BIGLAW + 6 months in = very unhappy - any advice? Forum

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Wake up at 7 AM or so, be in to work by 8.

Bill until lunch, then either take a lunch and Hate yourself for it or eat like a troll in your office.

Bill till 6:30 or so, get home around 7:15.

Then try to find time to workout, eat somewhat healthy, relax, etc and then try to get enough sleep.

I'm about to say fuck it and do that 9-5 and just take the heat on billables

I hope this is a joke

[fats provolone]

i rarely stay after 5 but I bill until 1030 usually

[Anonymous User]

No coif.

Seriously, no debt. I saved my money from my two years working and saved all my summer associate money and took the big scholarship. Parents helped with CoL when needed.

No coif from a T25 = no mobility until you have substantive experience (which may not be for another five years or more).

Sorry.

False. Maybe no mobility at V20 firms but you'll get looks at other firms. I went to a T20 with no coif, got a headhunter after 1-year and he got me 2 interviews, 1 offer at nlj250 firm in a secondary office. I ultimately took a government job. Lawyers can do things than work at mega firms. Firm work was unbearably boring. I wanted to shoot myself everyday and I realized no job was worth being unhappy. Pay is awesome though.

[los blancos]

Yeah those hours aren't bad for biglaw and the pay that comes with it but it also kind of depends on what you're doing. If you absolutely hate or are otherwise bored/not at all mentally stimulated by what you're doing, even a few hours a day makes you want to /self.

[Autumnb13]

OP here - I think I sm beginning to figure out the issue. This job, and maybe legal practice in general does not mesh well with my personality. I think the lack of focus/boredom comes from sitting around drafting and researching things that I don't give a single fuck about. I also find myself craving human interaction of any sort as my days are constantly me sitting alone at my desk.

I have also begun to wake up at 3 am the last few nights thinking I sm going to be late to work/should be billing.

Still don't know how I will ever reach my billable goal.

I wake up in a panic like that too.

[fats provolone]

found actual photographic evidence that not all lawyers hate their jobs

ur done here tls pessimists

[FSK]

Personally, I don't give a shit about Coif if I know you do good work, but people will ding T25ers for not having Coif (and, in fact, our hiring partner, recruiting coordinator and firm-wide hiring guidelines require that we ding junior associate lateral candidates without top 10% credentials). You never know when you're going to get some prestige whore looking at your lateral application, so take that into consideration when slacking off during 2L and 3L. I'm certainly not saying that every practicing biglaw attorney will ding you for no Coif at a T25, but some definitely will.

just wondering, how true is this at T14 schools? like, low honors are good enough to get in the door most places from a T6, but if you want to jump ship do you need high honors as well

(current 3L who is in wondering how hard to gun this year)

No matter who you are, you'll always be shut out of something. Even people with top credentials get pigeon-holed as litigators or whatever after they've been working a number of years. Just do the best you can while you're in law school. It's not like you have anything else to do. As others have said, there is no one-size-fits-all advice here. I think most firms care a lot less about law school grades than my firm, so anything I tell you about my firm is probably 100% irrelevant to what goes on at most firms.

Wilmer, Gibson Dunn, Arnold & Porter, Quinn, SullCrom, and a few others have grade reputations on this board at least. Might be harder to figure out which firms care very little....

[ymmv]

found actual photographic evidence that not all lawyers hate their jobs

ur done here tls pessimists

*Is actually a passionate lover of his mother-in-law.*

Seems more likely, anyway.

[Anonymous User]

OP here - leaving when I do hardly means I am finished working. Further, I am not making the 160K p/m or anything close to that. As stated, I am in a SECONDARY market. What kills me is the fact that even when I have billable work, the most I can do is 5-6 hours because the shit is so boring.

[MidW13]

found actual photographic evidence that not all lawyers hate their jobs

ur done here tls pessimists

loving law driving a RAV-4? GTFO

[fats provolone]

what you think i bill for to push a fucking rav4?

[sublime]

..

[fats provolone]

(leases an accord)

[Lacepiece23]

OP here - leaving when I do hardly means I am finished working. Further, I am not making the 160K p/m or anything close to that. As stated, I am in a SECONDARY market. What kills me is the fact that even when I have billable work, the most I can do is 5-6 hours because the shit is so boring.

Bro why don't you switch to Lit? Seems to me like Lit in secondary markets is better than New York. Real work right away because you have less associates in your class. Less doc review because clients won't pay for that shit. I don't know why anyone would want to do corporate in a secondary market. Just my .02.

[Anonymous User]

I'm not sure how switching world even work. They put me here, I'm assuming they want me here.

[Desert Fox]

I have to borrow my wife's RAV4, not flame.

[Anonymous User]

OP Here -

I forgot to mention, I had my first review today.

That.... Was.... Not.... Good

[Cogburn87]

Bro why don't you switch to Lit? Seems to me like Lit in secondary markets is better than New York. Real work right away because you have less associates in your class. Less doc review because clients won't pay for that shit. I don't know why anyone would want to do corporate in a secondary market. Just my .02.

Clients don't want juniors billing for doc review even in New York. The days of biglaw juniors spending 2-3 years doing mostly doc review are drawing to a close thanks to predictive coding and contract attorneys.

Anyway, doc review isn't even that bad, at least compared to the "real work" that junior litigators in biglaw otherwise get.

ETA: In any event, switching to litigation is definitely not advisable if OP's goal is to get out ASAP.

[fats provolone]

you still have to babysit the doc reviewers anyway. and you end up having to do a ton of searching, except you actually have to find shit instead of just cruising through docs tagging. unclear which is better.

[Anonymous User]

Bro why don't you switch to Lit? Seems to me like Lit in secondary markets is better than New York. Real work right away because you have less associates in your class. Less doc review because clients won't pay for that shit. I don't know why anyone would want to do corporate in a secondary market. Just my .02.

Clients don't want juniors billing for doc review even in New York. The days of biglaw juniors spending 2-3 years doing mostly doc review are drawing to a close thanks to predictive coding and contract attorneys.

Anyway, doc review isn't even that bad, at least compared to the "real work" that junior litigators in biglaw otherwise get.

ETA: In any event, switching to litigation is definitely not advisable if OP's goal is to get out ASAP.

As a single guy, I would like to find a job with some travel/social interaction. Not even sure what that would be though.

[ManoftheHour]

can i haz?

[los blancos]

you still have to babysit the doc reviewers anyway. and you end up having to do a ton of searching, except you actually have to find shit instead of just cruising through docs tagging. unclear which is better.

I would take the former over the latter any day. Doc review sucks precisely because it's mindless.

[los blancos]

OP here - leaving when I do hardly means I am finished working. Further, I am not making the 160K p/m or anything close to that. As stated, I am in a SECONDARY market. What kills me is the fact that even when I have billable work, the most I can do is 5-6 hours because the shit is so boring.

I know this feel man. I've been at this midlaw/small mkt biglaw thing for a few months now. There are days when I really enjoy it (usually when I'm doing any sort of real work), but there are days when doc review just makes me hate everything.

[fats provolone]

you still have to babysit the doc reviewers anyway. and you end up having to do a ton of searching, except you actually have to find shit instead of just cruising through docs tagging. unclear which is better.

I would take the former over the latter any day. Doc review sucks precisely because it's mindless.

discovery letters aren't mindless? they're actually worse than mindless. anti-mind

[los blancos]

you still have to babysit the doc reviewers anyway. and you end up having to do a ton of searching, except you actually have to find shit instead of just cruising through docs tagging. unclear which is better.

I would take the former over the latter any day. Doc review sucks precisely because it's mindless.

discovery letters aren't mindless? they're actually worse than mindless. anti-mind

It might just be because I'm super junior and still at the stage where I need to actually figure out what I'm doing when drafting an RFPD, but at least it takes some thinking.