Law Students

Karoshi!

The family of a 45 year old former Toyota engineer in Japan has successfully convinced Japanese courts to declare that the engineer's death was due to working too much, a phenomena known in Japan as "Karoshi".

Evidently for the two months prior to his death, the man worked upwards of 80 hours of overtime a month. "He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006."

Not to demean the guy in any way, but I've heard of even senior partners who regularly pull those kind of hours. And I'm not even talking about back in early 2007. I'm talking about right now - in the "recession".

So, yes, apparently we're all screwed. I just figured I'd share.

Ok, enough of that. Off to my next biglaw-funded day-long retreat!

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).