Leaving biglaw
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Anonymous
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I am a seventh year biglaw associate with two young children and a nonlawyer husband who works normal 40-hour weeks. I always thought that I wanted to make partner, and my firm tells me that I will next year.
Problem is that I hate the job. I hate dealing with clients. I hate supervising junior associates. I hate working crazy hours and rarely spending quality time with family. So I have an offer to go in house at a client. Really nice GC and attorneys. The hours are 9-5ish (I know because I work with them). The pay is decent 200k plus bonus and equity, but not the 700k+ I would be making if I stayed on as partner. I am leaning toward taking in house job. But I worked for so long to make partner that it seems insane to quit now. |
Anonymous
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Leave
--senior biglaw associate up for partner next year |
Anonymous
| Wait to see if you actually make partner. It's all theoretical at this point. |
Anonymous
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I left biglaw after 5 years and went to the government (litigation). I have no regrets and I'm happy with my choice.
BUT, if I were in your shoes, since it seems like you're so close, I'd probably wait a year to see if I actually made partner. The in-house opportunities won't dry up in a year. If anything, you might have more opportunities just by virtue of the title change. And, I think if you left you might always wonder "what if?" Two caveats: 1) If you're truly miserable (not just unsatisfied or whatever, but truly miserable) then you should go. The in-house opportunity sounds like a great landing after a decent stint in biglaw. It will probably be a better lifestyle. And honestly, the compensation will be plenty for you unless you have extremely expensive taste. 2) If you're counting on $700k as a junior partner, you might want to double-check your math. You know better than I do, so I'm not telling you you're wrong. But, I think that's higher than most junior partners make in DC biglaw (certainly higher than my previous firm, which was biglaw but not V10 or anything.) Make sure you're accounting for capital contributions, tax increases, retirement contributions, etc. when you're trying to figure out how much money you'll actually be seeing. I think at my old firm it was more like $400-500k for new partners. |
Anonymous
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Leave. It is so much more pleasant working in-house. No "eat what you kill" . . . etc.
Remember, though, you come in as a cost center and you need to prove your value. Not all in-house do this and when times get lean, guess what goes first . . . |
Anonymous
| I feel like this is a self-indulgent trollish question but I'll bite. Do what you think will allow you to have a happy, meaningful life. 200k is plenty to live on esp. with another salary. Also keep in mind that making partner is guaranteed, and your take home may not go up as much as you think, once you take out for partnership-related expenses. |
Anonymous
| Leave. Your children will grow up before you know it. |
Anonymous
And if she doesn't, wait another year because she's still so close? |
Anonymous
| Get out now. If you wait until you're used to making $750K you'll be stuck in a gilded prison. You can't miss what you never had. Take the nice $200k job and enjoy your life. |
Anonymous
This. The extra money won't compensate for how miserable you will be. |
Anonymous
| Leave - ever heard of sunk costs? The rationale that you've put 7 years into it, so you should keep on doing it - that's fallacious. If you don't like what you are doing (and you have pointed out the many ways you don't like it), the fact that you spent seven years doing it means nothing. More money, but no time in which to spend it and making it doing something you truly don't like? That's prison. Take the other job - you can have a happy life with your family. |
Anonymous
| The thing is that when you make partner, you life will not change. Sure, you will have more $, but you will work just as hard and will be just as miserable. Do you want 30 more years of this? Your choice depends on the answer. |
Anonymous
This! Unless you're going straight to equity, I think that $700k sounds high right off the bat. It is considerable more than DH makes as an equity partner at an AmLaw 100 firm, but he doesn't litigate. If you switch from a W2 to a K1, whatever number you hear is not definitely not your net after insurance and taxes. I left the biglaw rat race 6 years ago. It was a really tough thing to do identity-wise, but such a great thing to do for our family. Not only am I around more, I am able to be present when I'm home and not hopping around responding to email or calling whatever client is having the crisis of the day. Gone are the days of scheduling conference calls and writing briefs around the kids' weekend nap schedules. (And that's a good thing now that they don't nap!) Good luck with your decision. |
Anonymous
As they say, the prize for winning the pie eating contest is more pie. |
Anonymous
+1 -- from a big law partner's lawyer spouse |