Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts

Found the internet!

Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations.

Biglaw lawyers on <reddit>.

r/biglaw

Hot New Top Rising

Hot New Top

Rising

52

Posted by14 hours ago

I don’t want to be a Partner but I want to stay at the same Firm.

Sixth Year M&A at a V100. I don’t want to be a partner but I find myself lying to partners and mentors when we speak about the future.

They tell me they see a great future for me as a partner - but I just don’t want it. I see the junior partners at my firm and I don’t want to be them. The stress of “quarterbacking” a deal looks horrible. Always being on call. Having all the pressure on them if something goes wrong. Being the last set of eyes on everything.

I like my job, I like the partners and I like the firm. I don’t want to leave. I like working “for” a partner and having their sign-off on docs before they go out. Maybe I just want to be a Fifth Year forever. Does anyone else feel like this?

52

38 comments

Vote

•promoted

Online Privacy Protection, activate for free in the Discover app. See terms & learn more.

View Comments

Play

0:00

Settings

Fullscreen

discover.com

Learn More

Vote

0 comments

35

Posted by21 hours ago

1st year not getting any work

I'm a first year in corporate and my hours are super low. I'm billing 10-20 hours total per week. And lots of that is just pro bono because I'm not staffed on a single deal.

What's my best plan of action here? how concerned should I be?

35

20 comments

19

Posted by14 hours ago

First year question: How do you deal with irregular workflow?

I'm in a transactional group and found myself with maybe 3 hours of billable work a week. I've been networking internally for months, working on pro-bono things, and trying to find articles to write, but even that leaves me deeply under-engaged. My brain slowly wanders out of "lawyer mode" each day once I hit 5-6 hours with nothing to do.

When work finally does come, I struggle to turn myself back on. I then end up producing noticably sloppy/panicked work product. Even simple emails get messed up. Does anyone have experience dealing with something similar/any tips for this? I feel like I am shooting my career in the foot (and would like to stop doing so).

19

6 comments

11

Posted by19 hours ago

Advice for Termination/Resignation

I am most likely on the road to be terminated from my biglaw position. A lot of it had to do with my health issues affecting my performance and working with some difficult partners. I found out a few weeks ago that I was not being promoted. This is even after not being promoted last fiscal year, so the writing is on the wall. What should I do here? I don’t want to be “terminated” so that I can tell a future firm I left on my own accord (which technically I was planning on doing). But at the same time I will definitely have a gap in employment because I will not be looking for new employment. I need a break and have to address my health issues before i start up again and want to spend some time with my parents since I rarely saw them during the pandemic and want to travel as well. Do you have any advice? I still would like to work in biglaw as well, just at another firm. Please help.

11

10 comments

10

Posted by17 hours ago

Best In-House Destinations for Quality of Life

Interested in anecdotes about the best companies or industries with good QOL and decent pay.

10

12 comments

Vote

Posted by1 hour ago

Did practicing permanently affect your view of the world?

I only practiced for about 6 years or so before leaving for another vocation. Everything's fine now; no money or stress issues, but sometimes I'm still haunted by what I saw in law. I think it permanently impacted my worldview, and view of humanity. It happened again this morning and I was up googling and saw this article, "Seven Reasons Why Practicing Law Might Be More Stressful Than Spending 18 Months in a POW Camp."

https://www.bcgsearch.com/videos/11799/Seven-Reasons-Why-Practicing-Law-Might-Be-More-Stressful-Than-Spending-18-Months-in-a-POW-Camp/

It's kind of true. Can anyone else relate? Do you view the world the same as you did before practicing law? Would you prefer to go back to that prior perspective? Any tips on how to do that?

Edit: I shouldn't have included that HB link as it derailed my question. I was trying to ask if your worldview changed as a result of practicing.

Vote

8 comments