When to let current firm know I’m lateraling Forum

[Anonymous User]

highly doubt anyone will have any issue as long as op does what's needed to help transition someone in after their two-week notice.

doing some weird "I'm off this now, no questions" is more likely to ruffle feathers

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

I intentionally left my departure date open when I left my first firm. It made it functionally impossible to staff me on new matters but I was able to string it along until the Friday before the Monday I started at my new firm.

For people who can't do this, I highly recommend giving more than two weeks of notice. It often makes your workload very chill if the period you give if less than the full life cycle of whatever it is you do.*


*Subject, of course, to securing the bag before you open your goddamn mouth.

[Anonymous User]

The best thing that happened to me when I left my last firm was that I had to get a conflict waiver so I had to inform the firm prior to my two weeks. Basically I was taken off all my matters and spent that week and the two week period in Miami, billing nothing and getting paid

[Anonymous User]

So I guess the concern is, when you give your old (current) firm notice that you will be leaving, even if you offer to stay 2 more weeks to "transition" your work to someone else, can't they just say "we think you can transition all your matters in 2 days, so please just do that and leave"? Like why would the firm keep you on, and pay you, for 2 more weeks when they know you'll just be doing almost nothing for that time? Especially at smaller firms (I'm at a lit boutique), it's not like they're totally insensitive to those costs..

[Anonymous User]

So I guess the concern is, when you give your old (current) firm notice that you will be leaving, even if you offer to stay 2 more weeks to "transition" your work to someone else, can't they just say "we think you can transition all your matters in 2 days, so please just do that and leave"? Like why would the firm keep you on, and pay you, for 2 more weeks when they know you'll just be doing almost nothing for that time? Especially at smaller firms (I'm at a lit boutique), it's not like they're totally insensitive to those costs..

This is the concern about giving 2 weeks at every job. Biglaw firms are not known for doing this however, so most people safely give 2 or more weeks. I have no idea how your firm treats people in your position, and if you don’t know/can’t find out, then you’re in the same position as lots of employees who have to weigh being walked out of their office as soon as they give notice vs. burning bridges by not giving any notice at all

[nixy]

^ this. You can’t know for certain - some employers do kick people out right away - but it’s uncommon in biglaw, and fairly uncommon in professional jobs generally, where they want to be able to expect you to offer 2 weeks’ notice. If firms start kicking everyone out as soon as they give notice, people will stop giving 2 weeks and just walk out on the spot.

Also, it actually does vary in how long it takes you to transition your matters. Some people (many) chill out for most of their notice period. But I’ve known people who’ve stayed late their last day to get it all done. I can’t imagine anyone in charge of paying you at your firm is really interested in parsing where you stand, especially if they have work of their own to do. They’re just not paying that much attention.

Besides, even in a boutique firm, 2 weeks of one associate’s salary isn’t generally worth the hassle and potential bad will of booting you early. 2 weeks for a first year is about $8000. If a law firm is worried that they might be losing out on a little under 4% of your salary because they’re not squeezing every hour of productivity possible out of you during those 2 weeks, they have bigger problems than you leaving.

[Dcc617]

Yeah, the concern is definitely the bonus. They probably won't can you when you give notice but there's a pretty decent chance they won't give you a bonus. It's not safe until it's in your bank account.