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[quote=Anonymous]I was an equity partner at a top tier DC-based Biglaw firm for about a decade before walking away from the law (actually, from doing any kind of work at all) in my early 50s about a decade ago.  Before making partner, I was counsel for eight or nine years, and before that of course I was an associate for about the same amount of time.

I have a few reactions to this thread, in no particular order.

1.  In my experience, there absolutely were certain associates who were anointed as superstars almost from the get go and without really having to prove anything about themselves first.  Obviously this was a given if you were a Supreme Court clerk, for example, but there were other examples that boggled the mind.  It’s clearly a thing in Biglaw, or at least it was in my firm.

2.  Yes, firms let you hang around much longer than they have in the past.  But there’s a psychological price you pay for that.  It’s a rare lawyer at a top law firm - virtually all of whom are used to being big fish from high school through law school - who can happily sit back year after year and watch lawyers 5, 10 years their junior get promoted ahead of them.  Sure, they will tell you they are laughing all the way to be bank, milking the system, etc., but in my experience it’s not a happy place to be in.

3.  Law is a business.  It’s all about the bottom line.  I wasn’t promoted to partner after a decade as counsel because the firm finally realized that I was a great lawyer with phenomenal writing skills.  Nope.  It happened only because a big client happened to land on my lap, and that happened only because a lawyer in another firm that had a conflict liked me for some reason and referred a small matter to me that ended up - to everyone’s surprise - being a big deal.  No big client?  No partnership.

That’s what’s going on with OP.  There’s no retaliation going on.  There’s just not enough work to justify keeping her around.  As she herself said, the closest associate to her is several years younger and only does work in the practice area part of the time.  The practice group clearly isn’t busy enough to support OP, and the tough decision was made to let her go.  It has nothing to do with her taking maternity leave.

Reading this thread and the many responses to it reinforces my decision to walk away completely from the Biglaw rat race.  I don’t care how much money you can make.  It just plain sucked.  [/quote]

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