Shortest time in biglaw? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any stories about the shortest stint in biglaw you or someone you know did, and what you/they are doing now? I just started a couple months ago and am pretty much counting down the days already I know leaving before even a year would be a very poor, but very based, career choice.

[Lestersandy]

Two years is super common.

One year less common but certainly not unheard of.

Have seen several people leave after less than a year. The shortest was about 7ish months to go clerk.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Two weeks, from someone who never wanted to be in Biglaw but took the summer booze and one fall paycheck before starting any actual assignments.

There are grapevine stories through the years of even shorter tenures than that, but like the "billed 27 hours during a travel day" thing, they may be apocryphal.

[replevin123]

I imagine with delayed starts, 7 months won't be so rare this year. And after that, as people increasingly apply for a clerkships a year out, one year will be even more common.

[PrinterInk]

I personally know of people who have lasted less than two weeks. Can’t elaborate much further than that, but it happens. Usually involves very unprofessional behavior.

[Pennoyer v. Meh]

I imagine with delayed starts, 7 months won't be so rare this year. And after that, as people increasingly apply for a clerkships a year out, one year will be even more common.

Right--start in January, clerkship starting in July, so actually leave the firm in mid-June or something.

[Anonymous User]

I left biglaw after a total of 6 months. Early September to an early March stint. One of the better professional decisions I've made and don't regret it a minute.

I was number three to leave in my law school class (one full burnout, one clerkship).

I would have left significantly earlier if I had found a role that I found interesting enough.

[Anonymous User]

I know someone who was in biglaw for two months. There weren’t any performance issues and this person’s exit was a surprise. They just decided that they didn’t want this life. It helps that their spouse was quite wealthy and they didn’t need to work anyway.

[Anonymous User]

A first year associate at my firm quit after 8 days to take a non legal job a couple years ago... Shortest stint I know of

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Someone at my firm (NYC big law) left another career, went to law school, summered with us, and then left after one week after starting as a 1st year—to go back to his/her prior career. So all in all he/she was in big law for the summer and one week of practicing.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any stories about the shortest stint in biglaw you or someone you know did, and what you/they are doing now? I just started a couple months ago and am pretty much counting down the days already I know leaving before even a year would be a very poor, but very based, career choice.

had a classmate who was at a big law firm for about 6 months then went and took a legal role at NASA.

[Anonymous User]

I left biglaw after a total of 6 months. Early September to an early March stint. One of the better professional decisions I've made and don't regret it a minute.

I was number three to leave in my law school class (one full burnout, one clerkship).

I would have left significantly earlier if I had found a role that I found interesting enough.

Did you go to another firm?

[ksm6969]

Anyone have any stories about the shortest stint in biglaw you or someone you know did, and what you/they are doing now? I just started a couple months ago and am pretty much counting down the days already I know leaving before even a year would be a very poor, but very based, career choice.

Kat Mizelle spent 9 months in big law and shes now the youngest ever federal judge. (The trick is her husband was close with Stephen Miller and volunteered for Trump in 2016 when nobody wanted to touch him).

[nealric]

Latham infamously laid off quite a few brand new associates in 2008-9 time frame of the "great recession". A few were only weeks into their tenure.

I'm sure someone out there has quit or been fired on their first day of biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

Just started a month ago. Reading these posts is so cathartic.

[Spartan_Alum_12]

Not biglaw but at a small firm where I previously worked, one of the partners said someone left a note at lunch on his/her first day saying "thanks, but I can't handle this" or something. He told me this my first day as a 2L summer. I wasn't sure if that was true or a scare tactic (he didn't seem like the scare tactic type).