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In April 2015, Weil Gotshal was at the top of the corporate world. It had helmed the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers, American Airlines, as well as Washington Mutual during and after the great financial crisis of 2008, placing the firm at the top echelons of the restructuring world.
The law firm was known as a grueling place to work with long hours, high expectations and bonuses that didn’t seem commensurate with other leading firms — but worth it because of the brilliant minds who worked there, the promise of being molded into legal royalty, and the glittering cachet of having Weil on your resume.
Business was humming with lawyers, especially associates brimming with hopes of themselves reaching the vaunted status of a Weil partner. Lawyers regularly worked 100-plus hours a week, which required working all hours of the night, at times sending and receiving dozens, if not hundreds, of emails while normal people slept.
That is when an email arrivedat 7am New York time with the subject “Subject: Important New Email Policy”, with a detailed new policy saying Weil had decided to ban late night emails to aid in work-life balance, “taking a leadership role...
