:
[Reggie</a> Lewis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Lewis]Reggie”>Reggie Lewis - Wikipedia)
[Hypertrophic</a> cardiomyopathy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrophic_cardiomyopathy]Hypertrophic”>Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - Wikipedia)
[Kawasaki</a> disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_disease]Kawasaki”>Kawasaki disease - Wikipedia)
[Familial</a> hypercholesterolemia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familial_hypercholesterolemia]Familial”>Familial hypercholesterolemia - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>You could similarly get things that cause arrhythmias, including pulseless rhythms (“cardiac arrest”), but generally at age 32 these won’t be lifestyle related either. For example:
[Wolff?Parkinson?White</a> syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolff–Parkinson–White_syndrome]Wolff?Parkinson?White”>Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Thanks for the useful info.</p>

<p>Regarding this lady from the article, despite considering the likely scenario that she would likely to have experienced the same heart problems, and hence death, regardless of what her occupation was, do you think that she would have chosen to work at Skadden knowing that she did not have much time left in her life? Or, that she would’ve chosen a legal career at all in the first place, knowing the working conditions associated with it. As one says, “life is short”. In this case, it was too short, unfortunately.</p>

<p>The aspect of this story that many may find troubling is more that, this lady had to die so young - after just ‘slaving away’ her youth and not getting to enjoy life enough.</p>