Wealthy Lawyers Take Social Nosedive

Personal Lives

Posted Dec 5, 2007, 01:30 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

Pity the poor BigLaw partners and other financially successful lawyers. While many have never been richer and remain well-to-do by ordinary standards, they have taken a social nosedive in recent years compared to megabucks private equity investors and hedge fund titans.

Although many BigLaw partners are taking home seven-figure profits, they are considered little more than middle-class in ultrarich enclaves in New York City and Palo Alto, reports American Lawyer in a magazine article reprinted by New York Lawyer (reg. req.). However, those in Silicon Valley seem to complain less about their downtrodden social status, according to a recruiter.

"Face it, we have no status," an unnamed partner at a major firm moans to the legal magazine, concerning his place in the pecking order at the private school in New York City that his sons attend. "We go to these school functions, and this well-heeled group looks right through you. They won't give you the time of day. You're just one step ahead of the doorman."

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Posted by bg - 9 months, 2 days, 4 hours, 46 minutes ago

Right. One steo ahead of the doorman. At an ubercostly, posh private school. Oh, woe is you.
Posted by nouseforaname - 9 months, 2 days, 4 hours, 6 minutes ago

Perhaps now they understand how associates feel.
Posted by nancy - 9 months, 2 days, 3 hours, 13 minutes ago

And they want to send their kids to a school where this is the dominant ethic? They deserve what they get.
Posted by Gizmo - 9 months, 2 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes ago

They probably look right through him because they know how shallow and insecure s/he is- or maybe his/her son is a jerk like the parent.
Posted by TodArata - 9 months, 2 days, 3 hours, 3 minutes ago

Oh and I would DIE if I were treated like a doorman- how embarrassing would it be to be a doorman!?! I know my sole goal in life is to have people with money admire me because they are so important and do so much for this world.
Posted by Paul E. Ester - 9 months, 2 days, 2 hours, 42 minutes ago

This is one of the most obnoxious posts I have read in a very long time.

Ya gotta feel for them.
Posted by Badoozie - 9 months, 2 days, 2 hours, 29 minutes ago

Any person who gets into the practice of law believing it will provide them with status or pro athlete level compensation has been watching far too much television.
Posted by lbartellemucci@andersonkill.com - 9 months, 2 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes ago

some lawyers really are just strange.
Posted by Matt - 9 months, 2 days, 2 hours, 11 minutes ago

Reminds me of that quote from Rushmore (paraphrased)

“My Dad’s only a neurosurgeon, but we get by.”
Posted by Mike Hunt - 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

I can’t pity lawyers looking for status. I became a lawyer just because it was a way to make a good buck and attract the ladies, who were impressed that I was going to law school. I married one of them (a nice girl ) and we do OK. But I don’t moan about my social status.
Posted by Dan - 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 34 minutes ago

Is this article for real? Is this really what lawyers care about? Good thing I have been exposed to some really great lawyers already, or this article would make me quit law school.

Hey dummy, how about you improve your social status by, I don’t know, doing something to improve society?
Posted by Amanda - 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 27 minutes ago

What is up with these lame articles? I feel like I am reading a yearbook entry - short and no substance.
Posted by samuel - 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 19 minutes ago

Doesn’t this BigLaw social climber realize that lawyers are in the service industry? Why should the servant socialize with the master?
Posted by Etien - 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

No sympathy here. I am a litigator for a non-profit and if you break down my salary by the hour I am not even making minimum wage. I work three part time jobs on nights and weekends just to pay my utility bills. I eat beans out of a can for lunch because that is what I can afford. I drive a 25 year old vehicle and buy suits from a thrift store. I wouldn’t give the the “unnamed partner” the time of day either, but for much different reasons.
Posted by John - 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 11 minutes ago

This is a completely rdiculous article. I am a highly paid lawyer in New York with kids in an expensive private school. Most highly paid NY lawyers are not like this, and It’s not only a few lawyers who are like this, of course. In any group you find immature people who, emotionally, never got very far past the mindset of high school cliques. What next, an article pointing the unattractive personality traits of a few NY doormen, to claim that all NY doormen are jerks? The reasoning in this article is so extremely lame it makes one wonder- is the author a former lawyer fired for basic incompetence?
Posted by Kris - 9 months, 2 days, 59 minutes ago

The lawyers described in this article, i.e., wealthy social outcasts, deserve no pity, nor a passing glance by the “well-heeled” or by the doorman. This is a sad depiction of lawyers, but an excellent example of why I am often embarrassed to admit that I am a lawyer.
Posted by Andrew - 9 months, 2 days, 44 minutes ago

I think that this posting as well as the reaction speaks to a far larger problem within our profession. Need vs. Greed. How much does a person need? This “article” follows on the coattails of another about $100,000.00 Christmas parties, city attorneys with ridiculous expense accounts, and $110,000 bonuses for associates. Where has the “professional” in our profession gone? No wonder the common public perception of attorneys is of a nasty, amoral, greedy group of individuals. I knew more than a few people in law school whose primary motiviation in achieving success was for the money or the prestige. Where has the concept of service gone? I know it’s out there, I’ve seen it in my peers and it’s evident in the reactions to these articles.
Posted by Estilp - 9 months, 2 days, 40 minutes ago

I agree completely with lbartelemucci
Posted by Norman E. Gaar - 9 months, 2 days, 22 minutes ago

I have met this lawyer somewhere. He/she belongs in the trash heap of history or better still, try politics--don’t forget to pick the right party, there are dunderhead climbers in both!
Posted by Bill - 9 months, 2 days, 18 minutes ago

I’m trying to think of the right words to describe my sympathy, but the only ones I can come up with are “ha” and “ha.”
Posted by Merlin - 9 months, 1 day, 23 hours, 59 minutes ago

While the lawyers in the article are not very sympathetic, there is something to be said for maximizing your return on investment. As lawyers, we spend a lot of money and time in school, but in the business world, one can spend much less of both and be much more financially successful. When you sell your time, as lawyers do, you can only make so much. It’s a fine living, but there’s nothing wrong with striving for me.

Also, this “profession” and “service” stuff is nonsense. Doctor’s might be able to make that argument and maybe some attorneys with government or non-profits, but the vast majority of us are working if not for the very finance people mentioned in this article than for other businesses chasing the almighty dollar. No reason lawyers can’t get in on the chase too.
Posted by Bob the Doorman - 9 months, 1 day, 23 hours, 28 minutes ago

You guys need to quit moaning. I pour tea for a living. THAT’S REAL WORK!!!
Posted by diane - 9 months, 1 day, 23 hours, 23 minutes ago

the attorney in this article should move to a developing country, where with his nyc income, he can build a castle and live like a king. Then he can invite his high net worth clients to his home for an elaborate dinner and feel like their equal. And he can send his children to the best private school in that country. Knowing he makes more money than 95% of the people in that developing country will solve all of his insecurities.
Posted by jalrin - 9 months, 1 day, 21 hours, 34 minutes ago

The truly disturbing point is that we have created a wealthy class that is so rich and powerful that even millionaires with viast power and prestige are nothing before them. These business people with their vast fortunes (and their big firm clolleagues) have too much money and status for the good of a Republic which requires at least some equality between its citizens and need to be cut down to size.
Posted by John - 9 months, 1 day, 20 hours, 51 minutes ago

The big bucks New York lawyer is busy looking down at the doorman and in turn the really wealthy look down on him. He is reaping the bitter fruit of the seeds of condescension which he himself has sown. If he learns to take a genuine interest in people of all walks of life, and yes that includes the doorman, he will be a happier person and people will enjoy his company. His social status will improve.
Posted by dave - 9 months, 1 day, 18 hours, 9 minutes ago

Idiot. There’s a reason Tom Hagen never bitched about HIS social status to the Godfather. Biglaw partners spend their professional lives making wealthy people wealthier, taking scraps from the table compared to the wealth their clients create. Why would they expect to be treated as equals? Know your place, toolbox.
Posted by Waah - 9 months, 1 day, 18 hours, 1 minute ago

Dear Unnamed Partner, Why don’t you cry me a few more billable hours so I can go home without feeling guilty for having billed ethically today.
Posted by Steve - 9 months, 1 day, 17 hours, 4 minutes ago

My dad was a bus driver and I still see him as one of the most intelligent, hard-working people I ever knew. Attending law school, and becoming a lawyer doesn’t make me any better than he was. I came from next-to-nothing, and just because I’m doing something more prestigious doesn’t mean that I am any better or smarter than my dad. I hate when people treat others that have low-paying jobs like dirt.

I dealt with jerks like that when I was a waiter at a fancy restaurant. It’s intolerable.
Posted by NCLawyer - 9 months, 14 hours, 58 minutes ago

Service vs. the almight dollar—there’s a reason billionaires look down on millionaire lawyers like these. The reason is the billionaires know that these particular millionaires are climbers, whores or both. I have a case defending a client against a multinational represented by one of these millionaire lawyers. The multinational has contempt for the case and for the lawyers it hired. Whereas the multinational’s lawyers fear us—lowly insurance defense lawyers that we are—because the facts are on our side and because we care more about our clients and our professional pride than how close to the f’n White House our office is. Apparently we do not know that we are supposed to dissolve in fear at a mediation because the guy across the table charges $1000 an hour. To paraphrase Chris Rock: “That’s nice BigLaw, but let me ask you this ... Can you kick MY ass?”
Posted by George Sly - 8 months, 4 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours, 30 minutes ago

This is a professional journal. Do we care about this article? Does it help us be better lawyers? Doest it discuss a case or other legal matter? Amanda is right, this article is rubbish.
Posted by Mr. Happy - 8 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 6 hours, 2 minutes ago

The truth is that lawyers have never and will never make as much money as those in high finance. Just read a book like Bonfire of the Vanities and realize the “poor” lawyer “rich” banker syndrome has been around for quite awhile.

Unfortunately, our society has gotten to a point where it is not about doing what you like, but rather doing what will be the most lucrative in order to amass material possessions and provide for a certain lifestyle.

If one has the ability to enter finance and be good at it (which alot of lawyers don’t) then by all means go back and get an MBA or wait for an opportunity to lateral to a bank from a law firm.

Most people who went to law school, like myself, missed the recruiting boat from college. Most of my friends from college who went to the business school undergrad worked in i-banking for a few years and are now making a ton in private equity. People who go to law school either didn’t get it in college, really wanted to be attorneys, or are risk averse.
Posted by Steve - 8 months, 4 weeks, 22 hours, 56 minutes ago

Hello? Last time I looked at K-1s, the General Counsel of each and every corporation was a Vice President ... o.k., maybe Senior VP ... and the Corporate Secretary. Maybe not a doorman, but ... certainly a lieutenant. Why should the pcking order of venture finance surprise any of us. Author appears to have a serious case of sour grapes.
Posted by thinking - 8 months, 4 weeks, 20 hours, 18 minutes ago

Man - Steve (comment 26) said it! Many of us owe our “position” or “prestige” such as it may be, to the investment in physical labor made by our parents. My father is a painter. If I didn’t learn to take pride in my work and do any job to the best of my abilities from him, I don’t think I would be a very good lawyer or anything else. The happiest top rung occupants anywhere know the names of the janitor’s kids and how those kids are doing in school!
Posted by David - 8 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 8 hours, 12 minutes ago

Are you serious about this article? There are bigger things to wory about. Somehow, I don’t feel any pity or sympathy for that lawyer feeling he/she is one step above the doorman. Boo Hoo!
Posted by Hunt Mike - 8 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes ago

Look at her other articles. Like the French Big Law one. They are recruiting out of country law schools because law schools in France are offered to a ‘wider pool of people.’

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