In his column "Inside Straight" for Abovethelaw.com, Mark Herrmann lays out the differences between working as a lawyer in a law firm and as an organization man in a corporate law department. He has been in both roles, the former as partner at Jones Day, the latter as a bigfoot at Aon. Here is today's post.
What's riveting about his columns, at least to us former college English majors, is how he weaves each one together. The question I have is if Herrmann is leveraging the rhetorical device of what's called the "falliable first person narrator." That's the presentation of the story which reveals more about the person telling it than that person is aware. It pulls in readers because we bond with the creature's myopia - a trait we all share as we journey through our own lives, including what we do for a living. So much of what Herrmann says about life in corporate law seems to betray his own adjustment process as well as ambivalence. There are times when I wonder if he will return to a law firm.
Or, Herrmann may just be a great writer, that is, stylist. He captures for us the drama of leaving one of the work settings for a very different one. In fact he does that so well that he involves us in the shock and angst of change. Any one who's been through a career transition can fully relate to all that.
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