Post-Biglaw Regrets? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'll bite and be more on topic with the original question:

I left biglaw as a lower mid-level and returned as a senior. I had two in-house jobs, the first was a much better lifestyle and I was very happy at first but a very unstable business with low pay (money was just too tight and the company too erratic) and the second ended up being a place where I was not comfortable ethically or morally (it's one thing representing bad people in big law, another to be boots on the ground at a place where the tone at the top is not what you had been promised). So, I high-tailed it back to big law (at least temporarily) where I can always recommend the right course of action (at least internally to the partner) and wash my hands of it to some degree.

Interesting. How hard was it to break back into Biglaw? If I leave, it’ll likely be for gov work, so your answer may not apply to me, but I’m curious nonetheless.

Not very hard at all, but I took a 1 year haircut on my class which had me coming back in as a late mid-level instead of an early senior. I was only out of big law for 2 years. The lifestyle change was shocking at first (and often still is). The more senior you are, I think the trickier it is (certain government jobs being an obvious exception).

[Anonymous User]

Speaking of lifestyle change being shocking, joining biglaw off of a clerkship was itself so much of a jolt that I personally can’t imagine doing that kind of shift again. (My clerkship averaged 8:30 to 4:30 in chambers, never an evening or a weekend, with about three hours of real work a day.) I suppose this is a sort of strange consideration in terms of “regret” - once you leave, you might not be able to get back in the mindset if you decide you’d like to come back.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. One quick revival of this thread after coming off another weekend where I worked until 11:30pm on a Sunday night. Anyone else wanna echo the “yeah, Biglaw sucks. I halved my salary to go do x but am way happier and fulfilled”?

P.S. I think we’ve exhausted the Leninist commentary, respectfully.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. One quick revival of this thread after coming off another weekend where I worked until 11:30pm on a Sunday night. Anyone else wanna echo the “yeah, Biglaw sucks. I halved my salary to go do x but am way happier and fulfilled”?

P.S. I think we’ve exhausted the Leninist commentary, respectfully.

This is what I am here for. Anyone just quit (without debt) and just chill for a couple years? That's what I'd like to do tbh.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. One quick revival of this thread after coming off another weekend where I worked until 11:30pm on a Sunday night. Anyone else wanna echo the “yeah, Biglaw sucks. I halved my salary to go do x but am way happier and fulfilled”?

P.S. I think we’ve exhausted the Leninist commentary, respectfully.

This is what I am here for. Anyone just quit (without debt) and just chill for a couple years? That's what I'd like to do tbh.

Ha, interesting idea. Not sure how it’d play on the résumé, though.

[MarcusH]

OP here. One quick revival of this thread after coming off another weekend where I worked until 11:30pm on a Sunday night. Anyone else wanna echo the “yeah, Biglaw sucks. I halved my salary to go do x but am way happier and fulfilled”?

P.S. I think we’ve exhausted the Leninist commentary, respectfully.

This is what I am here for. Anyone just quit (without debt) and just chill for a couple years? That's what I'd like to do tbh.

Ha, interesting idea. Not sure how it’d play on the résumé, though.

You see this fairly often at the upper-mid level to senior level. Would never personally do it, but the people I've seen do it, usually have sufficient experience to land on their feet somewhere if they don't take off more than a couple of years.

[objctnyrhnr]

OP here. One quick revival of this thread after coming off another weekend where I worked until 11:30pm on a Sunday night. Anyone else wanna echo the “yeah, Biglaw sucks. I halved my salary to go do x but am way happier and fulfilled”?

P.S. I think we’ve exhausted the Leninist commentary, respectfully.

This is what I am here for. Anyone just quit (without debt) and just chill for a couple years? That's what I'd like to do tbh.

Ha, interesting idea. Not sure how it’d play on the résumé, though.

You see this fairly often at the upper-mid level to senior level. Would never personally do it, but the people I've seen do it, usually have sufficient experience to land on their feet somewhere if they don't take off more than a couple of years.

Feels to me like lateraling and pushing a start date would be the play. Just say you can’t start for x months due to a family whatever. What are they gonna do? If they say yeah that’s literally not possible then you have a decision to make. But worth a shot I think.

[axiomaticapiary]

So many people here are such funny writers. 0L here who has been consistently amused by the high-quality writing and sardonic wit on this forum. I can tell so many here were humanities types who excelled at some sort of wordy pursuit and ended up doing law because they couldn't figure out how else to leverage these skills. (This is the exact position I am currently in so maybe I am projecting).