Big Law and National Guard Service Forum

[stc30]

I will likely get a big law offer today. I love the firm, I enjoy the work, and I am looking forward to a legal career.

For a long time now I have wanted to do some kind of government/military service. I am too old to commit several years to JAG, but the National Guard is interesting due to the lower time commitment (two weeks a year, one weekend a month, after the initial 10-12 weeks of training).

Does anyone have experience serving in the National Guard while juggling a big law career? Making partner at my current firm is a longshot anyways so I am less concerned about missing out on the partner track here, but my concern is that my firm would not put me on any matters beyond Due Diligence since I would be unavailable one weekend a month, which would stunt my professional development.

I would appreciate any anecdotes or advice. I searched for old threads but none were very helpful.

[thesealocust]

It won't help your career, that's for sure. Even in biglaw people do what they have to do - sundown Friday some lawyers go offline for religious reasons, etc. but it's a challenge. Big Law tends to punish you for making plans of any kind, trying to shoehorn a voluntary commitment like this into your schedule isn't a good idea.

[Anonymous User]

I will likely get a big law offer today. I love the firm, I enjoy the work, and I am looking forward to a legal career.

For a long time now I have wanted to do some kind of government/military service. I am too old to commit several years to JAG, but the National Guard is interesting due to the lower time commitment (two weeks a year, one weekend a month, after the initial 10-12 weeks of training).

Does anyone have experience serving in the National Guard while juggling a big law career? Making partner at my current firm is a longshot anyways so I am less concerned about missing out on the partner track here, but my concern is that my firm would not put me on any matters beyond Due Diligence since I would be unavailable one weekend a month, which would stunt my professional development.

I would appreciate any anecdotes or advice. I searched for old threads but none were very helpful.

i'm summering in BigLaw. We have a partner in the Reserves and he meets his obligations for that. Started here as a summer about 10 or 11 years ago and still made partner w/in the normal time. Was pulled active for 2 years and it seems like the firm was perfectly fine with it.

[Anonymous User]

Bumping this - for some background, I am about to clerk for 2 years, and was wondering if anyone had experience joining NG while clerking or immediately after

[Anonymous User]

I think its the sort of thing that people would feel obligated to accommodate. Others will pick up slack to let you do it because the optics of saying no are terrible.

[Anonymous User]

I think its the sort of thing that people would feel obligated to accommodate. Others will pick up slack to let you do it because the optics of saying no are terrible.

They'll accommodate. I'm pretty sure legally they will have to. BUT everyone will almost certainly secretly hate you and you won't get staffed on big deals that require responsiveness.

[Anonymous User]

I worked with someone who was in the guards. Was a respected member of the team, nobody resented his taking a weekend off when he had to. But he went in house so idk if good example of it being sustainable.

[Anonymous User]

You could do this more easily in litigation.

[grayskies]

I can't speak from the standpoint of being in biglaw but I thought I would add that you might want to consider the Army Reserve over National Guard. While it is not true across the board, there are "flexible" unit opportunities in the Reserves. I know some reservists who don't physically have to show up to drill because their specific role as a JA allows them to accumulate hours throughout the month and thus they might only have to show up quarterly or even just the two week AT block (there's likely even more flexibility with the timing and scheduling of AT as well). I won't belabor the thread by going into details as to why this is but you can PM me and I'll explain how the unit and command structure of the Reserves differs from the Guard and why you might find some more flexibility there to complement a biglaw career.

[Anonymous User]

I was in the Navy Reserves during law school (was active duty for ~8 years before going to school) and it was super shitty and would not work at all for my current transactional biglaw life. It was somewhat disorganized, so you'd spend all weekend just trying to accomplish whatever BS administrative tasks you had to get done.

I don't have many free weekends, and when I do, I try to spend them with friends and family, not trying to get some dickhead YN3 to process my paperwork.

The 2 weeks a year would also be very stressful in this job. It was massively painful just getting them to get all the travel squared away for the 2 weeks a year. This job is stressful, and the Reserves was stressful too. I don't see there being room (time-wise or stress-wise) for both. Even if the weekend duty is relaxed, you will have "actual work that pays your bills and is your career" that you need to, but cannot, get done.

Finally, in the Navy Reserves you have to get mobilized, which is like a deployment or whatever other branches call them (I think it is once every 5 years after some initial deferral period but am not sure, I didn't have to do one but many friends who stayed in have now done one and are coming up for another). Well also "F that" -- I am not taking a year off my actual career I care about to augment some Admiral's staff or man a watch floor in Africa or Europe or who knows where. I have a family and don't want to leave them for that long -- I've already done that life, and don't spend enough time with them as-is in biglaw.

Maybe the Army is different, but I sure don't hear a lot of jokes about Army efficiency.