Associate Who Quit Kirkland & Ellis Is Now ‘Purveyor of Pretend Pestilence’
A one-time lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago is profiting this Christmas season because of the increasing popularity of stuffed microbes.
Lawyer Drew Oliver created a company making stuffed germs in 2001 because he thought the toys could be used to help teach children avoid the flu and other maladies, the Associated Press reports. At first, the toys were popular with medical workers, science museums and hospital gift shops.
“But in the last few years, the stuffed germs have spread like the common cold microbe that remains its flagship and biggest seller,” the story says. “Instead of standard Christmas gifts, a growing number of people are looking under the tree for giant stuffed cold germs, cuddly E. coli, hugworthy heartworm and other oddities from Oliver’s Stamford-based company, Giant Microbes.” The article labels Oliver, 40, a “purveyor of pretend pestilence.”
Oliver is a former editor of the Harvard Lampoon and a 2002 law school grad, according to the blog JD Bliss. In a 2006 interview, Oliver told the blog he came up with the idea in law school and placed his first order for 10,000 stuffed microbes when he was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis. Now he runs his business full-time.
Oliver had this advice for entrepreneurial lawyers at JD Bliss: “If you are interested in creating a business of your own, your skills as a lawyer are an excellent tool, since research is key—and most of the lawyers I know are terrific at research! If you work on your idea as hard as you do at being a good lawyer, you will almost certainly succeed.”
