5th year biglaw associate, golden handcuffed and miserable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the General Counsel at a small-ish govt contracts business-17 years out of law school and I only make 200k. You can't compare in house/govt salaries to big law. I would pay a junior attorney with just 4-5 years experience like you around 100k.

At that point I might as well hang a shingle and settle car accidents.

I’m in house at a large, but not F500, company in a major city (not East Coast). There are 15 lawyers in our dept and with bonuses, our starting pay is close to $200k. Our GC makes seven figures. We have an AGC that can hit seven figures on a really good year and several senior attorneys who earn around $300k.

Wow. What industry is this?

[Anonymous]

I left DC Biglaw as a 5th year for an in house litigation position at a large corporation a couple of years ago. I make $180k + 20% bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left DC Biglaw as a 5th year for an in house litigation position at a large corporation a couple of years ago. I make $180k + 20% bonus.

Awesome. Still in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I left DC Biglaw as a 5th year for an in house litigation position at a large corporation a couple of years ago. I make $180k + 20% bonus.

Awesome. Still in DC?

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left DC Biglaw as a 5th year for an in house litigation position at a large corporation a couple of years ago. I make $180k + 20% bonus.

That's actually quite good, even for DC standards. It would be even better if you received stock in your company and had an ESPP. Since you didn't mention these, presumably your company is large, but private. If this is the case, then you're either family-owned or VC-backed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I left DC Biglaw as a 5th year for an in house litigation position at a large corporation a couple of years ago. I make $180k + 20% bonus.

That's actually quite good, even for DC standards. It would be even better if you received stock in your company and had an ESPP. Since you didn't mention these, presumably your company is large, but private. If this is the case, then you're either family-owned or VC-backed.

I do get stock too, though it takes several years to vest. I can't recall how much I get. It still seems like fake money until it vests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been applying to smaller firms where I think I'd be happier but haven't gotten an offer in the range of what I could accept. I'm deeply dreading going back tomorrow. I hate my firm, it's a terrible fit. I didn't come close to hours last year, so I am sure the dissatisfaction is mutual. Also, I'm pregnant, so it's not a great time for job hunting. Would really appreciate some words of wisdom.

If you are stressed out while pregnant, you should go on leave or switch jobs even if it pays less, before your baby is affected by the stress. I went on leave at 4 months from a stressful job, no regrets and my DC was born healthy. I was afraid of neuro problems from the stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been applying to smaller firms where I think I'd be happier but haven't gotten an offer in the range of what I could accept. I'm deeply dreading going back tomorrow. I hate my firm, it's a terrible fit. I didn't come close to hours last year, so I am sure the dissatisfaction is mutual. Also, I'm pregnant, so it's not a great time for job hunting. Would really appreciate some words of wisdom.

If you are stressed out while pregnant, you should go on leave or switch jobs even if it pays less, before your baby is affected by the stress. I went on leave at 4 months from a stressful job, no regrets and my DC was born healthy. I was afraid of neuro problems from the stress.

I'm not aware of any research that supports the idea that stressed but wealthy women have kids with neuro issues. All I've seen was also associated with being low income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been applying to smaller firms where I think I'd be happier but haven't gotten an offer in the range of what I could accept. I'm deeply dreading going back tomorrow. I hate my firm, it's a terrible fit. I didn't come close to hours last year, so I am sure the dissatisfaction is mutual. Also, I'm pregnant, so it's not a great time for job hunting. Would really appreciate some words of wisdom.

If you are stressed out while pregnant, you should go on leave or switch jobs even if it pays less, before your baby is affected by the stress. I went on leave at 4 months from a stressful job, no regrets and my DC was born healthy. I was afraid of neuro problems from the stress.

I'm not aware of any research that supports the idea that stressed but wealthy women have kids with neuro issues. All I've seen was also associated with being low income.

+1. The stress studies are of women in like war zones.

Also, based on subsequent posts, it seems like OP was just having a bit of a vent/pity party. She only billed 1000-1200 hours last year. How actually stressful can her job actually be?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, based on subsequent posts, it seems like OP was just having a bit of a vent/pity party. She only billed 1000-1200 hours last year. How actually stressful can her job actually be?!

Seriously. I was stressed while working BigLaw and pregnant + a toddler, but I was on track for a 2300 hour year. I was puking 3-5 times a day for 20 weeks of that year. It was rough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, based on subsequent posts, it seems like OP was just having a bit of a vent/pity party. She only billed 1000-1200 hours last year. How actually stressful can her job actually be?!

Seriously. I was stressed while working BigLaw and pregnant + a toddler, but I was on track for a 2300 hour year. I was puking 3-5 times a day for 20 weeks of that year. It was rough.

That sounds terrible. I'm glad I'm not in that situation. Though, of course, I was only referring to billable hours, and worked a full 2000 including pro bono and other nonbillable work. But it's not nearly as stressful as real billables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been applying to smaller firms where I think I'd be happier but haven't gotten an offer in the range of what I could accept. I'm deeply dreading going back tomorrow. I hate my firm, it's a terrible fit. I didn't come close to hours last year, so I am sure the dissatisfaction is mutual. Also, I'm pregnant, so it's not a great time for job hunting. Would really appreciate some words of wisdom.

If you are stressed out while pregnant, you should go on leave or switch jobs even if it pays less, before your baby is affected by the stress. I went on leave at 4 months from a stressful job, no regrets and my DC was born healthy. I was afraid of neuro problems from the stress.

Good mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, based on subsequent posts, it seems like OP was just having a bit of a vent/pity party. She only billed 1000-1200 hours last year. How actually stressful can her job actually be?!

Seriously. I was stressed while working BigLaw and pregnant + a toddler, but I was on track for a 2300 hour year. I was puking 3-5 times a day for 20 weeks of that year. It was rough.

That sounds terrible. I'm glad I'm not in that situation. Though, of course, I was only referring to billable hours, and worked a full 2000 including pro bono and other nonbillable work. But it's not nearly as stressful as real billables.

Yes, on track for 2300 billable hours. I didn't even keep track of non-billables. Why bother?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been applying to smaller firms where I think I'd be happier but haven't gotten an offer in the range of what I could accept. I'm deeply dreading going back tomorrow. I hate my firm, it's a terrible fit. I didn't come close to hours last year, so I am sure the dissatisfaction is mutual. Also, I'm pregnant, so it's not a great time for job hunting. Would really appreciate some words of wisdom.

If you are stressed out while pregnant, you should go on leave or switch jobs even if it pays less, before your baby is affected by the stress. I went on leave at 4 months from a stressful job, no regrets and my DC was born healthy. I was afraid of neuro problems from the stress.

I'm not aware of any research that supports the idea that stressed but wealthy women have kids with neuro issues. All I've seen was also associated with being low income.

You need to educate yourself, stress is stress, a baby is a baby - one effects the other, money is not the matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been applying to smaller firms where I think I'd be happier but haven't gotten an offer in the range of what I could accept. I'm deeply dreading going back tomorrow. I hate my firm, it's a terrible fit. I didn't come close to hours last year, so I am sure the dissatisfaction is mutual. Also, I'm pregnant, so it's not a great time for job hunting. Would really appreciate some words of wisdom.

If you are stressed out while pregnant, you should go on leave or switch jobs even if it pays less, before your baby is affected by the stress. I went on leave at 4 months from a stressful job, no regrets and my DC was born healthy. I was afraid of neuro problems from the stress.

I'm not aware of any research that supports the idea that stressed but wealthy women have kids with neuro issues. All I've seen was also associated with being low income.

Clinical studies link pregnant women’s exposure to a range of traumatic, as well as chronic and common life stressors (i.e., bereavement, job stress, daily hassles, and earthquake), to significant alterations in children’s neurodevelopment, including increased risk for mixed handedness, autism, affective disorders, and reduced cognitive ability[6]. More recently, maternal antenatal anxiety and/or depression have been shown to predict increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in children, and to confer risk for future mental illness. Reports show that elevated levels of antenatal depression and anxiety are associated with poor emotional adjustment in young children [7]. The impact of women’s anxiety (and/or depression) during pregnancy has been found to extend into childhood and adolescence, as well as to affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, predicting attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in 8–9 year old children [8]as well as alterations in HPA axis activation in 4 month olds in our laboratory [9] and in 10 [10], and 14–15 year olds [11]. The majority of these studies have controlled for women’s postnatal mood, as well as other demographic factors, yet the possibility that the women’s’ antenatal mood is a marker for qualities in the postnatal environment that affect child development cannot be ruled out. What these data suggest is that, in addition to the known pathways for the familial transmission of risk for mental illness, genetics, environment, and gene X environment interactions, there is another possibility: that some of the risk is conferred prenatally via changes in women’s mood–based physiology affecting fetal neurobehavioral development.