Practice area preventing move? Forum

[Anonymous User]

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[FND]

Summation

- for any position in L.A., you have two major strikes against you: (1) you're not admitted, and (2) you don't have the right experience (There are very few jobs in L.A. for your specialty. If you want to stay in that practice area, you need to wait for something to open up, and hope you get picked; chances are very slim)
- Therefore, you need to fix those two issues.

There are two ways for you to fix the two issues:
1) stay in NYC and re-tool yourself for a different specialty AND prepare to take the bar in CA
2) transfer to San Francisco, where you can work in your field while preparing to take the bar on their dime and their time, and continue to do the work you enjoy

#1: On one hand, if you stay in NY, it may be a lot easier to re-tool yourself for another specialty at your current firm. Just make sure you pick one that's common in LA. On the other hand, the big question is how your firm will react to you taking the bar in CA? That's a pretty clear sign you're looking to move, which may severely hamper your future prospects at the firm.
Note: if you don't think you can re-tool to another specialty, then Option #1 is definitely out, and everything else is moot.

#2: if you move to SF, there's no question about why you're taking the bar. The major downside is that if they're hiring you to fill a specific need, it'll be a lot harder to re-tool practice areas.

I still say go to SF. You'll get admitted, which'll be a big plus. You're still junior enough that under the right circumstances you may be able to find a firm in L.A. that'll let you re-tool there. Otherwise, you just work on re-tooling in SF, while hoping there's an opening in LA for your specialty.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks, appreciate the input. I should clear up: i) re-tooling at my current firm is not an option, ii) I don't like the work itself, I just like the people I work with in my group, which is part of the hangup with SF - not only could I still be stuck in a city I don't want to be in doing work that's not getting me anywhere, the actual work itself could definitely be worse than my current situation.

[RedGiant]

What I'm hearing from you is that you want change, but also you fear change. You gotta take the leap. Your next gig might not be 100% the gig of your dreams, and I hear the perfect getting in the way of the good here.

I'm from SoCal, have lived in NY and Boston and currently live in SF. I can tell you definitively that LA biglaw is much smaller than you think, there's not a ton of cross-country hiring, and there's not that many associate positions. I can also tell you that if you have great credentials, and are willing to take a years haircut, you can retool to corporate (if that's what you want) (or another practice, if that's what you want) in California, relatively easily in the Bay Area market. Also...while I feel like you somehow think SF is awful (and I will agree that housing is pricy, homelessness is rampant (in certain 'hoods)), it's much closer to LA than you think in terms of lifestyle and people and weather and less claustrophobia from living in a concrete jungle. Also, there's really a lot of biglaw on the Peninsula, which again, is much closer to LA living than NYC is (still not the same, but closer!) And there are _tons_ of firms in the Bay Area, many more than in LA.

The easiest way to make yourself marketable in law is to be a junior or midlevel. But in your case, don't become a midlevel in an area of practice that won't get you to where you want to go! That's foolish.

In my mind, you should really consider the following --

(i) move to CA mid- to late- Spring (with a job or not--hard deadline), rent an airbnb, take the bar, jobsearch while taking the bar.
(ii) move to the Bay Area (not necessarily SF) via a recruiter or direct apps through contacts, get a job, and have them pay for the bar

and in either case....still keep searching in LA.

You seem to have a fear of not taking a leap unless your next job is your dream job. That's not always how life works, particularly when you're junior. But biglaw is quite forgiving in that you can lateral, stay a year, and lateral again. Sure it sucks to build up capital in a group or with people you don't think (possibly--this is your doubting voice talking) are as great as your current practice group. But...if you could be in LA in as short as 14 months from now, what are you waiting for?

Live the life you imagined. Just know it might take two hops to get there.

Also--you may not want this at all, but...consider in-house jobs too. You can be RIHC in CA and skip taking the bar altogether, and in-house salaries are not much lower than biglaw at the junior levels in CA. Really.

Good luck--don't let your perfectionist doubter win. Change is hard but you gotta make it happen. Take the leap.