Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[Robert from yahoo bd]

HeeeHeeee! Here's some excerpt's from J. Schlitz's famous law article (best read with an ice cold beer that made Milwaukee famous, because when you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer !):

ON BEING HAPPY, HEALTHY, AND ETHICAL 1995 Vanderbilt Law Review

Some sage advice to law students from Professor Schlitz:

"This is the best advice I can give you: Right now, while you are
still in law school, make the commitment-not just in your head, but
in your heart-that, although you are willing to work hard and you
would like to make a comfortable living, you are not going to let
money dominate your life to the exclusion of all else. And don't just
structure your life around this negative; embrace a positive. Believe
in something-care about something-so that when the culture of
greed presses in on you from all sides, there will be something inside
of you pushing back. Make the decision now that you will be the one
who defines success for you-not your classmates, not big law firms,
not clients of big law firms, not the National Law Journal. You will
be a happier, healthier, and more ethical attorney as a result.26"

This is interesting, J. Schlitz and his wife were partners at a Law firm that won a $5B judgment in the Exxon Valdez case, they gave up their partnership shares (as the payment would take considerable time) so that he could teach at Notre Dame Law School and she would purse another venue:

V. SOME PARTING WORDS

To an unfortunate extent, this Article has been an exercise in

"do what I say, not what I do." As I said, I joined a big law firm after I
finished clerking, and, despite the best of intentions, I quickly got
sucked into the game. It is very, very hard to avoid the pressures and
temptations pushing you toward the big firm, very, very hard to avoid
playing the game once you arrive at the big firm, and very, very hard
to stop playing the game once you have left the big firm. I failed on
the first two counts and continue to fail from time to time on the
third. But I want to leave you with the following, by way of illustrat-
ing that it is never too late to change-even when you've failed as
much as I have.
My firm was lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez
oil spill litigation. In 1994, while I was still a partner, we won a
judgment of over $5 billion.3
8 We partners all knew that, if and when we collected that judgment, even the smallest partner's share would
be a few hundred thousand dollars. Most of the partners would be-

come millionaires.38 Because my wife and I would both be partners,

we would enjoy two slices of this enormous pie.

At about the time of the Exxon Valdez verdict, my wife and I

were beginning to feel that, somewhere along the line, we had lost our

way. We were working constantly. We were under constant pressure.

We were constantly feeling guilty about the hardships we were impos-
ing on each other and on our children. The life we were leading was
not the life we had envisioned. We had strayed from the values with
which we were raised.
In early 1995, we decided to leave big firm practice, and to
leave the Exxon money behind.3 7 We decided to give up a ton of
money in return for work that was more enjoyable and less stressful,
and for more time with each other and our children.388 All of this, we
decided, was more important than money--even lots and lots of
money.
I don't claim that we made an enormous sacrifice. We did give
up a lot of money, but we still get paid well, and we have great jobs.
Nor do I claim that we have stopped playing the game-that we have
no regrets, that we never look back, that we don't care about money
any more. None of that would be true. Living a balanced life and de-
fining success for yourself are lifelong struggles, and they do not end
once you leave a big law firm. The one thing I can promise you is
that, as we rediscover every day, they are struggles well worth under-
taking."

"Now, no one is going to say this to you. No one is going to take
you aside and say, "Jane, we here at Smith & Jones are obsessed with
money. From this point forward the most important thing in your life
has to be billing hours and generating business. Family and friends
and honesty and fairness are okay in moderation, but don't let them
interfere with making money." No one will tell you, as one lawyer
told another in a Charles Addams cartoon, "I admire your honesty and
integrity, Wilson, but I have no room for them in my firm."25 6 Instead,
the culture will pressure you in more subtle ways to replace your val-
ues with the system's."

"Basically, what happens is that big firms "buy associates' time
'wholesale and sell it retail.' "203 Here is how it works:2 4 As a new
associate in a large firm, you will be paid about one-third of what you
bring into the firm.20 If you bill, say, 2000 hours at $100 per hour,
you will generate $200,000 in revenue for your firm. About a third of
that-$70,000 or so-will be paid to you. Another third will go toward
paying the expenses of the firm. And the final third will go into the
pockets of the firm's partners. Firms make money off associates.
That is why it's in the interests of big firms to hire lots of associates
and to make very few of them partners. The more associates there
are, the more profits for the partners to split,2°6 and the fewer part-
ners there are, the bigger each partner's share.
After you make partner (if you make partner-your chances
will likely be about one in ten07), you will still be exploited, although
somewhat less. "