He's Baaaaaa-aaaaaack!

A little over a month ago, I interviewed at what is one of my two dream law firms to work at. It's rare for a firm to have a great reputation among both lawyers AND support staff, but both of these do. The job wasn't as a legal secretary, but I thought I could do it, and was definitely qualified for it. Weirdly, it's the firm Turkey works at. The firm he took the baby lawyer (from the Midwest) and the WASP associate to.

The baby lawyer is not such a baby lawyer anymore, and we've stayed in touch through Facebook. She's actually the one who told me about this opening. I didn't get it. I was devastated. At the time, I was temping at a mortgage company. The HR woman at the law firm left me a voicemail, and I contemplated not calling her back. I didn't need to hear I didn't get the job again. But I did, and what happened next was bizarre. She told me this was the most awkward professional conversation of her life, but ... they'd just had to fire Turkey's secretary, and well ... since I interviewed they knew I was looking for a job, so if I was interested ...?

Now, Turkey and I did not leave things on the best note. I refused to sign his confidentially agreement and gave up his severance as a final "fuck you" to him. So I asked the HR lady what Turkey thought about this idea. She hadn't floated it by him yet. I told her "If he's enthusiastic, I'm game." Nobody told me outright, but I think it was more like lukewarm.

So for the last four weeks I've been temping at my dream law firm, for the most nightmarish attorney to ever walk the earth. It's ... weird. It's hard. In some ways, Turkey is better. Running your own business is a lot of work, and now that stress is off him. He's less frazzled. In some ways though, Turkey is worse. Attorneys break out of law firms and set up their own for one of two reasons: either they think they can create a better law firm than what they come from, or they can't hack falling into line with firm policies. Turkey was the latter, and I can see those problems here.

For example, this firm encourages people to be as paperless as possible. Turkey actually told me "I don't do two-sided emails. Don't print any out for me like that." Also, sometimes partners have to get things approved by other partners. Turkey didn't want that to apply to him. "Just submit it anyway; I don't want to bother with that." So I did. Naturally, it got rejected for lack of second-partner-approval. Turkey acted shocked.

The good thing is, nobody has lasted very long with Turkey, so everyone is rooting for me. Have you ever felt like you were being hugged by an entire law firm full of people? That's what working here is like. Everyone is so supportive and encouraging. Well, everyone except Turkey. He's negative and quick to blame. No shock there.

So. What's new in your life?