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Mods, would appreciate it if you deleted this. Thanks everyone for their replies.

Take a deep breath and exhale.

You clearly don’t want to be at your public sector gig, and this job seems like a good opportunity to at least break into private practice.

The firm may have jumped the gun during covid last year, when a lot of firms started trimming fat in order to survive.

Worst case scenario, you have to start looking again sooner rather than later. The alternative would’ve been staying at a job you couldn’t really stay at.

I think small firms can reconfigure themselves for all kinds of reasons, often personality driven. There could have been internal conflict (rather than just finances), and splitting up solved the conflict/eliminated any toxicity in the culture if those who remain are simpatico. It’s also entirely possible that the people who left to start their own firm wanted more control than they had at this firm, and/or wanted to take the practice in a different direction, but that doesn’t mean that you will be miserable.

In any case, I agree with the comment above that it sounds like you couldn’t stay at your current gig. This one will give you the chance to make some money and will give you private sector experience to help get you better options in the future. I also think that coming in new gives you some breathing room - even if it ultimately turns out to be a disaster (which is not at all inevitable), it will take a little time to get you integrated into everything and for problems to develop (if they do). So even if it doesn’t end up being the last job you ever take (which was pretty unlikely from the start), it doesn’t mean it won’t help you advance in your career.

At this point, it's too late to go backwards. Gotta move forwards. I wouldn't sweat it. Give it a chance. You might end up liking it. If not, you can always figure out your next steps. It's a lot easier to do that with a job than without one.

+1 to small firms breaking up for lots of reasons. And the nature of the beast is that any departure will be proportionally bigger. As long as they still have work for you, and good attorneys you want to work with, I don't think recent departures are necessarily a red flag. And tbh I doubt a reputable small firm in dire financial straits would be hiring associates.

Thanks everyone. I think I've just been on such high alert at my current job that I panicked too quickly. Will delete post due to potentially identifying info.