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We’re not in Big Law Anymore, Toto
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February 6th, 2010CareerUpdate on the Externship
My externship work is going well. See my post Getting in the Game for more details about my externship site choice. I am learning a lot and I am in the process of reworking my resume and cover letter to apply for a regulatory position within the organization. My boss told that me that managers hate to hire lawyers because after getting one or two years of experience they leave the position quickly in pursuit of better things.
I went straight through undergrad to grad school and then to law school. I have no professional experience other than working for Big Law firms during the summer. For the first time, I am working outside of a law firm context with non-attorneys. It is a whole new world for me. Here, are a few things that stood out to me.
No administrative assistance other than an office manager.
At Big Law, you are told to delegate anything and everything that is non-billable to an administrative assistant. I used my administrative assistant quite often to sent out jobs to the copy center, print and arrange things for me, handle tech issues, make lunch reservations, keep up with my calendar etc… Now I get to do it all. I miss having an administrative assistant.
No social land mines & forced socialization.
I noticed that there aren’t any social events going on. You know, those social events that are “optional” but not really. No awkward social events where you try to decipher what you are supposed to wear. We were all invited last summer for the annual pool party at a senior partner’s house. Of course, if you did a little research you would find out that it wasn’t an actual pool party and that there was a complex dress code to follow.
No one sleeps at the office.
It is not uncommon to see couches inside the offices of lawyers rather than actual chairs. That is how you know who sleeps in their office (usually from the exhaustion of working around the clock.) Nor is it uncommon to see lawyers with raccoon eyes–a sure sign they were working all night. Here, no raccoon eyes and no couches.
A business casual dress code.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone wear a suit in the past month. The law firms I worked at were business casual which meant that you wear everything except for your suit jacket. Here, the emphasis is more on casual than business. And people get to wear jeans every Friday!
These observations may not be very accurate because I work in a small department that is very independent from the rest of the organization and my boss has told me that their department is a very casual environment, unlike many departments at the organization.
What kind of a work environment do you have? Do you have people sleeping in your office working around the clock? Do you get to wear jeans to work every Friday?
Tags: Externship, Work Culture, Work Environment
8 responses to “We’re not in Big Law Anymore, Toto” 
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Over 10 years ago when I started working at the place I currently work at, it was dress clothes only. But a week or so after I started, they changed the dress code to business casual. And now it’s even less business casual (I wear jeans and a polo shirt most of the time). We even get to wear tennis shoes!
There are occasions when we work 2 days in a row, but that’s rare. No couches…
Friday is just a regular day for us, although some people have started using that day as a telecommuting day.
My company doesn’t have a lot of glitz and glamour to it, but that’s okay with me.
It’s good to hear you are going okay!
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I work in the corporate world and for us it is a mix. Suits and ties when visiting customers (that are often dressed corporate casual), corporate casual most days in the office but we do have the jeans Friday thing.
Honestly, I wish the tie and jacket thing would finally die. I don’t believe that anyone is really fooled into taking a person as being more credible or capable when they have a tie on.
It is an unnecessary and expensive waste.
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@Don
Sounds like you don’t ever have to worry about dry cleaning bills!@LeanLife
I can only imagine being in the same room with a client and you are ridiculously overdressed. I don’t think the tie and jacket thing will ever completely die. It has too much of a stronghold.
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I think the best part of business professional dress is that it is pretty standardized — suits are more of less the same, whereas the range of what’s considered casual wear is huge!
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@Caity
You’re right. The range of what is considered business casual is wide and some places emphasize the business part while other’s emphsize the casual part. Also, for women it is more difficult to determine what exactly is business casual. For men, the margin of error is much lower.
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I work in a business casual environment. We just switched over from business attire last year so people are still getting used to the new dress code. I still rock my suits from time to time, since I’ve accumulated so many. We don’t get to wear jeans. We do have this charity thing going called Dollars for Denim where you donate a dollar and you can wear jeans on the final Friday of the month. So we can wear jeans 12 times a year. WOO-HOO!
I don’t know anyone that isn’t dying to leave at 5 or 6 at this place. The popular thing is to come in at 6:30 AM. That’s when a lot of stuff actually happens. Many of the higher ups are actually out of the door at 3 or 4. I personally do not want to sacrifice sleep so I’m doing the 9 to 6:30…
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Ronnie February 8th, 2010 at 20:26
I work in a business casual environment, but we dress up every Friday. That’s motions day in Fairfax County, and we’re in court just about every Friday.
I will say though, there is something to be said about NOT having an assistant. It gives you a much greater appreciation into how much work goes into seemingly mundane things, and also lets you know exactly how you like your things done. Also, in case you totally screw something up, it’s only your fault, and not the fault of the assistant who wasn’t paying attention (and you who also weren’t paying attention). Something to be said about that.
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@InvestingNewbie
The place I worked at last summer did the Denim for Dollars thing too. We had to forkover $5 though. I will leave my jeans at home for that much.@Ronnie
I so miss having an admin assistant. Everything takes so incredibly long! I definitely have a greater appreciation for how much work goes into mundane things. What I really hate is how these mundane things take up time and cuts down on my productivity.
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Don@Moneyreasons February 7th, 2010 at 11:38