Careers
Tales of Deferred Associates: Your Waiter Could Be a Lawyer
Posted Oct 19, 2009 9:41 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Andy Cohen waited tables when he was an undergraduate student at Emory University in Atlanta.
Now he’s a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and he’s still waiting tables, this time at the Midatlantic restaurant in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Cohen’s start date at Blank Rome was deferred until early next year, so he capitalized on his love of food by working at the restaurant. Two other wait staffers at the restaurant are also lawyers who will begin work in the military's Judge Advocate General program in January.
Cohen is one of several deferred associates profiled by the Inquirer. The others are:
• Mike Duffy, a Temple Law School graduate who is a deferred associate at Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll. He is now working at the Greater Camden Partnership, a nonprofit working on the city's redevelopment. He works on legal issues and also pitches in to help clear vacant lots.
• Kristina Moon, a former AmeriCorps volunteer who is a Temple law school graduate and a deferred associate at Dechert. She is working at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, where she helped write an amicus brief on behalf of teen girls threatened with prosecution for texting sexually suggestive photos of themselves.
• Anthony LaGreca, a Georgetown University Law Center graduate and a deferred associate at Dechert. He is working at Philadelphia VIP helping nonprofit groups and businesses on transactional matters. "After the dust settled, I realized one of the positives was that I would be working for a smaller organization and that I would be given more responsibility right away," he told the Inquirer.
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Comments
B. McLeod
Oct 19, 2009 10:02 AM CST
Mindful of this possibility, I always leave an appropriate gratuity.
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sally
Oct 19, 2009 10:38 AM CST
only a small fraction of law school grads ever got the OPPORTUNITY to even compete for these biglaw jobs that gave deferrals. So why does the legal profession media obsess on this small fraction of the law school grads? Why not admit that the vast majority of law school grads never even had a shot at jobs that gave deferrals?
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bored
Oct 19, 2009 11:26 AM CST
Once again th ABA focusses on the Biglaw deferred associates.
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RustyShackleford
Oct 19, 2009 11:29 AM CST
It’s funny that the ABA thinks that being deferred by BigLaw is the worst thing that could happen to a new law grad.
Never mind the vast majority of graduates who will never have a shot at being deferred by BigLaw, let alone hired by a big firm, and will probably be waiting tables or something similar for a very, very long time.
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Frank M. Feibelman
Oct 19, 2009 12:43 PM CST
In other words, how many recent law schoold graduates haven’t gotten ANY law jobs?
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capplebaum
Oct 19, 2009 12:57 PM CST
ABA, you are joke. 90% of graduates don’t have the opportunity of being “deferred” and now are unemployed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-dischargeable debt strapped around their necks. To top it all off, you pump up people like Susan Carter Liebel as one of your Legal Rebels who are in the business of ripping off the desperately unemployed with their useless “go solo” seminars. Seriously, how do you people sleep at night?
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Liz
Oct 19, 2009 9:10 PM CST
He “capitalized on his love of food?” Is that what we’re calling “subsistence living” these days?
I just hope he can still live with his parents, or he’s going to have to “capitalize on his love of nature….” when he sleeps in a tent under the highway overpass.
I don’t think it’s practical to sue the schools, but it seems like so many school administrators benefitted without providing anything in return to students. My own alma mater raised tuition significantly this year, and sends two solicitations a month.
I’ll donate the day a prospective employer trills, “You can explain the Mailbox Rule? And it only took you three years to learn? I’ll pay for that skill set!”
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B. McLeod
Oct 20, 2009 1:15 AM CST
Ah, Today, Young Liz has a tongue that could clip a hedge.
“Subsistence living” is actually when one can’t even capitalize on their love of food (i.e., having to take whatever sustains life). And, where “love of nature” is concerned, if you can get a spot under an overpass, you don’t need a tent. However, a “mummy” style sleeping bag, rated to -30F, is a really good idea in cold climates.
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Lawyer By Day, Cocktail Waitress By Night
Oct 21, 2009 6:59 AM CST
Why is the slant of this article geared only toward people waiting tables because they have deferred offers?
I am a licensed lawyer, have been out of law school for just over a year, and found myself in a government job (appellate clerk) that barely pays enough to make my mortgage payments, much less my student loans. Because it is a conflict to have a practice on the side while working at the court, I went back to the job that put me through undergrad: waiting tables. I have spent the last year clerking during the day and working as a cocktail waitress or server in the evenings and on weekends. I make enough to pay those monthly $1500 loan payments and have some leftover each month.
Do I work 80 hours a week and at the end of the day make a lot less than the $120k salaries of big law? Yes. Do I wish that if I was going to work 80+ hours a week it would be just at one job? Not necessarily. While I do not intend to continue waiting tables for the rest of my life, it is a great way to get by in this economy where I’m lucky to have a job, much less two of them. I think more lawyers should consider it - not just those deferred, but those unemployed, those starting fledgling practices and those that can’t make ends meet given the ridiculous amount of debt they incurred.
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Esq.
Oct 21, 2009 8:43 AM CST
And there are a lot of lawyers who DON’T have deferred positions who are waiting tables because they’re either unemployed, or their legal employment does not pay enough to make their student loan payments.
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CH2
Oct 21, 2009 12:51 PM CST
Law school graduates often fall into two traps. The first is that they feel that Big Law is the only way to pay off those Big Loans. The second is that they feel obligated to practice law. I graduated law school in ‘08 (top 10 percent of my class) and the best of four job offers I received does not involve practicing law. I accepted it and I always remember to leave a good tip when I eat out.
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HiLaw
Oct 22, 2009 12:17 AM CST
I also love how they fail to mention that the biglaw grads who are working in non-profits are doing it for free(b/c they are getting stipends generally) and those who dedicated their entire law school careers to public interest law are being shut out of jobs as a result.
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