I’ve recently wondered if I might have some secret message hidden in my resume that exclaims how much I like to be played with like a mouse dangling from a cat’s paw.  Maybe it is written with lemon juice or only visible under special infrared light. Of all the legal interviews being conducted in all the law offices across New York City, the real “winners” somehow have a way of finding me.

After several weeks had gone by I figured the submission probably landed with all my others, either in the Bermuda triangle, or a black hole, because to get an acknowledgement that my resume was received (even though I send out over two dozen a week) is rare, and to get an actual response to the submission is rarer. So when I saw a giant package sitting on the counter in my lobby addressed to me from the NY Appellate Ct. 2nd Circuit, I was surprised to say the least. The size of the envelope the mailing came in was monolithic. It could easily hold two or three telephone books. So what was it that was inside?

This is just about the worst thing that could have happened to me. Why you ask? Because it gave me a false sense of hope, here I was not even a week out of my ELF job and a firm looking for a legal analyst was already calling me.

I thought this was a sign of how sought after a well-credentialed ELF lawyer would be, even in a down economy. Boy was I wrong. After my early March interview with Bloomberg I did not get another serious interview until mid July, 5 months later!!! But enough about what happened after the interview let me explain a little bit about how the actual BLAW interview played out.

During law school I was courted heavily by many large Wall Street firms.  I was treated to lavish lunches, sent gift baskets in the mail, was provided with tickets to the newest Broadway shows and hottest sporting events.  At the outset, let me make clear I never felt an “entitlement” to this kind of lifestyle, or even condoned these type of recruiting tactics.  In fact at times, even as the one being wooed, I could only laugh to myself at the absurdity of such unnecessary opulence these elite firms would go through to land top legal grads.    But, at the end of the day, in my mind, all the hard work– long nights intently reading and marking up law books, editing journal articles,  and more often than not skipping enticing offers to socialize during College and Law School— had finally paid off.   I was all set to start the ascent towards my American dream.  After-all, I was being paid handsomely for what I loved to do and was learning to do so in one of the best environments anyone in the profession could hope for.  Best of all, I had the unique opportunity to help clients through the substantial pro bono efforts of the firm.  At the time, I thought to myself, “how could it get any better than this?”

Unfortunately, the economy, and perhaps even fate, had other plans for me.  I was included in what the firm called a “reduction in attorney force in response to the current economic conditions” (along with one hundred and ninety colleagues of mine).  Within one day after the announcement, my desk had been cleared, my security badge deactivated and my matters transferred to other attorneys. I went from riches to rags in a matter of one day.