... associate scrapheap... marked dead ones (they don't know they are already dead) at the law firm I used to work.
dead man walking
Anecdotally, in your observation, does this happen equally for ivy grads as for others?
This is *very* law firm specific, so it does not transfer to other law firms or the legal industry generally.
Work hard, play hard: I'm familiar with a large firm which seemed to operate in a similar manner; however the competition did not end when an individual would choose to leave the up-or-out organization, forsaking the stress/prestige for a better quality of life. Insiders learned that if they ever left the firm they'd be wise to avoid the "alumni" get-togethers of former associates, hosted by that firm. These functions were often hosted when business was slow at the firm. Enough information could be gathered from colleagues and former co-workers during casual conversation at "alumni" gatherings, for the firm to subsequently make sales calls which seemed anything but "cold calls"... with the end-goal being a bit of cannibalizing to establish new business within the institutions at which the past associates of the firm had continued their careers.
Outcomes did not seem to vary by pedigree of an individual's degree-granting institution, but rather by the individual's ratio of listening to speaking. There is an old saying, "We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak" (attributed to Greek philosopher
Epictetus).
