What to do after BigLaw Forum

[Anonymous User]

I find myself in a situation that I think some other people may also be in. I have been a practicing BigLaw associate for many years in NYC at a well known firm. I am not making partner, and do not think I can/want to try for counsel. I've been lucky and saved a large chunk of my yearly salary/bonus for many years. I am in my mid 30s, have great family, friends, and a reasonably sized nest egg now that I think with savvy investments will grow. My goal is to get a job where I can basically live off the salary, work remotely a lot, and not have to check my email every minute compulsively. I know in-house/non-profits are a option, but I don't think you can work remote as much. I'm open to other industries. Just curious if anyone has any ideas, or has heard of former lawyers following a similar path.

[nealric]

I find myself in a situation that I think some other people may also be in. I have been a practicing BigLaw associate for many years in NYC at a well known firm. I am not making partner, and do not think I can/want to try for counsel. I've been lucky and saved a large chunk of my yearly salary/bonus for many years. I am in my mid 30s, have great family, friends, and a reasonably sized nest egg now that I think with savvy investments will grow. My goal is to get a job where I can basically live off the salary, work remotely a lot, and not have to check my email every minute compulsively. I know in-house/non-profits are a option, but I don't think you can work remote as much. I'm open to other industries. Just curious if anyone has any ideas, or has heard of former lawyers following a similar path.

There are definitely in-house options with remote work options. The only caveat is doing remote too much can make you an easy target for layoffs - people tend not to stick their neck out for people they don't see on a day-to-day basis. But that's true for just about any job fitting that description.

[rokiv]

I find myself in a situation that I think some other people may also be in. I have been a practicing BigLaw associate for many years in NYC at a well known firm. I am not making partner, and do not think I can/want to try for counsel. I've been lucky and saved a large chunk of my yearly salary/bonus for many years. I am in my mid 30s, have great family, friends, and a reasonably sized nest egg now that I think with savvy investments will grow. My goal is to get a job where I can basically live off the salary, work remotely a lot, and not have to check my email every minute compulsively. I know in-house/non-profits are a option, but I don't think you can work remote as much. I'm open to other industries. Just curious if anyone has any ideas, or has heard of former lawyers following a similar path.

There are also definitely some non-profits that will enable you to work remotely. Unfortunately, there may not be an easy way to find out which orgs will support this. Do you have any colleagues or law school classmates at non-profits you can reach out to?

In a side note, do you mind elaborating on why you don’t think you’ll have a chance to make partner? Has it been stated in your reviews or more informally?

[Anonymous User]

I find myself in a situation that I think some other people may also be in. I have been a practicing BigLaw associate for many years in NYC at a well known firm. I am not making partner, and do not think I can/want to try for counsel. I've been lucky and saved a large chunk of my yearly salary/bonus for many years. I am in my mid 30s, have great family, friends, and a reasonably sized nest egg now that I think with savvy investments will grow. My goal is to get a job where I can basically live off the salary, work remotely a lot, and not have to check my email every minute compulsively. I know in-house/non-profits are a option, but I don't think you can work remote as much. I'm open to other industries. Just curious if anyone has any ideas, or has heard of former lawyers following a similar path.

As somewhat of a tangential aside, I had the exact same situation/mindset as you....I had done biglaw for a long time and was looking to leave, work remotely, and not be as plugged in. During my last few months of working there I tried to work remotely as often as I could and really wanted to continue with that at the next place I worked. However, I did some real thinking and determined that it was the specific NYC biglaw job and the long commute that made me feel that way, not so much the actual practicing law or even the biglaw aspect. I moved to a firm outside of the city that is still biglaw but is about 1/3 the size of my old firm and bought a house very close to the office. Ever since, my desire to work remotely has massively dimimished. Sure, I still do it a few times a month, but I am so close to the office that coming and going when needed is super easy. Plus, I really like my colleagues and the practice is nowhere near as intense as it was in NYC (not checking emails at night, some weekend work but no real email traffic, etc.)

All of that is to say, evaluate why you truly want the super remote type job, because it may greatly limit your job prospects, when in reality you'd be happy going in a normal amount if only you set up were better. Just some food for thought.

[RedGiant]

You didn't mention your practice area, but it's hard to emphasize to someone that is so far down in the biglaw rabbit hole that there _are_ plenty of reasonable in-house places to work. I recently moved from biglaw to a tech company, and while I occasionally work late, most nights I can leave by 7. We can WFH up to 2 days a week. And my tech company believes in having manic days and completely free weekends. A huge weight has come off my shoulders not being tethered to my device anymore. It's pretty awesome.

Another thing you might want to look into is Axiom--you can work maybe only 1/3 or 1/2 of the year and make what you were making in biglaw, if you are senior enough. It's hard in that you are always dropping into a new gig and have to prove yourself, but I have heard that the pay is AWESOME.