Christmas Day at Skadden Arps

From a mad tea-party comes a glimpse of life as a young associate at Skadden Arps. Even if it didn't happen, it could have happened. (Note to Skadden associates: next Christmas, pack a sack lunch.)

Comments

[Beldar]

Pardon me while I break out the world's smallest violin for those folks.

Amusing to see that Skadden has "outsourced" its expense reimbursement function from Manhattan to White Plains. I wonder if they put out a client newsletter when they did so to laud their "lean, mean, cost-effective legal services" (at $600/hr, or whatever)?

For four years, I practiced in the Houston office of a large NY-based mega-firm, one of Skadden's competitors. Our NY staffers uniformly thought that us visiting Texans were incredibly, unbelieveably polite and considerate. The sad fact is, however, that in many NY law firms, abusive conduct by lawyers that would get you fired elsewhere is absolutely commonplace. I once watched dumbfounded as a NY partner of mine shouted profanities at his secretary and then hurled a stapler at her from across the room. She ducked, and took the whole incident in stride; par for the course, amazingly enough.