Typical Severance for BigLaw? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I basically asked to be pushed out, aggressively turned down work and billed about 100 a month for 4-6 months. I was more than ready for it and excited to get the hell out of biglaw.

It still stung my ego when I got a soft version of “the talk” (that basically suggested I’d get the real talk if my hours weren’t up in a month) and got chilly responses if not outright ignored by partners I had toiled for for years. It was clear that I had been blacklisted and the machine of the firm waits for no man. I resigned before the talk came. I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of failure when I did so.

I’ve gotten over it now but I think it’s normal for psychopaths like me in biglaw to feel this way. There’s so much brass ring chasing from picking a law school, to a clerkship, to a firm, to trying to be the rock star associate, and then after making it your life for years, you’re tossed out like a takeout box.

[Heineken]

When I was working at a New York law firm, that path came to a dead end. All the aspiring lawyers on the outside wanted to get in but all of the people I worked with wanted to get out. It was like Alcatraz but all you had to do to escape was walk through the front door. So I left.

Above, guess who? Peter Thiel.

Trying to make partner is like a pie eating contest and when you win you get more pie.

[Res Ipsa Loquitter]

When I was working at a New York law firm, that path came to a dead end. All the aspiring lawyers on the outside wanted to get in but all of the people I worked with wanted to get out. It was like Alcatraz but all you had to do to escape was walk through the front door. So I left.

Above, guess who? Peter Thiel.

Trying to make partner is like a pie eating contest and when you win you get more pie.

Not that biglaw is especially fun or anything, but Thiel is a serious eccentric who only worked at S&C for 7 months. He also had a bunch of other things going on (entrepreneurship, political speech writing, quant role at a top hedge fund)

[Anonymous User]

I basically asked to be pushed out, aggressively turned down work and billed about 100 a month for 4-6 months. I was more than ready for it and excited to get the hell out of biglaw.

It still stung my ego when I got a soft version of “the talk” (that basically suggested I’d get the real talk if my hours weren’t up in a month) and got chilly responses if not outright ignored by partners I had toiled for for years. It was clear that I had been blacklisted and the machine of the firm waits for no man. I resigned before the talk came. I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of failure when I did so.

I’ve gotten over it now but I think it’s normal for psychopaths like me in biglaw to feel this way. There’s so much brass ring chasing from picking a law school, to a clerkship, to a firm, to trying to be the rock star associate, and then after making it your life for years, you’re tossed out like a takeout box.

I think this all makes sense. To be clear, I don’t think it *is* objectively humiliating to get pushed out/not make partner, because it happens so often (especially not making partner, because that’s based on so many things outside your control). But I get that it’s natural for people to feel slightly humiliated.