Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

A few years ago, after watching one too many Law & Order episodes, I decided to go to law school. I had vague ideas of what I might want to do with my life, and law school seemed like a decent jumping-off point for a guy in his late 20s with a sociology degree and a bizarre-looking resumé. What I quickly learned was that law school was a very particular kind of beast. I don’t pretend to know much about accounting programs; in law school, though, you’re not judged by how well you do in your classes. Instead, you’re actively pitted against your classmates: a 3.95 GPA means nothing if you’re not in the top 10% of your class. While this is stressful enough, there’s also a subtle form of brainwashing I identified — and fell for — during that all-important first year: Big Law (large, corporate law firms).