Reply to Salary question -- fed lawyer transitioining to law firm

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm the PP who just left govt for counsel at biglaw and I think it is crazy to say that a former govt atty has nothing to offer clients. I haven't found that to be the case at all and have already brought in some matters of my own. I'm about 9 months in. I think clients really value the govt perspective. Again, I'm in a regulatory field so I can't speak to litigation, but the across the board statement that clients won't care about govt experience is not true. Also, it is a different track. I did skip being an associate and am not immediately expected to have a ton of clients. However, I also made much less money for the past 8 years and had to scrounge for pens and make my own copies...[/quote]

Of course there is value to government experience, and anyone who argues otherwise is clearly just trolling. I think more of us were arguing that because government attorneys generally won't come over with clients, the bar for them to come in directly to partner is especially high, because they don't have a track record of being able to attract and retain clients. They'll come in as counsel, but that's not necessarily a better position to be in than a senior associate from a long-term partnership prospect standpoint.

Also, depending on the firm, counsel is not necessarily making more, especially when you factor in bonuses, than a highly regarded senior associate. When my husband was promoted to partner, he came to learn that some of the counsel who were technically senior to him were making less in salary and salary + bonus than he'd made his last two years as an associate.[/quote]

I'm PP you quoted. I will just say that "partnership prospect" isn't the biggest, or even a big, consideration for everyone. I'm not clear whether it is for OP or not. Where I ended up, I could continue as counsel forever and have a pretty decent job at a good salary, or I could decide in a year or two that I want to try to become partner and could push for that. Not sure what I want to do yet. But I do know of a number of other attys who left my agency who either went in directly as partners in biglaw or became partners after a few years. So I don't think it is an outrageous aspiration if that is someone's end goal.[/quote]

You're right, it's not everyone's goal. It seems to be the OP's goal, and since we're ostensibly giving him advice in this thread, that's what my comment was directed toward.[/quote]

I didn't see that anyplace in the OP.[/quote]

Have you read the entire thread? OP specifically stated a page or so ago that prospects for partnership were definitely something he needed to consider in making a move. You don't worry about that unless you're hoping to make partner some day.[/quote]

PP aside, most counsel are brought in for a trial run and its up or out after a few years.   Few firms are keeping senior non-equity people around long term --far easier to continually replace with new lawyers always available.[/quote]

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