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Hey everyone,

I’m a first-year associate at a mid-law litigation firm in a secondary market and have a fairly difficult decision to make to leave. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

For background, I’m a slightly below median T25 grad with otherwise good credentials (LR, Journal Board, Relevant Experience). My ultimate goal is to try to lateral into a more prestigious boutique firm in either my market or a neighboring major market in the next 3-5 years after I can hopefully move past grades being weighed so heavily.

The firm I’m currently at generally has decent work life balance for a mid-law firm and I really enjoy the people I work with. The main problem is I don’t get many cases in the subject matter I would ultimately like practice in and I don’t feel as though the firm has a strong enough reputation to help me lateral to a more prestigious boutique.

I recently received an offer for a less prominent federal honors attorney position in the same secondary market that almost exclusively does the work I would like to specialize in. I’m lucky enough to be in a position with no loans, so the short term drop in pay is not a main consideration.

My primary concern is exit options, so my question is whether my lateral options to a prestigious boutique firm would be better from a mid-law firm where I am more of a generalist but building relevant litigation skills, working on marketing and keeping up with comparable big law billing requirements, or coming from a federal honors position in the right specialization.

Any advice is welcome and appreciated!

If your goal is "prestigious boutique," feel like the move is clerking for a COA/district court in competitive-is district, not Honors Program or MidLaw?

Unless you have a very expansive definition of "prestigious," neither of those things are going to help. As LBJ says, clerking is probably your best bet here, though of course that'll be a challenge to obtain with your credentials.

I agree. You need a federal clerkship

I doubt OP means a “prestigious boutique” of the type that requires a fed clerkship, but OP you should probably explain more what you mean.

If the area you want to specialize in has private sector marketability and the Honors position involves a lot of litigation, I would take the Honors position (and maybe try for a district clerkship coming out of that). But aren’t Honors positions only available to people who haven’t started in practice (outside of clerkships)?

Depending how many "hops" you're willing to make on the way to the boutique, I'd recommend honors (trying to get as much substantive litigation experience as possible), followed by an Article III clerkship. In my experience interviewing with lit boutiques, boutiques like to pull lateral hires off a clerkship AND relevant work experience. Many will pay a clerkship bonus coming off an Article III clerkship regardless of how long you worked before the clerkship; this, as well as the rest of the compensation structure, will vary significantly by boutique.

whichever path leaves you with more money come quitting time in like 5-6 years. maybe another year or 2 if you are a serious glutton for punishment.

both will come to suck really bad, might as well make more $ to hate your job