Nutter McLennan and Fish receptionist Brandeis anecdote

Tom's running anecdote — visited the Boston firm 35 years ago, frontispiece was Brandeis, receptionist didn't know who Brandeis was. Used as a recurring gripe about institutional memory.

Thirty-five years ago, when I was just starting to do some work with attorneys, I went to Nutter McLennan and Fish. I was sitting in the reception area, and they have a hardcopy book on the history of Nutter McLennan and Fish. Now it's just called Nutter McLennan — they dropped the Fish. I open it up to the frontispiece, and there's a picture of Louis Brandeis. So I said to the receptionist, oh, is this Judge Brandeis's old firm? And she said, who's he? That's why every time I see an attorney from Nutter McLennan and Fish I have to tell them the story. If you're pretentious enough to have a history of your firm and show that Judge Brandeis was one of the people in your firm, then you really ought to tell your receptionist who he was, because he was one of the great justices.