Wondering if Big Law is right for you? How to get/succeed in a Summer Associate job? Read this. Forum

[macgruber]

If you're a law student wondering if a job in Big Law is right for you, or how to get a job as a summer associate, or how to succeed as a summer associate, you'll want to read "Big Law Confidential" -- a book out now and available at Amazon.

Wondering what it's really like to work in one of the world's largest law firms? How to get a job in a Big Law firm potentially making $230,000 per year or more? What it really takes to earn a promotion to partner in a Big Law firm? Whatever your questions about Big Law, and whoever you are, this book is for you.

“Big Law” is a term used to describe the largest for-profit law firms, which each employ hundreds to thousands of attorneys and other staff, and generate hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in revenues each year from selling legal services.

Big Law firms are some of the wealthiest, and most powerful, influential, and secretive, organizations in the modern professional world. Never before has a partner or leader at a Big Law firm disclosed detailed information about the inner workings of, and comprehensively described what it’s really like to work in, a Big Law firm. Until now.

Big Law Confidential is a truly comprehensive guide, with detailed information, suggestions for consideration, resources, and actionable tips and tricks, on nearly every question and topic relating to legal practice in Big Law firms operating in the U.S. Big Law Confidential enables readers to:
(i) understand what Big Law is, who the players are in Big Law firms, how Big Law firms operate and are managed, and how Big Law firms make money;
(ii) get a very good sense of what working at a Big Law firm can be like, including a minute-by-minute look at what a day in the life of a Big Law firm attorney might be like;
(iii) learn about how Big Law firms recruit, hire, train, compensate, evaluate, treat, promote, and terminate summer associates and attorneys--including what it really takes to get a job offer with a Big Law firm or earn a promotion to partner;
(iv) decide whether a career in Big Law may be the right choice; and
(v) maximize success and make the most of, any time working in Big Law, and with opportunities thereafter.

Big Law firms don't want you to read this book. And that's exactly why you'll want to do so.

lol

[ignorantfoot96]

As a junior, I can answer these questions for you, as can almost anyone else in BL.

(i) understand what Big Law is, who the players are in Big Law firms, how Big Law firms operate and are managed, and how Big Law firms make money; [corp firms or elite litigation shops, chambers rankings based on practice group/location, they operate off of high billable rates and associates churning hours & hours for relatively mundane tasks (also how they make money]]

(ii) get a very good sense of what working at a Big Law firm can be like, including a minute-by-minute look at what a day in the life of a Big Law firm attorney might be like; [Imagine a 10 to 12 hour day that actually only translates to 6 to 8 hours of billable time]

(iii) learn about how Big Law firms recruit, hire, train, compensate, evaluate, treat, promote, and terminate summer associates and attorneys--including what it really takes to get a job offer with a Big Law firm or earn a promotion to partner; [T-14 school don't have to worry about grades as long as you're normal and bid correctly, T-20 school upper 50%, T-100 top 10% (except a few regionals Fordham, Hastings, Irvine, idk the rest of the strong regionals) - hard to not get an offer unless you're truly abnormal - evaluation is 100% dependent on the individuals evaluating you (I've had great detailed reviews and I've had one sentence reviews, compensation is all firm dependent and publicly available unless it is a blackbox firm, in which case this book would not have the answer to that question]

(iv) decide whether a career in Big Law may be the right choice; and [it's the right choice if you want to go in house and maximize exit opportunities IF you have the flexibility to accommodate a rough work/life balance or need to pay off loans]

(v) maximize success and make the most of, any time working in Big Law, and with opportunities thereafter. [be responsive and positive, juniors have low competency expectations generally]

[AuthorDWRandolph]

@ignorantfoot96 - There's some truth to what you wrote, but there's also so much more to it than what you wrote. To take just one example, compensation for some associates, at some Big Law firms, is publicly available. Compensation for staff attorneys, associates on part-time work schedules, counsel, income partners, and most equity partners is not usually publicly available. Even where equity partner comp numbers are reported in Am Law, those are often averages and don't reflect what most equity partners actually make, or the differences between the highest- and lowest-paid equity partners in a firm. You should read a book before asserting with certainty that you know what it does or doesn't contain. Detailed comp info, including an inside look at firms with "black box" comp structures, is covered in the book Big Law Confidential (and by a Big Law firm partner who has been in the room with firm management when partner and other attorney comp decisions were made).

[cavalier1138]

Maybe your book is truly excellent. But I promise you that no one with a functioning brain is going to read

Big Law firms don't want you to read this book. And that's exactly why you'll want to do so.

and think that this isn't an elaborate smokescreen for the latest MLM.

Also, please knock it off with the shameless self-promotion. These forums are meant for people to get candid advice, not for them to get ads for your book. If you want to advertise your product, pay for SEO and social media sponsored posts like everyone else.