CHAPTER 15
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 603.
We finished in that order. I mean, Erwin, Bella and myself were the top three in the Law Schoolgraduating class. The time for triumph was at hand. Job interviews. Offers.Pleas. Snow jobs. Everywhere I turned somebody seemed to be waving a flagthat read: "Work for us, Barrett!" But I followed only the green flags. I mean, I wasn't totally crass,but I eliminated the prestige alternatives, like clerking for a judge, andthe public service alternatives, like Department of Justice, in favor of alucrative job that would get the dirty word "scrounge" out of our goddamnvocabulary. Third though I was, I enjoyed one inestimable ad- vantage in competing for the best legal spots. I was the only guy inthe top ten who wasn't Jewish. (And anyone who says it doesn't matter isfull of it.) Christ, there are dozens of firms who will kiss the ass of aWASP who can merely pass the bar. Consider the case of yours truly: LawReview, All-Ivy, Harvard and you know what else. Hordes of people werefighting to get my name and numeral onto their stationery. I felt like abonus baby-and I loved every minute of it. There was one especially intriguing offer from a firm in Los Angeles.The recruiter, Mr. (why risk a lawsuit?), kept telling me: "Barrett baby, in our territory we get it all the time. Day and night.I mean, we can even have it sent up to the office!" Not that we were interested in California, but I'd still like to knowprecisely what Mr. was discussing. Jenny and I came up with some pretty wildpossibilities, but for L.A. they probably weren't wild enough. (I finallyhad to get Mr. off my back by telling him that I really didn't care for "it"at all. He was crestfallen.) Actually, we had made up our minds to stay on the East Coast. As itturned out, we still had dozens of fantastic offers from Boston, New Yorkand Washington. Jenny at one time thought D.C. might be good ("You couldcheck out the White House, Ol"), but I leaned toward New York. And so, withmy wife's blessing, I finally said yes to the firm of Jonas and Marsh, aprestigious office (Marsh was a former Attorney General) that was verycivil-liberties oriented ("You can do good and make good at once," saidJenny). Also, they really snowed me. I mean, old man Jonas came up toBoston, took us to dinner at Pier Four and sent Jenny flowers the next day. Jenny went around for a week sort of singing a jingle that went "Jonas,Marsh and Barrett." I told her not so fast and she told me to go screwbecause I was probably singing the same tune in my head. I don't have totell you she was right. Allow me to mention, however, that Jonas and Marsh paid Oliver BarrettIV $11 ,8oo, the absolute highest salary received by any member of ourgraduating class. So you see I was only third academically.
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