Hey guys, welcome back.
This is my Part three reaction to Netflix's partner Track coming
from the perspective of a former New York City big law associate.
And just in case you guys missed parts one and two, I will link
them in the description below.
And with that, let's dive in.
Ted, your junior year game against the Bulldogs is legendary.
Five goals, four, six cause turnovers you play, there's a midfielder.
Jerry Hayes was their head coach.
No.
Jerry was our assistant coach back in the day.
Jerry's my man, uh, he actually retired a few years ago, but I see him every year
at the game will say hi to him for me.
Will, you will do.
All right.
Go Crimson
Go Crimson.
Right off the bat, this cliff hits home more than I would like to admit.
And what we're seeing here is sort of a boys club atmosphere at the law firm
and specifically in this client meeting.
And it's really tough to avoid that when there's a majority of male associates and
of course a majority of male partners.
And the client on the other end of the table.
Also a man.
So a lot of the dialogue can tend towards sort of male dominated topics
like golf or baseball or poker or hunting or whatever it might be.
And so, yeah, as a young associate, I really struggled in these conversations
with other associates or partners or.
Clients to really feel like that I really belong there and I could come up with
things to say, and I even played college athletics and I know how to play poker
and my dad hunts and all of the things.
But still, just being a woman in sort of a male-centric dialogue was really
tough to kind of find my footing.
And granted, I did go to law school and I did.
Summer associated at a law firm in Texas.
So that's a little bit more potentially male dominated than maybe some of
the major metropolitan areas on the east or west coast that you'll find.
But it's not uncommon and it does happen, and it can really take some time to kind
of find your footing and know how to interact with male colleagues, especially
when you're one of the only women.
So next, what is a Mac clause?
A Mac clause is a material adverse change clause.
It's a change in circumstance that affects a bargain after the deal is
signed, but before it's been closed.
Something like an embargo or a new tax law or a regulatory change.
I wanted to point out this clip because it brought back memories of one of
the biggest reasons I ultimately decided that I no longer wanted
to practice intellectual property.
Which is what I was practicing at the law firm that I was at.
And what Ingrid is doing in this clip is listening to podcast episodes over
different corporate law concepts.
And the question is, do people actually do this?
And the answer is yes.
And the way that I know this, Is because whenever you're on a case or a deal
at a larger law firm, you're generally going to be on a team of anywhere
from three to 25 lawyers, depending on how big the case or deal is, and
how many moving parts there are, and how many different responsibilities
there are to be allocated.
And in every single one of these.
Teams, I remember that there would be associates who would send out emails
to the team, and it would be with blog articles or industry updates, or
a judicial opinion in another patent litigation case, or an argument that a
law firm used that worked or didn't work.
And I remember at the time that I would just completely ignore them because I was
already underwater and just trying to.
Keep my head above water.
With all of the work that I had assigned to me.
I definitely didn't have the luxury of time I felt to then go
and research other cases that were unrelated to the one I was working on.
And it took a few years for this to sort of click, but it finally made
me realize that, wait a second, these associates that are on these teams
with me, Are really into technology and really into industry updates.
And they're looking up this stuff in their free time and in their off hours, and
that's when they're sending these emails.
And it made me realize that they're really nerding out over this
stuff and they're really into it.
And at that same time, the light bulb moment that I had was, I wanna work in
a type of law that I also want to nerd out over that I'm so into and so excited.
That I wanna be into the community and aware of what was going on and
look at the different trends and not just what I was working on, but what
the industry was doing as a whole.
And that's when I definitely, definitely realized that IP litigation was not the
thing that I naturally nerded out over and that I needed to make a change.
I want all the phase one and phase two reports, the full set, not abridged, the
IP agreements and the lease and wall doc.
Aren't you writing this down?
A few thoughts on this one.
So in this scene, Ingrid is assigning her paralegal, Justin, to pull some
different documents to review in this deal and in a larger law firm, these.
A paralegals, especially the senior paralegals, are the ones who are
running these cases and deals.
They are the ones that are logistically in charge, meaning they know where
the documents are and they know the timeline of when things are supposed
to be happening and they're keeping everyone organized and on track.
And so you would never see an associate, a sign, a paralegal, a task like that, maybe
in a junior paralegal situation, but even.
Something like this is much more common for, to be assigned to a legal secretary.
So when you're at a larger law firm, you will be assigned a legal secretary
to work with, and usually the legal secretary will have about two to
three to four associates, and then usually one partner that they work for.
And so, . What's really important to understand is that yes, even though the
legal secretary is a resource for you as an associate, their number one priority
will always be the partner's work first.
And I've seen associates misuse the services of a legal secretary by
demanding things like formatting or printing or sort of turnaround filings
without really understanding and getting.
For what the legal secretary has been asked to do by the partner first.
So just keep that in mind that even though you may have a legal
secretary as a resource for you or even a junior paralegal, that's
a resource for you, you should be incredibly respectful of their time.
And always make sure to check what projects they have going from the
partners and the senior associates before they turn to any task that you need.
Sorry, Marty didn't mean to interrupt.
I just wanted to drop off the executed NDA and sorry I missed, Lassiter.
Is moving tomorrow up to 9:00 AM Is that gonna be a problem?
No, uh, no problem.
You're around later if I need you.
Yes, I'll be here all night.
Good.
Anytime.
Marty up.
I'll be around all night.
One of the most common expressions you'll probably hear yourself saying as a young
associate, and that's because as a junior lawyer, you're expected to be available.
You're ex.
Expected to be at the firm if they need you to be, or at least be available
at home on your laptop to check emails or answer any calls that come through.
And what's really crazy is that this can be for a legitimate reason in the sense
that you have a deadline due the next day.
So I remember staying up till two 3:00 AM drafting briefs that
needed to be filed the next day.
It could be because a client got back to you with comments or feedback really.
Sort of six, 7:00 PM at night, and now you have to go and incorporate
all of the things that they've asked.
It can also be because of fake deadlines that partner set.
So in this scene, you see Ingrid turning around the non-disclosure agreement that
she worked on all day, giving it to Marty.
He said that he wanted it and he doesn't even look at it.
And so that's also really common as well.
And.
So canceling plans at the last minute is really, really common when
you're a junior associate in big law.
And it's a, and it can be really difficult to keep dinner plans
during the week or see friends.
And so a lot of the time when I was a junior lawyer, either I didn't make plans
during the week or I made them with the expectation that there was a 95% chance
that they were gonna get canceled.
I'm off the Suncorp deal, Dan.
Fair player Lacrosse.
He's got some finals Club buddy who works at the Department of Energy.
Suncorp was my ticket to making partner.
I'm sorry.
Hang maybe next year.
We both know it's upper out here.
Like if I don't make partner, everyone will know.
I couldn't cut it.
I can't just lateral over to some other firm.
I'll be like, Tara I'd have to go in-house at some urinary device company.
I'll be, I'll be nobody crying in the bathroom.
I remember those days.
Or crying in your office and closing the door so no one can walk in on you.
But what Ingrid is referring to here when she says up or out, is this
concept that once you're eligible for partner, you either get promoted
to partner or you're asked to leave the law firm and you lose your job.
And since not everybody can make partner, once you get to that eighth year associate
level or that 10 year associate level, there are a lot of people who will be.
To leave.
Now nowadays it still happens, but there are some non partnership track options.
So this concept or this title of of council means you would still bill
hours like an associate and you would still get a salary like an associate.
But there's not going to be an expectation that you ultimately
develop client business and, and bring in new clients to the firm.
And so that can be an.
But since Upper Out is still a policy in play at a lot of big law firms today,
it may be the case that in that year leading up to your eligibility for a
partnership vote that there are partners that have conversations with you about
how realistic it is that you actually are going to make partner that year to
the effect of you leaving before that partnership vote even actually happens.
Yes.
Who I'm calling.
You wanna know who I do live for this moving for this?
Let's do this one.
This one.
But we must do the pink.
We must do a pink.
Yes.
Oh, I love drama.
Drama.
Audrey had burned by.
Oh my god.
So tell me what, I love this shopping montage so much and I feel like I'm
spoiling the party by calling it out, but I feel like I need to, and that is
that what tends to happen with a lot of junior associates when you start working
at a big law firm is you start making.
A lot more money than you probably ever have before.
And so an entry level big law associate salary right now is
$190,000 with about a $15,000 bonus.
And so you are starting off making over $200,000.
And for a lot of us, that's more money than we've ever seen before.
And so there's a tendency to start.
Spending a lot of it, right?
And so a lot of people will get really nice apartments and new cars and designer
clothes and just really up-leveling their lifestyle in a very expensive way.
And there's nothing wrong with celebrating.
Of course.
This is a big deal and a really exciting job, and you've worked really hard for it.
But the best thing that you can do for yourself, Start working, whether it's
at a big law firm or anywhere else, is getting really clear about your numbers,
and that includes student loan debt and how much you wanna pay off, and also
just sort of your monthly budget and how much you need to live because what.
Can happen.
And what does tend to happen, especially at big law firms, is this
concept known as the golden handcuffs.
And what that means is that your, you have elevated your lifestyle to such a
level that you now need a multiple six figure salary to bankroll that lifestyle.
And so, , even when you wanna walk away from this job and you feel exhausted and
burnt out and it's no longer bringing you joy, you don't feel like you can
because you can't quote unquote afford it.
Because now you have all of these payments that you are making on a monthly
basis, and so the best thing you can do for yourself is to get really clear
on your numbers and what it would look.
Like to live a life that doesn't chain you to a job you don't wanna be a part of.
And so if you want to see a little bit more of a deeper dive into the
golden handcuffs and kind of what that looked like, I did a whole video on
that here and you can check it out.
But yeah, it's really common to kind of fall into this trap of
feeling like you can't afford to leave because of the monthly budget
that you have now created for.
Much higher level.
Those are my part three takeaways.
I hope they gave you guys some insight into what a big law
associate experience can really look like and feel like and be like.
And if this video or partner track in general has inspired you to want to
go to law school and become a lawyer, then definitely check out the Free
Law School Network Facebook group.
It is filled with pre-law students and law students going through that
journey in real time, and so you can reach out to them, connect.
And get a perspective from people with boots on the ground.
And with that, I hope you guys enjoyed this, and I will see you in the next one.