short term big law not ideal for long-term big law? Forum

[Anonymous User]

anon bec. interviewing w/ big law

my theory is that responsibility, not billable hours, translates into a better litigator/trial lawyer.

no student loan debts here - considering doing ADA for 2-3 years - then big law - just to have the preparatory experience of having done a lot of things that nobody in big law in their first 2-3 years will ever do

theory is: big law has luxury of staffing each case with a half dozen recently minted grads, giant hierarchy (first-chair, partner, senior assoc, 4 junior assoc, 2L clerk) - therefore first 2-3 years in big law spent making too much money, working too many hours, but basically being "flat" on the attorney-skillset scale

My question: is the above career suicide?

PS - want to first chair big-time trials when I'm old+gray

[Bosque]

Lol wut.

[seespotrun]

I'm not the resident expert, but my understanding is that it would be very difficult to move from ADA --> biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

I'm not the resident expert, but my understanding is that it would be very difficult to move from ADA --> biglaw.

Is that what he was asking? It was so rambling and poorly writen, I couldn't figure it out (or rather, couldn't be bothered to figure it out).

I think it depends on what you would be doing in Big Law and what DA's office you worked for. I would imagine that if you were trying to do white colar criminal defense work after a stint in the Manhattan DA's office, hiring would be a different animal than if you were going to try and get into, say, employment law after working in the DA's office of Chattanooga, Tennessee. From what I understand usually people are trying to go the otherway around.

[Bosque]

Frickin anonymous button. That was me.

[seespotrun]

Frickin anonymous button. That was me.

Lol. Yea I think he was trying to say something like, "I want to be a player in a biglaw litigation department. I'm thinking that ADA-->Biglaw = models and bottles. AMIRITE??"

[dextermorgan]

Doesn't big law generally want their senior associates trained the big law way? Also, isn't it more important to big law in the long term to have corporate client building skills, than to be a great trial lawyer?

[spanktheduck]

Doesn't big law generally want their senior associates trained the big law way? Also, isn't it more important to big law in the long term to have corporate client building skills, than to be a great trial lawyer?

Ya. You will not go from ADA to biglaw. The training is completely different. Biglaw requires a lot of research and writing and criminal work requires very little. The only exception would be for stuff like Manhattan DA to white collar defense of something similar.

[dood]

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[skoobily doobily]

Hi, I am unlearned. What is AUSA?

[d34d9823]

Regardless of all the good practical reasoning given already, I'm floored by the arrogance of thinking that you know better than the firm how you should be trained to work...in the firm!

[NYAssociate]

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[bwv812]

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[dood]

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[underdawg]

and if we are talking nyc, then all AUSAs worked at biglaw already so...yeah

[spanktheduck]

Doesn't big law generally want their senior associates trained the big law way? Also, isn't it more important to big law in the long term to have corporate client building skills, than to be a great trial lawyer?

Ya. You will not go from ADA to biglaw. The training is completely different. Biglaw requires a lot of research and writing and criminal work requires very little. The only exception would be for stuff like Manhattan DA to white collar defense of something similar.

wut? it is common knowledge AUSA write the best briefs. and fuck common knowledge, im telling u from personal experience reading every kind of brief from big law, small one man shops, AUSA, and pro se prisoners. AUSA will write a winner in 1/2 the length as anyone else. shit, im so happy when i see appellee AUSA...i know i can just paraphrase their brief for my proposed opinion. true story from my time in the CoA.

dunno ADA to biglaw, but i dont think "criminal work requires very little [research and writing]"...maybe for most crim lawyers, but id imagine big city DA has to be similar to DOJ / us attorneys in substantive legal anaylsis and writing

EDIT: my bad thats what u said. yeah ok wut u said.

I agree, AUSA is a different beast entirely. Biglaw is definitely on the table then. Even in big city DA, I do not think a lot of ppl jump ship to biglaw (maybe Manhattan, although I doubt it). Most of the work that ADA's do is not research and writing. The majority of criminal law is fairly cut and dry, it is not really a research heavy area of law. I worked in a big city DA this summer (in NY) and the exits options were certainly not biglaw. It was mostly ID firms, PI, criminal defense. Not biglaw shops. Further, the ADA's were not really doing a ton of research.