New York Magazine has a long article this week about the gay attorney vs. big law firm lawsuit that I mentioned a few weeks ago.
This description of Aaron Charney, the plaintiff, sounds very familiar to me:
He says he’d never had a gay experience until he was 25 — “I wouldn’t call it a relationship,” he says. He wanted all his ducks in a row — the B.A., the J.D., the secure career track — before reckoning with that part of his identity. “You come to a point where you realize that issues are no longer malleable, and you know who you are, and you make a decision,” he says. “You have to really know yourself before you make a decision like that. Because you don’t want to regret it later.”
Much of the article, though, is about the crappy attitude and behavior of several of the partners at Sullivan & Cromwell. Reading the article just reaffirms for me that I would never have survived five minutes in a place like that. And I don’t understand high-stress lawyers who treat other people like shit. How do those people live with themselves? So you make a lot of money? So what? People like him and her should be ashamed of themselves.
Incidentally, I’m creeped out by David Lat’s coverage of the case. I went to Lat’s site today for the first time in a couple of weeks to see what he had to say about the New York Magazine article. It turns out that he’s visited Charney’s apartment building and blogged about it. That goes beyond obsessive.
I don’t come away from this article with much sympathy for the little schmuck at all. It was clearly an uncomfortable place to work, but (a) he contributed to the toxic atmosphere, so can hardly complain that it turned against him, and (b) he could have done many things to mitigate matters before it got to the lawsuit stage.
He made people dislike him with his nasty personality, behaved in a way that drew justifiable criticism, blew trivial incidents out of proportion, and refused to work with the firm to smooth things over. It sounds to me as though had he not been so unreasonable, the office would have come to his defense and the problem (if any) would have been resolved internally.
Not that *anyone* comes out looking good here. What a crappy line of work.
I tend to agree with your first point, although perhaps not with your level of vehemence or language. :) I found the article very balanced, and it’s given me a more balanced view of the case than I originally had.
That lawfirm sounds just like Wolfram & Hart, the evil lawfirm from the TV series ‘Angel’, a Buffy spinoff. It sounds like one of the layers of Dante’s Inferno. No law firms for me!
Ohmigod, I’m embarrassed to admit I went through their staff pictures looking for cute lawyers.
Hello Aaron,
My name is Andrea and I am a Black Gay Artist who is a native New Yorker and who unfortunately lives in Alabama now. I just recently read your article in New York Magazine and I have to say that I am VERY IMPRESSED with your stance.
I hope like HELL you win your case, because if you don’t, not only will end your career in law, but it will also make it virtually impossible for gay men and women to have any “say so and or civic rights in the corporate world. I believe you and I think you should go all the way with this. I would like to hear from you even though you probably won’t get this e-mail, you can contact me at tank4230@hotmail.com. Trust me, even though you may thinks times are hard, they could be worse,”you could be living in Alabama , black and gay with a white boyfriend ha ha” hope to hear from you soon. Andrea
Umm… I’m not Aaron Charney. But thanks for writing?