Why do you like Big law? Forum

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

This is a thread to share wins/good days/uplifting big law anecdotes.

[Johann]

There is a shitton of money in my bank account.

[lurkerlarry]

There is a shitton of money in my bank account.

would you describe it as one metric shitton?

[Johann]

There is a shitton of money in my bank account.

would you describe it as one metric shitton?

I would describe it as 1/7th of the shitton of debt I have and 1/12 of the shitton of debt me and my SO have.

[Anonymous User]

Money, excellent training/connections and got me my dream legal job (outside of big law). The work was really interesting at first but once you come up the learning curve it becomes more and more routine and the amount of paper-pushing becomes more stifling.

[dixiecupdrinking]

allows me to defer deciding what I actually want to do with my career for an extra 3-5 years while paying me more money than is reasonable.

[Anonymous User]

This is going to sound terrible but my firm has a ton of support staff and I like having so many people around trying to make my life easier. I can assign out a huge portion of the shit I just don't want to do.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

This is going to sound terrible but my firm has a ton of support staff and I like having so many people around trying to make my life easier. I can assign out a huge portion of the shit I just don't want to do.

What kind of stuff are you talking about? Formatting of documents/proofreading?

I was surprised to find that a major big law firm in my market (not a major city) had an in-house person whose sole job was to proofread every document that would be filed to catch any typos or bluebook errors.

[Anonymous User]

Friends and family back home, who don't know any better, think I'm doing something interesting

[KM2016]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

[sublime]

..

[KM2016]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

What type of market are you in?

Non-NYC major market. At a firm with literally no facetime requirement, and it goes a long way towards associate quality of life.

[sublime]

..

[Anonymous User]

I love how this thread is on its first page and the "Why do you hate Biglaw" thread is on its third

To be expected I guess

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

I asked an associate at my firm (NYC) about her schedule (litigation practice group) and was surprised to hear that she's able to leave 630 or so, go home, have dinner, then work 3 or so hours before bed. This sounds much much much better to me than staying at office until midnight, working for 3 hours and sitting around for 2.5 hrs waiting to get work or hear back about something.

[dixiecupdrinking]

What a life! Getting to eat dinner at home before working until 11 pm every night!

[Anonymous User]

I'm a first year, so the newness hasn't worn off. I really like most of the work I've done so far. Of course, there are tedious things, but I've gotten a fair amount of "we want x, get me a research memo on how, and go draft the motion/brief/etc." Those assignments are my favorite. I feel like I'm actually using my brain and doing what I always pictured I'd be doing.

I also work for a really great office and group of partners. For the most part, my assignments have only come from partners. They've been very willing to hear my ideas about strategy, let me do most of the drafting (well, the first shot at the drafting), and have been quick to offer feedback. The feedback has been most good, but still helpful when it's negative. No one in my group yells or reams people out (that I've experienced/heard about), which is a plus. Also, most people seem to actually like what they do. It helps.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

I'm a first year, so the newness hasn't worn off. I really like most of the work I've done so far. Of course, there are tedious things, but I've gotten a fair amount of "we want x, get me a research memo on how, and go draft the motion/brief/etc." Those assignments are my favorite. I feel like I'm actually using my brain and doing what I always pictured I'd be doing.

I also work for a really great office and group of partners. For the most part, my assignments have only come from partners. They've been very willing to hear my ideas about strategy, let me do most of the drafting (well, the first shot at the drafting), and have been quick to offer feedback. The feedback has been most good, but still helpful when it's negative. No one in my group yells or reams people out (that I've experienced/heard about), which is a plus. Also, most people seem to actually like what they do. It helps.

This is great to hear--thanks for contributing.

[Johann]

I'm a first year, so the newness hasn't worn off. I really like most of the work I've done so far. Of course, there are tedious things, but I've gotten a fair amount of "we want x, get me a research memo on how, and go draft the motion/brief/etc." Those assignments are my favorite. I feel like I'm actually using my brain and doing what I always pictured I'd be doing.

I also work for a really great office and group of partners. For the most part, my assignments have only come from partners. They've been very willing to hear my ideas about strategy, let me do most of the drafting (well, the first shot at the drafting), and have been quick to offer feedback. The feedback has been most good, but still helpful when it's negative. No one in my group yells or reams people out (that I've experienced/heard about), which is a plus. Also, most people seem to actually like what they do. It helps.

Genuinely happy for you. I'm glad it works out for sme.

[rpupkin]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

What type of market are you in?

Non-NYC major market. At a firm with literally no facetime requirement, and it goes a long way towards associate quality of life.

For what it's worth, I think this description applies to most California big law offices.

[Lawyerrr]

I like my job. Favorite part is working on a team and working on high-profile deals.

One caveat is that I think liking big law would be tough if you're married with kids, which I'm not.

[bruinfan10]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

What type of market are you in?

Non-NYC major market. At a firm with literally no facetime requirement, and it goes a long way towards associate quality of life.

For what it's worth, I think this description applies to most California big law offices.

Does that apply to LA too? I know it applies in SF, but I'm thinking of making the switch, and the big-3 CA firms all have much larger offices in LA--just hoping they don't have harder facetime reqs as a result.

[Anonymous User]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

What type of market are you in?

Non-NYC major market. At a firm with literally no facetime requirement, and it goes a long way towards associate quality of life.

For what it's worth, I think this description applies to most California big law offices.

This has also been my experience in the DC office of a Cali-based firm.

[Anonymous User]

I realize that this is firm specific (and sometimes even practice group specific), but at least in my experience I appreciate that biglaw firms treat you like an adult. To illustrate what I mean...

It's nice that I can go home most days at 6 to be with family and work remotely for a few hours if need be. It's nice that I can leave the office to get lunch or coffee with a friend and not have people checking up on me. It's nice to have my own office (as opposed to a cublicle like in many other professional offices) where I can listen to music or have a game streaming on my second screen. It's nice to be able to work remotely without offending anyone/raising eyebrows if I have to go to a doctor's appointment or if my car is in the shop. And finally, the money is great

Non-NYC major market. At a firm with literally no facetime requirement, and it goes a long way towards associate quality of life.

For what it's worth, I think this description applies to most California big law offices.

Does that apply to LA too? I know it applies in SF, but I'm thinking of making the switch, and the big-3 CA firms all have much larger offices in LA--just hoping they don't have harder facetime reqs as a result.

Yes, it does apply to LA as well, including at both CA-based firms and satellite offices. LA is very laid back as far as biglaw goes.

[Anonymous User]

What about the houston BigLaw culture?