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Hi all

So about six months ago I moved from a smaller market to NYC biglaw with my partner. I enjoyed my old job, but had been doing it for five years and was a bit bored and (at least I thought) I wanted a new challenge). Unfortunately, while the NYC firm is fine, and objectively the hours/work, while more than back in my old market, are not too outrageous (40-60 billables per week), I have suddenly found myself feeling massively depressed and burnt out in a way that my old job never did, and I am finding it hard to positively motivate myself to perform (as opposed to just doing it out of fear/stress, which kind of compounds the problem). The work at the new firm is okay, but I'm just a part of a bigger machine here rather than running my own things back at my old firm (which weirdly I find more stressful and maybe not so weirdly, less interesting/intellectually challenging) .

My thinking is that after over five years of reasonably full on work after law school, I was actually in need of a bit of a break rather than a full on new challenge to re-energise myself. I'm in a bit of a conundrum about what to do. The emotional part of me just wants to rage quit and work out and read books for a few months, but the logical part knows that would be a terrible career move and unfair on my new firm.

Does anyone have any advice on how they dealt with a similar situation or found a way to re-motivate themselves in a burntout/career rut moment?

Thanks - OP Anon.

Anonymous User wrote:The work at the new firm is okay, but I'm just a part of a bigger machine here rather than running my own things back at my old firm (which weirdly I find more stressful and maybe not so weirdly, less interesting/intellectually challenging) .

Is your sense that this is just how the firm is structured/generally how things are run at this firm? Or could it also be that it's still only 6 mo. in and maybe people are still building experience with you before you run things like you did before? Perhaps, it's a combination of the size of your now department and the fact that your older firm probably was able to let you run more things than biglaw (assuming your older firm was smaller).

Anecdotally, I know folks who have moved from smaller firms into my biglaw firm, and some of them report that yes, they run things to a lesser extent here because of more people in the food chain, while others have said that they run things at least to the same, if not greater, extent than at the old firm--the difference between these stories, in my perspective, has just been the specific departments they've joined at my particular firm.

Happens all the time.

Give it a little time and log on parts of job you like and dislike. And record the “thoughts” that are draining you. It could be something as simple as “how do I navigate this stupid software to clock my time” that’s actually tiring you out.

It may even just be the commute. I had a therapist friend tell me about a patient that felt extremely stressed out. Source: crowded subway. Solution: be at office by 6:30 (later modified to gym across the street from her office) and bypass rush hour.