Muffin: I’ve sent you an email with my resume; reply and give me details.
luc, thanks for the advice. We’ll be OK, though; Ms. Undhow makes enough to mostly cover our expenses (we live pretty damned frugally). And lousy as it is, the termination is perfectly legal and, I’m afraid to say, understandable. If the work isn’t there I’m not billing, and if I’m not billing the firm isn’t making any money off me. It sucks rocks, but that’s the reality.
Dewey,
so sorry to hear this. Good luck in your job search and the bar exam.
Anu
PS-ended up not going to Baylor after all (though I did get in and they gave me a very nice scholarship to sweeten the deal…). Thanks for all the law advice you ponied up in the past!!
Jeez, that sucks, DEWEY. As another young associate on the other coast, it also scares the shit out of me. Heads are rolling out here as well, though not in my firm. Yet.
May your vacation be short and may you soon by on to bigger and better things.
Sorry to hear about your layoff, Dewey. I hope your period of unemployment lasts just long enough for you to ace the Texas bar exam. 
But just in case you’re sidelined a bit longer, I’d urge you to follow lucwarm’s first two suggestions. If it turns out you’re out of work for 6 months, the nearly $10K you’d get from unemployment will help the family’s finances considerably. And even if your being laid off is 100% understandable, given the firm’s economics, the fact is that the people still there are drawing an income and you’re not; whatever extra you can squeeze out of them is still money from those who are continuing to make money, to you, who aren’t.
UPDATE
I had hoped to be typing a message of joy today. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Brief history thus far: took the Texas bar exam in February and am awaiting results. Had some interviews over the past few months that didn’t pan out for various reasons. Became very, very frustrated.
Until a few weeks ago. I interviewed with a firm opening a Houston office. Good firm, competitive comp, a chance to be in on the ground floor. And it went well – really well. Got past the screening interview, did the “full day at our offices” interview, got very positive feedback. The headhunter who hooked me up basically said the job was in the bag – I was, if not a 100% match, a very close fit for what they were looking for, and they had had nothing but positive things to say about me.
I felt so good about this that I made the mistake of telling my parents that, while nothing was for certain, there was a good chance I’d be coming home. Big mistake. Mom started scoping out houses.
Which made today’s phone call all the more upsetting. Turns out they have a major client who just brought them a handful of big deals requiring commodity experience, experience I lack. They had initially thought they could bring on someone like me, with related experience, and take the time to bring me up to speed, but with this new development they think they need someone who can hit the ground at full speed now – so they’re now going to look for a more senior person with that specific experience.
FUCK.
I am told by the headhunter that I’m not out of the running entirely – they’re looking to expand relatively quickly and may need a corporate associate as soon as they hire more partners for the office; they do like me and since I’ve already been through the interview process, I could be brought in quickly. But that won’t happen for at least several weeks at the earliest, and even then its not something I can count on.
So here I am, unable to sleep. I feel like an absolute shell of a person. And I’m going batshit crazy from hanging out at home all day. Goddammit, all I want to do is to get back in the game.
PS – some of you guys have been incredibly supportive. minty green and Maeglin in particular have been helpful and kind far beyond anything I could have imagined. Thank you all for helping out during a difficult time in my life.
I feel for you, pal. I’ll be in the same boat very soon. The general consensus is that our company will start cutting heads in June.
Good luck and hang in there. Remember, it has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with the economy. I ended up with a state position (from a top ten firm doing M&A), making 3/4 less then before and consider myself lucky.
I got out before they started chopping heads, but as a lateral whose hours were taking a severe pounding, it was time to bail. I still would like to return to private practice, but we need for the economy to be fixed.
Please let us know your Bar results.
Hey, I know what it’s like. Five and a half months last year of pure hell.
I was always unable to decide which was worse…having no interviews scheduled or having several either scheduled or recently behind me giving me hope that was dashed. Man, that was tough.
Good luck to you. You’ll eventually get through this.
All the best to you. I sincerely hope that a viable opportunity presents itself and that you recognize it when it does.
If it makes you feel any better, here’s the story of my husband and myself (brief):
In December of 2001, only five short months after the purchase of our FIRST home, my husband was laid off. He was an IT contractor at the FAA control center at Dulles Airport. He is the “bread-winner” (I was a stay-at-home-mom at the time) and was now left to figure out how to pay our mortgage of $2,700 in addition to all of our other bills and support our two kids. He found a job three months later at AOL (which is a fucked up compnay with a fucked up product) and was also included in a wave of lay-offs. Thanks to a good friend who is a CPA we were able to avoid financial ruin. His career is now back on track and we’ve learned not to buy into the whole “we’ll do anything to keep you” jargon.
I know it’s nerve racking. The head-hunters and dead-end interviews are a BLOWER. Just keep your options open…waaaaaay open.
…ever considered teaching during the interim?