A day in the life of a biglaw attorney

This has been a popular request, so I’m going to describe what a normal day was like for me.  My experience will obviously vary greatly from others’ experiences, and for practical purposes, only represents a homogenized look at what a day is like.  With that said, here it is:

7:45AM – Wake up, go back to sleep.

7:50AM – 8:15AM – Wake up, check my blackberry which I stow in my nightstand each night so I won’t have to look at the red blinking light.  See that I have 15 messages, most are just law firm announcements, a few I see are related to the deal I’m on.  Read them, decide whether or not they’re emergencies but fortunately they’re not.  Crap -one more email I missed from intralinks.  25 new documents in the dataroom.  Get out of bed, throw something on, grab my briefcase and jump in my car.

8:35AM – Arrive at work after a short drive, where I try not to think about work and stare blankly out of the windshield.  (Seriously, this was my quiet time).  I’m one of the first ones in the office, so I can usually make my way to the kitchen without bumping into anyone (I never liked making awkward small talk with partners).  Wednesdays are bagel days, so I grab one, toast it and get a coffee that someone has brewed (if it’s out, I make a new pot; I’m a good citizen.)

8:45AM – Bring everything back to my desk and check my email again.  See that there are some questions from the senior corporate associate regarding the deal I’m working on that I don’t know how to answer.  I load up the diligence memo which I’ve been working on, and pull out the relevant diligence agreements.  Reread the provisions, read what I wrote in the memo, add some notes and context.  Draft email to senior associate with response.

9:40AM – Open up intralinks to the current project, see that there are now 30 agreements waiting for me.  Have a client call at 11, which our senior is leading so I can just half pay attention.  Start printing the documents (yes I kill trees).  Our services department handles the printing for me, which I always felt was a nice convenience.  They arrive with a big stack of papers.  I thank them and get started.  My strategy is to tackle the small contracts first -they’re more easily digestible.  I also like to ignore contracts with lots of addendums.  The self-contained ones are the best.  Get through one or two, highlighting relevant reps and warranties, and note them in a big document that contains all of my notes on every document for this deal.

11AM – Client call begins.  Senior associate gives client a status update and describes outstanding issues.  There’s give and take and client asks some follow up questions that we don’t know the answer to.  I hope that the question is just for corporate (I’m an IP specialist), but the question is related to a license to a trademark, what rights were assigned and what rights were retained by the target. I don’t know who has the current assignment, so will have to work with our legal assistants who run the background checks.

12:15 – Lunch time.  I head to the kitchen, heat up my lunch and grab a soda.  Lunch back at my desk today (like most days), so I can pound through more documents.

1:45PM – Partner walks in.  Crap.  My partner asks if I’m busy.  I’ve gotten through a few more diligence agreements, have to research the client question, but I say “no.”  I jump on a call with the partner about another smaller deal I’m staffed on.  I’m handling the drafting the IP reps and warranties for the deal, which “shouldn’t be too complex” since it’s for a non-tech client.  Client describes the deal situation, and we hang up.  Partner goes over the scope of the assignment, asks if I’ve got it or not.  I nod, “yes.”  It’s a “short-fuse” deal and he wants a draft by tomorrow.  We’re buyer-side again.

3:00PM – Back to my desk, am swamped and try to get through some more documents.  Have about 10 more emails in my inbox now, senior associate has new comments related to the diligence memo and asks how long to turn the memo with her comments and additional summaries.  She needs the diligence memo by tomorrow morning. (Why does she need it by tomorrow? It’s not going to the client until next week).  Silently utter profanities, feel indignant and get that hot pins and needles feeling when stressed.  I’ve barely started going through the documents in the data room.  Decide that it’s going to be a late night for the third night in a row and email services to order dinner.  I should order the salad, but feel too stressed and overworked.  Go with spaghetti & meatballs instead … throw in some dessert too.  Still under budget .. who cares?

3:15PM – Second deal’s merger agreement comes in via email.  Ignore it.

6:15PM – Been working steadily, have gotten through most of the smaller agreements and have addressed the comments in the memo.  Senior associate calls me (9:15PM) her time.  I update her that i’m about half way through.  Decide that I need to go for a run and change into my running gear, which I keep stashed under my desk.

6:45PM – Back from my run, my head feels clear, I’m tired and grab some water.  Services sends out the dinner bell email.  Grab the food from the kitchen and head back to my desk.

9:00PM – Continue pounding through documents.  Have about 5 more big agreements left.  Thankfully, many of the documents contained similar language and weren’t too complex.  Updating the diligence memo should be easy.  Senior associate’s nightly sync email comes back.  I’ll have to draft her a status update.

10:45PM – Finished updating diligence memo, and send it out to the senior associate.  Update the three diligence trackers with outstanding issues, agreements that we still need, and agreements reviewed.

11:15PM – Decide I hate being in the office, and will just work on the reps and warranties for the new deal from home.

11:45PM – Log into our VPN, open up the second deal’s merger agreement.  Feeling sleepy already, I do a bad job reading.  Looks like there are some standard IP reps & warranties which I feel good about.  At least this deal isn’t too complicated.  Go through several precedents and find some missing provisions. especially those related to IP assignments.  Don’t know if it matters because the seller doesn’t really have much IP.  Decide to just throw it in anyway, fixing up language per the merger agreement, probably unnecessary but too tired to care.  Meanwhile, phone is blinking because counterparty is adding more documents to the dataroom.

1:45AM – Have a crappy draft of the reps and warranties.  Create a redline and save it so that if partner comes asking for it, at least I have something to show.  Decide unwisely to look at dataroom one more time.  Thankfully, they look like mostly corporate documents so I can sleep easy.  Phone has also thankfully remained quiet for the last couple hours.  Brush my teeth and try to get some sleep.  Do it all again tomorrow.