Sigh. i'm eating my duck here (yeah, we have duck for lunch in the cafeteria today), i don't work at a firm, i work at a bank.

Banks pay their summer associates a weekly salary calcuated from a base of $58K-$85K per year.

http://www.vault.com/hubs/channelmain.jsp?chm_page=9&ch_id=240&type=1

As for law firms, new york firms $2400-$2800/week for their summers, which i don't think is minimal pay. Look it up here: http://www.nalpdirectory.com/

Some firms work their summers a lot (not to the bone, like first years, though), and some just take them out to lunch every day. It depends. In any case, i'm at a bank, which is less stressful than a firm, and therefore doesn't pay $2400/week.

Look, if it's too painful to believe me, just keep living in denial. :)

from Forbes magazine

"At top consulting firms like McKinsey & Co. or Bain & Co., in New York City their typical salary for interns is between $15,000 and $18,000.…It's not uncommon for new lawyers and investment bankers to clock 80-plus-hour workweeks"

The US Govn't pays those law interns without a degree an hourly rate based on $25,000 per year. And they have to perform, baby. 80 hours a week. And not all are paid, many of the plushest positions are "voluntary" (ie: will work for free for the foot in the door.)

-- cosmic mojo

Well, i was talking about law firms, not consulting firms. And i work at a bank, not a law firm.

So let's do the math for consulting:

$15,000 for a generous 14 weeks of work becomes about $1071 per week. Multiply by 52 weeks in a year, and the base yearly salary is about $55,714. Which is almost in the range for summer associates at banks, $58K-$85K.

Next, maybe some lawyers work at consulting firms, but investment bankers definitely do not. They work at investment banks. So again, i'm not sure why we're takling about consulting firms.

Yes, new lawyers (read: 1st-year associates) do work very hard at law firms. Government employees never work 80-hour weeks -- that's why they pay so little. A new SEC attorney earns about $45,000.

i'm a summer associate a bank, so your post about government law interns and consulting firms is kind of irrelevant.

Here's a sample new york law firm, Orrick:

http://www.orrick.com/careers/law_students_summer.asp

"2006 summer associates will be paid $11,250/month."

also, take a look at the summer events for summer associates:

http://www.orrick.com/careers/law_students_events.asp

Now pull the other leg.

Lecastor has been posting online since 11am today; it's now after 2 and she's still at it. She's taken the time to make about a dozen posts as well as google and snip some faux research in between lunch at the "employee cafeteria." And still she wants us to believe that she not only has this fabulously high-octane job and makes lots of money at it, but that it affords her 3 hours a day to fuck around on the internet. And this is a typical day for her.

Please.

It is fun just to see how outlandish each of her subsequent posts gets, how much she actually thinks anyone believes about her pretend life. I'd love to be the therapist who gets rich off the book he or she writes about all those psychoses running round her head and spilling out in these blogs.

Salon is truly entertaining. Sometimes the articles are good, too. I'm glad I'm not paying for it.

-- Professor Kingsfield, Esq.

PermalinkWednesday, August 09, 2006 2:13:17 PM

NNG

I told you she couldn't ever shut the fuck up, didn't I?

-- Parson Jim

I just love that the simple god-damn truth can piss so many people off. Which part of it pisses you people off the most, the money? or the hours? or the prestige? or the duck in the cafeteria... i know, i think it's absurd that they pay youngins like me that much money too, but i'm not going to complain.

I'm particularly surprised that Kingsfield "esq." has such scathing words, since he/she is allegedly an attorney, so should be aware of everything i'm talking about. unless he's a parking ticket attorney. they don't get paid $2400/week. I don't think you're an Esq because if you were, you'd know how tedious document review is and how you're chained to your desk and can't go anywhere. And you'd also know that many attorneys' jobs is to be available -- firefighting. M&A attorneys, for example, can have 3 weeks when they have very little to do, and then 6 months when they barely make it home every night to get 2 hours of sleep. It's cyclical. And of course it didn't occur to you geniuses that since this is a summer internship, and it's now the end of the summer, all i have to do is finish up loose ends.

The joke's on you, people.

"Summer Law Associates Get Down to Business

by: Ashby Jones

source: CareerJournal

published : June 05, 2006

All play and no work. That's the common conception of summer-associate programs at the nation's biggest law firms. For about three months, the thinking goes, the firms bestow upon an anointed crop of law students a taste of the good life. They lunch at the city's best restaurants, move from one open bar tab to the next and take in baseball games from the firm's box seats. When they're not too busy with their sushi-making classes and scavenger hunts, they do a few research memos. At summer's end, the vast majority get lucrative offers for permanent employment.

A year later, the grind begins."

Read the rest of the article, you unbelieving skeptics:

http://www.marketingpower.com/content40581.php