u/LawSchoolThreauxAway

I'm a non-traditional law student (29M) and took an SA position with a midsized firm in a MCOL area. Everyone from the support staff to the attorneys are extremely approachable and nice. It's just that the office culture is... weird... I asked my classmates at other firms if they're doing any of this and none of them have said yes. They're going to sports games, concerts, lunches/dinners, happy hours, etc etc. One of them is even doing things like attending cooking classes with the other summer associates which I think is really cool.

At my firm, we've been doing TikTok skits—a lot of them. I don't just mean like those normal lawyer/law-student TikToks where they say like, "Come with me on a day in the life of a lawyer/summer-associate at X Firm!" I'm talking actual skits, trends, and TikTok dances. I have never even gone so far as to make a single Instagram post before this and now I'm doing the same dances, skits, and trends that middle schoolers are doing.

For example, the four of us had to get into the office manager's minivan (which was disgusting btw) and DO A MUKBANG inside it. The marketing staff was also extremely strict with the manner in which we did this. They insisted that none of us were allowed to speak at all while recording. The four of us just sat inside her damn minivan shoveling trays of seafood boil into our mouths. The stranger part is that I don't even think the video was uploaded (not yet at least) so what the hell was the point of that?

Another insanely stupid one was where the four of us had to do the "double it or give it to the next person" skit but with cups of coffee. I'm not even sure what the hell was supposed to be achieved by this either because there was no message or even advertisement for the firm (aside from it being posted on their TikTok). We literally just doubled it and gave it to the next person until the fourth summer associate ended up with eight mugs of coffee. The poor girl spilled some on her shirt too because they kept trying to make her somehow hold all eight with just her two hands. She awkwardly stood there inserting one or two fingers into the loop of every single coffee mug in a desperate attempt to hold all eight. It was extremely frustrating watching her attempt this while mouthing "ouch" to herself as some of her fingers touched the hot mugs.

We've been doing a lot of TikTok dances lately and I'm near my last straw, if not at it already. I dread every single day I have to come into work and further ruin my own personal and professional image by doing all these. When I entered our supervising attorney's office to ask her if I could take a step back because I was uncomfortable doing them, she folded her hands together and tilted her head to answer, "None of the other summer associates seem to have a problem with it. They all seem to be having fun actually." I stood there shocked and at an utter loss for words; it was like I'd gone in third-person and could see the look of disbelief on my face, jaw dropped and everything. Not wanting to risk a bad reference or no return offer, I sheepishly stammered, "You know what, I'll give them another shot. I think I'm just cranky because I didn't sleep too well last night." She gave me a dismissive and patronizing smile, swiveled her chair back to facing her monitor, and didn't say a word in response. I walked away feeling nothing but hopelessness and anger.

At first I was worried about not getting a return offer but now I'm wondering if I even want one at a firm like this. Do any of your firms do this sort of thing? I made an appointment with my CSO to talk about this but they're not free for the next two weeks because of OCI. How bad is it if I quit in the middle of a summer associate program? I can't take this anymore.

Because I definitely am not.... Seeing these sample answers makes me cry sometimes.

I'll go first. Article II stuff regarding what the damn president can do. I'm not talking about the Executive Branch as a whole, I'm talking just POTUS. In what fucking world is >0.0001% of us going to be trying to sue the damn president for his personal conduct or challenging him pardoning someone.

I've heard a lot that the Themis MCQs are extremely complex compared to the actual exam's questions but is this actually true?

Edit: I am dog tired and so I'm not sure how I came to write the title in that way...

I've noticed that almost every single sample answer includes discussions of issues that are outside the scope of the call of the question for the essays. Are you guys trying to mirror this collection of every single issue, even if it's outside the scope of what the question is asking for? My intuition tells me to first address all the issues the questions are specifically asking for first and then do some more attenuated ones after if I have time but do these even count towards points on the actual exam?

Edit: I'm on Themis

When he came back from his father’s funeral, he was in the taxi back from an Air Italia flight. The camera starts us off by showing the airplane landing and then shortly afterwards you see him in the taxi cab with the Middle Eastern or South Asian driver. He has a mixed expression on his face: disappointment, sadness, and uncertainty.

There are the obvious scenes the camera wants us to see that are the cause of these feelings of his. We see him just having been in the country and region he grew up in, saying goodbye to his father, and the lackluster scenes of sunny New Jersey to which he’s come back to. We see Burger King, gas stations, and general middle-class American suburbia.

But there’s one thing the camera doesn’t show us that’s also a significant cause of his feelings in that moment—his disconnect and lack of a relationship with the rest of the Jersey family. Notice that it’s afternoon and he had to take a cab back from the airport alone; nobody in the family was designated to or even volunteered to pick him up.

He realizes, at least subconsciously, in this moment that he’s an enforcer for them and nothing else. There’s no camaraderie or other sort of personal bond that he has with any other soldier or associate in the family. This loneliness has always been a problem for him (e.g., his feelings for Carmela) but they started really taking a toll on him at this point and it pushed him to his limits. Anyways, give me one thousand onion rings.

I see her ads EVERYWHERE. And I mean like EVERYWHERE in CA. I looked up how much a billboard costs but the prices fluctuate so much based on traffic flow. Has anyone ever ballparked how much she (or similar attorneys) spend per year on ads? It's gotta be a very significant chunk of cash. I guess it's working for her though since she seems to be doing pretty well.

Just curious where everyone's at because I don't trust this thing where it says I'm X% above the student average at all.

Edit: shit I’m at 19% I am way behind it seems

I've been studying approximately 2.5 weeks now and I feel like I'm WAY behind schedule on Themis. I'm barely on the property lectures and covering RAP. There hasn't been a single day where I've gotten through every single assignment and I set myself to studying seven days a week for seven hours a day on the schedule.

The days where I'm doing assignments, I take much longer than what the schedule says it takes because I go through questions/issues I missed and make sure I understand why. I also do them open notes and untimed so that I'm learning the material as I go through them. For the lectures, I'm constantly pausing and taking notes in case there's something I'm not fully getting or if I think something's important and not on the outline/handout.

By the end of each day, I've gotten through 1/2-3/4 of the materials scheduled for that day and am so exhausted I can't do anything else. Does anyone else have this problem? I'm worried that I won't even be able to hit 75% by the bar exam because of how strenuous and demanding this is.

Edit: Sorry, I meant 75% completion, not 75% average on assignments.

Seriously. The number one complaint I see from veterans is how they have XYZ injury that they received while active duty but they got denied any sort of rating for it. You have to understand that the VA disability raters *want* to give you as much as they reasonably can; they just can't do that if there's no evidence it's service-related (i.e., medical records).

The whole "pain is weakness leaving the body" bullshit is the second dumbest thing the Marine Corps ever adopted. The first is leadership calling their Marines pussies or weak for seeking medical appointments for pain they're experiencing in service. In fact, when I went to TRS, the retired SgtMaj that was running the class told us he probably went to more than two dozen medical appointments in his last year because he was always dissuaded from going to medical while he was in. He said if it hadn't been for those appointments, he wouldn't have gotten anything close to what he has now for his disability rating.

Should you suck it the fuck up sometimes? Yes, this line of work will always take a toll on your body and some injuries are tolerable. Does that mean you shouldn't also go to medical for it? Absolutely fucking not and don't let any retard with more chevrons or rockers than you tell you otherwise. And for the love of God, do NOT use one of those of predatory "Veterans, we promise to get you a higher disability rating!" services after you EAS. Those fuckers do not have your best interest in mind.

I’ll be working at a midsized firm later this year. I have a personal hatred for messenger bags but I’m also not gonna be the guy who wears a backpack to carry my stuff around in….. Are briefcases acceptable for new associates or is that not the norm?

Edit: I’m a male if that matters.

Can’t seem to find the operator in this video in my list