<p>Contrary to what someone mentioned earlier, even if the woman in question had outright asked, or perhaps told, the partners involved that she was going to her boyfriend's sister's wedding, I doubt that she would have been given latitude to leave for the weekend. Leaving despite being told not to may be grounds to be fired for cause, which wouldn't bode well for someone's career. That said, in my direct experience, there is a big difference in treatment for a boyfriend's sister's wedding versus an actual sister's wedding (where they would have at least allowed her to attend the wedding -- though (as it happended in my case) the wedding weekend may be a bit shorter and involve a bit more responding to e-mails and voice mails than one may have initially desired. Oh, and as for the boyfriend who dumped the woman after she missed the wedding, good riddance! If missing the wedding was truly the only reason why they broke up, then he isn't someone who is going to be too flexible about letting a woman's career take flight -- dealing with business travel, longer hours or perhaps a move to another location. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, an associate does not have much choice. Law firms quietly let associates go who are not perceived to be "on track" or who aren't willing to go the extra mile every year at review time. These associates are rarely outright "fired", but are rather given a few months at their desks (and sometimes the assistance of a placement service paid for by the law firm) to find a new position. This way, both law firm and associate are spared the pain of having to admit that anyone was fired. These quite firings do happen every year at almost every big firm.</p>
<p>If a young attorney has a massive amount of student loans, whether from law school alone or a combination of law school and college, combined with the usual trappings of modern life, including rent payments/mortgage payments, car payments, gas and electric bills, cable bills, etc., there is not a lot of choice. No other big law firm is going to hire someone who leaves after the first year or second year without asking a lot of questions. Smaller law firms pay significantly less money. What is one to do?</p>
<p>Here's my take on this: New law firm associates aren't stupid or blind. They know that when you take a job with a big law firm and get paid $160,000 a year beginning the very first day on the job, you are going to be expected to work very hard and to make sacrifices. The stories fly around law schools during recruiting season and the war stories are often told over dinner during summer associate events. Let's be honest -- any young attorney who thinks that you make that kind of money for anything but putting work first is fooling themselves. The answer is simple. If you don't want to make those sacrifices, don't take that job. If you don't want to take that job, you need to think very hard about the amount of student loans that you are willing and able to rack up and the lifestyle you want to lead. The first several years are admittedly insane, but it does get better after that, either because you have more control of your work as a senior associate and more ability to do the work you have quickly or on the fly, or because you take advantage of one of the multitude of opportunities that present themselves because of the experience you have obtained working for a big law firm. However, in a law firm, there will always be times when sacrifices are necessary. Can you say client service industry? In either case, plenty of women who continue to work in high pressure, high profile jobs enjoy what they do, find a balance (though it is certainly not the balance that a housewife in (as my husband calls it) the heartland would think is balance) and manage to be good moms, wives, sisters and daughters. </p>
<p>As the article mentioned, Smpson Thacher (Sullivan & Cromwell met the raises within hours of the announcement, and the other top firms in NYC will certainly follow) raised salaries because their attorneys are being seduced away from the firm by the lure of many outside opportunities. Those opportunities, however, are for the most part only available to someone who has worked at a big, prestigious law firm and who has made those sacrifices. The idea at the law firms is to give the mid-level and senior associates an incentive to stick around. In my opinion, many associates will choose to leave anyway because for a lot of them, the sacrifices are not worth it at any price. That said, though, many associates will tough it out through three or four or five years of that practice before jumping ship. </p>
<p>No one tortures these poor, suffering associates. No one keeps these young associates chained to their desks. These associates signed up for this. They knew what they were walking into. They took the paychecks and deposited them into their checking accounts. They can quit at any time. Law firms may want to present a kinder, gentler face, but when an SEC filing or an HSR filing or a merger of a public company has to happen at a very specific moment in time, that moment isn't going to wait, and the client and the SEC or the Department of Justice doesn't want to hear about how you just had to go to your boyfriend's sister's wedding. Could another associate jump into your place to help? Perhaps. Sometimes. But then sometimes you have information and knowledge from your experience on the deal that is necessary to get the job done properly. Perhaps no one else is available to do the work for you. Perhaps you are not willing to let someone do the work for you and then to owe them the favor of jumping in when they have someplace they need to go. If an attorney is looking for a kind, gentle and understanding place to work, then they will have to accept less money (most likely) and find a place that is not a big law firm. That's all there is to it. </p>
<p>I hate to sound harsh because there were times as a junior associate that I just wanted to scream about the things happening outside of the firm that I missed, but I could have walked in and quit any day of the week. I knew what I was getting into and I got it in spades. I did my years at a big law firm, got fantastic experience every moment during my time there (probably equivalent to double the number of years of practicing in terms of hours worked) and have benefitted from that expereince every day since I left. Let's be honest, some of those months and years really just sucked. I ****ed off my parents, lost a couple of serious boyfriends (not sure exactly how I found time to get serious, but I did) and felt very left out sometimes. I also managed to pay off all of my student loans long before the loans were due, to buy an apartment in Manhattan (not an easy feat, if you know anything about prices in the NYC real estate market) and then a house outside of Manhattan and to see and do things that I never could have afforded without having had my big firm job (for example, vacations to safari in Africa, sail the Galapagos, stay in castles in the Czech Republic and, most proudly, fly my entire family away for a vacation together). I waited until most of the craziness was over, but I managed to marry a wonderful man and to start a family. Overall, looking back at what I went through at my big firm, I wouldn't change a thing about my choice to have worked there.</p>