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Currently a 3rd year (T14, shitty grades) associate who should actually be a 5th year (took a 2 yr deduction to change into a different practice group/join biglaw). I've been at my current firm for 2+ years now and plan to still till next year (so, I'll have been here 3+ years).

My firm is extraordinarily toxic and has horrible turnover (practice group is big - double digit associates - but we lost over 1/3 of our associates in the past 12 months). Partners are terrible managers and recently had a bad experience with a very jr. partner who is known to do a lot of things at the last minute and throw an associate under the bus for it (she didnt throw me under the bus, but she used me as a punching bag, which left a bad taste in my mouth). Mid-levels almost nonexistent and the ones still here are gunning so hard for partner they do little to help juniors and actively treat juniors like competition (badmouth/ignore/treat them like shit).

I'm on my 2nd full year of 2100 hrs (non-NY/DC major market - think SF, SD, BOS). I think i'm at least an ok associate. I'm now so terrified of biglaw I keep hesitating to leave because I fear it'll be worse/the same somewhere else, and I'll have lost the few mentors/cheerleaders (partners) I've made at my firm.

Does anyone have any advice for how I should proceed? Thanks!

Lateral. Get a recruiter and go find a better place to work. Not every biglaw firm is that bad. Find someone who is hiring for your practice area. I don't think I've ever had someone ask about grades during a lateral interview.

Liquox wrote:Lateral. Get a recruiter and go find a better place to work. Not every biglaw firm is that bad. Find someone who is hiring for your practice area. I don't think I've ever had someone ask about grades during a lateral interview.

Agreed. You can find plenty of professional people who aren't asshats to work with. Also I was a pretty average T14 grad and lateraled without ever discussing grades with any firm i interviewed at. Given your class year, now I the ideal time to move. (And at the end of the day, how much worse could it really be than your current firm?)

Markets good, you’re in a good spot, you went to a good school. Take gpa off resume and don’t think twice. You’re in a fine spot, but you won’t be if you keep putting up with that which it sounds like you are continuing to put up with.