Reply to Considering going back to BigLaw -- talk me out of it

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a former big law firm lawyer currently working for the federal government.  I have toyed with the idea of going back, but have never pursued it because:

(1)  I hated the law firm.  I loved the work I was doing, but I could not stand the nonstop nature of the work.  Always being "on," worrying about hours (either too many or too few), always being under the gun on deadlines, always having to deal with very demanding clients who understandably thought that the huge amounts of $ they spent meant they should get immediate service regardless of when they asked.  I feel like I spent years where my life was slipping by.  All I did was work or think about work.  I was extremely stressed out.

(2)  [b]Now that I am no longer at the firm, I can leave at a decent hour and spend time with my family.  I can have dinner with them without being preoccupied by some work thing.  I can have a conversation with my spouse without checking my email every two minutes.  I can concentrate on non-work things that are very important. [/b]

(3)  I enjoy the work at my government job.  The subject matter is exciting and intellectually stimulating.  I like my colleagues.  I enjoy doing more policy work instead of crazy litigation, counseling, and enforcement.

Obviously, the main negative of the government is the salary.  I took a 50% pay cut to go to the government and, honestly, I am stressed about money.  But I just shudder when I think of how my life was like at the firm.  I am considering exploring in house counsel options as a compromise, but I am not sure I want to do that either.

I think you should take a hard look at why you left the firm.  Really remember what it was like.  Are you willing to go back to that?  If you were not like me, maybe it's not a huge deal.  I have friends who can shake things off more easily than I can.  They are still at the firm ten, twelve years later.  I just remember always, constantly being conscious of work.  Even when I was not there or not doing work, I was thinking about it.  That is just not the way I want to live my life - to me it's not living.[/quote]

This. This what's HUGE. Like OP, I left BigLaw, I have a couple of school-aged kids, and my spouse works from home. I know I could go back and make a ton more money. But I realized, now that I've been out of BigLaw for a handful of years, that so often I was never [i]present[/i], mentally, because of thoughts of billable hours and clients and marketing in my mind. On the nights I made it home to have dinner with my family (the local office I worked for was populated by fairly decent human beings, so it wasn't a rarity), I enjoyed it but at the same time hated the fact that, as soon as I put the kids to bed, I'd have to get back on the laptop and grind out some more billable hours.

Getting my life back, and ditching the little anxieties, has improved my health and outlook. I think my kids notice the difference, too, and I know my husband would be all, "WTF?" if I said I was thinking of going back.  :lol: [/quote]

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