"Totally fun to read" - that was the gist of the book review I was able to wheedle from the Minute Wife after she cadged my review copy of Anonymous Lawyer by blogger Jeremy Blachman.
Eventualy I was allowed to peruse the book myself, and she was right. The book is a creative novelization of his blog, which claims to present "Stories from the trenches, by a fictional hiring partner at a large law firm in a major city". The unifying thread is the brutal ascent to power by "Anonymous", who is in a deadly (or anyway, life and death) competition with "The Jerk". It's a quick read, lots of fun, and a must-read for anyone with a friend or relative considering the big law firm trek.
Let me cadge from Publisher's Weekly:
Blachman's side-achingly funny debut, derived from his popular blog of the title, is written in the candid, sanctimonious voice of Anonymous Lawyer, an ill-humored, ill-tempered hiring partner at a prestigious New York firm. Anonymous Lawyer is an 18-year man whose compulsion to blog is almost as strong as his desire for the firm's chairmanship. When he's not facing off with his nemesis, The Jerk, in the race for the chair, he takes solace in degrading his summer interns and hapless associates for his quickly developing cult of readers (who e-mail with guesses at his identity).
Sir: what is it with you and lawyers? All the lawyers I have known were true, honest and fine souls. So much so, that after thirty five years I hope I never see another one. Sadly, I would not find hummor in such a busman's holiday. Only the MD's are worse.
I once spoke to my private MD, telling him of the stress of a large firm, I said that if, at a partner's meeting someone threw a dime on the table all the partners would kill each other to see who got the dime. He responded that if you did that to MD's at a meeting they would argue for days over where it came from and what to do with it. A pox on 'em all.
Posted by: Festus | July 25, 2006 at 08:44 PM
Tom, the author spent exactly one summer at a law firm. Summer associates, as you may not know, Tom, are paid $2,400 a week (in 2004/2005; more now) to work 3-4 hours a day and go out to lunch and dinner on an expense account as often as they like. In other words, the big bastard who wrote that stuff about law firms for Henry Holt doesn't know anything more about real law firm work than he does about fornicating.
Posted by: AT | July 25, 2006 at 08:56 PM
Tom, the author spent exactly one summer at a law firm.
I did not know that. Well, Michael Lewis had a huge hit explaining all of investment banking to us in "Liar's Poker" after just a couple of years as a young something or other.
Posted by: Tom Maguire | July 25, 2006 at 09:17 PM
I would be very interested to know the evidence supporting what AT has to say. Having read a number of Anon Lib's posts here, I have often thought that this is a fellow who is very much all hat and no cattle, and that he has limited (if any) experience at practicing law in the big time.
Posted by: Other Tom | July 25, 2006 at 09:55 PM
Toms,
It was always obvious. Some of the posts are patently ridiculous, especially lately, since the author admitted it's fictional. Most of the posts are about recruiting and summer associates, which Blachman knows something about but which partners care very little about. The rest are about things like partner--associate relationships and the family. There was never any evidence that Blachman knows anything about what lawyers actually do all day, especially corporate lawyers, which is what one would expect from a litigation summer associate.
Understand that the big law firm community is very small. Everyone went to the same 20 or so law schools. If something shocking or scandalous happens at a big law firm, every associate in the city will know about it within 48 hours, and every associate in the country will know about it within a week.
The Anonymous Lawyer blog was clever and entertaining, just don't think it has anything to do with actual lawyers.
But, more to the point, our source was the New York Times.
Posted by: AT | July 25, 2006 at 11:05 PM
Thanks, AT. It shows in the shallowness of his legal arguments. And I have extensive first-hand knowledge of the "big law firm community" to which you refer, and carry with me a genuine cornucopia of shocking and scandalous occurrences at my own firm and a number of others. But I had a grand time throughout, and always felt contempt for the whiners. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen--which is what they ended up doing, one way or another.
Posted by: Other Tom | July 26, 2006 at 04:44 AM
I had a glow-in-the-dark watch for one summer. Can I publish a book about nuclear power now?
Posted by: richard mcenroe | July 26, 2006 at 10:16 AM
Hmm.
Well, I don't know anything about the guy's employment history but if his book is as funny as his blog its probably a fun read. I've been reading the blog for a while now and its hilarious at times.
Posted by: Dwilkers | July 26, 2006 at 10:23 AM
I had a glow-in-the-dark watch for one summer. Can I publish a book about nuclear power now?
Sure, just ask the New York Times Fashion & Style section.
Posted by: AT | July 26, 2006 at 10:41 AM
Something that fits in with this category and is also rife with shallow legal arguments (and total fabrications is Chemerinsky's piece in Slate yesterday. It opens: 'The top government officials who revealed that Valerie Plame Wilson was a secret operative for the Central Intelligence Agency...'
And goes downhill fast. I just looked up tuition at Duke Law School; just shy of $55,000 per year. For which you get guys like Erwin who can't even bother to acquaint himself with the facts of his client's case.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | July 26, 2006 at 06:22 PM
Tom: Elsewhere, ol' Semanticleo is claiming that you banned him. True?
Posted by: Other Tom | July 26, 2006 at 08:26 PM
Other Tom,
TM mentioned on another thread that he had. It might not stick so I wouldn't mention her name too often. Bad luck, and all.
Posted by: Rick Ballard | July 26, 2006 at 08:52 PM