I remember better days when you had to go to Speakers Corner if you wanted to see and hear people standing on a soap box. Now it seems anyone and everyone has one. 

Also, has the meaning of the word "powerful" been changed to; a word frequently used on LinkedIn to respond to someone over sharing their personal thoughts in a context where they do not matter.

I am not sure if saying one of the most honourable professions on the planet is a "dark place" (even if that use of dark is even allowed these days) is wise or true.

It sounds like she is used to very hard work and keeping going no matter what. Those are good qualities. i think firms need to look not just at academics but also how strong, grounded, wise, healthy (mentally and otherwise) and stoic people are.

Having worked in DLA’s corporate team I can say that Inês will be fine.  She doesn’t sound like the kind of person who will get swept up by the messaging that corporate work is what life is all about. 

Good on Ines for her candour. That comes with some risk; I wish her well, she is displaying many qualities suited to being an impactful lawyer. 

[...] LLP hack phones.

You had me at Miss Portugal.

The rest I zoned out.

And your next seat is…

She's right of course, but TMI.  Those sorts of chats are for close friends only.  Do not display a human side at work; and do not "bring your complete self to work", no matter what happy-clappy types may tell you.

No one cares what she thinks TBH. Brutal truth for sure, but truth nonetheless. She got the momentary endorphin rush of social media engagement though, so that’s something. 

I missed the point where someone put a gun to this person's head and forced them to become a corporate lawyer. 

I'm confused. If you don't want to do it thennnnn don't do it?

Plenty of smaller, less 'corporate' firms to have aimed for, if she had wanted that. Sounds like she is ok to take the nice City salary though, from one of the biggest law firms in the world. 

Let's be honest, diversity policy has given her a leg up over probably thousands of others who would have massively appreciated the opportunity that has been presented to her and would only be focussed on making a success of it and quite literally altering the course of their life. 

We know this because of what she has said.

It also shows that diversity policy is not a method of separating people of equal merit, but has become an end in itself. As such it is an insidious thing.

Well done for shining a light into the darkness. The City harbours some of the darkest recesses of human suffering and evil. Joining a firm like DLA Piper is like staring into the abyss; a bleak, endless corridor of spiralling darkness which drains all that is good and true in the world and churns it out into a toxic black sludge contaminating all that it touches. There is no hope or joy at a place like DLA; only pain and suffering.

How bizarre. If this individual feels so strongly against the "darkness" of the legal industry, then why do this? It seems very shallow to make something your ambition and then criticise it to the hilt. If this individual has such strong negative feelings towards this industry, it begs the question as to what the motivations for doing so are? Is it the rich rewards of compensation at a US law firm? If so, rather than complaining about the ills, should this individual not understand the pact they are making for the sake of the larger pay cheque? It seems  a bizarre approach to complain against a future employer and would be curious to understand what the firm makes of their rather public rant.

How has the corporate world dragged her into the mud before she has even started? 

LinkedIn Narcissist Final Boss 

We need to understand that Gen Z has a different, far more confessional, approach to their lives in which they are their product. They genuinely do bring their whole self to work, and put it on social media as well. Employers (and older people) will need to get to grips with that and be at peace with it.

For all those saying 'well done for shining a light on' this or that, remember that she hasn't even started the job yet.  She has no real idea what it's going to be like.

Buttttttt you don’t have to do the job if you don’t want to. If you do want to, you have to do the job? I don’t understand all this. Trained in the city, experienced it, decided it wasn’t for me, so got another job. It’s not that deep. 

I tell you what, she says she is worried about starting her TC...I'm sure there are a fair few people at DLA that probably can't wait for her to get started, and a few others who are probably wishing she wasn't starting! 

Whatever else, not sure it's the greatest idea to come out and put these thoughts out in public the week before starting your TC. Perhaps there needs to be a trainee induction session on exercising some level of filter when speaking, not to mention the use of social media...!

Why on Earth has Ines decided to take the path to corporate lawyer in a major firm? if she’s as concerns about the dark place she believes she is entering, then do something else!

Nobody forced her to get a job in big law. If you don’t want it then give up the TC.

You can’t have it both ways. 

Also instead of talking to peers or HR she is publicly humiliating the firm, which is absolutely outrageous.

Why does everyone think they’re an influencer just because they can speak and write…

She needs to be shut down, not praised. 

Good luck with this one DLA. 

Let’s hope she understands the rules about confidentiality.  

Surely if she is so honest and transparent then why would she choose a job she clearly doesn’t want to do and be training to enter a profession she thinks is a dark place?

Seems a slightly ironic stance for her to take to be honest.  Or sheer Cakism.  

I feel for her. Working at DLA Piper is a fate worse than death. A gaping chasm of despair and suffering. A fiery place of eternal torment and agony. You do not know true evil and darkness until you have worked at such a place.

Its office is a massive, funnel-shaped pit descending into the earth, organised into nine concentric circles where excruciating punishments grow increasingly severe. 

The inscription above the office entrance simply reads “abandon hope all ye who enter here”. 

 I now one thing; my dauther  is the best, she is excellent and always give the best of her self. She will be in the top of the Montains; do you now why? Because God is whith her. ❤️ Amén. Glory to our God and Father eternity. 😍

I once tried to hire the cleaner of my ladder house, but it proved impossible. Though we were always in close proximity, our paths never aligned — whenever I was coming down, they were heading up, and when they were descending, I was ascending. Despite living in the same narrow frame of stairs, we never managed to meet at the right moment.

It became a small metaphor that’s stayed with me. Proximity alone isn’t enough; timing, direction and circumstance shape whether we actually connect. The experience reminds me of corporate life as described here — people working in the same building, on the same matters, even chasing the same goals, yet still finding themselves moving past one another, rarely in step. The irony is that closeness can sometimes make the absence of connection feel even sharper.

Yes we are all compulsive over-achievers in the profession.  I speak 15 languages and build schools in Africa at the weekend.  As for the glam dresses, most of us wouldn’t be been seen dead in a team meeting in anything less than a Jenny Packham ball gown.  No wonder she’s apprehensive. 

It’s a fine line between appearing candid or simply unhinged.

Why is anyone praising her when she (a) openly doesn’t want to work for a firm that has thousands of applicants per year and (b) failed an exam with an 82% pass rate where the people who passed included those who didn’t have the luxury of studying full time?  Clearly this is someone who isn’t going to make the cut in the City legal profession. 

I would be a teensy bit worried about someone’s discretion and judgement if they chose to make a public post throwing serious shade on their employer and its entire sector (plus presumably, by inference at least, its clients) just before starting a TC (or at any time during employment, to be fair). If I was HR/Comms I may be wanting to have a quiet word. 

If by “bringing your whole self to work”  you mean remaining true to your values, acting with integrity and actively seeking to bring about positive change from within, then absolutely yes. But not sure being openly and publicly critical of the ethos and values of the sector on social media where your statements are directly linked to the firm’s name are a good plan or to be applauded. Just sayin’.

An example of the recruitment fails that larger law firms  have been experiencing in recent years. Trainees seem to be largely unaware of what’s expected of them, or unwilling to do it, notwithstanding the extremely generous salaries offered. This problem is not unique to DLA Piper.

If she isn't excited by the prospect of learning new things and how the corporate world is necessary and that she can make a meaningful impact, I'm not sure she is taking the right job. Perhaps she should have chosen a smaller firm with different specialities?

How did she get a TC there? DLA doesn’t recruit from her uni and don’t visit it

It's not imposter syndrome to take a job you apparently hate and then slag it off on a public forum. It's imposter syndrome if you think you can't do the job (btw literally everyone on earth has this, except maybe like Usain bolt and Ronaldo type characters). 

Dla should withdraw the offer.

Plenty of people actually want to be there (and in the profession generally). 

Her judgment is terrible, she's insulted her employer, her colleagues, her (or the firms...) clients and everyone who entered this profession to make something with their lives.

"An example of the recruitment fails that larger law firms  have been experiencing in recent years. Trainees seem to be largely unaware of what’s expected of them, or unwilling to do it, notwithstanding the extremely generous salaries offered. This problem is not unique to DLA Piper."

I think the vac scheme system is part of the problem with this. A couple of weeks of sitting through talks, doing some fun social stuff etc doesn't really give the participants a fair view of what the reality of the job is. If London banks can manage decent length internships which push the participants, why can't law firms?

She won't last long. "Wolves" will eat her alive.

zshe’s just a human neevous about starting. She is being honest. She worked hard and now she’s doubting. I regularly doubt. It’s ok in my view not to be ok and I applaud her honesty. Wouldn’t life be much fairer if we were all allowed to speak our truth.

"Pinheiro told ROF, “The TC is not the problem. It’s what corporate does to people. It’s a systemic problem. That is the reason I’ve decided to talk about this because we see a lot about impostor syndrome but not much about compulsive overachieving. Especially for junior professionals.”

“I’m motivated by honesty and transparency”, she said. “Remaining true to my values is far more important to me than what people might think. And helping people who are struggling under the misconceptions of a toxic system is something that is close to my heart.”

That's great and all, but where's the docs list i asked for three days ago???

According to LinkedIn, she is already off sick with 'burnout' in her first week. 

I will not be happy if she ends up on any of my matters that I send to DLA. I don't send work there, where I am paying a premium, to have someone complaining about doing the work. 

I imagine she will refuse to work outside of the hours of 9 to 5, as she values #worklifebalance #betruetoyourself

Have you seen her latest LinkedIn post?

"I collapsed yesterday when I was on my way to the office. " "I really hate that this profession burned me out before I even got started. "

Errrr how the hell did she get a TC at DLA? Imagine constantly complaining about your job in the first week of work on LinkedIn and being proud of it.

She didn't last long

Burn out after three days!!