Legal News

?My Suit is my Uniform?: Addressing Law-Firm Dress

By Dan Slater

VIVIAN: Let me guess, you’re a… lawyer.

– “Pretty Woman” (1990)

A suit? Always keep one hanging on the back of the office door. Short sleeves? Only between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Open-toed shoes? Verboten.

As start dates approach, summer associates will be wise to dig into those thick, three-ring binders to see about a few things — the voicemail system, phone numbers for at least three car services, and the firm’s dress policy.

On the last point, check out this piece in the NLJ by Pressly Millen (pictured), a trial lawyer in the Raleigh, N.C., office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice. Millen, who tracks the profession’s recent sartorial evolution, comes to a conclusion that’s interesting (if not disturbing for incoming Womble Carlyle associates): Lawyers belong in suits, and that’s that.

When Millen began practicing in New York in the mid-1980’s, he says, the legal wardrobe was “a bit stultifying” — “semi-loud suspenders” were the one bit of flash allowed — but, he adds, at least “no time was wasted on any morning agonizing over what to wear.”

Then came the “Internet Bubble,” in which lawyers, in their effort to serve Silicon Valley, “went down the slippery slope from Casual Fridays to Casual Every Day.” When the Bubble burst, says Millen, the profession failed to revert to the pre-1995 attire. “Instead, we moved into a new phase of constant fashion confusion. Few law firms had the stomach to tell young associates — many making six-figure salaries right out of law school — that they had to dress like the lawyers of old.”

Enough, says Millen, who just can’t imagine “too many clients willing to pay more than $500 an hour for legal advice to a guy wearing a knit shirt who looked as if he were going to hit the links as soon as this damn meeting was over” — or $300 an hour “for a young associate who looked as though he ought to be washing your car.”

For Millen, uniforms are crucial. A doctor wears a white lab coat. A chef wears a toque, and an auto mechanic wears his name stitched on the pocket of his jumpsuit. “My suit is my uniform,” concludes Millen. “Like the robe and wig of the English barrister, it marks me off from the rest. I’m comfortable with that.”

We’re curious, LB’ers, what’s the state of dress at law firms today? Too casual? Too formal? Just right?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 21, 2008 (boomark / email).