5th year BIGLAW associate taking your questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

Any sense of how many of the 60 associates in your class left voluntarily versus being asked to leave?

Of those who left voluntarily how many quit because they got burned out and jumped at the first chance and how many left because they found a particularly great opportunity?

[glib]

Any sense of how many of the 60 associates in your class left voluntarily versus being asked to leave?

Of those who left voluntarily how many quit because they got burned out and jumped at the first chance and how many left because they found a particularly great opportunity?

hmm.. I would say most leave on their own. Biglaw associates by and large are competent and hard working, so unless there's really no work to go around, it's not common at all for them to be pushed out before they become very senior. Many quit because they can't handle the lifestyle anymore and go to something more reasonable. Many also lateral to another bigfirm because they're not happy where they are for whatever reason. I think the great opportunities aren't really there for associates. Mostly you'll see partners are the ones who leave for those.

[KeepitKind]

How did you handle your student loans ? Any advice on that front? thanks!

[bbalcrzy23]

How much of your entering class is still working for the firm?

about 10/70

Does your firm have an IP group? If so, is the retention rate significantly different?

[lblelalr]

Just to clarify, when you say international law firm do you mean a US firm with offices everywhere or a foreign firm with a West Coast office?

[glib]

How did you handle your student loans ? Any advice on that front? thanks!

I started with about 150k in loans and paid them off over the course of 4 years. I just lived a normal life and put most of my extra cash towards paying loans and it worked out in the end.

[glib]

How much of your entering class is still working for the firm?

about 10/70

Does your firm have an IP group? If so, is the retention rate significantly different?

Yes we do, but I really don't know much about their retention rate. I would assume it would be no different than the firm as a whole, but I could be wrong.

[glib]

Just to clarify, when you say international law firm do you mean a US firm with offices everywhere or a foreign firm with a West Coast office?

US firm with offices everywhere.

[Anonymous User]

Anything you recommend reading prior to starting work as a first year in a corporate group? Or just relax, travel, and be ready to work hard?

[Anonymous User]

thoughts on MoFo SF for corporate work?

[Anonymous User]

Piecing together multiple previous posts - you mentioned you are on the west coast, doing PE/VC, and working generally 9-8pm. I'm impressed with those hours for that practice. They seem sane relative to NYC.

Is that a west coast office thing, generally, or just your firm?

[dannyocean29]

How repetitive is the work?

[Anonymous User]

Piecing together multiple previous posts - you mentioned you are on the west coast, doing PE/VC, and working generally 9-8pm. I'm impressed with those hours for that practice. They seem sane relative to NYC.

Is that a west coast office thing, generally, or just your firm?

Not OP obviously but I think this is a non-NYC thing. only NYC biglaw has really terrible hours. the work culture in NYC is just really fucked up.

[Anonymous User]

Moving back to the 3L job search, does going to a T14 school make any difference? I don't mean to ask this in a way that jobless T14 3Ls/Recent grads are more entitled to jobs, but does the school name make some difference in landing a job at a small or mid-size firm, or a decent government position when spamming the shit out of everywhere? While biglaw is unlikely to happen, clearly, if on the off chance it were, are odds better with a T14 given biglaw's obsession with school name/prestige?

How would you best recommend tapping into your school's alumni network in the job search, particularly as a 3L, without coming off as a desperate 3L just reaching out because they are trying to find a job.

Finally, I am likely to graduate from a T14 with a GPA that will probably be somewhere around the bottom third unless I can get some pretty excellent grades 3L year (consistently struggled in law school save for one semester, so it would probably be a fluke for me to suddenly do extremely well 3L), obviously a crappy position to be in grades wise, what are your recommendations for best getting a decent paying job so that I can live decently and pay off my loans without eating ramen 3 meals a day. Thank you!

[glib]

Anything you recommend reading prior to starting work as a first year in a corporate group? Or just relax, travel, and be ready to work hard?

Just have fun. Once you start you will learn everything you need and not really have time for vacation for the next year or two.

[glib]

Piecing together multiple previous posts - you mentioned you are on the west coast, doing PE/VC, and working generally 9-8pm. I'm impressed with those hours for that practice. They seem sane relative to NYC.

Is that a west coast office thing, generally, or just your firm?

It's a combination of firm, practice group and west coast. It's just not normal to work that late out here unless you're swamped.

[glib]

How repetitive is the work?

Surprisingly not repetitive at all. Somedays I wish it were more routine so I could hit my hours more mindlessly..

[glib]

Moving back to the 3L job search, does going to a T14 school make any difference? I don't mean to ask this in a way that jobless T14 3Ls/Recent grads are more entitled to jobs, but does the school name make some difference in landing a job at a small or mid-size firm, or a decent government position when spamming the shit out of everywhere? While biglaw is unlikely to happen, clearly, if on the off chance it were, are odds better with a T14 given biglaw's obsession with school name/prestige?

How would you best recommend tapping into your school's alumni network in the job search, particularly as a 3L, without coming off as a desperate 3L just reaching out because they are trying to find a job.

Finally, I am likely to graduate from a T14 with a GPA that will probably be somewhere around the bottom third unless I can get some pretty excellent grades 3L year (consistently struggled in law school save for one semester, so it would probably be a fluke for me to suddenly do extremely well 3L), obviously a crappy position to be in grades wise, what are your recommendations for best getting a decent paying job so that I can live decently and pay off my loans without eating ramen 3 meals a day. Thank you!

Yeah having a T14 grade can only help except if you're trying to get a job at a small firm in an area you don't have much of a connection to because your application would raise red flags, since they dont normally get candidates like that applying.

I don't really have any advice for you on your job search because my own experience has been only biglaw.. but I have many friends from LS who were in your situation and 5 years out they are mostly doing fine.

[dowu]

I can't believe no one has asked this yet: OP, did you attend a T14? T10? T5?

[NotMyRealName09]

any exposure to summers? if so, what have summers in your past 5 years done to get no-offered?

Laziness (not turning in assignments on time), sloppy work, weird/bad attitude. Contrary to what everybody thinks, plenty of summers have gotten wasted at parties and made fools of themselves, but we just let those go and laugh about it, unless we think getting wasted is symptomatic of some larger personal problem that the person might have.

I work in mid-west midlaw, but that bolded part is true here too. Frankly, its more weird if someone doesn't drink at all. Then we wonder - what is up that persons ass, and do I really want to find out?