On my first day at Crowell & Moring, I got on the elevator with a very senior partner who took one look at me clutching my note pad, grinned, and said, 'Welcome to the firm.'

I was swept away by the tradition of the Friday partners' lunch, accompanied by wine and good cheer and chewing over the week's big legal happenings.

A senior partner asked me to go with him on a pitch to a Fortune 500 company for a large part of its litigation docket that is sole sourced. How many firms would do that?

I was introduced to every (every) attorney in the Antitrust Group (30 people at the time). I couldn't remember everyone's name, but I quickly felt at home.