Irrelevant_Goat

As someone who works in the "white shoe world" (I work at a very prestigious law firm) let me be the first to tell you that this model is dead. When your dad was coming up in the firm he had partnership prospects because he was likely a baby boomer and there was room at the top. The problem you have now is that firms are very top-heavy. A lot of the people who had a ton of social mobility when they were coming up in the firm are the reason there is no more social mobility at the firm. Motherfuckers won't hurry up and die/retire, so suddenly you have all these people gunning for partnership, which means partners now have associates who are willing to do twice the amount of work that they did at the time, and why WOULDN'T you want to hang onto a position like that. Problem is that the firm can't keep billing associates (called "managers" in accounting lingo, I think) out at higher and higher rates because 9th and 10th years are already almost billing at the rate of junior partners. So they get pushed out.

My advice to anyone who is thinking about the path of Wall Street white shoedom is to appreciate that you have been accepted into a very powerful inner circle of privileged few, but also constantly be thinking of your exit strategy. You must always have one, because one day an old white guy is going to close the door to your office and tell you that your service to the firm is invaluable, but partnership just isn't in the cards for you.

EDIT: I should add that while twenty or even ten years ago it was possible to just strike out on your own and take your clients with you, that is no longer the case. There is no branding. Everyone is replaceable. Everyone delivers perfection, and if they don't deliver perfection, you drop those suckers and move on to the next firm. So from a client perspective, there's no reason to go off with the senior associate who didn't make partner. And more importantly, it is damn near impossible to start a firm anymore that can even come close to being as competitive as megafirms with pristine pedigrees. Of all of the people who have been able to do this in the past ten years in the world of law and actually do very well for themselves, I can think of two firms that were started within the past 10 years and were able to take clients/practice in the same league as megafirms.

To be fair, most lawyers in America who are doing this kind of work do not drive luxury cars, and do not pay for hookers and blow. They probably drive a nice(r) car but are holding down 80-100k a year. Sounds like this lawyer didn't make off with too much either, as there were no punitive/compensatory damages awarded.

Do you accept eels or manta rays as well?

LE /R/ANARCHY AMIRITE?!

We just say Math Teacher.