Small Town General Practice v. National Midlaw Firm Forum

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Small Town General Practice v. National Midlaw Firm

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:23 pm

Hi TLS,

I have a really difficult decision to make and I don't wanna give more information than is necessary.

I need to decide between a general practice firm in a small city with 20 lawyers or an AmLaw 200 firm in a major market. At the general practice firm, associates are expected to do a bit of everything, and at the AmLaw 200 firm I'd be streamlined into M&A. I've more or less only heard bad things about the AmLaw 200 firm (toxic firm culture, high attrition rate, unreasonably high billable expectations).

If money wasn't a factor, would I be nuts for tuning down the AmLaw 200 firm? In other words, can I be just as intellectually stimulated at a general practice firm doing a bit of commercial real estate and trusts and estates than doing mid-market M&A deals?

Thanks!

LittleRedCorvette

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Re: Small Town General Practice v. National Midlaw Firm

Post by LittleRedCorvette » Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:56 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:23 pm
Hi TLS,

I have a really difficult decision to make and I don't wanna give more information than is necessary.

I need to decide between a general practice firm in a small city with 20 lawyers or an AmLaw 200 firm in a major market. At the general practice firm, associates are expected to do a bit of everything, and at the AmLaw 200 firm I'd be streamlined into M&A. I've more or less only heard bad things about the AmLaw 200 firm (toxic firm culture, high attrition rate, unreasonably high billable expectations).

If money wasn't a factor, would I be nuts for tuning down the AmLaw 200 firm? In other words, can I be just as intellectually stimulated at a general practice firm doing a bit of commercial real estate and trusts and estates than doing mid-market M&A deals?

Thanks!
If money wasn't a factor, you'd be nuts to turn down the general practice firm.

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AntipodeanPhil

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Re: Small Town General Practice v. National Midlaw Firm

Post by AntipodeanPhil » Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:36 pm

Two points I would make:

1. If you're just out of law school or haven't been out long, it's going to be a lot easier to go from the AmLaw 200 firm to a small town practice in a few years than it will be to go the other way. And having a national brand on your resume could help with job opportunities further down the road, if you don't see yourself staying at a small town practice for ever.

2. One of the clients I work for at my AmLaw firm is a big company that buys large numbers of very small companies ($1m - $10m deals). I often work opposite small town general practice lawyers. At least 90% of them are very bad or awful lawyers. I've come across a couple of good ones, but it's rare. At the national midlaw firm, you will likely get good training, or at least good practices to emulate. It might just be in M&A, but a lot of that sort of thing generalizes.

legalpotato

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Re: Small Town General Practice v. National Midlaw Firm

Post by legalpotato » Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:37 pm

AntipodeanPhil wrote:
Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:36 pm
Two points I would make:

1. If you're just out of law school or haven't been out long, it's going to be a lot easier to go from the AmLaw 200 firm to a small town practice in a few years than it will be to go the other way. And having a national brand on your resume could help with job opportunities further down the road, if you don't see yourself staying at a small town practice for ever.

2. One of the clients I work for at my AmLaw firm is a big company that buys large numbers of very small companies ($1m - $10m deals). I often work opposite small town general practice lawyers. At least 90% of them are very bad or awful lawyers. I've come across a couple of good ones, but it's rare. At the national midlaw firm, you will likely get good training, or at least good practices to emulate. It might just be in M&A, but a lot of that sort of thing generalizes.
Agree with this - a few yrs at the midlaw firm won't hurt, at least so you can get a taste of how things operate at the higher levels and it might make you a more competitive lawyer at the small town firm.

With that said, I routinely have worse experiences with "AmLaw 200" firms than small town firms. At the small town firm, they will just accept whatever you send them as long as it is not ridiculous. At the AmLaw 200 firm, they are probably overcompensating and making fights over the dumbest things to try and flex and show "we are just as good as every other firm".

crazywafflez

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Re: Small Town General Practice v. National Midlaw Firm

Post by crazywafflez » Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:56 pm

I'm stuck on this- I actually chose the smaller town general practice firm. My town though is a midsized city in middle america (think metro 1-2 million) and I'm at one of the bigger (albeit, not biggest) firms in the city (around 60-75 attorneys) and it is a well-respected firm for our neck of the woods (I'm probs bias...). The pay was lower but CoL is lower here as well and I knew I wanted to be here and have my career here; moreover, I wanted to continue to make my connections here. Folks who come from outside the area, or lateral over here later, tend to go to another shop here that also makes decent money but is "less connected to the community" - take that for what it is worth, hah. I also didn't choose the bigger national firm because I knew I had a higher probability of being pushed out and I knew at my hometown firm my shot for partner was a lot better. However, as other posters have said, you aren't barred from working at the national firm and then trying to lateral back to your town.

In sum, if you wanna stay in that place forever and ever do the general practice firm. If you are considering going to other places or want more flexibility, take the national firm.

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