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So, I’m thinking about reaching out to recruiters to move to a different big law firm. I’m currently at a v100 firm and I think the position has been great, wonderful colleagues, and they have been nothing but fair to me.

However, due to personal reasons, I’d like to move to an office located in either the Bay Area or NY. My firm has offices in these locations, but so far I haven’t heard of any positions opening up there.

So I am looking into lateraling, but I’m a bit worried about doing so, as I worry about joining a firm who is quick to axe me if the economic downturn is getting worse. What is your take? Stay out and wait till my firm has a spot open in a different location (perhaps even request a move again? Last time I raised moving to a different office with a partner was six months back, but I don’t want to be considered pushy) or go for it and try to make a lateral move?

What practice group/area are you in? Class year? Hard to say whether you're at more risk or not since that's fairly practice group dependent but both SF/NY are major markets, so if there's a downturn that's significant enough to affect both of those areas, imagine the effects would be felt throughout the country as well.

End of the day, you can go through the lateral process and simply decide not to move after you've considered all your options. Also might make it easier to request an internal move if you already have a lateral option in your back pocket.

As someone practicing in one of the two areas you mentioned, feel free to PM me if you had any particular questions.

If your current firm has offices in those locations, why not just ask the partners you work with about switching offices?