Legal Cheek reports
A good example of what not to do when you’re trying to network within your profession’
A TikToking lawyer has gone viral with her response to a law student who flipped when she declined to give him free one-to-one careers advice.
New York lawyer Cecillia X. Xie, who advises on privacy and data protection at Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) LLP and also runs a popular TikTok channel, has racked up over 250,000 likes in response to the bizarre exchange.
As she says, the “unhinged” email is “a good example of what not to do when you’re trying to network within your profession or find a mentor”.
As befits a privacy lawyer, Xie didn’t reveal the student’s full name, calling him simply “Benjamin”.
Benjamin wanted advice on getting into prestigious Duke Law School and emailed the attorney slash content creator asking whether she would “deign to share 10 minutes with me telephonically”. Xie replied to say that she doesn’t really do one-on-ones, given the size of her social media following, but to let her know any specific questions to potentially include in future videos.
She wasn’t prepared for the response. Benjamin wrote back: “I have an extremely hard time believing your ‘following’ is that abundant. You have plenty of time for a 10-minute call. It costs you nothing, makes you nothing”.
He went on to say that Xie’s stance was probably because she was “still young” and “you will become more altruistic as you age and gain material success”.
