What is big law really like? Forum

[bk1]

BK, I almost didn't recognize you. What happened to GLaDOS?

I am curious as to how much of that attrition is personal choice vs. a firm basically letting people know it not-so subtle ways they should move on.

Got bored with her, but I've been tempted to switch back.

It's hard to get at that information and I think it was conducted during boom times so I imagine most of them left of their own accord (but I'm just guessing). However, it would be interesting to find out how many of those people could just no longer stand working in biglaw. They might be leaving of their own personal accord but it's not necessarily 100% voluntary.

[Icculus]

BK, I almost didn't recognize you. What happened to GLaDOS?

I am curious as to how much of that attrition is personal choice vs. a firm basically letting people know it not-so subtle ways they should move on.

Got bored with her, but I've been tempted to switch back.

It's hard to get at that information and I think it was conducted during boom times so I imagine most of them left of their own accord (but I'm just guessing). However, it would be interesting to find out how many of those people could just no longer stand working in biglaw. They might be leaving of their own personal accord but it's not necessarily 100% voluntary.

Yeah, I guess that's what I was getting at. I have a friend who is a 7th year at a big firm in NY. He has had multiple offers to leave and go elsewhere, but he stays because he really likes it. I talked to him briefly one day when he was in the middle of a stretch of like 3 4am nights in a row, and he basically told me while those few days were miserable he absolutely loved the job. My guess is not everyone would feel the same way.

[jwinaz]

Although I'm not very interested in biglaw, I'm still curious what the average length of stay is for associates there?

Any statistics for how long new associates end up lasting? I know most don't make partner, but aside from just that bit, what do we know about the rest?

There was some old data but I'm too lazy to look it up. IIRC, it was something like 50% make it to year 3 and 20% make it to year 5. I think it was in biglaw generally, but it might have been i/r/t their original biglaw firm.

Thanks.

A quick/final follow-up. Would the skills gained in biglaw be transferrable in any way to smaller law firms? I'm still looking into areas of small law I'd possibly be interested in pursuing and a few that were possibly interesting were family law and also bankruptcy.

I know that clients in biglaw would be obviously different and the scale of the exchanges of money for services very different too. But just in terms of lawyerly skills, could a person work in and walk out of (or "kicked out off" lol) biglaw and transition into a small firm with skills gained that would be immediately/directly applicable? Wondering how much overlap might there be and transferrability of skills.

[bk1]

Would the skills gained in biglaw be transferrable in any way to smaller law firms? I'm still looking into areas of small law I'd possibly be interested in pursuing and a few that were possibly interesting were family law and also bankruptcy.

Litigation skills are generally transferable, though it helps not to have to learn a new area of law. Transactional is a little less so since smaller firms don't tend to do the kind of transactional work (if they do any at all) that biglaw firms do.

[ksllaw]

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law ... g-law.html

If anyone is interested, it looks like the makings of an "epic" thread on biglaw at CC.

[ksllaw]

This was posted in the CC thread above, but I found it such a stunning read that I figured I'd post here also for those interested:

--LinkRemoved--

It's a description of the practice of law with attention to biglaw by Patrick Shiltz.

[LaBarrister]

This was posted in the CC thread above, but I found it such a stunning read that I figured I'd post here also for those interested:

--LinkRemoved--

It's a description of the practice of law with attention to biglaw by Patrick Shiltz.

I read this for the first time at around this time last year. Really, a great study. A must-read for anyone considering law, I would say. I was so thankful for getting my hands on it back then. Glad to see it getting circulated.