Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm Forum
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NDOMUKONGGGG
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Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
Is it done? Is it common? Is it frowned upon? Ups/downs?
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favabeansoup
- Posts: 417
- Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2015 1:26 pm
Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
Same practice group?
If it's the same practice and the firm doesn't know about it, I could see it being a problem.
If it's the same practice and the firm doesn't know about it, I could see it being a problem.
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elendinel
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Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
In my experience it is rare that a couple working at the same place ever works long-term without getting awkward/touchy in some respects.
I would imagine that two attorneys working in the same highly competitive environment isn't likely to turn out well, either, but I don't have personal experience with this one.
I would imagine that two attorneys working in the same highly competitive environment isn't likely to turn out well, either, but I don't have personal experience with this one.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
Engaged to fellow associate at big firm in non-NYC. The firm knew we were dating when we came back full-time (we met as summers) and was super supportive and excited for us when we got engaged. Of course, our firm handbook has the provision of "we strongly prefer relationships between firm employees to remain platonic," but the firm said we are cool with it as long as it doesn't become an issue.
We actually kinda it like now. Easy to make plans--just buzz her line on the office phone system and driving into work together is tight, as is getting to eat lunch together whenever we want. We are on different floors and work in different practice areas, which is key. At some point, it's almost like working for different firms. Don't think it'd be doable otherwise--the specter of jealousy and/or resentment if she got staffed on the deal I really wanted to work on, or we were on a case together and I fucked up something she had to fix, would be tough to deal with.
At work, we try hard to act professionally around each other in front of our colleagues. In fact, a lot of people had no idea we were even together until the office managing partner sent an office-wide email congratulating us on our engagement....
As we get into mid-level range, one of us will lateral out somewhere else. Get some risk diversification for our family's income stream and, at the point where the haves and the have-nots of the associate ranks become more clear the more senior you get, we think it'd be the healthiest thing for us to work in different firms. But there are plenty of couples who practice together in their own firms, so YMMV
We actually kinda it like now. Easy to make plans--just buzz her line on the office phone system and driving into work together is tight, as is getting to eat lunch together whenever we want. We are on different floors and work in different practice areas, which is key. At some point, it's almost like working for different firms. Don't think it'd be doable otherwise--the specter of jealousy and/or resentment if she got staffed on the deal I really wanted to work on, or we were on a case together and I fucked up something she had to fix, would be tough to deal with.
At work, we try hard to act professionally around each other in front of our colleagues. In fact, a lot of people had no idea we were even together until the office managing partner sent an office-wide email congratulating us on our engagement....
As we get into mid-level range, one of us will lateral out somewhere else. Get some risk diversification for our family's income stream and, at the point where the haves and the have-nots of the associate ranks become more clear the more senior you get, we think it'd be the healthiest thing for us to work in different firms. But there are plenty of couples who practice together in their own firms, so YMMV
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dixiecupdrinking
- Posts: 3436
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Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
Would absolutely avoid to the extent possible but I doubt it would be a major issue unless one of you is senior to and directly supervises the other.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
Not sure if anyone else on here watches House Hunters (probably not, haha) but I've caught more than a few episodes throughout the years. In one of them, the house hunters were a married couple working for K&L GaTTTes in both Chicago and Doha. Not a bad looking couple at all from what I could see. I would give each of them hard eights for sure, and maybe even would award her with a nine on a good day.
Anyway, TBH, I'm still firmly in the camp which frowns upon those types of relationships in any firm larger than about ten lawyers. It just has a tendency to create an explosive environment, even when all parties are trying their very best. Just also seems really JV.
Anyway, TBH, I'm still firmly in the camp which frowns upon those types of relationships in any firm larger than about ten lawyers. It just has a tendency to create an explosive environment, even when all parties are trying their very best. Just also seems really JV.
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sprezz
- Posts: 467
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Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
i enjoyed this post but am left wondering whether anon was used because it can be determined that you are one of these hard eights from your postsAnonymous User wrote:Not sure if anyone else on here watches House Hunters (probably not, haha) but I've caught more than a few episodes throughout the years. In one of them, the house hunters were a married couple working for K&L GaTTTes in both Chicago and Doha. Not a bad looking couple at all from what I could see. I would give each of them hard eights for sure, and maybe even would award her with a nine on a good day.
Anyway, TBH, I'm still firmly in the camp which frowns upon those types of relationships in any firm larger than about ten lawyers. It just has a tendency to create an explosive environment, even when all parties are trying their very best. Just also seems really JV.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
https://www.law360.com/articles/148424/ ... lise-bloom
Law360, New York (February 11, 2010, 6:20 PM EST) -- Collegiality being key to a prominent career, Gregory Rasin and Elise Bloom have excelled at working alongside other attorneys, but the labor and employment standouts have done much of their finest work together.
Happily married since 1997, Rasin and Bloom have found the marriage-practice nexus to be anything but problematic, enjoying distinguished, interwoven careers that led the duo to proskauer rose llp in 2006.
“It’s always worked really well for us,” Bloom said. “We love what we do, and our work is one of our shared interests, so if anything, our relationship adds a level of enthusiasm for our work and vice versa.”
Having worked side by side in the labor and employment field for more than two decades, Bloom and Rasin make a formidable team, a fact not lost on Proskauer Rose when it brought the partners in roughly four years ago and planted them in neighboring offices.
Bloom and Rasin have developed a minute understanding of each other’s practice, and like any effective duo, their collaboration has benefited from a mutual respect and an easy rapport. They work well together because they click and, by clicking, the trickiest cases are unencumbered.
“Elise and I clicked professionally from the moment we met each other. We were completely compatible in the way we approached and found solutions to the issues we had to solve in our professional life,” Rasin said. “We often know what the other is thinking about a topic before we discuss it.”
Bloom, the first female co-chair of the firm’s labor and employment law department and co-head of the class and collective actions group, first met Rasin when she joined Jackson Lewis LLP in 1984, where he managed the employment law and litigation practice.
Corporate flagships may seem an unlikely place for Cupid, but his arrows aren’t blunted by billable hours, litigation and client travel. If anything, the years spent working together gave Bloom and Rasin an intense appreciation for each other’s capability and intelligence, and eventually led them down the aisle in 1997.
Since then, it’s been coming up roses for the pair, whose clients have found that married counsel has its benefits.
“Certainly, we’ve always been very up front with clients and prospective clients about the fact that we’re married. It’s really never been an issue,” Rasin said. “In fact, clients appreciate having attorneys who work extraordinarily well together. Also, we’re able to give clients complete coverage as one of us can always be reached if something comes up.”
While their time together away from the office does not translate into billable hours, Rasin and Bloom do not police the domestic sphere to keep work separate. If anything, their relationship is enlivened by a shared ardor for their work.
“We bounce ideas off each other all the time,” Bloom said. “Greg is the greatest source of my strategic thinking.”
Rasin also found that being married to another lawyer brings a certain harmony, as there is a bedrock understanding about the rigors of the job, removing some of the issues that might be flashpoints in other relationships.
“We are extremely lucky and have ended up marrying just the right person,” Rasin said. “The fact that we can work together and intimately understand what we do and why we do it just enhances the relationship.”
While sharing a practice group with one's spouse can be intense, Rasin said that it beat being at separate firms, which would make the pair borderline competitors.
While Rasin and Bloom each have their own busy caseloads in the New York office, they do join forces about 10 percent of the time, when a particularly big case comes along. Then, with a coordination that borders on the telepathic, they swing into action, each spouse focusing on their own strong suits and exploiting the other's.
“When we’re both on a big case, each of us will take on a different aspect that leverages our individual strengths," Bloom said. “For instance, he many be responsible for handling witnesses while I will focus on the statistical part. We’re both very strategic in our approaches — he tends to look at the long-term view of where we’re going while I enjoy working out details and dealing with the tasks at hand.”
Rasin agreed, saying that while he’s tried his share of cases, he often develops the overall strategy and helms settlement discussions when he’s working with his wife, while she tends to lead discovery and try the cases, shining in court.
On one such occasion, stretching mathematical possibility, Bloom and Rasin found themselves on a case where the opposing counsel were also married. It being court, however, little time was afforded to marvel at the odds, and Bloom and Rasin instead continued doing what they do best — lawyering side by side.
Reflecting on the cinematic potential of the scenario, Bloom said with some relish that Harrison Ford would probably be cast in her husband’s role, while Rasin envisioned Demi Moore mastering "his boss'" part.
The silver screen, however, will be put off while Bloom and Rasin pursue a charmed life at the forefront of labor and employment law, and a Valentine's Day of fine wine and cookery.
Law360, New York (February 11, 2010, 6:20 PM EST) -- Collegiality being key to a prominent career, Gregory Rasin and Elise Bloom have excelled at working alongside other attorneys, but the labor and employment standouts have done much of their finest work together.
Happily married since 1997, Rasin and Bloom have found the marriage-practice nexus to be anything but problematic, enjoying distinguished, interwoven careers that led the duo to proskauer rose llp in 2006.
“It’s always worked really well for us,” Bloom said. “We love what we do, and our work is one of our shared interests, so if anything, our relationship adds a level of enthusiasm for our work and vice versa.”
Having worked side by side in the labor and employment field for more than two decades, Bloom and Rasin make a formidable team, a fact not lost on Proskauer Rose when it brought the partners in roughly four years ago and planted them in neighboring offices.
Bloom and Rasin have developed a minute understanding of each other’s practice, and like any effective duo, their collaboration has benefited from a mutual respect and an easy rapport. They work well together because they click and, by clicking, the trickiest cases are unencumbered.
“Elise and I clicked professionally from the moment we met each other. We were completely compatible in the way we approached and found solutions to the issues we had to solve in our professional life,” Rasin said. “We often know what the other is thinking about a topic before we discuss it.”
Bloom, the first female co-chair of the firm’s labor and employment law department and co-head of the class and collective actions group, first met Rasin when she joined Jackson Lewis LLP in 1984, where he managed the employment law and litigation practice.
Corporate flagships may seem an unlikely place for Cupid, but his arrows aren’t blunted by billable hours, litigation and client travel. If anything, the years spent working together gave Bloom and Rasin an intense appreciation for each other’s capability and intelligence, and eventually led them down the aisle in 1997.
Since then, it’s been coming up roses for the pair, whose clients have found that married counsel has its benefits.
“Certainly, we’ve always been very up front with clients and prospective clients about the fact that we’re married. It’s really never been an issue,” Rasin said. “In fact, clients appreciate having attorneys who work extraordinarily well together. Also, we’re able to give clients complete coverage as one of us can always be reached if something comes up.”
While their time together away from the office does not translate into billable hours, Rasin and Bloom do not police the domestic sphere to keep work separate. If anything, their relationship is enlivened by a shared ardor for their work.
“We bounce ideas off each other all the time,” Bloom said. “Greg is the greatest source of my strategic thinking.”
Rasin also found that being married to another lawyer brings a certain harmony, as there is a bedrock understanding about the rigors of the job, removing some of the issues that might be flashpoints in other relationships.
“We are extremely lucky and have ended up marrying just the right person,” Rasin said. “The fact that we can work together and intimately understand what we do and why we do it just enhances the relationship.”
While sharing a practice group with one's spouse can be intense, Rasin said that it beat being at separate firms, which would make the pair borderline competitors.
While Rasin and Bloom each have their own busy caseloads in the New York office, they do join forces about 10 percent of the time, when a particularly big case comes along. Then, with a coordination that borders on the telepathic, they swing into action, each spouse focusing on their own strong suits and exploiting the other's.
“When we’re both on a big case, each of us will take on a different aspect that leverages our individual strengths," Bloom said. “For instance, he many be responsible for handling witnesses while I will focus on the statistical part. We’re both very strategic in our approaches — he tends to look at the long-term view of where we’re going while I enjoy working out details and dealing with the tasks at hand.”
Rasin agreed, saying that while he’s tried his share of cases, he often develops the overall strategy and helms settlement discussions when he’s working with his wife, while she tends to lead discovery and try the cases, shining in court.
On one such occasion, stretching mathematical possibility, Bloom and Rasin found themselves on a case where the opposing counsel were also married. It being court, however, little time was afforded to marvel at the odds, and Bloom and Rasin instead continued doing what they do best — lawyering side by side.
Reflecting on the cinematic potential of the scenario, Bloom said with some relish that Harrison Ford would probably be cast in her husband’s role, while Rasin envisioned Demi Moore mastering "his boss'" part.
The silver screen, however, will be put off while Bloom and Rasin pursue a charmed life at the forefront of labor and employment law, and a Valentine's Day of fine wine and cookery.
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Anonymous User
- Posts: 428542
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Couples working at same NYC biglaw firm
I Work with them - bit of a different scenario than I think is contemplated by question. He was already a partner when they started dating and are now both partners. Couple other associates had relationships as well which seems awkward once someone becomes partner but has mostly worked out. Affairs and the like, obviously, less so.Anonymous User wrote:Not sure if anyone else on here watches House Hunters (probably not, haha) but I've caught more than a few episodes throughout the years. In one of them, the house hunters were a married couple working for K&L GaTTTes in both Chicago and Doha. Not a bad looking couple at all from what I could see. I would give each of them hard eights for sure, and maybe even would award her with a nine on a good day.
Anyway, TBH, I'm still firmly in the camp which frowns upon those types of relationships in any firm larger than about ten lawyers. It just has a tendency to create an explosive environment, even when all parties are trying their very best. Just also seems really JV.
