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Blind SCOTUS Clerk Lawyer says "I hate biglaw and will never be a lawyer again"

http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=1202780925357/With-Eyes-Wid...
Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams
  03/09/17
now he can go back to his true love--delta blues guitar
plum meetinghouse
  03/09/17
I'm mad at myself for laughing at this.
harsh main people affirmative action
  03/10/17
...
Hideous magenta house boiling water
  03/10/17
c&p
Cordovan Mind-boggling Spot Cuckold
  03/09/17
copy paste
excitant cruel-hearted principal's office idiot
  03/09/17
Isaac Lidsky, who in 2008 became the first blind U.S. Suprem...
Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams
  03/09/17
How was he doing lit in London?
Sooty galvanic pozpig
  03/09/17
so it sounds like he made poor personal choice after poor pe...
hyperventilating buck-toothed rigpig locus
  03/09/17
Well, he was blind so probably the shittiest SCOTUS clerk ev...
Vengeful international law enforcement agency hall
  03/09/17
there's plenty of tech available to make being a blind lawye...
hyperventilating buck-toothed rigpig locus
  03/09/17
ONE WEIRD TRICK: appellate briefs don't have line numbers
carmine national old irish cottage
  03/09/17
why did tom goldstein leave akin gump? is akin gump's appell...
Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams
  03/09/17
Akin in that era was top 5, maybe top 3 for SCOTUS clerks. ...
Amethyst brunch
  03/09/17
Tom Goldstein is a fine blogger but a terrible lawyer. Just ...
Hideous magenta house boiling water
  03/10/17
Dood sounds like a baller...succeeding in a lot of fields an...
Know-it-all Locale
  03/09/17
undercover boomer
carmine national old irish cottage
  03/09/17
Managing a construction company in Florida is exactly the ki...
swashbuckling legend hunting ground
  03/09/17
how do you even get into that gig?
carmine national old irish cottage
  03/09/17
be roommates with the right person at Harvard College, appar...
swashbuckling legend hunting ground
  03/09/17
Technically trump managed a construction company. I don't th...
talented puce roast beef crackhouse
  03/09/17
...
blue philosopher-king
  03/11/17
he sounds autistic
Razzle-dazzle Shrine
  03/09/17
jfc... i cant imagine losing your vision midway through life...
Vigorous garrison
  03/09/17
LOL he was literally the new screech
hyperventilating buck-toothed rigpig locus
  03/09/17
holy shit: http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/season-1-p...
Provocative umber center
  03/10/17
...
Carnelian disgusting therapy theatre
  03/10/17
I'm happy for him but confused as to why anyone would read t...
histrionic stead jew
  03/09/17
Didn't he poast here? Blackadder I believe.
thriller potus
  03/09/17
Yeah must be the same guy
Slimy station nibblets
  03/10/17
...
Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams
  03/10/17
This guy is such a baller...I have no idea why he went to la...
Know-it-all Locale
  03/10/17
Rich guy dislikes the grind of law. Shocking!
onyx frisky pisswyrm
  03/10/17
...
Stimulating Crawly Stock Car
  03/10/17
even a blind guy can see the truth
Charismatic wagecucks
  03/10/17
...
irradiated church building
  03/10/17
...
territorial boyish antidepressant drug haunted graveyard
  03/10/17
...
arousing partner
  03/11/17
There’s an intense competitiveness to the work, in terms of ...
transparent resort quadroon
  03/11/17
dumbass simulation creators must have fallen asleep watching...
sick corner
  03/11/17


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 5:35 PM
Author: Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams

http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=1202780925357/With-Eyes-Wide-Open-Blind-Lawyer-Recounts-SCOTUS-Clerkship-Unhappy-Law-Firm-Life?slreturn=20170209173218

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32792877)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:33 PM
Author: plum meetinghouse

now he can go back to his true love--delta blues guitar

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794771)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 8:26 PM
Author: harsh main people affirmative action

I'm mad at myself for laughing at this.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32800995)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 10:44 PM
Author: Hideous magenta house boiling water



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801897)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 5:38 PM
Author: Cordovan Mind-boggling Spot Cuckold

c&p

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32792895)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 6:05 PM
Author: excitant cruel-hearted principal's office idiot

copy paste

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32793083)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 8:37 PM
Author: Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams

Isaac Lidsky, who in 2008 became the first blind U.S. Supreme Court law clerk, has authored a book that comes out March 14 urging everyone to make choices in life with their “eyes wide open”—a phrase that happens to be the title of his new work.

A childhood television star and TED Talk speaker with more than 2 million views, Lidsky said in an interview this week, “You are the master of your reality and in every moment, whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not, whether you're aware of it or not, you are choosing who you want to be and how you want to live your life.”

To illustrate the point in his book Lidsky, 37, tells revealing stories about his own choices, including his clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and his subsequent unhappy stint as a Big Law appellate litigator in London and New York. Here is an excerpt, written in present tense about his time at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld from 2009 to 2011:

“I do not enjoy my job. I detest the obligation to keep track of my time in billable six-minute increments and the enormous pressure to work as many of those increments as is humanly possible. Worse, I work as a junior member on teams of lawyers assembled to produce work I used to complete alone in less time. As far as I can tell this arms race approach to litigation adds bureaucratic and political complexities while degrading the quality of the work we produce. In all events, my job bears little resemblance to my previous professional experiences, the ones that purportedly made me such an attractive hire. It feels like my eight-year legal joyride earned me a top position as a corporate chauffeur.”

In the interview with The American Lawyer, Lidsky hastened to add that he is not faulting the firm in any way. “I want to be clear,” he said. “There are plenty of people who are meant to be litigators, enjoy it, find it rewarding, are good at it and succeed. I have no problem with that. That's great for them.” But for himself, Lidsky said, “No part of me is designed to be a Big Law litigator. That's just not who I am.” A spokesman for Akin Gump declined to comment.

What should others who share Lidsky’s dislike of Big Law life do?

“I hope they read the book and they act on it,” Lidsky said, “because it gets back to being unaware of the reality we create for ourselves. I have this conversation all the time. We tell ourselves that change is impossible, it's impractical, it's irresponsible. It's just foolish. Meanwhile, your life passes by.”

Lidsky’s life is all about plowing ahead, first through a charmed childhood as an actor—he played Weasel on the NBC show "Saved By the Bell: The New Class”—and then through adversity when he, like his sisters, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that leads to blindness.

That did not stop Lidsky from attending Harvard College, then Harvard Law School, followed by a clerkship with Judge Thomas Ambro of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Then came a stint at the Civil Division of the Justice Department—where he made several appellate arguments and did enjoy his work.

But his father, Miami lawyer Carlos Lidsky, had planted in his son the idea of becoming a Supreme Court law clerk, even though by then he was blind. After several tries O’Connor, by then retired, said yes in 2008. (Clerks for retired justices are shared with sitting justices and Lidsky was assigned to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.)

“She is a remarkable human being, a phenomenal woman,” Lidsky said of O'Connor. “She was just so good to me in so many ways, starting with hiring me, frankly. My blindness just wasn’t an issue for her.”

But O’Connor was also very protective, it turned out. In the book, Lidsky tells of a trip O’Connor took to Philadelphia, where she was sitting by designation on the Third Circuit and speaking at the National Constitution Center. Lidsky took a train to Philadelphia and planned to relax after the events at a cigar bar. O’Connor was intensely interested in how he would get around, and said “Nonsense!” when he told her he would take a cab to the hotel.

So, whether Lidsky liked it or not, he was ferried around by court staff and U.S. marshals. O’Connor insisted on having him join her in the motorcade back to the hotel and dropping Lidsky off at the bar, even though she disapproved of cigars. Lidsky felt his autonomy slip away.

“I adore Justice O’Connor,” Lidsky wrote. “I want her to understand my strength, my independence, my confidence and comfort living as a blind man. I want her to admire me, not baby me.”

O’Connor wrote a blurb for the book: “Because of his exceptional experiences, Isaac has much to teach readers about his practical yet expansive approach to life.”

After the clerkship Tom Goldstein, then leader of the appellate practice at Akin, hired Lidsky, first for a stint in London, where Lidsky’s wife Dorothy wanted to pursue a graduate program. They returned to the United States earlier than planned when it became clear they were about to have triplets.

It was in Akin’s New York office that Lidsky realized that practicing law was not for him. “My job is a liability to my health,” he wrote in the book, again in present tense. “The hours are long. There’s an intense competitiveness to the work, in terms of both the politics of the firm and the arena of high-stakes litigation. Some of my colleagues seem energized by it, but I find it stressful and draining.” Goldstein declined to comment.

Lidsky made his next choice by reinventing himself, personally and professionally. He left law completely and found, along with his Harvard College roommate, a business to run—an Orlando, Florida, company that builds the concrete foundations of new homes. That soon brought its own challenges, Lidsky said. “About three months in we realized that the financial data we had meticulously analyzed on this business were absolute nonsense—garbage in, garbage out.”

Bankruptcy loomed, but over time Lidsky was able to turn it around. In 2016, he wrote, the company was highly profitable, with $150 million in sales, up from $11 million in 2011 when he took on the company. He has more than 300 employees.

With speaking engagements and promoting the book over the next year or so, Lidsky is taking a break from the construction business, and is not sure what will come next. “I would bet that I will be back in business at some point,” he said. “I do think I'd like to write another book at some point, but I have no idea what I'll be doing come 2019. I love that.”

One thing is certain, though. Lidsky won’t choose to return to the legal profession. Without hesitation, he said, “I have not missed practicing law for a law firm for an instant ever and I will never do it again.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794003)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 9:39 PM
Author: Sooty galvanic pozpig

How was he doing lit in London?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794459)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 9:43 PM
Author: hyperventilating buck-toothed rigpig locus

so it sounds like he made poor personal choice after poor personal choice.

i doubt he had any trouble cashing his clerkship bonus check either.

if he fell to akin gump though one wonders what went wrong, besides the obvious aside that saying you're a SCOTUS clerk after clerking for a retired justice is a lot like saying you're an Ivy Leaguer because of Harvard Extension.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794485)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 9:51 PM
Author: Vengeful international law enforcement agency hall

Well, he was blind so probably the shittiest SCOTUS clerk ever.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794529)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 9:54 PM
Author: hyperventilating buck-toothed rigpig locus

there's plenty of tech available to make being a blind lawyer, and a good one, amply possible

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794543)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:35 PM
Author: carmine national old irish cottage

ONE WEIRD TRICK: appellate briefs don't have line numbers

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794787)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:31 PM
Author: Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams

why did tom goldstein leave akin gump? is akin gump's appellate TTT?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794759)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:34 PM
Author: Amethyst brunch

Akin in that era was top 5, maybe top 3 for SCOTUS clerks. It was Tom Goldstein's shop before he left to go on his own.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794779)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 10:50 PM
Author: Hideous magenta house boiling water

Tom Goldstein is a fine blogger but a terrible lawyer. Just absolute shit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801947)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:17 PM
Author: Know-it-all Locale

Dood sounds like a baller...succeeding in a lot of fields and not living the same shit day in and day out



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794687)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:24 PM
Author: carmine national old irish cottage

undercover boomer

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794720)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:25 PM
Author: swashbuckling legend hunting ground

Managing a construction company in Florida is exactly the kind of job that makes more money than most corporate lawyers, but that no self respecting AutoAdmit poster would ever deign to do because it is "prole"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794725)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:26 PM
Author: carmine national old irish cottage

how do you even get into that gig?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794732)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:27 PM
Author: swashbuckling legend hunting ground

be roommates with the right person at Harvard College, apparently

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794737)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:38 PM
Author: talented puce roast beef crackhouse

Technically trump managed a construction company. I don't think the kid is running the books for his uncle chucks bricklaying side hustle.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794799)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 11th, 2017 4:10 PM
Author: blue philosopher-king



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32805675)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 10:39 PM
Author: Razzle-dazzle Shrine

he sounds autistic

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32794804)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 11:15 PM
Author: Vigorous garrison

jfc... i cant imagine losing your vision midway through life.

Lidsky’s life is all about plowing ahead, first through a charmed childhood as an actor—he played Weasel on the NBC show "Saved By the Bell: The New Class”—and then through adversity when he, like his sisters, was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that leads to blindness.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32795006)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 11:17 PM
Author: hyperventilating buck-toothed rigpig locus

LOL he was literally the new screech

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32795032)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 8:29 PM
Author: Provocative umber center

holy shit:

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/season-1-pictured-isaac-lidsky-as-barton-weasel-wyzell-picture-id138434453

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801026)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 8:47 PM
Author: Carnelian disgusting therapy theatre



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801174)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 11:19 PM
Author: histrionic stead jew

I'm happy for him but confused as to why anyone would read this book

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32795047)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 9th, 2017 11:22 PM
Author: thriller potus

Didn't he poast here? Blackadder I believe.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32795066)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 10:53 PM
Author: Slimy station nibblets

Yeah must be the same guy

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801965)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 8:24 PM
Author: Racy outnumbered business firm laser beams



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32800977)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 8:49 PM
Author: Know-it-all Locale

This guy is such a baller...I have no idea why he went to law school though considering he made bank with his first startup

In June 1999 Lidsky founded an internet advertising technology startup with Joe Zawadzki. Originally named “ru4.com,” the company eventually became [x+1] and was acquired in 2015 for $230 million.[5] Lidsky left the company after two years to attend Harvard Law School.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801189)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 9:06 PM
Author: onyx frisky pisswyrm

Rich guy dislikes the grind of law.

Shocking!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801320)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 10:43 PM
Author: Stimulating Crawly Stock Car



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801890)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 9:30 PM
Author: Charismatic wagecucks

even a blind guy can see the truth

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801474)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 9:32 PM
Author: irradiated church building



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801486)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 10th, 2017 9:33 PM
Author: territorial boyish antidepressant drug haunted graveyard



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32801490)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 11th, 2017 3:32 PM
Author: arousing partner



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32805466)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 11th, 2017 2:04 AM
Author: transparent resort quadroon

There’s an intense competitiveness to the work, in terms of both the politics of the firm

There’s an intense competitiveness to the work, in terms of both the politics of the firm

There’s an intense competitiveness to the work, in terms of both the politics of the firm

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32802928)



Reply Favorite

Date: March 11th, 2017 4:00 PM
Author: sick corner

dumbass simulation creators must have fallen asleep watching Dick Tracy right before they decided to name a blind guy "Lidsky"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3548363&forum_id=2#32805607)