It’s resume season here at the Erb Law Firm, PC, and indeed at many firms around the country. That means lots of resumes, lots of phone calls and lots of emails.
But we haven’t experienced anything with respect to emails like that received by William Korman of Massachusetts. Mr. Korman, an established criminal defense attorney, made a job offer to Diane Abdala, a self-described “trust fund baby” after she responded to his ad on Craigs List. Ms. Abdala apparently accepted Mr. Korman’s job offer (keep reading), then later rejected the offer (which she claims was altered by Mr. Korman) - via email. Yep, that’s right. She declined the offer via email. Mr. Korman, however, believes that Ms. Abdala accepted the offer after their second meeting. Ms. Abdala disputes that notion, claiming that she wanted to think about it some more because the salary was not up to her expectations. She thinks that she needs a little more than we average Joes and Janes, since, in her words, the offer “might have been realistic for other people to survive on, but I like nicer things. I like the finer things in life.” Ahh, the refreshing honesty of wealthy young law school grads…
But back to the emails. I will admit that has happened to us. Usually, however, the declination has been for summer associate positions, clerk positions or administrative positions. I have never had an associate offer rejected via email.
But Mr. Korman didn’t just receive a rejection from Ms. Abdala via email. He received attitude - or as we’d say in Philly, atty-tood. She fired off a poorly worded, misspelled email reply, citing that she wanted to “sew” the benefits of her hard work.
And the email exchanged continued, ending with the now infamous - and also misspelled “bla, bla, bla” final retort from Ms. Abdala.
Mr. Korman was reportedly so annoyed and surprised by this behavior that he forwarded the email to colleagues, who forwarded the email to other colleagues and suddenly, the email was all over the place.
Ms. Abdala’s response? She was apparently so distraught by this behavior that she filed a complaint with the Board of Bar Overseers in Massachusetts. That seems at odds with her statement to the media that she has “enjoyed” the notoriety that the email exchange has brought her. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to?
I suspect, since her father is an attorney, and since she has admitted that he still supports her (and thus, she doesn’t really “need” the money) that she’ll be okay. And she’ll probably make some money off of some kind of endorsement or something as a result of being in the spotlight, albeit briefly. But I wouldn’t recommend her behavior to young law students clamoring for jobs in today’s market. It’s insulting, it’s obnoxious, and it’s not the way to endear yourself to the legal community. Professionalism and decency still counts for something. Ms. Abdala doesn’t appear to have much of either.
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