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I am a junior (think 1-2 years) M&A associate at a V20 firm. I worked in biglaw to paid off loans and I am happy with where they are. In other words, I no longer need a biglaw career to support the loans.

Now life is too short to work another day in biglaw if you don't have to. I want to do some type of litigation/advocacy thing.

I don't really want to lateral to a junior lit position at another law firm to do doc review for another year or two. I also hate working biglaw hours or long hours at all, so in a perfect world I wouldn't have to do that either. The work doesn't have to be "cutting edge", just interesting enough so I won't die of boredom. If money isn't an issue, what type of jobs should I be looking for with those goals in mind? thnx in advance.

tl;dr - unambitious junior corporate associate looking for easy, lit job.

IMHO, Litigation and fewer hours are generally mutually exclusive. Public service type stuff might be your best fit if you're truly not interested in money. Certainly, the hours can be improved.

Why do you want litigation? It seems like you might just want to leave law altogether.

Yeah, I'm not sure "easy" and "lit" go together.

How about do an art III clerkship then look for a lit position after?

I'm a biglaw midlevel who works 90+ hour weeks. When I worked as a government litigator, it was in fact lighter: I worked 75 hour weeks for less than 40 percent of my current salary. If you want light hours, I don't recommend litigation.

what about personal injury law? or commercial litigation for small businesses? Are you telling me even if money isn't a factor, I must work at least 60 hours per week to be a litigator?

If you want less hours, litigation might not necessarily be your best option. I used to work in litigation at a public job I can tell you first hand you are putting in 70+ hour weeks prep for trial, its not easy

TheJuniorAssociate wrote:what about personal injury law? or commercial litigation for small businesses? Are you telling me even if money isn't a factor, I must work at least 60 hours per week to be a litigator?

Personal injury law usually relies heavily on volume for profits, and small businesses are just as needy as big ones. Sure, you might find a position with a lower hours requirement, but there's no guarantee - most people I know not in biglaw just work long hours for less money. And if you go to trial it doesn't matter what your hours requirement is, you just do what needs to be done.

Really the only way to control your hours is to go solo.