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Advice for Young Law Firm Associates: Don’t Poop Where You Eat

Here’s a cautionary tale for all those young asssociates about to start their first law job, via David Lat:

After a firm-sponsored event, a college student interning at the firm went out for drinks with several summer and full-time associates. She was not old enough to be drinking.

The college intern, in a state of inebriation, left the bar hanging all over one of the summer associates (hereinafter “The Cradle Robber"). Later that evening, the Cradle Robber wrote an email to several associates, claiming that “the deal was sealed” with the college intern.

An associate forwarded the email to the hiring partner. The Cradle Robber did not receive an offer.

Read our take on this series of events, after the jump.

Our view: seriously? No-offering the SA strikes us as a Puritanical overreaction. Perhaps the firm was looking for reasons to reduce its 2009 incoming class.

There’s no indication that the rumored relations were non-consensual (unless one subscribes to the theory that rape occurs every time a less-than-sober woman sleeps with a man). As for the underage drinking, that’s more the fault of the college intern than the summer associate. And that’s a venial sin, if it’s one at all; many college presidents question whether the drinking age should be 21.

As for the “kiss and tell” email, sure, it’s tacky. But is it any worse than the kind of morning-after, locker-room boasting that takes place in law firms—and investment banks, and college dorm rooms—every day of the year?

But maybe we’re taking too liberal a view. What do you think?

Look. Even dogs know that you don’t poop where you eat. That’s always been good advice, but we now live in an era in which sexual harassment laws make office dating a litigation minefield for both employees and employers. This is especially true when you deal with disparate power relationships, such as associates (even summer ones) and interns.

On top of which, the whole set-up—picking up an inebriated college student who’s under the drinking age and then bragging about it to co-workers—is just tacky. It reflects a serious lack of judgment. Given that most of what lawyers get paid for is their ability to exercise good judgment, this kid shot himself in the foot. With a very big gun.

Finally, it’s one thing to be stupid. It’s another thing to be stupid during a particularly lousy job market. Firms are shedding associates left and right. Why give them an easy justification for canning you?