How bad would it be to quit without a backup plan? (first year in biglaw) Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey folks. I'm probably going to get some hate for this, but here goes. I'm a first year lit associate at a v10 (7 months into the job) and I hate it so much. Classic biglaw stuff - bad workload, unpredictable schedule, night/weekend work, etc. I was, in theory, prepared for the hours going in, but it's a lot worse to actually live it day-to-day. Most of the work I'm getting is essentially admin work, so I'm not being challenged and I'm not really learning. I also have a medical condition that is normally totally manageable but flares up with extreme stress, and biglaw has made it worse.

The main thing, though, is that I just really don't think I want to be a lawyer. And I definitely don't want to be a lawyer in biglaw. Looking at the types of work others in higher class years are doing, none of it looks interesting to me. Weirdly, I loved law school - always learning, lots of writing and reading, and the ability to mostly set my own schedule. I was also a paralegal for more than 4 years before law school so I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Apparently not .

So my question is this: how bad would it be to just quit and then look for something else/figure out what I want to do with my career? I don't feel like I have time/bandwidth to job hunt, work with a career advisor, etc. while working biglaw hours. If it matters, I have no debt, about $100k in savings, no partner or dependents, and my living costs can be pretty low if necessary (cheap rent and no mortgage). Mostly wondering how bad a gap in the resume would look to potential future non-law (or at least non-biglaw) employers. And, if I go this route, what's the best way to break the news to my firm without burning too many bridges. Happy to blame it on my health/stress if that would help soften the blow.

Thanks in advance!

[jotarokujo]

Weirdly, I loved law school - always learning, lots of writing and reading, and the ability to mostly set my own schedule.

this suggests you should probably stay in law.

I would say just start coasting/doing very little work. that should buy you at least ~3 months before you get a talk, after which you should get a few more months. then, you'll be let go with maybe 3 months severance. that buys you over half a year to come up with a plan.

you could alternatively/additionally go on mental health leave to buy some time

[theswisswereright]

Weirdly, I loved law school - always learning, lots of writing and reading, and the ability to mostly set my own schedule.

this suggests you should probably stay in law.

I would say just start coasting/doing very little work. that should buy you at least ~3 months before you get a talk, after which you should get a few more months. then, you'll be let go with maybe 3 months severance. that buys you over half a year to come up with a plan.

you could alternatively/additionally go on mental health leave to buy some time

Congrats on no debt and good savings, because that does remove some of the pressure.

Seconding that you should at least look into a leave of absence related to your health before quitting with no plan-- check your firm's policy on those, some will even pay your salary during. You could use the leave time to evaluate what you want to do and look at other career options.

People keep telling me that there are ways to practice law and be healthy and happy. I haven't found mine yet, but I'm still searching.

[Anonymous User]

Alternatively, as one mentioned, coast for 3-6 months, but then lateral and then coast for another 3-6 months, then lateral (change to corporate) and coast for another 3-6 months, then figure out what job you want.

[TUwave]

Alternatively, as one mentioned, coast for 3-6 months, but then lateral and then coast for another 3-6 months, then lateral (change to corporate) and coast for another 3-6 months, then figure out what job you want.

This is the way.

[Anonymous User]

Deleted.

[Idontwanttomakeaname]

Weirdly, I loved law school - always learning, lots of writing and reading, and the ability to mostly set my own schedule.

this suggests you should probably stay in law.

I would say just start coasting/doing very little work. that should buy you at least ~3 months before you get a talk, after which you should get a few more months. then, you'll be let go with maybe 3 months severance. that buys you over half a year to come up with a plan.

you could alternatively/additionally go on mental health leave to buy some time

I think this is right. Big law is brutal but there are other ways to be a lawyer and if you’re not that concerned about money, you might want to look into options that will allow you to keep practicing but which are more low key.

[Anonymous User]

Also a first year that is now about 6 months into Biglaw, and I am literally day-dreaming of doing this. I have no debt and a business degree. I understand it’s kind of reckless but Biglaw sucks and this is my first ever job (K-JD). Thought I would theoretically be okay but boy do I now wish I had a 9-6.

[Anonymous User]

Another first year wanting to quit checking in. I’m working with a recruiter to see about lateraling to maybe extend my shelf life and possibly pivot to a more specialized group within corporate, but I definitely do not think this is for me. Like OP I loved law school but this job has made me feel like it was a huge mistake. I had a low paying 9-5 pre-law school and I’d frankly do anything to go back because my husband makes a decent salary and we have no debt or children (with no intentions of having them). I didn’t have to think about work at all when I wasn’t there. I can hardly get out of bed in the morning and feel like I am wasting my life away.

[Wild Card]

there still are judges looking to hire clerks for the 2021-22 term

[nealric]

there still are judges looking to hire clerks for the 2021-22 term

This is a good idea. A clerkship would give you a lot of reading/writing opportunities without the Biglaw grind. You can leave your firm for a clerkship with no hard feelings or career detriment.

I don't think you should give up on law if you enjoyed law school. It sounds like you really just don't like your current situation.

Don't just quit with nothing lined up unless you are truly convinced that you want to leave law altogether AND have a pretty good idea of what you want to do instead.

[Nothing but the Funk]

I did this after about 3 months in biglaw. I couldn't stand it, almost had a mental breakdown one day after a week of long nights and constant emails and just quit on the spot. I ended up getting lucky, I landed a contract attorney job quickly which paid my bills until I found a government job that I started this spring and love. It's a true 8 hour day and I don't even have a work phone, so no expectation to work when you are not here. I am glad I made the choice I did, but I don't know that I can recommend it, and it was a lot more luck than I was comfortable with. In retrospect I likely should have stuck it out and applied while still working but I couldn't get up the motivation to do anything but collapse in my bed at the end of the day. Just know that it is better outside of biglaw and if wore comes to worse and you need to make the call between your health and the job pick your health. You are valuable and important and if you could make it to biglaw in the first place you will be fine in the long run regardless.

[sparty99]

You would be stupid to quit now. You have no debt. Work in big law 1 to 2 more years and leave with an additional 60,000 to 120,000. You can easily lateral to make this possible. You need to think long term. Imagine what 1 to 2 more years can do for early retirement. It would take some people a decade to save 60,000 to 120,000.

[nixy]

You would be stupid to quit now. You have no debt. Work in big law 1 to 2 more years and leave with an additional 60,000 to 120,000. You can easily lateral to make this possible. You need to think long term. Imagine what 1 to 2 more years can do for early retirement. It would take some people a decade to save 60,000 to 120,000.

They don't have any debt and more savings than probably the vast majority of people their age. By your reasoning there's never going to be a right time to quit because they can always stay longer and make more money. Biglaw is affecting their health. Just because you would stay longer doesn't make it stupid for them to quit now.

[eastcoast_iub]

You would be stupid to quit now. You have no debt. Work in big law 1 to 2 more years and leave with an additional 60,000 to 120,000. You can easily lateral to make this possible. You need to think long term. Imagine what 1 to 2 more years can do for early retirement. It would take some people a decade to save 60,000 to 120,000.

Agree, you should stick it out. Since you clearly don't care about making partner, do a mediocre but serviceable job and don't be afraid to turn down work (within reason if your hours are at least ~150/month). You will be way more marketable after even 2 years, it will look better on your resume, and the money you save now can enable an early retirement. Also, things will get easier after some additional time in the job after you get some reps in and have some idea of what you are doing. You also get a better sense of when e-mails can wait for a response, and when you can push back on unreasonable deadlines and say no to assignments, as you get more experience.

Also, if you can switch to a specialist group it will probably extend your shelf life. Front-line M&A/cap markets is the seventh layer of BigLaw hell.

[nixy]

I'll preface this by saying that sticking it out a bit longer isn't a terrible idea, but this

You will be way more marketable after even 2 years, it will look better on your resume

only matters if they decide they want to stay in law. If they do decide to leave law entirely, it's just 2 more years of not figuring out what they really want to do and getting experience relevant to that. I really don't think non-law employers will care if someone stuck it out for a couple of years or bailed right away, as long as they can effectively explain why they want to do whatever field it is they turn to next.

Also,

if you can switch to a specialist group it will probably extend your shelf life. Front-line M&A/cap markets is the seventh layer of BigLaw hell.

is pretty fair, but the OP is in lit.

[sparty99]

You would be stupid to quit now. You have no debt. Work in big law 1 to 2 more years and leave with an additional 60,000 to 120,000. You can easily lateral to make this possible. You need to think long term. Imagine what 1 to 2 more years can do for early retirement. It would take some people a decade to save 60,000 to 120,000.

They don't have any debt and more savings than probably the vast majority of people their age. By your reasoning there's never going to be a right time to quit because they can always stay longer and make more money. Biglaw is affecting their health. Just because you would stay longer doesn't make it stupid for them to quit now.

Wrong. By my reasoning they have 60 to 120k. If they forgoe an easy 1 to 2 more years they miss out on that. The right time to quit is after 1 or 2 years. They will have over 200k by then which means in 9 years the 200k will be worth 400k in 16 years the 400k will be worth 800k. Think long term and stay.

[Anonymous User]

You would be stupid to quit now. You have no debt. Work in big law 1 to 2 more years and leave with an additional 60,000 to 120,000. You can easily lateral to make this possible. You need to think long term. Imagine what 1 to 2 more years can do for early retirement. It would take some people a decade to save 60,000 to 120,000.

Agree, you should stick it out. Since you clearly don't care about making partner, do a mediocre but serviceable job and don't be afraid to turn down work (within reason if your hours are at least ~150/month). You will be way more marketable after even 2 years, it will look better on your resume, and the money you save now can enable an early retirement. Also, things will get easier after some additional time in the job after you get some reps in and have some idea of what you are doing. You also get a better sense of when e-mails can wait for a response, and when you can push back on unreasonable deadlines and say no to assignments, as you get more experience.

Also, if you can switch to a specialist group it will probably extend your shelf life. Front-line M&A/cap markets is the seventh layer of BigLaw hell.

I’m one of the first year anons above. I’m actually in a specialist regulatory group in DC and clearly still quite unhappy. I thought hours would be somewhat more predictable and reasonable, but I’ve been billing at around 200 a month at very unpredictable times for like half my time here.

Does it get better? Am I just going through a rough patch?

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks for the advice, everyone! While I can see the value in sticking it out for another year or so (money and resume), I just don't think it's worth sacrificing my health. I put in a lot of time/effort/money recovering from a long-term medical condition and have backslid since working in biglaw because of the stress. I'm also in a very small office where doing a mediocre job and coasting by isn't super feasible without being noticed and actively pissing people off. I've also been put on two new matters today in addition to my already bad workload (LOL, this is going to be a fun weekend).

I think what I'm going to do is tell the firm what's going on and see if they'll work with me to give me some time to transition out while working a reduced caseload. That way I'd have time to look for a new job with more predictable hours. Worst thing they can say is no and then I'm still no worse off than I am now.

[eastcoast_iub]

You would be stupid to quit now. You have no debt. Work in big law 1 to 2 more years and leave with an additional 60,000 to 120,000. You can easily lateral to make this possible. You need to think long term. Imagine what 1 to 2 more years can do for early retirement. It would take some people a decade to save 60,000 to 120,000.

Agree, you should stick it out. Since you clearly don't care about making partner, do a mediocre but serviceable job and don't be afraid to turn down work (within reason if your hours are at least ~150/month). You will be way more marketable after even 2 years, it will look better on your resume, and the money you save now can enable an early retirement. Also, things will get easier after some additional time in the job after you get some reps in and have some idea of what you are doing. You also get a better sense of when e-mails can wait for a response, and when you can push back on unreasonable deadlines and say no to assignments, as you get more experience.

Also, if you can switch to a specialist group it will probably extend your shelf life. Front-line M&A/cap markets is the seventh layer of BigLaw hell.

I’m one of the first year anons above. I’m actually in a specialist regulatory group in DC and clearly still quite unhappy. I thought hours would be somewhat more predictable and reasonable, but I’ve been billing at around 200 a month at very unpredictable times for like half my time here.

Does it get better? Am I just going through a rough patch?

Generally speaking, a specialist regulatory group in DC should give you some of the best QoL you can get in BigLaw (comparatively), with the caveat that YMMV greatly depending on which specialist group, which firm, and the specific people you are working with.

As a first year, if you are doing deal support on a lot of deals it may feel overwhelming b/c this is your first time doing stuff and everything takes way longer than it would for someone with experience. Deal support is part of my practice, and I work on a lot of deals at once, but many of the tasks are now on auto-pilot and take very little time to do. So this aspect will definitely get better after you have 1 or 2 years under your belt.

There are also some subject matter-specific factors for my practice that make diligence lighter for my group as compared with most other specialist groups, which may or may not apply to you.

W/r/t personalities, I work under someone who is very hands-off and polite and I have a high level of autonomy, which allows me to manage my schedule and deadlines and generally makes my life way less stressful. If you are working with micro-managers and/or people who are curt and unfriendly, this can make your experience immeasurably worse. The people you work with is a huge factor in how your experience will be and whether you can sustain your time in BigLaw, and one that is unfortunately hard to assess from the outside looking in (and is more practice group-specific than firm-specific).

Regardless of the factors mentioned above though, the past year has been an unusually hot deal market that will not be sustained forever. This factor will assuredly get better (and is already with the significant decline in SPAC formations). Also, while there are exceptions to this rule, deal flow generally gets lighter as you move outside the V10 and down the rankings, so if your high pace does not let up you may be able to improve your situation by downgrading.

[eastcoast_iub]

I'll preface this by saying that sticking it out a bit longer isn't a terrible idea, but this

You will be way more marketable after even 2 years, it will look better on your resume

only matters if they decide they want to stay in law. If they do decide to leave law entirely, it's just 2 more years of not figuring out what they really want to do and getting experience relevant to that. I really don't think non-law employers will care if someone stuck it out for a couple of years or bailed right away, as long as they can effectively explain why they want to do whatever field it is they turn to next.

Also,

if you can switch to a specialist group it will probably extend your shelf life. Front-line M&A/cap markets is the seventh layer of BigLaw hell.

is pretty fair, but the OP is in lit.

I think that staying at a job for 6 months or something looks bad regardless of whether you are leaving the law or not, although certainly not an insurmountable obstacle.

Also if OP is not dead-set on lit, it is not too late to switch to a specialist group (and for some specialist groups there is some overlap in the skill-set/nature of the work between lit and the specialist group).

[nixy]

Re: short stints at a job - I don’t think this is a problem unless it’s a pattern. Though obviously the OP has to weigh the chances of getting someone like you vs someone like me reviewing an application.

[sparty99]

OP here. Thanks for the advice, everyone! While I can see the value in sticking it out for another year or so (money and resume), I just don't think it's worth sacrificing my health. I put in a lot of time/effort/money recovering from a long-term medical condition and have backslid since working in biglaw because of the stress. I'm also in a very small office where doing a mediocre job and coasting by isn't super feasible without being noticed and actively pissing people off. I've also been put on two new matters today in addition to my already bad workload (LOL, this is going to be a fun weekend).

I think what I'm going to do is tell the firm what's going on and see if they'll work with me to give me some time to transition out while working a reduced caseload. That way I'd have time to look for a new job with more predictable hours. Worst thing they can say is no and then I'm still no worse off than I am now.

You are making the wrong decision, but it's not my debt.

[nixy]

OP here. Thanks for the advice, everyone! While I can see the value in sticking it out for another year or so (money and resume), I just don't think it's worth sacrificing my health. I put in a lot of time/effort/money recovering from a long-term medical condition and have backslid since working in biglaw because of the stress. I'm also in a very small office where doing a mediocre job and coasting by isn't super feasible without being noticed and actively pissing people off. I've also been put on two new matters today in addition to my already bad workload (LOL, this is going to be a fun weekend).

I think what I'm going to do is tell the firm what's going on and see if they'll work with me to give me some time to transition out while working a reduced caseload. That way I'd have time to look for a new job with more predictable hours. Worst thing they can say is no and then I'm still no worse off than I am now.

You are making the wrong decision, but it's not my debt.

Nor is it your physical health.

[sparty99]

OP here. Thanks for the advice, everyone! While I can see the value in sticking it out for another year or so (money and resume), I just don't think it's worth sacrificing my health. I put in a lot of time/effort/money recovering from a long-term medical condition and have backslid since working in biglaw because of the stress. I'm also in a very small office where doing a mediocre job and coasting by isn't super feasible without being noticed and actively pissing people off. I've also been put on two new matters today in addition to my already bad workload (LOL, this is going to be a fun weekend).

I think what I'm going to do is tell the firm what's going on and see if they'll work with me to give me some time to transition out while working a reduced caseload. That way I'd have time to look for a new job with more predictable hours. Worst thing they can say is no and then I'm still no worse off than I am now.

You are making the wrong decision, but it's not my debt.

Nor is it your physical health.

No one has died from having to write a motion to dismiss.