Daredevil: Timeline and Legal Details
I can tell I'm falling deep into a fandom when I feel the need to build precise timelines for a universe in my mind. For Daredevil, my priority is definitely figuring out how long Matt and Foggy have known each other, and what they were doing pre-series. The awesome ladies at @redringsideseats were kind enough to answer my newbie questions regarding Matt and Foggy's meeting in the comics. For the Netflix series, it wasn't immediately apparently to me from watching the flashback episodes what year it was and whether they were meeting in college or law school, and fic authors seem to have disparate opinions. I found some really impressive MCU timelines (really impressive), but they all gave different dates for Matt's accident (and thereby his age), Matt and Foggy's first meeting, and even when the events of seasons 1 and 2 take place.
All else having failed, I finally did the logical thing and rewatched Nelson v. Murdock with my glasses on, remote in hand:
Bless Foggy's labido
Fall 2010! Foggy also has a "2009" sports championship sticker on his computer, so the date isn't random, at least in the mind of the set dresser. 2010 makes a lot of sense, if the job at Landman & Zack is Matt and Foggy's first after completing law school (as implied). This is also interesting in that the Battle of New York takes place near the end of their second year of law school (best excuse to miss finals ever?). Of course, now I'm dying to know how having the sky ripped open and tons of giant alien craft flying around affected Matt's senses, and just what our avocados were doing while midtown was getting torn down. Columbia is uptown, but certainly close enough to see and hear it all, and be rightly terrified.
My confusion about whether Matt and Foggy were supposed to have met in undergrad or law school stems mostly from Foggy's Punjabi lark. As a rule, American law schools have a set curriculum for the first year, so students get a solid foundation in the basics. Looking closely at the screen cap above, I think production actually researched Columbia Law School's first year curriculum. Foggy's registration page includes standards you'll find in every first year curriculum--civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, and torts--as well as "legal methods," a course required in Columbia's first year but which can go by a variety of other names, depending on the school.
Studying a language in addition to the first year curriculum, though, would be extremely unusual. Even students who are simultaneously pursuing a juris doctor and a masters in something else would not typically choose to start a new language while in law school, particularly during first year, which is notoriously difficult and competitive. But not only does Foggy take Punjabi, but as noted later in Nelson v. Murdock, Matt takes Spanish. It's theoretically possible for them to have enrolled in those courses, but an odd choice. There are perhaps some law students who studied a language as an undergraduate and chose to peruse a masters in that language in order to reach a demonstrable degree of fluency (with the intent of specializing in certain types of international business transactions, for example), but that doesn't seem to be what's implied with our heroes.
This is a minor quibble, though, particularly compared with Matt and Foggy's first job, the "internship" at Landman and Zack. I have to throw a flag on that play.
That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
Columbia Law School is consistently ranked in the top five of American legal programs; it's one of the most fiercely competitive graduate programs of any kind, comparable to being accepted to a top medical or MBA program. What law school you attend determines your career. The most selective legal employers (big name firms, appellate and Supreme Court justices, the Department of Justice) won't even interview you if you weren't admitted to a school in the top tier of the US News and World Reports rankings system. Even among the first tier, the higher ranked your school, the better your prospects. Graduates of Columbia and the other top five law schools are the apex predators of the legal job market. And given Foggy and Matt graduated cum laude and summa cum laude as well, it's difficult to imagine any world where they didn't have a bevy of attractive offers to choose among.
Typically, graduates who want to start their careers at a big firm seek "first year associate" positions--the entry level job for baby lawyers. It's true these jobs are not glamorous; an office the size of broom closet with no windows isn't out of the question. There's lots of repetitive tasks, such as document review. Lots of writing memos on obscure and tedious issues. Grinding, late nights are the norm as associates try to find 1800-2300 billable hours to fill that first year (count on working 60-hour weeks, at a minimum). At some point, a partner or senior associate will scream at/and or humiliate you (Jeri Hogarth? Not an exaggeration).
However, first year associate positions pay pretty well. At a big firm in NYC, $150k plus benefits, minimum. That doesn't go as far as it does in Kansas, but no one's stealing bagels from the break room. In fact, the firm wants you to spend as much time in the office as possible, so they're probably sending assistants out to fetch your lunch, do your dry cleaning, and in many cases, paying for your dinner as well.
Most big law firm have some interns but these positions are almost always for students rather than graduates, and law students on an internship are usually called "summer associates." Even if the Battle of New York wreaked such havoc that a number of big NYC firms have gone under and there's a glut of experienced attorneys on the job market, it's difficult to believe that Matt and Foggy, with their top qualifications, could not have found full time attorney positions somewhere in or near the City (it strains credulity so much, I mentally cringe every time one of the characters mentions the 'internship').
Though it's pretty clear the internship is canon, I choose to overwrite it with a bit of headcanon in which Matt and Foggy are first or second year associates at Landman, sharing a storage closet because of a shortage of real estate after the Battle. Ongoing financial difficulties in the NYC legal market (damned chitauri!) are causing the firm to make cuts to the staff, and now all of the associates are in a cut-throat competition. Matt and Foggy's choice to leave and start their own firm, even after they find out that they've been chosen to stay, is as much of a risk--and an indication of their character--as it is in canon, and my poor fusspot brain gets a break. (Need a legal nitpicker, Marvel? Hit me up)
All else having failed, I finally did the logical thing and rewatched Nelson v. Murdock with my glasses on, remote in hand:
Bless Foggy's labido
Fall 2010! Foggy also has a "2009" sports championship sticker on his computer, so the date isn't random, at least in the mind of the set dresser. 2010 makes a lot of sense, if the job at Landman & Zack is Matt and Foggy's first after completing law school (as implied). This is also interesting in that the Battle of New York takes place near the end of their second year of law school (best excuse to miss finals ever?). Of course, now I'm dying to know how having the sky ripped open and tons of giant alien craft flying around affected Matt's senses, and just what our avocados were doing while midtown was getting torn down. Columbia is uptown, but certainly close enough to see and hear it all, and be rightly terrified.
My confusion about whether Matt and Foggy were supposed to have met in undergrad or law school stems mostly from Foggy's Punjabi lark. As a rule, American law schools have a set curriculum for the first year, so students get a solid foundation in the basics. Looking closely at the screen cap above, I think production actually researched Columbia Law School's first year curriculum. Foggy's registration page includes standards you'll find in every first year curriculum--civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, and torts--as well as "legal methods," a course required in Columbia's first year but which can go by a variety of other names, depending on the school.
Studying a language in addition to the first year curriculum, though, would be extremely unusual. Even students who are simultaneously pursuing a juris doctor and a masters in something else would not typically choose to start a new language while in law school, particularly during first year, which is notoriously difficult and competitive. But not only does Foggy take Punjabi, but as noted later in Nelson v. Murdock, Matt takes Spanish. It's theoretically possible for them to have enrolled in those courses, but an odd choice. There are perhaps some law students who studied a language as an undergraduate and chose to peruse a masters in that language in order to reach a demonstrable degree of fluency (with the intent of specializing in certain types of international business transactions, for example), but that doesn't seem to be what's implied with our heroes.
This is a minor quibble, though, particularly compared with Matt and Foggy's first job, the "internship" at Landman and Zack. I have to throw a flag on that play.
That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
Columbia Law School is consistently ranked in the top five of American legal programs; it's one of the most fiercely competitive graduate programs of any kind, comparable to being accepted to a top medical or MBA program. What law school you attend determines your career. The most selective legal employers (big name firms, appellate and Supreme Court justices, the Department of Justice) won't even interview you if you weren't admitted to a school in the top tier of the US News and World Reports rankings system. Even among the first tier, the higher ranked your school, the better your prospects. Graduates of Columbia and the other top five law schools are the apex predators of the legal job market. And given Foggy and Matt graduated cum laude and summa cum laude as well, it's difficult to imagine any world where they didn't have a bevy of attractive offers to choose among.
Typically, graduates who want to start their careers at a big firm seek "first year associate" positions--the entry level job for baby lawyers. It's true these jobs are not glamorous; an office the size of broom closet with no windows isn't out of the question. There's lots of repetitive tasks, such as document review. Lots of writing memos on obscure and tedious issues. Grinding, late nights are the norm as associates try to find 1800-2300 billable hours to fill that first year (count on working 60-hour weeks, at a minimum). At some point, a partner or senior associate will scream at/and or humiliate you (Jeri Hogarth? Not an exaggeration).
However, first year associate positions pay pretty well. At a big firm in NYC, $150k plus benefits, minimum. That doesn't go as far as it does in Kansas, but no one's stealing bagels from the break room. In fact, the firm wants you to spend as much time in the office as possible, so they're probably sending assistants out to fetch your lunch, do your dry cleaning, and in many cases, paying for your dinner as well.
Most big law firm have some interns but these positions are almost always for students rather than graduates, and law students on an internship are usually called "summer associates." Even if the Battle of New York wreaked such havoc that a number of big NYC firms have gone under and there's a glut of experienced attorneys on the job market, it's difficult to believe that Matt and Foggy, with their top qualifications, could not have found full time attorney positions somewhere in or near the City (it strains credulity so much, I mentally cringe every time one of the characters mentions the 'internship').
Though it's pretty clear the internship is canon, I choose to overwrite it with a bit of headcanon in which Matt and Foggy are first or second year associates at Landman, sharing a storage closet because of a shortage of real estate after the Battle. Ongoing financial difficulties in the NYC legal market (damned chitauri!) are causing the firm to make cuts to the staff, and now all of the associates are in a cut-throat competition. Matt and Foggy's choice to leave and start their own firm, even after they find out that they've been chosen to stay, is as much of a risk--and an indication of their character--as it is in canon, and my poor fusspot brain gets a break. (Need a legal nitpicker, Marvel? Hit me up)