What was it like to be a lawyer in 2015? That’s the question Seward & Kissel intended to answer for the lawyers of 2140 through a commemorative time capsule. It turns out the contents are almost as alien to the lawyers of 2024.
In a world where Biglaw firms can and do explode under the pressure, Seward & Kissel reached its 125th anniversary back in 2015. Reaching a milestone few firms can match, the firm decided to mark the occasion with a time capsule, gathering the hallmarks of a typical Biglaw lawyer’s life in 2015 — including an Above the Law article — and burying it outside its downtown Manhattan office for lawyers in 2140 to unearth.
Except they didn’t get a chance to bury it.
For a variety of reasons, the building was unable to let Seward & Kissel place its ode to 2015 in the ground until earlier this year. On Tuesday, the firm finally had a chance to finish the celebration it started nearly a decade ago.
The firm’s New York team gathered outside its office Tuesday morning — the D.C. office joined via teleconference — as managing partner Jim Cofer delivered remarks including a recitation of some of the key items the firm would soon bury.
And many of them proved to be blasts from the past already.
There’s a BlackBerry, of course. The device that seemed, in 2015, as though it might loom over the legal profession for years to come would only last another year, with the company announcing the end of its product line in 2016. The idea that firms made attorneys carry multiple devices — BlackBerries (BlackBerrys?) for dedicated work purposes and personal cellphones for everything else strains the junior associate mind.
A deal toy, one of those then-ubiquitous tokens that marked the closing of every transaction, made it into the box. As a litigator, I always envied the transactional folks for marking the trauma of months of sleepless nights in the office with a souvenir — no matter how cheap and tacky. Alas, those are pretty much gone.
They also placed a 2015 physical copy of the Zagat’s restaurant guide, the holy tome for booking summer associate lunches, into the capsule. Zagat hasn’t published a physical guide since 2020 as far as I can tell. While the brand has all but faded from existence, it’s still out there having sold a hefty stake to private equity, and then to Google, and now finally living as a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase. So while young associates might not know what Zagat is, at least the idea that lawyers papered up a series of private equity, tech, and finance bro deals that ended up crushing a once famous company still rings true in 2024.
Seward included a copy of the then-most recent memo on associate compensation and billing structure — when the Biglaw scale started $160K.
While not everything in the capsule is so dated, it’s a reminder that the legal profession has undergone significant and rapid changes over the last handful of years. Say what you will about the long-term value of Generative AI to the practice of law, a new partner today started their career as a summer juggling flash drives and two or three mobile devices skimming a physical book on their shelf to figure out where to make the firm take them for lunch.
You can check out the full contents of the time capsule here.
Partner Steve Nadel — Seward & Kissel’s functional Minister of Culture — emcee’d the event, inviting representatives of key firm constituencies to take turns casting dirt upon the box with a ceremonial shovel before turning it over to the whole office. As Nadel explained, the firm received approval to bury the capsule in February, but waited until the summer to involve the newest summer associates because the capsule symbolizes the future.
A law firm is just a collection of people. And billable hours. But mostly people, who come and go, adding their bit to the legacy as the industry evolves around and through them. It’s a sentiment Seward intended for the lawyers in the 22nd century, but fate offered a premature peek at how quickly the mechanics of a profession steeped in dusty precedent can morph.
Paradoxically, the current crop of lawyers may appreciate this capsule more than the attorneys representing Starfleet in 2140. In nine years, everyone can look at each other and ask, “Can you believe this was only nine years ago we were doing this?” Over 125 years, future attorneys will be a lot more befuddled, but hopefully they can muster a sense of camaraderie with the people before them in the long Seward & Kissel line.
Assuming we still have lawyers and the rule of law by then. Talk about a concept that also might seem quaint in a mere nine years!
Earlier: The State Of The Legal Profession In 2015
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.