The Recession: A Personal Perspective

Does this look like the face of a person who got laid off? Well as of December 1, 2008, the law firm I was practicing with officially dissolved, in large part due to the economy. This was not a small firm by any measure--it was an AmLaw 100, national firm with hundreds of lawyers and many more staff. But it collapsed, and people, including yours truly, were notified a few weeks before Thanksgiving that they would be jobless at the end of the month. I have NEVER been let go. And honestly, generally when I hear that 10,000 people have lost their jobs at some big company--I shake my head and say, "That's a shame." I never envisioned that I would be one of those faceless joes left out in the cold. It was frightening and nerve-wracking. And even though it was through no fault of mine, I was embarrassed.

Thankfully, I was only jobless for about 2 and a half weeks before the labor group that I practice with found another firm for us to relocate to and I officially went back to the grind this week. I can honestly say that I learned a lot--that you can't take anything for granted, save as much as you can, etc. More importantly, I'll feel a lot more empathy when some big faceless corporation announces cutbacks.