All-nighters, Popsicles, and Gandalf: #inmyMM with Lawyer CJ Faulkner
June 18, 2016
Each week, we look inside the fascinating lives (and closets) of our favorite customers. Here, CJ Faulkner, a corporate lawyer in New York, talks about her popsicle addiction, the joy of all things matchy-matchy, and how she survives the occasional all-nighter.
I WORK at a corporate law firm in New York. I’m a first-year associate in the mergers and acquisitions group. My job is one part very high-powered secretary, one part mini investment banker, and one part Gandalf—in that companies often come to their lawyers in a tight spot, and we provide advice. As one of the partners in my firm put it, huge M&A deals are just a series of tiny judgments that end in a big litigation.
MY STYLE is very matchy-matchy. I don’t know where I get it from, but nothing brings me greater joy than wearing a dark blue dress, a navy cardigan or jacket, and navy shoes. Clothing is a little bit like art, in that you’re putting together colors and shapes and lines and structures, and I think a monochromatic outfit looks clean. Even when you just sort of wallow out of bed and put very little effort into getting dressed, if you grab a bunch of things that are the same color, you look much more put together than you should.
MY OFFICE, like 99 percent of law firms, is business formal. A dress-jacket combo is my easy fallback, but pantsuits are the norm.
MY GO-TO MM PIECE is the Sant Ambroeus jardigan. I wear it twice a week at the very least; it makes a simple black dress look like a suit. I also love the Lydia dress for day to night—it’s super chic, and the twist on the shoulders make it secretly more interesting than you see at first glance.
I GREW UP in London and came to the U.S. for college. My dad is American and my mom is Middle-Eastern; they met in Paris and then wandered to London, where they still live. Because my family is scattered around, the idea of moving countries wasn’t that big a deal to me. I also wanted something different, and I like the American model of college, how you get more time to meander and explore different subjects.
CJ wears the Lagarde shirt and the Harlem skirt.
I STARTED OUT doing finance internships during college, and I realized that I didn’t want to be a junior in that world; it seemed like all the interesting stuff was happening at a much higher level, and the day-to-day tasks were not my jam. Meanwhile, I was working on a lot of distressed debt stuff, which has a big legal component; that’s how I found that anything law-related involved working closely with higher-ups, which appealed to me. So I made the switch to focusing on law during my junior year, and went straight from undergrad into law school. My first legal job was at the Federal Trade Commission in New York, during the summer after my first year at law school. The next summer, I was a summer associate at the firm where I work now.
ALL-NIGHTERS occasionally happen. I wouldn’t say regularly, but when you’re the most junior person on the team, you have no control over your timing, and sometimes there are emergencies. You don’t think you’re capable of it—the idea of not sleeping for 48 hours sounds crazy—but when push comes to shove, you just do it. I never did in college, because getting a worse grade had no impact on anyone’s life except my own, so I could never bring myself to stay up all night. But in your job, when you’re doing something that people depend on, it’s a lot easier to stay up when you have to.
WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer. I was more interested in politics. In high school, I became fascinated with the way politics are affected by business and economics, and how corporate cultures in different countries reflect the ethos of those nations. For instance, take America’s startup culture, and the concept of, “Hey, you’ve got an idea, go for it”—it very much reflects the wonderful, scrappy, go-get-‘em attitude that you have in the U.S. In that sense, I’ve always thought the corporate world is really cool—does that sound terrible?
MY FIRST JOB EVER was at a community sailing center in Florida during a summer in high school. I would help the instructors teach the younger kids how to sail. I don’t think I’ve sailed since then.
MY GUILTY PLEASURE is popsicles. I have a little bit of an addiction. A colleague and I got a mini-fridge, which I keep in my office, and every morning I’ll grab some popsicles at home, shove them in my bag, and transfer them to the freezer when I get to work. I’m quite fond of Eddie’s, the round-shaped ones. As long as you eat it quickly enough, it won’t melt all over the place. The flat ones won’t do; those break. I won’t tell you how many I consume per day, because it’s too embarrassing. I was once eating a popsicle on the subway and ran into a senior associate from the firm. He was like, “What are you doing?”
MY TO-DO LIST runs my life. I keep lists in a little notebook that lives at the office. I had a 10-minute period this year when everything in it was done, and crossed off, and it was glorious—and then something new came up. But it was a lovely feeling while it lasted.
