Comments on: Law Professor Lateraling 101 – Part 3 (Contact)

By: Joseph Slater

Joseph Slater — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:14:49 +0000

Scott:

If you ever want to move again, I would be happy to “accidentally” dump water on you in front of anyone whom you want to impress with your vaunted poise.

By: Chris Green

Chris Green — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:03:59 +0000

(Not that I know anything about lateraling (though I do know Paul and Bruce) but I wanted to make a couple of jokes. And yes, Paul, I know I already told you the first one, but I think I can make it work here.)

One reason not to seem too desperate to lateral might be called the Stanford-Cal worry: if you’ve lateraled once, you might be likely to lateral again. Or you might call it the Nicole-Kidman-Anne-Boleyn worry: if he left someone else to be with you, he might leave you too.

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:38:46 +0000

It was kind of like a snow day, which I recall fondly from high school. Granted, we had a much shorter driveway than I have now.

By: Scott Moss

Scott Moss — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:16:43 +0000

Bruce’s comment reminds me: as a candidate, if you don’t act too fazed by a problem that arises in your interview, that’s a big plus. I apparently scored big points with Marquette in ’04 when I didn’t miss a beat upon getting doused by one of my interviewers’ umbrellas; that incident gave them the mis-impression that I have a lot of poise. And Bruce scored big at Marquette when he wasn’t fazed that we had to cancel most of his interviews — and, if I recall, fly him back for a later callback — due to a class monstrous Milwaukee blizzard.

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:40:18 +0000

I think exactly this tension is present in lateral associate hiring also — you want some plausible story about why you’re leaving that doesn’t leave the impression that you’re just not very good.

Paul, I’m currently holed up in your hometown-to-be, riding out a massive blizzard. Welcome to Wisconsin! Bring a snowblower!