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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If it gives OP any comfort, something similar happened to me in 2002.  (I was a 6th year associate at one of the top law firms in DC.)

In hindsight, it was the best thing to happen to me.  (I tried not to take it personally.  Our practice group was kind of slow at the time.  And so many of my fellow associates were truly top-performers.  Many of them had clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court, or at a minimum for one of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.  I literally just was not as smart as they were.)

Although I was surprised to get this news, I didn't fight it during the meeting when the two partners broke the news to me.  I acknowledged what they said, and even told them I believe in meritocracy.

After taking 1 year off to be home with my infant son (a precious year that I am so glad that I took), I found a part-time in-house legal position with a great Fortune 100 company.  I later switched to a full-time position at a different Fortune 100 company.

Working in-house is far preferable to working at a law firm, IMHO. [b] The money was nice in BigLaw[/b], but the design of law firms is kind of strange (where you have all of these groups doing totally different things, and even in tension with each other due to some having to turn down new client projects due to conflicts of interest.)  I like how, when you're in-house, we're all working toward the same goal and we're all on the same team.

[b] I'm 54 now and have a great work-life balance, and my kids are now in high school and college.[/b]

Good luck to you!  Perhaps take a year with your little one at home?[/quote]

And this is the key.  I've seen far too many lawyers burn out, turn to drugs and/or alcohol, get divorced, never see their kids, etc...  It doesn't have to be this way, but you need to accept the fact that you're not going to make BIGLAW money anywhere else, except perhaps for in-house tech or the pre-IPO world, but there's just as much job (in)security in those environments as well.  If you play your cards right, save your money, etc... you can still retire at 55-60 with a few million in the bank (and maybe even government health benefits).  What more do you want?[/quote]

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