Career Advice Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am a current biglaw associate at a top ranked firm. I have been here a bit over a month, and have quickly realized I want to move to something else ASAP (original plan was 2-3 years but I'd be surprised if I can make it to the 1.5 year mark).

My current plan has three potential options:

1. Apply for clerkships for the 2020 term. The issue is that the vast majority of clerkships for 2020 are obviously gone and most of the ones I am seeing that would work for me are magistrate clerkships which I've read aren't necessarily beneficial for someone in my position. My firm would likely take me back afterwards, which would give me a security blanket to not be unemployed if I can't find a non-firm position after the clerkship.

2. Apply for the February bar in the state I want to work, study and take it while working at my firm, and start applying for jobs after passing the bar while working at my firm. If I did the clerkship option, I'd still try to take the state bar during the clerkship probably.

3. Stay at my firm and ride it out as long as I can before ultimately leaving and taking the bar in the state I want to be in.

My ultimate goal is and has been to eventually work in state government in the state I am from originally. So the only difference between my previous plan and now is moving the date up a year or two. I will have fairly large loans (~80k) assuming I only stay for a year, but my plan is to make the minimum payment and save the rest of my money and shoot for PSLF with my next job.

Tldr: I am a T14 grad-top 25%, working at a top vault ranked firm, want to move as soon as possible to something else. Would I be doing myself a disservice by applying for magistrate clerkships as a way out? How would you go about making this transition?

[UnfrozenCaveman]

Is it that bad already?

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Yes, and I have been told by everyone here that this is supposed to be the easing in period so if it gets worse, I will 100% not be able to stay for long. I am just trying to plan ahead to 1. Make the time go faster with my eye on a future goal and 2. Have a safety net when I hit my breaking point.

[JOThompson]

Depending on the prestige of the government agency you're applying to, I think you could leave at the one year mark and have a lot of options. In my experience, the longer I stayed in private practice, the more skepticism I faced from city/county/state interview panels. They wondered why it took me so long to make the transition to government work.

Actually I think I'd start applying around the six month mark, as long as you have a good reason for wanting to be a government attorney. It can take 6+ months from application to start date with some agencies, they're just that slow. For me, it took almost a year and a half, also because I was pending admission to the state I ended up going to. Note that some government employers are very particular about applicants being admitted / sworn-in at the time of application. I ran up against that barrier even though I'd been approved for admission, because my bar number hadn't been assigned yet. I am fairly certain that government HR just threw my application in the unqualified pile, even though I explained that I was getting my bar number assigned within a few weeks of the application. I applied to those same jobs (different cycles) after I had a bar number and got interviews very quickly.

I can't speak much to clerkships, but I can tell you I wish I did one before moving to state-level prosecution. I'd have way more fed options and civil litigation options.

If you ever want to go federal (especially prosecution), I think you're probably more competitive with 2-3 years of experience. They value biglaw experience and prestige more than non-federal agencies.

[JHP]

Are you absolutely sure you want to transition out of biglaw? Not discouraging you, but genuinely wondering if this is a panic-mode post after a bad month or if this is something you're sure about.

What's made you realize you don't want to be there? Is it the people, the work/practice group, the lifestyle? Litigation I presume? Sound like you want to move to a completely different market?

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Yes, I am sure. It is not a matter of if, but how quickly can I find something decent. My primary motivation is to move back to my home market, but there is virtually no biglaw presence there. As far as the work, it is fairly boring but I could do the work for a while with no issue under normal conditions. The biggest issue for me is the lifestyle. I knew going in that it would be tough, but I couldn't have anticipated just how tough it would be on me mentally. And from talking with my co-first years, I have it better than some (one allegedly has billed nearly 80 hrs per week since starting), so if it gets worse, that would just exacerbate things. For that reason, I think it would be detrimental to my health to stay for any longer than absolutely necessary.