Random Law School Update 26

Last Location: Wilmington, DE
Arrival Date: May 21, 2011
Departure Date: June 25, 2011

Current Location: Washington, DC
Arrival Date: June 25, 2011
Departure Date: August 14, 2011

Next Location: Wilmington, DE
Arrival Date: August 14, 2011
Departure Date: August 26, 2011

Being hired as a summer associate at a big law firm may be one of the best things that has ever happened to anyone--at least anyone who doesn't mind working.

In the morning I come in through the back entrance. I pass my key fob against a dark grey pad and it makes a soft “beep” confirming that I belong. I enter the main atrium of the building which is enclosed by seven-story high glass walls that keep out the undesirable weather and let in the light. The atrium gracefully connects two buildings; the new building and the old building. The new building is wall-wall glass, even the inside walls are made of glass so that you can’t go anywhere in the building without natural light seeping through. The old building has a grey stone exterior and has its own granite entranceway that has a classic elegance of understated importance. Semi-transparent frosted glass walkways lead between the two buildings and a glass elevator that would be at home in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory shoots up through the middle of the atrium to the seventh floor. I stand with my toes to the glass and look down as I ride up. It gives me butterflies.

I stop by the heavily subsidized café for breakfast where I can get a bowl of oatmeal or grits with raisins and sunflower seeds for $1. I climb a set of stairs up past a two-story tall waterfall up to my office. I say good morning to the two women who sit right outside of my office and they smile back enthusiastically. My firm has a strict policy about being respectful of every other employee. It feels like I get paid to be be in a good mood all the time and to smile a lot. The last time I got paid for that was when I was a waitress in college. Except then, people were not always in a good mood back.

I am happy in my little office which contains a window, two desks and an empty bookshelf. Between my assignments and firm-sponsored social events I am always busy. I am never bored. My work is interesting and challenging. The firm strives to give summer associates fun projects so that we can convince ourselves that working for a big firm is glamourous. The social events are every bit as extravagant as anyone ever said they would be. We are regularly treated to expensive lunches, open bar events, and upscale dinner parties. We have also taken field trips to the Supreme Court, the National Gallery, the White House, and a National’s baseball game. My firm always provides a vegan, gluten-free, and often macrobiotic, option. It makes me feel welcome.

I work here.You should zoom in to street view in google maps to check out our gorgeous building.

I also work here. Also, a very nice building, possibly the nicest in Wilmington.

After very difficult 1L Spring and 2L Fall semesters, all of my enthusiasm paid off last semester when I was offered jobs at not one, but two, of my dream summer positions. In what was a a flurry of amazing luck and an equally amazing last-minute hustle culminating on May 12th, I managed to split my 2L summer between Jones Day in Washington, DC and The Delaware Court of Chancery. I agreed to spend seven weeks at each. I spent the first five in Delaware, I am currently in DC completing the next seven and I will return to Delaware in ten days to complete the last two. Georgetown offers a fourteen-week long summer. I remind myself that this is why I took a lifetime of vacation before I started law school.

Love,

Melissa