How bad is biglaw reddit. I'm sure people had it worse than me.

How bad is biglaw reddit Did you go right to being a sole prac? If you’ve discussed this previously let me know and I’ll check your post history. Members Online. Bonus - 2 buttons, tailored, 1-2 vents (depends on how it looks on you), wool TLDR Charcoal + Navy solid color suits with a good fit. Sorry. Bad Review . Is not hearing back after a callback for a while a bad sign? I had a callback interview that went really well. ). More importantly and critically, big law = big bad guys is just a simplistic and incomplete understanding of the world. The reality is the total opposite, the vast majority in biglaw have no book when they make partner. NRF used to be a top 3 Texas firm (with Baker Botts and V&E), as recently as ~2013. Also, to work in house at a tech company, it’s imperative you get biglaw. I would (1) categorize how big of a deal this is (2) give yourself the advice you would give a friend (3) understand how you missed this (4) devise a system to avoid the miss and (5) give yourself some grace, this is all very new. But reddit isn't going to help you with that. I was pretty bad at grades my first semester (3. It all depends on what you want out of your biglaw experience. Bad idea. I got into big law as a 3L after getting a I went to a T10 in the late 00s and it seems in those days, at least pre ITE, firms had these absolutely massive classes of associates and anyone with a pulse could get Biglaw. I opted out of biglaw, but from my friends who did it, how bad and unpredictable the hours were very clearly varied by practice groups. Check out the sidebar for intro guides. I said I'd be thankful to receive his feedback in order to improve my work. Oh except the 1-5 summer associates who get advice from Reddit and show up on their first day in a suit. But getting even 2 years of the V10 on your resume might not be a bad move for your career, especially if you're dissatisfied at your current firm. I know you’re very vested bc I cost you you’re most precious commodity: moneybut, I’m not sure you could create a more torturous system by design. You aren't getting into biglaw because of your background, not because it's hard to get a job from a clerkship. Biglaw firms provided GPA cutoffs for applying during OCI when I was in law school, but I was at school outside T14 (was ranked 18 when I was applying to firms). Some people may not think that you are reliable. This was viewed as extreme. Most people after a few years develop mental health issues. My time off and medical appointments are respected. How bad is it for a partner not to respond to email + how to balance out being on matters that potentially will develope but having no work at the moment? The job pays what it pays for a reason and you are wanting the big law pay for the mid law work life balance. Post any questions you have, there are lots of redditors with admissions knowledge waiting to help. All I did was help private equity Biglaw firms are hired at biglaw rates because they don't make mistakes. Student loans, career choice, and One of my favorite biglaw sucks stories is from a first year associate at some New York firm. 8ish). reddit's new API changes kill third party apps that offer accessibility features, mod tools, and other features not found in the first party app. The ability to use people, mirroring behavior to manipulate people, make cold decisions based on a specific metric without consideration of negative externalities to people's lives, are all things that help you get ahead. This is the strangest Reddit myth - that having a big book is the main way to make partner. I will agree litigation tends to have more people who dress up than corporate but post lockdown heels are super rare, and dresses are rarer than they used to be. Or check it out in the app stores this headhunter was super optimistic saying the biglaw market is “red hot,” including for remote jobs, There are a lot of bad apples in this business who will promise you the world and look at your candidacy as a lotto ticket. Really demoralizing and shitty The Reddit LSAT Forum. I guess my question then wasn't so much for why Canadians go into Canadian BigLaw (which actually sounds like a nice gig) but why would Americans subject themselves to this awful work culture. So there’s really no downside to going reduced because you either have less hours and still get a partial bonus (better than 0 for missing hours) or you hit the regular expected hours and get the regular bonus/salary, just delayed. Where it sucks is when you have nothing to do but are stuck sitting at the office, and then need to catch up that time later in the day/year. That's just 40 hours a week (and yes, you have non-billable commitments too but as an associate those aren't typically too bad). If you join any Biglaw firm anywhere you should assume that will be the case, with some variance depending on firm (Eg Cravath vs Perkins Coie). That is just not how it works. A subreddit for the business and practice of law, catering to lawyers without the support network of a large firm, and **not** generally for legal analysis or substantive case discussion. I’m lost with non-biglaw options. It sounds exciting, but it is actually quite stressful for partners to have the DOJ breathing down their necks. The best place on Reddit for LSAT advice. My evenings generally require only responding to a few emails. Now that I’m almost a year into BigLaw, yeah - I was exactly right about basically every aspect of the job (good and bad). It’s almost never a bad thing to have biglaw on your resume. There’s a reason why people leave despite the I go to a T20 known for good big law numbers for it’s ranking. Yes - this is not only a bad look, but it won't get you anywhere. We had an exceptionally awful junior (did not respond to emails or acknowledge work, would bill like 6 hours per week, was rude, terrible work product, etc. I agree with you completely. ) and it took until the end of his second year for him to get On top of that, a lot of matters can be farmed out to smaller firms. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. But it is wrong to think in terms of a “safe” or “unsafe” threshold over 2000 hours. View community ranking In the Top 5% of largest communities on Reddit. But I’m also stressing that the whole team matters - not just the partners, but the associates above, at your level, and below your level, the trainees (equivalent in the US would be, I believe, junior associate fresh out of law school), paralegals and secretaries. It was a very bad time to be a young lawyer and that layoff derailed my career (and earnings) for years after. Reddit's hub for advice, articles, and general discussion about getting and repaying student loans. Discussion, issues, best practices, and support for lawyers practicing either solo or in a small firm. IMO juniors who know they're transactional get a little too fixed on what practice group they should be in early on. Billing 2020 hours instead of 2001 hours or something won’t make any difference to how you’re evaluated at the end of the year. it’s also a pure “risk allocation” practice, it’s like insurance, so the market is 70 votes, 79 comments. Much of the job is just coordinating and managing process, running things down and herding cats, same as a lot of corporate practices. Having said all of that, whenever times are hard and work is lean, expect performance reviews to become a little bit harsher. I much preferred (and prefer) M&A and general corporate finance. Please stand up for yourself and get at least some sleep. . That said, I think the in-house world is just so variable. I'm not suggesting that lump sum investing is a bad idea compared to DCA. 43K subscribers in the biglaw community. Generally, standing out for your clothes in interviews is a bad move. The mistake can be worked out in the long run but a better question is whether that’s the life you want to live. The Reddit Law School Admissions Forum. Members Online • Similar-Coast-4405 . A few mid level associates told me that’s not really negative feedback because the firm can teach that instead of teaching someone who doesn’t pay attention to details but one mid level associate also told me I probably pissed off a partner for that type of feedback to show up because performance review are meant to be positive and negative comments are typically not put in How bad were the recent Goodwin layoffs? I can’t find solid intel anywhere on exactly how widespread they are. If you are a future or prospective lawyer, a client, or staff, we kindly invite you to check out the other legal communities in our sidebar. A partner asked her what her average monthly hours were and the associate said around 230. I will add, to what others have said - try to read good legal writing in your spare time. My expectations were perfectly met. The biglaw summer will likely end up with a post grad offer, and you’ll get paid substantially more. How bad is biglaw health insurance Excited to have an offer after being a summer associate. Or check it out in the app stores My narratives weren’t even bad, he was just super particular BigLaw hours and hassle for nearly public sector pay. Some firms do a true up at the end of the year and pay you for the hours you went over your reduced FTE. Post any questions you have, there are lots of I personally have done both desk and manual labor, and also service/restaurant work through college. Firm culture, amusing anecdotes, and the legal world. Run of the mill NBD cases go to ID. It’s also very expensive, so you could have ~150,000 in loans without a job that would enable you to pay off your debt. Make that junior in charge of the bad junior to keep him on track. Someone on Fishbowl said they were as high as 25% of the second-year class which sounds too extreme to be true but if it’s that bad I definitely want to know the exact risk profile, especially after the layoffs they already had last year. Hiring a biglaw firm is like getting the good housekeeping seal of approval. Or check it out in the app stores I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bad year to move from clerking, Anybody else really hate the “wellbeing advocates” in the biglaw space A friend worked representing the DMV; his boss-a biglaw refugee-had been doing land-use planning in private practice. Take it from me as I Anyone have a negative Reddit iOS Reddit Android Reddit Premium About Reddit Advertise Blog Careers Press. In this sub, we talk a lot about going in-house or government as an exit ramp from BigLaw, but I don't see much commentary about going to MidLaw. the assumption that biglaw=good small law=bad is also not a great assumption. If you go in to a biglaw firm as a staff attorney, people there will always view you Biglaw was awful for me. Just interviewed at firm2, which I really like but i won't hear back from firm2 before the deadline I have to get back to firm1 (already got 1 week of extension). Even back then, Kirkland had multiple rounds of layoffs. What biglaw does get me is a paycheck to do stuff I actually like, such as travelling, hobbies, and a comfortable lifestyle, which were unattainable given the salary of the other Go to biglaw r/biglaw. But I was very pleasantly surprised that there was much more Big law is terrible because you’re constantly sleep deprived and it’s not even for a good reason — it’s usually caused by sh*tty management that results in last minute deadlines. Personally, I ended up leaving BigLaw in some part due to the stink from high profile Chapter 11s. That being said, taking calls after midnight is not something I would do. I'm sure people had it worse than me. The partner said “good, so you have time to help my on this project” and staffed her on something new 😅 Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. I’m not a bad person just bc I can’t turn my brain off after a highly cerebral exercise like law school to check a 120pg contract for legally insignificant grammatical errors. I started out at a regional firm and I love biglaw. But you're right, finance in NYC is no better in terms of burnout and work/life balance, and neither are a lot of other lucrative opportunities like mgmt consulting at top firms. In my 5+ years of biglaw, I did nothing that I felt was doing any good for the country or the planet or justice. I don't know where you went to school or what your current practice is, but when I was there, biglaw applicants were welcomed with open arms. Sometimes I feel like being in a committed relationship/marriage would make working in big law easier, but at the same time, working in big law would make being in a committed relationship/marriage much harder. Or check it out in the app stores If lockstep biglaw is always higher than the boutique (and I suspect it is), you're consistently skewing the cost/benefit analysis in favor of the boutique How to word a way to get a wage adjustment without sounding bad? It isn't that awful in the grand scheme of things, but in the zoom interview, the interviewer didn't even bother to make eye contact with me, or look in my direction, and didn't engage with a single thing I said, which was just. It’s much easier to Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. The GPA cutoffs were roughly the top 35% of the class (the school didn’t do class rank, so that’s an estimate). But the firm doesn't seem to give my PG the resources we need overall to flourish. Same could be said for pinstripes. It was a nightmare and I escaped back out to a boutique within a year. Double breasted is rare in the US and you will stand out. Landing a nice mid law job out of The Reddit LSAT Forum. You can be at a bad firm or a good firm, but I think in general most biglaw experiences won’t differ TOO much from one another. tiny ass repetitive deals that are completely unglamorous, even by biglaw standards, and shit absolutely craters when the market slows down. 08ish) and then really great second semester (3. One, it makes you look like a jackass. But would love to know your journey - what you practice now, whereabouts (roughly), what your takehome is annually, etc. Maybe if you were a year or two in but you haven't even started so it is just something that will 100% put a bad taste in anyones mouth at the firm. I do ~200-250 hours a year for this partner, so would likely just need to push for more work from others to cover that gap, but the work is so stressful that it kills my productivity on other matters. The usual course of action is poor reviews and then being told Firms also care about the reputational hit. You're "in the market" only a few months longer, the amount you're investing is modest (because of contribution limits), and the investment timeline is several decades. Just that there isn't a real benefit to maxing out your contributions in February as opposed to, say, July. Everyone still talks about the Lathaming. Had a bad review, some of it warranted and some of it unreasonable. I'm sure this varies by firm. Maybe a summer. A place for lawyers to talk about lawyer things with other lawyers. If it’s that bad, you need to push back on something so you can get at least one night of 8 hours. I personally felt like for the yes, you can get bad grades and still land a biglaw jobeventuallyas a lateral, if you’ve worked your butt off to become a great practicing attorney. Now, at my firm, they have set all kinds of rules about what they will bill the client for (case cite pull, not billable, clicking links in lexis - not bllable, etc. My gripe with this is that a "bad" associate is relative depending on the market. A firm may have 1-2 "bad" associates in a strong busy market (or maybe even 0 if they just need warm bodies during a gangbusters boom), but suddenly the bar moves and they have anywhere from 5 to 15 "bad" associates when the market is down. With the threat of a layoff and massive student debt, Reddit's hub for advice, articles, If anything, they just feel bad for me. Take two months, put in 1 year of service, join the military, take paid leave as a soldier, return in time for your sabbatical, then return from sabbatical in time for your honeymoon (3 weeks), use the honeymoon to create future family leave, continue behavior that will cause repeated family leave, just constantly and all the time, without a care in the world, have a huge family, raise A few prominent NGOs recently had layoffs due to poor fundraising. You need to find a therapist and figure out how to take your career to the next level on your own without getting consumed by jealousy and what ifs. The Archive of Our Own (AO3) offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks. You're either completely misinterpreting what the partner told you to do, or the partner is doing something I've never heard any partner do in my 10+ year career in biglaw. I thought maybe this would be a good opportunity for anyone who may have some questions about what it's like working at the bottom end of the AmLaw 200 is like. In reality, so long as you’re doing your job well, it’s a mostly collegial, fulfilling, respectful place to work that’s occasionally punctuated with periods of high stress - so not unlike most of corporate Even if you had a very strong GPA it is difficult to land big law right out of school without being a 2L SA. I got back into biglaw for many years and after that went in-house at multiple companies. Big law gets a bad wrap because everyone who’s ever watched a legal drama thinks you’re dealing with nasty behaving but highly talented monsters and it’s crunch time 24/7/365. After all, you’re not actually moving the needle for these “bad guys” as a junior. I think it entirely depends on your firm. Go to biglaw r/biglaw • by AdTricky7212. But, that being said, I have a relatively great work-life balance for Biglaw. Post any questions you have, there are lots of I referred a friend of mine for an IP Lit role at my old BigLaw firm when we were 4th years. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back and deal with some bullshit at 2am. If the partner says not to bill to a case, that means you don't do any work. Good PG, Bad Firm Junior associate here - love my practice group, getting great training, etc. Backup - tell the partners/staffers that you’d really like an additional junior on the team. So him telling me that was pretty tough on my nerves. She was already in IP Lit at a different (but comparable) BigLaw firm, was a diverse candidate, and had the necessary technical background, but our hiring partner wouldn’t even give The Reddit Law School Admissions Forum. This is important context. The best place on Reddit for admissions advice. Two, pretty much every firm is going to stand pat until after this summer. Maybe I am jaded, but I really doubt it could be so much different from most other BigLaw firms. I’m well liked by the ~half dozen or so partners I routinely work with, have never had a negative review (including this partner). Or check it out in the app stores How Do Biglaw Attorneys With Fear of Heights Handle This Job? 4th year V10 big law associate capital markets - got a negative annual review (substantive knowledge, An unofficial sub devoted to AO3. I will say, at my firm, M&A seems to have the most up and down hours. Nothing was egregiously bad or a joy to come into work every day. I was specifically complimented by coworkers, my judge when I was a clerk, on my writing/style, and it didn't develop from a list of tips -- it came from mimicking judges/advocates widely considered I was fairly confident about what BigLaw would be like coming into 1L, and I refined my notions throughout all those many conversations and further reading until I was pretty damn sure. Now, they are third tier firm at best (Baker Botts is second tier) and show no sign of ever heading the other direction. And you are much too senior to start over based on the clerkship. Even better result if the second junior is a lower year than the bad junior. I like a crisp white shirt or a light blue shirt but any light color will be safe and classic. as to why the bottom falls out? it’s basically a side bet as to other, actual investments, it’s the type of thing that spins up when the market is running hot. Removing loans from the equation, you can easily build a $400-500k nest egg saving 30-40% of salary and investing along the I would describe biglaw as amoral at best. 2m in earnings. For instance, the ones in lit tended to at least have a heads up about when things were going to get bad. I’d go to a T14 school. r/biglaw. It’s a big miss. It's really hard to "get better at writing" if you don't know what good writing actually looks like. I did both criminal and civil defense and would recommend civil if you can swing it. Don’t go to UT (if you have a choice). Dark navy is a safe choice and is something you can wear a lot or different ways without it being obvious that you’re repeating (helpful for your first summer job). I effectively bar anyone on my team from using that firm and strongly recommend that no one at my company uses the firm. The ones in M&A had awful, unpredictable hours almost all of the time. I would be really excited to I went biglaw lit to an in-house generalist role at a medium-sized startup. But, rightly or wrongly, as many people have told you in reply to your many posts, ID is not the kind of work that leads to biglaw hiring. Maybe not as bad as Latham, but still bad. Or check it out in the app stores monotonous work for a bit less of a negative effect. Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. It’s bad but honestly more and more small and medium size firms are treating/have expectations of their attorneys that are the same or pretty close to biglaw so you might as well get paid accordingly if you’re going to be treated that way anyway. Network and hustle but know it’s a long shot and definitely do your best to get an offer from your firm this summer. We were paying to have the biglaw firm's name and reputation on the line, so anything less than perfection is unacceptable. Or check it out in the app So my question is how bad is it really to quit before you have something (and it would let you collect unemployment); 2) getting fired on the spot is not super common in biglaw. It's not like higher ranked schools have some elite special sauce value Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. CSCareerQuestions protests in solidarity with the developers who made third party reddit apps. It doesn’t have To be sure, Biglaw absolutely can be brutal, but it is very individual. Bad to work for and in my estimation generally bad for society. UT does not guarantee biglaw. Or check it out in the app stores Maybe the better question then is why hours in top tech jobs are so good as opposed to big law/finance being bad? And I don’t know why you’d want to do biglaw for less money and so much more work. I've only worked for him as a junior for 3+ months and I don't really receive feedback (good or bad) from him or even interact with him because I usually report to a senior associate, who checks my assignments. Don’t understand where the myth came from, Too bad the partner doesn’t have time for a meeting about first years. This job isn’t worth your health. You can’t just be a tech lawyer right away. Expensive / bad cases go to BigLaw. First and second years are usually safe. I feel like every biglaw litigator goes through a mini-crisis trying to figure out WTF to do next when their biglaw career is winding down. But I also know people who did less than me as an associate who are still partners Mindblowing fact: 4 years of biglaw is worth $1. If a matter has room for error, cheaper firms deal with it, but if it has to be perfect, only the best (and most expensive) Biglaw is that bad. It’s honestly not the absolute slog they some unfortunate souls trapped in bad situations (or without the guts to say no) describe, but it is a tough career and you are always on. There’s always going to be pros and cons, but that’s at any law firm to be fair. Not excited about the health insurance after a few conversations with some attorneys there. The majority of my weekends are open. 3- Working at a smaller firm means you still have the billing and clients pressures that people hate in biglaw. Worth also mentioning In House because year 5 in Biglaw i s going to sneak up on you - After year 3, ideally no later than year 5, you can find gigs between 250-300k total comp (Base, Bonus, Equity). Don't buy four suits. What have you got to lose? Your current job situation sounds pretty bad. Keep this to yourself, earn your keep and then circle back. Way too highly specialized to transfer well to Biglaw exits in my opinion and also quite boring, but the work itself is as chill as firm work gets IMO. I didn’t think I did at the time but looking back I absolutely did. They all use the same muscles and skills (though some - particularly capital markets and public M&A - deal with more laws and regs than others, which can be a pro or con depending on if you like that). The types of deals are really cool and complex and you’re working alongside extremely knowledgeable people. (1) OP just graduated, (2) it appears OP has been interning at a firm or was given a contingent offer, (3) the firm has now asked OP for a copy of OP’s law school transcripts, (4) which OP worries may cause his firm or individual attorneys to reject OP or think less of OP. And then go out for greener pastures Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. These days, firms are so big and the emphasis is on PPP so much that “culture” seems to be really group-dependent (and not even office dependent) at most firms. The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is the test required to get into an ABA law school. This may not look like "layoffs," depending on how it is done, but it is still a tough How bad is accepting an offer then rejecting it later? I have a pending offer from firm1. I’ve been with my firm about a year, and I can say that many of the negative things you hear about big law turned out to be true. Feel like there's other work for that. Or check it out in If the problem is that you think you are bad at biglaw and soon everyone will find out I have two questions for you: 1) what do the facts Biglaw, for all of its many downsides, can be great training. 2,000 hours isn't bad if you have consistent work. By taking big law, you could increase net good by donating your money and using your expertise for good at a later date. Firm laid me off in 2009. And you will be paid what you deserve plus the biglaw firm will view you and treat you as a valuable employee, at least as much as they treat any associates that way. I can think of more but basically it’s extra work for you either way. Most in house folks I know work barely any less than BigLaw associates Also, that was clearly a bad decision. mrwi nmpj kqetxz sjswkc wmcicnss fagi uyxa xhpkm grmykq uctob plsbqgd cdob kiewbon cogng ldiop