Harry, I certainly agree that this feeling--the feeling that if we don't participate in EIP, don't spend next summer at a firm, and don't accept the post-graduation offers that we will never have that opportunity again--is pervasive in law school, and for many good reasons I am sure. But from my limited exploration of the issue, I've found that there are many successful lawyers who will tell you that this is simply not accurate. One way it's been put to me is that it's a case of they need us more than we need them. Another phrased it to say that the firms are going nowhere.

I spoke with a man recently who left his firm after only a few years to do public defender work, decided that he preferred the, as he put it, complexity and variation of the work at the firm, and went back over a year later, only to eventually become a partner. If we hone our craft, if we develop the right skills and know how to market ourselves, then that option will always be available to us. And I imagine that if a former slave wanted to return to his or her shackles, no slave owner would stand in the way. Perhaps individual bridges may be burned, but the institution as a whole is not prone to personal grudges.

If the comparison were to hold so far, then perhaps one could find inspiration in the fact that if this scenario--voluntarily returning to slavery--seems implausible, then it would by analogy be equally fantastic to imagine a law school graduate who "escaped" from the conveyor belt to ask to be let back on. In other words, it is comforting to believe, while it might be terrifying for us to contemplate where the uncharted path will lead, that upon arrival we will have no regrets.

-- CamilaTapernoux 12 Jun 2012