From the Wool-sack
| Publication year | 1985 |
| Pages | 2197 |
| Citation | Vol. 14 No. 9 Pg. 2197 |
1985, December, Pg. 2197. From the Wool-Sack
Boulder---443-9060
It is to be believed because it is absurd.
Quintus Septimius Tertullian, Apologeticus.
This column is similar to alerts you get from weekly newsletters, to which many of you subscribe, which describe important events of which you should be aware.
Some years ago I wrote a column in praise of high salaries for young lawyers.(fn1) In that column I asked rhetorically what was to prevent large firms from paying fledgling lawyers, who were then receiving $30,000 a year, $50,000 a year, and, as is my custom, I answered the question. The answer was, nothing. I was right. Today, recent graduates can start off on Wall Street at $50,000 a year. My friends in large Denver law firms will no doubt respond by saying, "So what?"
The "so what" is that large salaries are no longer enough to attract good young lawyers. If Denver firms think large salaries are enough, they will end up being staffed with people like me. If they want to continue to compete, here is what they must do: they must imitate the big New York law firms and create ambiance. For all I know, some of them already do. For those who do not, here is how ambiance is created.
New York law firms create ambiance by running summer camps for law students and calling them internships. Here is what an internship in one large New York law firm was like last summer.
The firm hired twenty interns. In the past, interns were shown where the law library was and were expected to stay there until it was time to go back to school. These interns were shown where the law library was; they were not, however, expected to spend much time there. That is not because they knew all there was to know. (Being only two-thirds of the way through law school, they only knew two-thirds of what there is to know.) It is because the law firm had so many interesting activities planned for the students that they had little time to work.
For recreational activities the law firm arranged for this young group to go sailing in New York Harbor, visit Gracie Mansion, attend a rehearsal of the Dance Theater of Harlem and go to ball games at Shea and Yankee Stadiums where they sat in boxes owned by the firm.
For intellectually stimulating activities, one week they were introduced to Ron Delsener, a...
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