My mom, bless her, faithfully reads my ramblings. She finds them “interesting,” but thinks that I need to explain a few things to people like her who are not Big Firm attorneys.

I apologize (especially to those of you toiling away in government, public-interest and small-firm jobs, and to those of you in clerkships — wake up already! — where the lingo may be considerably different) for my oversight and offer forthwith this Glossary of Big Firm Terms to assist you.