TTT > Biglaw (sorta) > Inhouse > Law Professor (sorta)
Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:18 pm
OK, I have been a longtime lurker here, and at jdunderground and autoadmit. I thought I would share my story and give my thoughts to anyone who wants them.
My stats:
TTT grad, class of mid-2000s, BEFORE the current job market implosion. No debt (full ride). Non-trad (older), but not URM. Prior work experience in the area I wanted to be practicing. Left a job I loved - low pay but great security - to take the chance. Graduated top 10%, not from being particularly brilliant, but from being a bit older and mature than my classmates and therefore taking the situation seriously and knowing things like not to start the weekly drinking binge on Wednesdays and blacking out until Monday, as a lot of them seemed to do.
Struck out at 2L OCI, despite good grades, law review and being told in mock OCI interviews that I interviewed well. Got lots of screening interviews and and a handfull of callbacks, but no offers. However, by old fashioned hard work (i.e., sending letters and resumes to employers who may be attracted to my pre-LS background and work experience) and dumb luck, I managed to land a 2L summer job at a leading national firm known for the area I wanted to get into. Not quite "biglaw" by the definition that seems to count around here and on autoadmit / jdu, but ~ 750 attorneys at a few dozen offices nationally with starting pay over $100K, though not $160K. (This is why I said "Biglaw (sorta)" in the thread title.)
I loved the substantive area of law I was practicing because of my prior experience. But I hated the day-to-day grind: the hours, stress, and mind-numbing drudgery of civil litigation / discovery BS. (Although the people I worked with were kinda cool.) Money was awesome; bigger salary than I ever thought I would make. I stuck it out for a few years until I was a mid-level associate, when I started looking for a non-firm job by posting my resume on one of the big internet job search sites. A recruiter (inhouse, as opposed to from a headhunting firm) found me with what sounded like a great opportunity, so I jumped ship. Big (1/3) pay cut, but I totally love what I am doing now as inhouse counsel in my area of expertise.
Also by chance, the opportunity to teach a course in my specialty opened up at a local law school, so I will be doing that next year. (But only as an adjunct; hence my handle and "Law Professor (sorta)" in the thread title.) Pretty cool, though I guess that makes me at least somewhat complicit in the law school scam thing the people on jdu obsess about, even though I will be making hardly anything.
My lessons learned: it is friggn' HARD to get a job in biglaw / through OCI as a non-URM from a TTT, even with great grades and even before the current job situation. I see posts here from people thinking of leaving a current job to go to LS. Seems crazy. But, as in my case, it can end up OK. However, I thank my lucky stars every day that I did not end up like a lot of my classmates. I don't know if I would do it all over again. Working at a firm sucked, but I love what I am doing now. It was probably stupid of me to leave my previous job. If I had found sites like jdu back when I was considering the jump (if those sites even existed then), I likely would not have taken the risk. I was naive going in. I feel very lucky that I had what few options were available to me when I graduated and am very fortunate to have things work out the way they did.
I see a lot of people here who are just where I was 8-10 years ago, with a lot of the same concerns. So if I can share anything to help anyone out, as one who has been through the whole LS / job search thing from a non-T1 and ended up doing OK - but who still regularly questions whether in the long run it was the right thing to do - let me know.
Good luck to everyone who has big upcoming decisions to make!
My stats:
TTT grad, class of mid-2000s, BEFORE the current job market implosion. No debt (full ride). Non-trad (older), but not URM. Prior work experience in the area I wanted to be practicing. Left a job I loved - low pay but great security - to take the chance. Graduated top 10%, not from being particularly brilliant, but from being a bit older and mature than my classmates and therefore taking the situation seriously and knowing things like not to start the weekly drinking binge on Wednesdays and blacking out until Monday, as a lot of them seemed to do.
Struck out at 2L OCI, despite good grades, law review and being told in mock OCI interviews that I interviewed well. Got lots of screening interviews and and a handfull of callbacks, but no offers. However, by old fashioned hard work (i.e., sending letters and resumes to employers who may be attracted to my pre-LS background and work experience) and dumb luck, I managed to land a 2L summer job at a leading national firm known for the area I wanted to get into. Not quite "biglaw" by the definition that seems to count around here and on autoadmit / jdu, but ~ 750 attorneys at a few dozen offices nationally with starting pay over $100K, though not $160K. (This is why I said "Biglaw (sorta)" in the thread title.)
I loved the substantive area of law I was practicing because of my prior experience. But I hated the day-to-day grind: the hours, stress, and mind-numbing drudgery of civil litigation / discovery BS. (Although the people I worked with were kinda cool.) Money was awesome; bigger salary than I ever thought I would make. I stuck it out for a few years until I was a mid-level associate, when I started looking for a non-firm job by posting my resume on one of the big internet job search sites. A recruiter (inhouse, as opposed to from a headhunting firm) found me with what sounded like a great opportunity, so I jumped ship. Big (1/3) pay cut, but I totally love what I am doing now as inhouse counsel in my area of expertise.
Also by chance, the opportunity to teach a course in my specialty opened up at a local law school, so I will be doing that next year. (But only as an adjunct; hence my handle and "Law Professor (sorta)" in the thread title.) Pretty cool, though I guess that makes me at least somewhat complicit in the law school scam thing the people on jdu obsess about, even though I will be making hardly anything.
My lessons learned: it is friggn' HARD to get a job in biglaw / through OCI as a non-URM from a TTT, even with great grades and even before the current job situation. I see posts here from people thinking of leaving a current job to go to LS. Seems crazy. But, as in my case, it can end up OK. However, I thank my lucky stars every day that I did not end up like a lot of my classmates. I don't know if I would do it all over again. Working at a firm sucked, but I love what I am doing now. It was probably stupid of me to leave my previous job. If I had found sites like jdu back when I was considering the jump (if those sites even existed then), I likely would not have taken the risk. I was naive going in. I feel very lucky that I had what few options were available to me when I graduated and am very fortunate to have things work out the way they did.
I see a lot of people here who are just where I was 8-10 years ago, with a lot of the same concerns. So if I can share anything to help anyone out, as one who has been through the whole LS / job search thing from a non-T1 and ended up doing OK - but who still regularly questions whether in the long run it was the right thing to do - let me know.
Good luck to everyone who has big upcoming decisions to make!