Biglaw

The Never-Ending Billable Hour: A 106-Year-Old Is Still Working At The Biglaw Firm Where He Started His Career

He loves the time he's spent at his firm -- all 80 years of it.

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Time seems to move in reverse warp speed as you review yet another document, write yet another brief, and bill yet another hour. Your days are long and no matter how long you’ve been at your firm, it feels like like you’ve been there forever. One “partner emeritus” quite literally has been working at his firm forever, but he doesn’t seem to mind one bit. In fact, he still loves the time he’s spent at his firm — all 80 years of it.

Meet Mordecai “Mordie” Rochlin, a tax and estates lawyer at Paul Weiss who retired 35 years ago, but still works at the firm as of counsel. Rochlin, who was born in 1912, is one of the oldest lawyers in New York, and he’s the only man alive who knew all five of the name partners at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Here’s more on this remarkable attorney from the New York Law Journal:

Until he contracted pneumonia at age 102, he worked in his tidy Paul Weiss office on the 32nd floor three or more days a week reading company email, working with his assistant, attending partner lunches, telling stories about the early days and sharing the keys to his longevity.

“I had been taught by a very wise doctor when you start thinking of retiring, get a plan of what you’re going to do when you retire. My mode of retirement was that I would spend four days a week up at my weekend house and then three days practicing law,” he said in a recent interview.

Mordie Rochlin (Screenshot via NYLJ)

Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp was just a summer associate when Rochlin retired, and has nothing but good things to say about him. “Mordie is a treasure,” said Karp. “He is a repository of the firm’s great history, having worked at the firm for more than 80 years.”

When he’s at the firm, Rochlin says he signs checks, reads memos, and makes a few phone calls, but stays in his office for an hour and a half at most, because at his age, doing this kind of work tires him out. When he’s done, he returns home to rest.

When reflecting on his career, Rochlin says, “I didn’t realize when I walked in the door in 1938 that I would spend the rest of my life. Paul Weiss was my life. The way I looked on the firm, it was not only a community of scholars but a community of friends.” Congratulations to Mordie Rochlin on a life well lived in the law at a firm that continues to be worth the effort, even as a centenarian.

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Paul Weiss Partner, Who Retired 35 Years Ago, Still Works in Office at Age 106 [New York Law Journal]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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