Missing private practice Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just came over to the government and the job isn’t what I hoped it would be. Don’t enjoy the work and I actually liked it at my firm. How long do I need to stick it out before making the call to return to my firm (if they’ll take me…)?

[Anonymous User]

Just came over to the government and the job isn’t what I hoped it would be. Don’t enjoy the work and I actually liked it at my firm. How long do I need to stick it out before making the call to return to my firm (if they’ll take me…)?

I don't think you need to wait? If it's not the right job for you, no point in sticking it out - call up your old firm right away. I think if the pitch you want to make to them is "this job isn't for me," there's no real reason to delay, beyond the minimal amount of time required to plausibly learn that job isn't for you.

The exception would be if you're the situation that some others have posted about, you need government experience to make yourself a plausible partner candidate. If that's the case, how long you need to stick it out probably depends on how senior you are now and what experience you're getting and so on. My gut response is that less than five years isn't really enough to sell yourself as the "experienced government attorney" type, but it's really impossible to say in a vacuum.

(Am curious about what you don't enjoy about the work, but that's pure nosiness and doesn't have anything to do with your question.)

[Anonymous User]

I thought i might be missing private practice the other day. Then i got a 17 page, single-spaced letter asking to meet and confer on some discovery responses and thought to myself, "holy shit, I can't go back to that."

[Anonymous User]

what agency?

what you could do is stick out your probabtionary period.

it might be as long as two years.

that way, you'll have a track record as a sane and competent employee and will be able to make the jump back if for some strange reason you wanted to.

I'm not crazy about my new bigfed job either, but I don't think I'd ever be qualified to join as a midlevel or something.

imagine some psycho bloated boomer dumping a casefile on you and screaming at you when you have no idea what's going on.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. I was unsure when I accepted the position and didn’t fully want to leave private practice, but it’s somewhat helpful for making partner in the long run. My girlfriend even remarked that I seem so defeated logging in each day.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. I was unsure when I accepted the position and didn’t fully want to leave private practice, but it’s somewhat helpful for making partner in the long run. My girlfriend even remarked that I seem so defeated logging in each day.

With all due respect, don't let your gf see you feeling defeated.

If you want to stay in public service, you might try to lateral to another agency after just one year or so. One year is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to show propsective employers that you really tried it and it wasn't for you. You're also showing your commitment to public service by lateralling from agency to agency. And it can be from an investigative role to a trial role, or from a compliance role to one of the other two, etc.

Start applying after 6 months, if you're desperate.