Lateral from Midlaw Forum

(Deciding to leave, same firm different office, Reference requests)
Anonymous User
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Lateral from Midlaw

Post by Anonymous User » Sat May 29, 2021 2:32 pm

I'm currently a 6th year associate in a midlaw firm (about 100 attorneys) and am thinking of lateraling to biglaw. I'd appreciate your thoughts on whether I'm suffering from "grass is greener" syndrome based on the circumstances below.

My practice is exclusively regulatory (e.g., healthcare, environmental, occupational safety, etc.). My firm is based in a relatively low-cost secondary market, but I work in a satellite office in a major market. The things I like about my firm are:

-Reasonable hours/schedule - Billable target is technically 1750 hrs, although they are lax about it. Frankly, I've only hit the target once. Rarely are there fire drills. Partners are specifically instructed not to give work to an associate after 3 PM and expect that it be returned that same day, unless it is an absolute emergency. And when it is a real emergency, partners are profusely apologetic and go out of their way to thank you for accommodating.

-Standing/work - Over the years I've built up a good reputation within the organization, and partners generally respect me and trust my work. I feel indispensable and secure in my current position. And I've been informally told by some partners that if I stick around for another 3 yrs or so, the expectation is I'll be made partner.

The main reason I'm considering leaving is the pay. My base salary is $155k, which seems low for a 6th yr in a large market. Bonuses are seldom >$5k, regardless of whether the billable target is met. Also there is severe compression in the pay scale, as 1st years make $135k. My understanding is junior partners make ~$200k, and established partners usually are ~$250k total compensation. These numbers seem really low to me for even a midlaw firm, especially while living in a major market. I hate comparing myself to others, but sometimes it is admittedly frustrating to think that 1st year associates in biglaw are making more than not only me, but even junior partners (although I certainly appreciate the work environment I'm in).

With this in mind, my questions are:

1) For those in midlaw, how does the pay scale I described above match up with your organization, both in terms of amount and compression? Obviously there will be a lot of variability based on location and practice, but any data points would be helpful.

2) For senior associates in biglaw specifically in a regulatory practice, what is your billable target, how strict is your firm on meeting them (considering that it's harder to bill hours in regulatory IMO), and how irregular is the work schedule. I'd imagine things would be rough for first years, but do things improve for senior associates? Again, I'm trying to focus on regulatory, since from what I've heard things are a bit different than for, say, litigation or M&A associates.

3) How viable of a strategy do you think it would be to lateral to biglaw with the stipulation of working on a borderline part-time basis (e.g., a 10% reduced schedule), obviously with reduction in pay?

4) Although I know everyone's opinion will vary based on what's important to them, just out of curiosity, considering the circumstances above, if you were in my shoes would you stay in midlaw or try to jump to biglaw?

Any other thoughts would be appreciated too.

objctnyrhnr

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Re: Lateral from Midlaw

Post by objctnyrhnr » Sat May 29, 2021 10:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat May 29, 2021 2:32 pm
I'm currently a 6th year associate in a midlaw firm (about 100 attorneys) and am thinking of lateraling to biglaw. I'd appreciate your thoughts on whether I'm suffering from "grass is greener" syndrome based on the circumstances below.

My practice is exclusively regulatory (e.g., healthcare, environmental, occupational safety, etc.). My firm is based in a relatively low-cost secondary market, but I work in a satellite office in a major market. The things I like about my firm are:

-Reasonable hours/schedule - Billable target is technically 1750 hrs, although they are lax about it. Frankly, I've only hit the target once. Rarely are there fire drills. Partners are specifically instructed not to give work to an associate after 3 PM and expect that it be returned that same day, unless it is an absolute emergency. And when it is a real emergency, partners are profusely apologetic and go out of their way to thank you for accommodating.

-Standing/work - Over the years I've built up a good reputation within the organization, and partners generally respect me and trust my work. I feel indispensable and secure in my current position. And I've been informally told by some partners that if I stick around for another 3 yrs or so, the expectation is I'll be made partner.

The main reason I'm considering leaving is the pay. My base salary is $155k, which seems low for a 6th yr in a large market. Bonuses are seldom >$5k, regardless of whether the billable target is met. Also there is severe compression in the pay scale, as 1st years make $135k. My understanding is junior partners make ~$200k, and established partners usually are ~$250k total compensation. These numbers seem really low to me for even a midlaw firm, especially while living in a major market. I hate comparing myself to others, but sometimes it is admittedly frustrating to think that 1st year associates in biglaw are making more than not only me, but even junior partners (although I certainly appreciate the work environment I'm in).

With this in mind, my questions are:

1) For those in midlaw, how does the pay scale I described above match up with your organization, both in terms of amount and compression? Obviously there will be a lot of variability based on location and practice, but any data points would be helpful.

2) For senior associates in biglaw specifically in a regulatory practice, what is your billable target, how strict is your firm on meeting them (considering that it's harder to bill hours in regulatory IMO), and how irregular is the work schedule. I'd imagine things would be rough for first years, but do things improve for senior associates? Again, I'm trying to focus on regulatory, since from what I've heard things are a bit different than for, say, litigation or M&A associates.

3) How viable of a strategy do you think it would be to lateral to biglaw with the stipulation of working on a borderline part-time basis (e.g., a 10% reduced schedule), obviously with reduction in pay?

4) Although I know everyone's opinion will vary based on what's important to them, just out of curiosity, considering the circumstances above, if you were in my shoes would you stay in midlaw or try to jump to biglaw?

Any other thoughts would be appreciated too.
Background — mid/senior in large v30 biglaw firm. Hours target 1900-2k (vague on purpose) but in my view it’s very important to make it each year. I typically go 2200 or so. Lockstep pay and consistent and full market bonus match. Lit associate but regulatory and lit are in same vertical so there’s some overlap, which is why I felt my data points would be helpful. Fairly major market (ie not nyc or dc but like just below).

1) not in midlaw but that scale sounds pretty brutal. Although I can’t say for certain that it’s lower than top midlaw shops in my market, I definitely suspect that it is.

2) my work schedule is fairly regular and anecdotally I believe that regulatory associates’ schedules are even more regular. In my firm in lit, once you’re a well respected mid/senior running cases...with some exceptions, if you want an extension on a brief then you just go out and get it from the court. Don’t do it all the time, but it’s typically it’s an ‘ask forgiveness rather than permission’ situation in my view.

3) not viable at all. That’s a unicorn situation you described. Everybody wants that, nobody has it. Gotta be a reason.

4) jump definitely, but just be prepared to work a bit more. Truly, it’s not a big deal. All the “this is horrible” biglaw people are corporate or frankly just don’t know how to make the most use of their time or alternatively never had the ambition/drive/ability to hack it to begin with. I now wholeheartedly believe that there’s absolutely a selection bias when you see the biglaw naysayers fill the Reddit/TLS threads, and I note that this affected me a lot when I was considering biglaw. I have family hobbies and sleep a lot and exercise regularly etc etc etc and it’s totally fine to hit 2200. Probably work a chunk of hours a couple weekend days a month...but I have enough control over my own schedules and deadlines (as I mentioned above) that this isn’t that big a deal.


In my view the only real benefit to your situation is partnership potential, which decreases dramatically in lit/regulatory once you get to the big leagues (unless you have big business connections, stars align for you in some degree, or you have experience in a big federal agency of some sort). But the pay at your shop is so bad as you described that this would only arguably be a reason to stay (in my view) if the title/tenure aspect was very appealing to you.

Reasonable minds will differ with all the above, and once again I’m not strictly regulatory, but that’s my 2 cents. Hope it was helpful.

sparty99

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Re: Lateral from Midlaw

Post by sparty99 » Sun May 30, 2021 1:28 pm

I might stay if you actually have a life and can enjoy your free time. Otherwise, the new firm could work you to death. I suppose you could always try to return to your current firm if you leave and it sucks.

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