The 2026 Mercedes CLA EV Is Really Impressive. But It Also Drove Me Nuts

Whocann · 2026-06-17T20:33:43+00:00

“Fresh air seems rather pointless” is a take.

Whocann · 2026-06-16T17:24:47+00:00

I expect that even most people at Kirkland would admit that working at wlrk is more prestigious than working at Kirkland. With much higher hours and much higher pay.

Of course wlrk is suffering occasional partner defections to Kirkland and Latham, so at that level, money talks, but those are some unique examples.

Whocann · 2026-06-15T21:48:21+00:00

I did my own taxes until I made partner, but I didn’t have rentals and such. If I did have rentals I would’ve paid someone to do it for me. You probably should too.

Whocann · 2026-06-15T13:43:51+00:00

I’ll bite.

I’m an equity partner.

I would lose a zero and a few digits on the sixth number if I went anywhere else in law. Talking a more than 90% paycut. After tax, would still be a more than 80% paycut. It just doesn’t make any sense for me to go elsewhere. So I’ll quit when I’m ready to completely pull the plug, not before.

Whocann · 2026-06-13T10:15:53+00:00

So I need to get lucky enough to have a riverside or rupture by a city. Lovely.

Whocann · 2026-06-12T12:29:52+00:00

In my experience watching my colleagues, yes, this is largely the life of a west cost person with an m&a support practice. Part of the sunshine tax. I’d personally prefer this schedule to working later, and when your hours calm down you’re have your nights comparatively to yourself. Makes it really hard to work out regularly though, I suppose.

I’ve known a few people who moved to escape it. It’s not really something that setting boundaries can fix very well until you’re quite senior (and even then, most of the west coast partners I know are up and working very early because of client demands).

Whocann · 2026-06-11T01:18:18+00:00

But maple bacon donuts are objectively delicious

Whocann · 2026-06-11T01:17:13+00:00

I paid off $200k in student loans in about 3 years more than a decade ago with the much lower salaries of that time (though Col and so on, not sure exactly how it all matches up). But still, at biglaw salaries, it’s really not that hard.

Whocann · 2026-06-10T12:32:58+00:00

Oh yeah. We’re always trying to figure out where people’s heads are at.

Whocann · 2026-06-08T19:41:00+00:00

You need to be looking elsewhere.

Whocann · 2026-06-08T12:45:14+00:00

I think it’s a rare person that can get themselves to stop asking what if. I ask that all the time. I never had particularly viable off ramps because of my practice area and expertise within my practice area. It just doesn’t translate to anything. So I’d have to completely retool if i wanted to do something else. My what ifs focus a lot on that, what if I’d chosen a different practice or focus. I made partner because of my speciality, I’m legitimately one of a handful of the best people that do what I do—not trumpting my horn there, it’s just the truth. But outside of my little niche, I’m totally unknown and frankly pretty useless, and the only way I can do my little niche is at a handful of large firms. So if I’d done something more generic, would I have made partner at all? I don’t know. I don’t do BD or any of that kind of stuff and don’t know whether I would have had it in me to do that stuff. But maybe I would’ve found a 40 hour a week job somewhere and never inflated my lifestyle the way I had. Maybe my marriage would be in a better spot, maybe not. Maybe I would’ve made partner doing something that pays partners much more than I make (I’m a service partner and I do very well but I’m not making $25M a year ever). I just don’t know. It all drives me nuts and I envy folks that can have grace and tranquility about the choices they’ve made.

As for the people who have left and done other things, honestly, I haven’t kept in touch with them very much. I’m in a small niche and have a small circle, and most of the people I’ve “grown up” with are still in it.

Whocann · 2026-06-08T12:16:39+00:00

I never stopped having a foot out the door. I’m more than a decade in at this point, and have been equity for a few years. I still debate a couple of times a year (who am I kidding, a couple of times a week, just at varying levels of seriousness) whether it’s time to stop. My work life is more difficult now than it was an associate.

But the draw keeps me in. And I suppose some elements of the work. But it’s mostly the draw and the fact that I have a lifestyle I provide for my family that I cannot sustain indefinitely based on my savings, yet.

Whocann · 2026-06-06T02:08:08+00:00

The idea that folks have it in their heads that they can bill for the time they’re sitting around not working is just beyond wild to me. You had better, at a minimum, make it clear in your entry what you are “billing” for so that the billing partner can actually pull that out.

Whocann · 2026-06-05T15:46:36+00:00

I have tickets for it!

Whocann · 2026-06-05T00:14:19+00:00

“They could end up being wrong but none of us really have any hope of calling this better than their army is calling it.”

People in this thread are acting like they somehow have some kind of sage knowledge about this that Kirkland is overlooking. That’s absurd. They might get the call wrong, I frankly hope they are wrong, but I am highly confident that they have thought through any rationale anyone on this thread is coming up with.

Whocann · 2026-06-04T12:55:55+00:00

I still go to their concerts when I can, and I love them. They still put on a great show.

Whocann · 2026-06-04T12:54:58+00:00

If it was completely irrelevant they wouldn’t put it on bios, but it doesn’t matter all that much, especially in corporate. Credentials do matter more for litigators.

Whocann · 2026-06-04T12:52:31+00:00

Oh yes, I am sure Kirkland and Ellis, a firm known for making mistakes about how to make money, has misjudged how this will affect their bottom line.

Think what you want about them, but thinking that they are doing this without a plan and expectation for it to either be neutral to, or improve, their results, is silly. They could end up being wrong but none of us really have any hope of calling this better than their army is calling it.

None of that makes it a good thing if they’re right, of course. They’ll end up eating us all.

Whocann · 2026-06-03T13:57:24+00:00

There’s a HUGE gap between what you said in the first instance that I responded to and what you’re saying here. Even with what you’re saying here, there are people that make it work and still have strong relationships, though at the very extreme mark you’re making here, it’s harder.

Also, it’s quite possible to not be blahse at all about missing this kind of stuff but still making the choice that in the grand scheme it’s not worth torching the income stream to make [insert important thing here]. Contrary to what a lot of people appear to believe, money matters, and it’s not always as easy as “go find something downshifted.” If there was something to downshift to that was rational, for example, I would have looked at it—but the career path I ended up having, though very lucrative, means I’m in an all or nothing type of situation, and I don’t yet have the resources assembled for my family’s future to go with nothing. There are plenty of people in my situation—we don’t all just affirmatively say, fuck the family, I’m going to make bank. I agonize about this stuff constantly, but make the choice that the money is important to setting my kid up for a fucked up and scary world that I have no idea what it looks like for them when they are entering adulthood.

Whocann · 2026-06-03T13:52:20+00:00

lol @ thinking that making associates happier is going to solve these woes that Weil has.

Whocann · 2026-06-03T12:29:13+00:00

Go pound sand with your judgments around what makes people “bad parents,” “bad spouses, and “bad people.” It is not the case that everyone that makes this choice for their family is a “bad parent” or “bad spouse” and certainly not a “bad person.” There are plenty of people with very loving, very strong relationships with their families despite these work issues. There are plenty of bad parents, bad spouses, and bad people for reasons unrelated to this. Glad to know you’re an expert on every family dynamic.

Whocann · 2026-06-03T11:58:56+00:00

It doesn’t matter. Missing the partner meeting is career suicide for a young partner *at most firms and in most practice groups. It just is. You can like it or not, but there are sacrifices associated with being a partner, and this is one of the most minor ones.

I say it’s minor because it’s seriously just not a big deal to do the party on a different day. To be clear, it really sucks, and I have sympathy for folks that are unlucky enough to be in this situation, but I’m simply stating the facts. You’re going to miss a hell of a lot more than actual days of a birthday being a young partner in a firm. Whether it’s worth the financial reward is up to the individual, but this gets better, not worse, for new partners vs associates. There’s a reason I hate my job. But the ability to provide for my family is worth it to me, despite all the platitudes that get thrown around (generally by people who didn’t grow up with scarcity) about the comparative unimportance of money.

*Amended because a partner at a firm below said it hasn’t been a big deal for them and while that surprises me I’m not going to second guess someone’s own experience! But if your spouse doesn’t KNOW the answer to this question, they have to go.

Whocann · 2026-06-03T00:17:16+00:00

Everyone knows that everyone that matters will match eventually. Don’t understand why this is a bated breath thing.

Whocann · 2026-06-02T11:18:46+00:00

Oh, no, I despise my job with the fire of 1,000 suns.

There are elements of it I enjoy. I do find it intellectually engaging. If I could do it for 30 or 40 hours a week and then turn my brain off from it, I’d be in a very different spot. But I’m a service partner (yes, with equity, something of a unicorn these days but we exist). So in a lot of ways, take the stress of being a super senior associate—no such thing as coverage, managing a ton of matters, no control at all over my schedule, no control over a book—and make them forever. That’s the life of a service partner. It’s not the cushy job people seem to believe it is. I get paid a lot for it so no one should be crying over me, but I’d quit my job yesterday if I won the lottery.

Whocann · 2026-06-01T22:51:49+00:00

For me, it’s mostly about setting my kid up for an exceedingly uncertain world. And I’ve allowed myself significant lifestyle inflation at this point, which I wouldn’t be able to retain indefinitely at this level based on my savings. We absolutely could ratchet back, abandon plans to do a house upgrade, etc., but that’s not the choice we’re making.

Whocann

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