Oh, to be a boom-year bonus baby” is a common thought among mainland American lawyers. “Oh, to strangle a boom-year-bonus baby” is another.

Cameron Stracher, a contributing editor at the American Lawyer, had the nerve to voice this guilty sentiment in the New York Times. He publicly prayed for the demise of young lawyers who, never having known recession, “see a double bonus as a birthright.” And he deplored the displacement, as a ruling motive, of love for the law by money.