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then merged with the LeBoeuf Lamb law firm, went bankrupt, igno- miniously, and ceased to exist.
Rosenman was an entirely different experience. I met with three litigation partners, Arnold Roth, Gilbert Edelson, and Gerry Walpin, and one litigation associate, Peter Nadel. After I stood at a reception desk, watching a relatively young associate, who turned out to be Mark Fisher of the Corporate Department, dictate a letter and engage in some conversation with Joe Getraer, who was also a young corporate associ- ate, I was ushered into to Mr. Roth’s corner office for my first interview.
Roth, who was probably in his early forties, graciously shook my hand, motioned me to a chair in front of his desk, and seemed to fit the part of a successful New York (Jewish) litigator perfectly—until he opened his mouth and out-WASPed the interviewers from Dewey and Milbank by greeting me with a totally incongruous and very deep Southern drawl. Calling me “bud” (which took about a full second for him to express, sounding something like “buhhhd”) after the first “Mr. Yaverbaum,” he engaged me in a very relaxing conversation no detail of which comes to mind. However, I did get the impression that this was no perfunctory chat and that his aim was to get a fix on my intelligence. Next up was Gil Edelson, a contemporary of Roth’s, who also seemed to have been in a serious interview mode. The conversation was comfort- able, and the talk was uneventful.
Not so the conversation with Gerald Walpin. (As I would later find out, few conversations with Walpin were uneventful.) By the time I had gotten to Walpin’s office, taken there by Peter Nadel, who was shep- herding me around, I had gotten the impression that these guys really were assessing me, and I was feeling a bit of confidence. They had obvi- ously seen my resume, so that all that could be added or subtracted was the effect of the interviews. In all humility, I did not think that conversa- tions could do me much damage. Within one minute, Walpin, who was noticeably short and seemed to be trying to act taller, let me know that he had come to Rosenman a few years before, having been an Assistant U.S. Attorney who tried criminal cases in the Southern District (includ-
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