Big Law Culture

[Anonymous]

I work at a nonprofit where one of the two people I work for is a lawyer. She is winding down her career after full-time and then part-time work at a big law firm. I find her a little uptight and anxious and wonder if that's typical of someone coming out of big law. Any insight into the culture would be appreciated, as I am looking to develop our working relationship and believe some background info would be helpful. TIA

[Anonymous]

The transition from Big Law to nonprofit can be very difficult. The standards and culture are different. She probably won't ever stop being anxious and more formal than your other nonprofit colleagues. I transitioned to nonprofit and quit within two years -- I hated it because I thought everyone was being a lazy POS, lol. The problem really was my inability to adjust to the more laid back culture.

[Anonymous]

For many lawyers their entire job is worrying about what could go wrong. The anxiety is a feature not a bug.

[Anonymous]

I have worked in Big Law and then at a nonprofit. I found the nonprofit to be horribly disorganized in so many ways and ultimately left. I loved their mission but there was no cohesiveness and especially with so much turnover (due to low pay) it was awful.

I'm sure the nonprofit people found me uptight. In the Big Law world, I'm considered super casual. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

She’s appalled by the ambient and pervasive incompetence at the NP.

And yes, she’s probably anxious as well. Most good lawyers have a pit in their stomach at all times about any potential issue or mistake, to one extent or another. That’s the job. I’m sure she’s flabbergasted at the disorder and dysfunction she’s now a part of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For many lawyers their entire job is worrying about what could go wrong. The anxiety is a feature not a bug.

HA! This perfectly describes lawyer life. I wish that I could get the anxiety to stop bleeding into my personal life, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The transition from Big Law to nonprofit can be very difficult. The standards and culture are different. She probably won't ever stop being anxious and more formal than your other nonprofit colleagues. I transitioned to nonprofit and quit within two years -- I hated it because I thought everyone was being a lazy POS, lol. The problem really was my inability to adjust to the more laid back culture.

Yes, she is more formal than everyone else. My other boss is a lawyer but he came from government and then ran his own practice. He's always trying to get her to slow down. He's another one winding down to retirement.

[Anonymous]

Hmm, I worked in Big Law for 5 years, then at a Fortune 500 company for 5 years, and am now at a nonprofit. Maybe spending time in a corporate environment that was not Big Law in between helped me transition, but I personally find non profit (and the corporate role I was in before, which was not a legal role) so much better than Big Law that I've never felt particularly challenged.

The biggest difference for me was the way people respond to small mistakes. In Big Law, something like a typo in a memo was seen as a huge screw up. Even if it was caught before it went out to the client, if a partner saw it, there would be a lecture about attention to detail. In Big Law you are making so much money (not just you personally but the firm, with incredibly high rates) that there is just very little tolerance for a person to be human.

Whereas in my post-Big Law jobs, people still hold themselves and others to a high standard (it's not like there is broad acceptance of typos or other errors -- a lot of effort goes into eliminating them actually) but there is a sense of proportion. An error like that would be treated as a learning experience and a chance to maybe tweak a process so it doesn't happen again. But no one is getting dressed down for it. It's just much lower tension.

But I found that shift incredibly welcome and it didn't take me long to acclimate. Big Law was not the right environment for me. Maybe your colleague was more bought into the system?

[Anonymous]

It's so different, and not for everyone. I worked at nonprofits early in my career, and have now spent many years working in big consulting. I still think back, 15+ later, on how dysfunctional those workplaces were and what a bad fit I was for them even then. Nepotism, incompetence, inefficiency, weird bureaucracy, you name it - it made me crazy and made me question if, as an early 20-something, I was capable of operating in the working world. Turns out I was - but not that particular one.

[Anonymous]

OP again: TBF We work at a legacy nonprofit where we have both heard, "Well, in the 1960s..." I've been at the org longer than her, but not much longer. The whole place, while a worthwhile mission, is a bit of a dinosaur.

Like another poster suggested, there is also a level of detail in her work, which I am not used to. I'm working to anticipate her needs better, but as someone else posted, I don't make very much, so there's a limit to how much I care, but I'm still trying nonetheless.

She also doesn't know how to use a printer or scanner/copy machine.

This feedback has been very helpful. Thanks all!