When Big Law Lives up to its Reputation (alternatively titled: "Bah Humbug")

I was staffed on a deal that closed in the wee hours of December 22nd. In a perfect world, I would have spent Thursday on post-closing clean up and gone home at a decent hour to celebrate my birthday (belatedly). Instead, when I stepped out of the building and into the sunshine at 2pm--escaping the office for lunch--my Blackberry immediately directed me to turn right around like a good little soldier. 

A client on another deal had demanded a late afternoon meeting on the 23rd. While I had only been tangentially involved in the transaction, the junior associate staffed on the deal had plans to hop on a plane for two weeks of vacation that evening. So, we met to review some documents, he took off on vacation, and I was in a meeting on the 23rd until 8pm listening to our client demand that we all work through the weekend.

Accordingly, I worked over Christmas (but was thankfully able to spend some time with my family thanks to remote access). Next, I left the relatives I only see once a year to drive back to the city to meet with a partner on Monday, technically an office holiday. Finally, I showed up to work on Tuesday to be told the client wanted us to stop working on the deal.

Don't get me wrong... I understand that I work in a client-centric profession. Our clients pay good money for our services. On top of that, it's not that this sort of thing is unheard of in Big Law. But it's still disappointing to skip special family time that happens only once a year to produce work product that (obviously) wasn't needed on a rush basis.

I can work on weekends and late at night. I can skip my own birthday celebration without feeling bummed out. But it felt terrible to drive away from family members on Christmas.