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Partner at a biglaw/regional biglaw/high compensation midlaw, not necessarily at the firm where you started.

If you are about to graduate or just graduated in 2014, YOU ARE NOT A LAWYER.

In the unlikely event that ever becomes a serious possibility, please promise me that you will kill me and end the madness.

It's really hard to say. Right now I'd say good because I get along with people, bill enough, and haven't made any big mistakes. But of course as time goes on I get more responsibility, which means more changes to make bigger mistakes.

Assuming I keep this up I think I'm going to shoot for it. The hours are bad at points but not insane, I got class credit for my clerkship so the wait won't be an eternity, and let's face it, when you're in litigation the only real exit options are (1.) litigation somewhere else and (2.) not law, so I'm not really looking to leave. Besides which I got incredibly lucky in that my coworkers are all people I like working with. I hear so many horror stories about toxic personalities and partners who have temper tantrums and it makes me afraid to ever leave my current firm.

How about depends on how rich my old friends get?

NotMyRealName09 wrote:How about depends on how rich my old friends get?

Hahahaha... yep

Very unlikely for me.

The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I don't know which poll option to pick. Good chance sounds too optimistic/presumptuous, but it's definitely not no chance.

dixiecupdrinking wrote:The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I was really shocked by how little time it took me to decide it's not a great career outcome.

IAFG wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I was really shocked by how little time it took me to decide it's not a great career outcome.

The ultra-charismatic ones make it look appealing, but you still know they have been buried in the grind of a lifetime for as long as they can remember.

IAFG wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I was really shocked by how little time it took me to decide it's not a great career outcome.

I know a dude who's a senior associate gunning for partner. I think if he could do it over again, he'd have quit years ago. Right now, it seems like he views all the years since he started as a giant sunk cost. He's gone too far now to turn around. It's almost as if he's dreading the thought of making partner and this becoming his life until retirement.

Interesting that associates are more optimistic than law students/0Ls.

MarkRenton wrote:

IAFG wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I was really shocked by how little time it took me to decide it's not a great career outcome.

I know a dude who's a senior associate gunning for partner. I think if he could do it over again, he'd have quit years ago. Right now, it seems like he views all the years since he started as a giant sunk cost. He's gone too far now to turn around. It's almost as if he's dreading the thought of making partner and this becoming his life until retirement.

It's harder to exit once you're that senior, or so I've heard.

I know a guy who told he would make partner if he stuck it out a couple more years. He quit within a couple months because he just couldn't deal with the shit anymore.

Danger Zone wrote:Interesting that associates are more optimistic than law students/0Ls.

I'm actually not that surprised. When I was a 0L/law student, I thought partnership was a very unlikely but highly desirable outcome. Now I think partnership (at SOME firm) is a reasonably likely but fairly undesirable outcome.

IAFG wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I was really shocked by how little time it took me to decide it's not a great career outcome.

Yep. Seems awful.

keg411 wrote:

IAFG wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:The chances are low but the desire is even lower.

I was really shocked by how little time it took me to decide it's not a great career outcome.

Yep. Seems awful.

Yep. I just discovered that I HATE the cliche that making partner is "like a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie." Because after all I *like* pie. Working to make partner and then succeeding must be like having a case of the herp that gets progressively worse every single day of your life.