The Reunion: As noted earlier, we missed last week’s Thunder Over Louisville, the kickoff to the 2-week Kentucky Derby Festival, in order to attend the 10th reunion of Marshall-Wythe School of Law’s class of 1994. Overall, our travel problems notwithstanding, it was a fair trade. An interesting dynamic of reunions generally is that people tend to spend the most time with those classmates that they were closest to in school and therefore are most likely to have seen on a semi-regular basis anyway, but we did get to catch up with a few lost souls. Assisted, no doubt, by the round number on the end of the reunion designation. Interesting overgeneralizations about law students from this event:
- A large percentage of large firm lawyers abandon ship before the partnership track yields its bounty, given that said track is now at least 10 years. Those that leave seem to be attracted more to in-house positions than government, even close to Washington, DC, although my sample is assuredly not representative (what right-thinking free market advocate would go to the government over the private sector?)
- Single people are more likely to stay in large law firms than married ones (OK that was an easy one, and high on the Duh Factor)
- Never assume you will be able to predict who will get married, who will stay married, or who will or won’t have kids in ten years. This was the single most surprising thing to me.
- Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, most young lawyers do not seek out non-traditional jobs, and the most common non-traditional job is perhaps the most tradition-bound job in human history (stay-at-home parent). Notable counter-examples are, of course, available: my class contains several entrepreneurs, a retired-from-the-law mountain man, and the co-founder of a public service legal organization
- Networking at alumni events is vastly overrated. Most of the people I know found the soon-to-be-minted lawyers a bit grating.
Silliest moment: presentation of The Big Check by the alumni coordinators. Most disappointing: the food (why can’t event organizers hire decent caterers, anyway?). Best moments: watching the kids, who tend to put things in perspective, even those wearing Bush-Cheney t-shirts.
For my comrades stumbling upon this post, I put up some pictures. Email me if you have your own to contribute.
