Chapter 6: Initiation by Lotus-Eating

[The chapter on summer clerkships describes a now-lost world, I'm sorry to say, but doubtless the conservatism of the profession will ensure a return to lotus eating when the economy picks up.]

Summer clerkships at the big firms amount to fly-backs writ large.  The summer of undemanding work with alcohol and secretaries and social outings and a paycheck grossly disproportionate to the work performed is a bribe.  Law firms pay the bribe to students to influence their career decisions—which is to say, to alter their entire life trajectories.  Law firms persuade summer clerks to build their lives around the firm by proving an experience that has almost nothing to do with work at the firm. 

Let the clerk return to law school for that final year, study for and pass the bar exam (the big firms will pay him or her during the weeks of study), and join the firm as a regular associate.  There will be no excursions to ball games or pool tournaments or picnics at the zoo until the following June, when the new crop of summer clerks shows up—and the associates are reminded of their duty to treat the social events as part of their jobs, as recruiting, rather than as social events.  Loyalty to the firm will also be stressed. 

Once the graduate joins the firm as an associate, dalliances with the support staff are no longer summer flings but matters for the concerned attention of the executive committee.  The lazy succession of research projects is replaced by the relentless grind of billable hours.  And brand-new associates are expected to have absorbed from midair the secrets of managing clients.

The internships endured by recent graduates of medical schools are infinitely less pleasant than the summer clerkships of law students.  But a medical internship gives the baby doc exposure to patients and a chance to see what life in the profession, at least at that particular institution, really means.  Internships are followed by residencies that alert young doctors to what various practices will do to their lives.  For doctors, there's no disgrace in making a sudden change of plan after the first residency; they just do another residency in another field.  Doctors' career decisions are based on their extended experiences with reality.  Many law students, by contrast, make career decisions based on pleasant summer-long fantasies hosted by the big firms.