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Turns out Summer Associates Don’t Always Walk on Water
So over at Above the Law, David Lat’s been talking about the fact that it’s actually possible to get fired from a summer associate gig. The story that he’s speaking of involves a Chicago summer associate and as Lat states it:
His employment was terminated because (a) he allegedly engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with female summer associates, variously described as “repeatedly smack[ing] the asses of female summers” or “playing grab ass with female summers,” and (b) he allegedly made racially insensitive jokes, in front of multiple attorneys.Lat then provides a proposed update to the rules of etiquette summer associates should follow including, primarily, no ass slapping.
Now I won’t name names of the firm or the people involved, but I know of another summer associate who was fired mid-summer, several years back, from an office that has a reputation for being very laid-back when it comes to the behavior of its associates and summer associates. Long story short, Mr. Summer Associate had been having a not-too-secret fling with Ms. Summer Associate. It doesn’t sound like he would’ve been fired or reprimanded for this at all. However, his decision to bitch-slap the hell out of Ms. Summer Associate at a firm event? Well that probably isn’t going to go over so well. And indeed, it did not – while the Slap Heard ‘Round the Office apparently took place with no witnesses, after-the-fact witnesses said there was a very pronounced palm-print on Ms. Summer Associate’s face. Unsurprisingly, this led to Mr. Summer Associate quickly being dismissed from the summer event and, apparently, never to be seen from again.
So those etiquette rules might need an additional “don’t bitch slap another firm employee” added to the mix. Seems like common sense, but I guess common sense things sometimes need to be spelled out for some folks.
