After Work Today...

Who are we kidding? Today is the day that the Louisiana Supreme Court releases the July Bar Exam results. No lawyer works today and even if you do, you will probably knock off around 9:30 for lunch. And non-lawyers can do things like long lunches all the time. So, this post should really be entitled: "Where to Celebrate or Drown Your Sorrows Today."*

First, a few tips for you:

1. A little known fact is that the LASC mails out the individual results to candidates on the day before publicly releasing them via the web and posting them on the door of the LASC building on Royal Street. If you don't pass, then next time around you can intercept the letter from the post office and know your fate before everyone else does.**
2. If you have an inside connection at the LASC, you may be able to call them before the results are posted at 9:00am. You have waited 11 weeks already, but we all know that finding out an hour earlier will make a world of a difference. Or just wait, patience es un virtue.
3. If you choose to go "old school" and check the list posted at the Supreme Court, please be respectful of your fellow candidates.
4. If you email this article to everyone you know, your results will come faster. Its like bells ringing and angel winging.

Now, to the more important question: Where should I go to lunch? If you are one who likes to see and be seen, then, much like The Highlander, there can only be one: Galatoire's. In the future, you will probably be holding court there on many a Friday afternoon, so you may as well start now.

Or more accurately, you took that Big Law job because you thought "all lawyers do is go to long lunches at Galatoire's on Fridays." Ohhh, how wrong you were. But at least you passed. So this is probably your last time to go there for Friday lunch for at least 10-12 years. By the time you can go, wife, kids, clients, and general b.s. will keep you away; please remove your rose colored Vuarnets. So go while you can and don't ever leave. However, if you are reading this post and have not yet dispatched a secretary to wait in line or the kid who did not pass, then you will likely be relegated to lunching in Siberia.

But perhaps you are one of the many young attorneys who finds him/herself working at one of the many firms struggling to generate enough work for the partners (much less the newly minted associates), and thus a four hour lunch is not in the cards (i.e., budget). Or no one gives a flying hoot that you passed the bar. No problem. Hit up one of the prix fix menus at MiLa or Cuvée - where the atmosphere may not be such a raucous as at Galatoire's but the food will indeed be much more exciting.

But no matter whether you feast upon Oysters Rockefeller or a Lucky Dog during your celebratory lunch, there is only one place to go when you finish:

For one of these:

Congrats.

* If you conditioned or worse , do not go downtown and even attempt to have a good time. Turn off your cell phone, load up your car with booze, drive at least to Orange Beach (or further), do not check Facebook updates, and just generally try to get away from it all. Remember: JFK, Jr. took the New York Bar three times before he passed, and I would say that he had a pretty successful life. If only a pilot's license was harder to obtain. What? Too soon?

** We have no evidence to either dispute or verify this information, thus hereby indemnifying ourselves from all liability which may result from advocating such an action. In fact, it is the oldest lie told in Louisiana.