Legal News

Are Associates too Freewheeling With Fashion?

By Ashby Jones

A dozen years ago, as a newbie associate, we wore suits to the office most days. Not because we wanted to — we had three suits, two blue, one gray, all ill-fitting and scratchy as burlap. No, we wore them because it was what the other male partners wore. Do as they do, the thinking went, and someday we’d become them. Or at least not get fired.

So we read with great interest, and shock, frankly, our colleague Christina Binkley’s column today on law-firm attire. She writes: “Experienced lawyers are learning that it can be difficult to get young associates to shift gears into traditional dress when need be.”

Amazing! Are young lawyers really wearing whatever they want, against the advice and better wishes of their superiors?

Judging from the story, it appears that way. “I share the lament and disgust about the general level of associates’ attire,” says Tom Mills, managing partner of the Washington D.C. office of Winston & Strawn. “I think it’s abysmal.” All too often, says Mills, associates show up at work in jeans – attire that he doesn’t condone “unless it’s moving day.”

Wow. One would think that the twenty-somethings would heed the wishes — or follow the example — of folks like Mills. But apparently they need instruction and direction. Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, for example, this winter sent out a note asking employees to change out of their snow boots after young associates began wearing their Ugg boots all day at work.

Apparently lawyers who don’t get the subtle — or not so subtle — message, can pay the price. When it came time to pick someone for a good assignment at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips recently, the firm chose “a polished, professional-looking associate” over a “brilliant” and experienced associate who had ignored requests to brush up his attire, says Renee Brissette, one of the firm’s partners.

Okay, partners and associates, the floor is yours. Are associates getting away with too much? Have partners misplaced their anxieties?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 31, 2008 (boomark / email).