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I'm in biglaw (third year) and slowly but surely prepping to leave. However, I kind of want to prepare myself and see how attractive I am right now as well as what the interview processes would be like (I'm looking at several governmental agencies (mainly SEC) and in-house positions (at several large companies). I, however, think it's a bit too early for me to leave (I think I still have about 1.5-2 years of biglaw in me) in order to really develop a good nest egg and pay off all my student loans.

My only thought is that if I somehow get to the offer stage and I renege, if it will be in bad form? I obviously won't go like "Psych! Just a practice run!" and more indicate that my firm has indicated they really want me to stay, threw some bonuses my way, etc. but just want to consider if there are any other risks? Or is my entire idea of testing the water bananas anyway?

The risk of doing this somewhere you’d really like to work down the line is that they’ll take you less seriously the next time around (that is, they’ll assume the same thing could happen again and may go with someone who hasn’t turned them down once). It may not torpedo you, but it will depend on how otherwise competitive you are and who the other candidates are.

I think a practice round where you know for certain you wouldn’t take the job is a big waste of time and energy - both yours and the employers’. Putting together applications and interviewing takes up time and mental energy (it’s not like OCI, which obviously can take a lot of time but is sort of passive in the sense that it’s a huge machine grinding through lots of people). If you’re not sure you’d leave yet but you’d genuinely consider a given job, that’s one thing - you don’t have to know for certain you’d take a given job - but if you know for certain you wouldn’t, then it’s just a waste of everyone’s time to apply.

I also don’t think knowing the interview processes in that much detail ahead of time is going to make much of a difference. Either you’re competitive in terms of experience/skill and can interview competently or you’re not. If you need to go through the interview once to be able to succeed in the interview, you may not make a very good impression the first time around, if that makes sense.

The biggest plus to applying/interviewing is getting to know some of the people involved and getting some inside scoop about how they operate. That certainly could help you sell yourself, but I don’t think it’s enough to justify going through the whole application process. I think you can get that information other ways.

(It may also take you another 1.5-2 years to find a job, depending on what you’re looking for, your experience, and who’s hiring when. Openings don’t always come up on your preferred timeline.)

As the other poster said, I think the biggest risk would be that you might be shooting yourself in the foot for when you are actually serious and the same companies/orgs/recruiters see your name and remember the rug pull. One way to start to dip your toe in without actually burning bridges may be to reach out to folks for "informational" chats, i.e. you are starting to think about your career trajectory long term, see that this person on LinkedIn or wherever has a path that looks interesting to you, and you want to chat. This could be a good way to start to network for when you eventually want to get serious, and is actually a good way to get information about the transition.

Also as the other poster flagged, depending on the roles and your experience, don't expect the hiring timeline to work out perfectly, it may move slower than you think. I know people personally who were applying to in house gigs for well over a year before securing an offer.

Given your timeline, I think now is a good time to start talking to the recruiters who are cold-calling/emailing you with in-house jobs (assuming you have completely ignored them until now, like I did). Most of them are pretty useless, but you will eventually find a few that are helpful -- they are the best resource you will have in order to get a feel for what the market is like in your practice, what class levels are the most sought after, what the interview/hiring process/timeline is generally like, what most employers are looking for, in a candidate, etc.

This will all be much more helpful than randomly applying to some in-house role you have no intention of taking, just so you can get the interview practice. Also, those recruiters will know what you are looking for, so will remember to keep you in the loop over the next year or so if any good openings become available.

It's only too early to leave because you want to make biglaw money. Set a number you'd be willing to leave biglaw for now. Interviews and turn down any job that pays less.