Anyone have positive things to say about BigLaw? Forum

[J3987]

I am considering applying to law school this upcoming cycle, and as I've browsed this forum I have found a ton of negativity surrounding practice in BigLaw. This is surprising, because there seem to be clear benefits to practicing in a BigLaw environment -- you work with the biggest clients on relatively important matters, you deal with unique and complex cases, reasonable work/life balance (compared to i-bankers, hedge fund analysts, etc.) and you enjoy a fairly high salary, though this is by far the least compelling reason to go into practice.

I am unsure if this overwhelming negativity is due to a selection bias (the minority of lawyers who hate their jobs are more likely to post on TLS and vent), or if such a large percentage of BigLaw lawyers really had no idea what they were getting into when they went to law school.

I mean, the things that many seem to complain about -- long hours, meaningless work that amounts to semantic tail-chasing (in their opinion), hierarchical firm culture, etc. they should have known about before they went to law school. There is a lot of information out there about all these issues and they should not have been caught off guard when they excitedly walked through the door on day 1 at BigLaw Firm A. They chose to go to law school, which implies that, after careful consideration, they viewed it as their best option (as opposed to continuing working where they were, getting a different degree, etc.).

So, I am just looking for a more balanced perspective. I am asking any current/former BigLaw Associates, do you have any positive things to say about your experience? Did you actually enjoy the work and manage to have a life outside of it? Did you grow intellectually and professionally? Do you NOT regret your decision to go to law school? Let's hear it.

[IAFG]

So you want to dismiss all the negativity in broad strokes and then only hear comments that fall in line with your worldview. lol fuck off

[bk1]

Moved to appropriate forum.

Reminder: the legal employment forum is NOT for 0Ls.

[LeDique]

Will you believe everyone when you get no positive replies?

[Danger Zone]

I mean, sure. But do yourself a favor and read the rest of the thread.

[cotiger]

I love the tendency of the 0Ls who push back in these threads to assume that the attorneys on here somehow didn't consider these really basic arguments back when they were thinking about going to law school/aiming for biglaw.

It's not like the difficult work environment of biglaw has been a big secret until just now. They knew it required grueling hours going into, and (assumedly) they too thought that it wouldn't be too big of a deal in exchange for the high paycheck. It ended up being significantly worse than they expected.

[IAFG]

Will you believe everyone when you get no positive replies?

It won't come to that.

Sometimes they let us eat the leftover conference room food. If you're willing to wait until 2 pm you can get room temperature deli sandwiches a couple times a week.

I heard a rumor that after you work at the firm for two years your family gets the life insurance even if you kill yourself. So that's nice.

You're supposed to use your "personal" billing code for printing and phone calls but if you use your department's general unbillable code, the firm lets it slide.

Everyone feels really bad they're making me miss my own Mother's Day brunch. I don't even think they're bullshitting me, I think they sincerely feel bad.

[kcdc1]

Worked at a small boutique as a patent agent. Everyone was nice, 40-50 hour work weeks were typical, reasonable compensation. My wife works as a government attorney. Works 40 hours per week with every other Friday off, and earns 6 figures. Law jobs that aren't awful do exist--you just don't get paid 160k right out of school.

[cotiger]

And lest you think that IAFG is some bitter hater with a vendetta..

I still think people should go to law school, and even for a couple hundred grand in debt. I just want them to be less pleased with themselves about it.

[Flanker1067]

I'm not even in Biglaw (I work overseas in what I guess could be labeled midlaw) but here's a positive plug:

1. Money, after loans (which I can't even make real payments on), I am poor, my friends in Biglaw are not.

2. In law school, the school always brought in graduates that seemed happily employed in biglaw. Personally I think it was the prestige, especially the prestige among law students. They had that smug self satisfaction thing going on. That being said, it's hard to tell from those encounters whether they were really happy, but I think many of them genuinely were. My theory is that because many law students are nerds who never developed interests outside resume building activities, they don't value free time because they wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it. I mean, if your interests outside work are limited to watching tv, following sports, and hanging out with boring friends, then working isn't so bad.

[LeDique]

2. In law school, the school always brought in graduates that seemed happily employed in biglaw. Personally I think it was the prestige, especially the prestige among law students. They had that smug self satisfaction thing going on. That being said, it's hard to tell from those encounters whether they were really happy, but I think many of them genuinely were. My theory is that because many law students are nerds who never developed interests outside resume building activities, they don't value free time because they wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it. I mean, if your interests outside work are limited to watching tv, following sports, and hanging out with boring friends, then working isn't so bad.

lol

[Danger Zone]

Worked at a small boutique as a patent agent. Everyone was nice, 40-50 hour work weeks were typical, reasonable compensation. My wife works as a government attorney. Works 40 hours per week with every other Friday off, and earns 6 figures. Law jobs that aren't awful do exist--you just don't get paid 160k right out of school.

Does this post serve any purpose other than bragging about your and your wife's jobs? The OP was about working at a big law firm.

[IAFG]

Oh when my firm made me come back early from a weekend trip they paid for my transportation. I guess this isn't universal (unless you're actually taking a vacation day) so maybe something to ask about post-offer.

[rad lulz]

.

[Flanker1067]

reasonable work/life balance (compared to i-bankers, hedge fund analysts, etc.)

I especially love this part. The qualification is the best. It's like me saying "I'm a f***ing genius (compared to Cooley students) so I should rule the world."

[A. Nony Mouse]

I am considering applying to law school this upcoming cycle, and as I've browsed this forum I have found a ton of negativity surrounding practice in BigLaw. This is surprising, because there seem to be clear benefits to practicing in a BigLaw environment -- you work with the biggest clients on relatively important matters, you deal with unique and complex cases, reasonable work/life balance (compared to i-bankers, hedge fund analysts, etc.) and you enjoy a fairly high salary, though this is by far the least compelling reason to go into practice.

I am unsure if this overwhelming negativity is due to a selection bias (the minority of lawyers who hate their jobs are more likely to post on TLS and vent), or if such a large percentage of BigLaw lawyers really had no idea what they were getting into when they went to law school.

I mean, the things that many seem to complain about -- long hours, meaningless work that amounts to semantic tail-chasing (in their opinion), hierarchical firm culture, etc. they should have known about before they went to law school. There is a lot of information out there about all these issues and they should not have been caught off guard when they excitedly walked through the door on day 1 at BigLaw Firm A. They chose to go to law school, which implies that, after careful consideration, they viewed it as their best option (as opposed to continuing working where they were, getting a different degree, etc.).

So, I am just looking for a more balanced perspective. I am asking any current/former BigLaw Associates, do you have any positive things to say about your experience? Did you actually enjoy the work and manage to have a life outside of it? Did you grow intellectually and professionally? Do you NOT regret your decision to go to law school? Let's hear it.

You might try reading all the way through the recent threads on this subject, where a number of biglaw associates make clear it's not simply the hours or the hierarchical culture, that many of them like elements of the job, and that many of them do not regret going to law school. One of the main points of such threads is that it's not purely that biglaw is terrible - it's that biglaw is terrible especially when you can't possibly consider leaving because of the need to pay off massive debt, so don't go into massive debt. It's a little more nuanced than you're making it out to be.

[El Pollito]

Free dinner!

[IAFG]

The department does a birthday cake on the day of any attorney or secretary's birthday. You have to chip in $10 but.... there's a lot of cake around. If you're into sheet cake.

I know some people sometimes interoffice each other leftover cookies. Pretty sweet setup.

[AC Vegas]

I enjoy my job in between the suffering. Seriously though, it's not that bad. It's tough to complain to coworkers without it having some work related effect, so i think some people do use this as a place to vent. A lot of people are just pessimistic by nature, and enjoy the "you don't want my job" mentality. Some things that I think are important, which are probably obvious but I'll put them here anyway:
1) know what you want to do (like, literally the types of things you want to work on - prior work experience really helps with figuring out what these are) 2) shoot for a firm that gives you a chance to do these things (the dumbest thing to me is when people take a job just because of the name or rank of a firm) and 3) live in a city you want to live in

I know that beggars can't be choosers but in my experience people that have the credentials for biglaw will have a few options. Trying to put yourself in a job that you can handle beforehand gives you a better opportunity to be happy

That said, if all else fails, all your really have to do is last long enough to pay off your loans and then you can go work at Walmart or something

[dsamuels]

I am considering applying to law school this upcoming cycle, and as I've browsed this forum I have found a ton of negativity surrounding practice in BigLaw. This is surprising, because there seem to be clear benefits to practicing in a BigLaw environment -- you work with the biggest clients on relatively important matters, you deal with unique and complex cases, reasonable work/life balance (compared to i-bankers, hedge fund analysts, etc.) and you enjoy a fairly high salary, though this is by far the least compelling reason to go into practice.

I am unsure if this overwhelming negativity is due to a selection bias (the minority of lawyers who hate their jobs are more likely to post on TLS and vent), or if such a large percentage of BigLaw lawyers really had no idea what they were getting into when they went to law school.

I mean, the things that many seem to complain about -- long hours, meaningless work that amounts to semantic tail-chasing (in their opinion), hierarchical firm culture, etc. they should have known about before they went to law school. There is a lot of information out there about all these issues and they should not have been caught off guard when they excitedly walked through the door on day 1 at BigLaw Firm A. They chose to go to law school, which implies that, after careful consideration, they viewed it as their best option (as opposed to continuing working where they were, getting a different degree, etc.).

So, I am just looking for a more balanced perspective. I am asking any current/former BigLaw Associates, do you have any positive things to say about your experience? Did you actually enjoy the work and manage to have a life outside of it? Did you grow intellectually and professionally? Do you NOT regret your decision to go to law school? Let's hear it.

After looking at everyones else post, I'm as confused as them? Are you asking if you should or should not do law school? Because your not gonna find the answers here. If you gotta ask if you should do it = NO

[kcdc1]

Worked at a small boutique as a patent agent. Everyone was nice, 40-50 hour work weeks were typical, reasonable compensation. My wife works as a government attorney. Works 40 hours per week with every other Friday off, and earns 6 figures. Law jobs that aren't awful do exist--you just don't get paid 160k right out of school.

Does this post serve any purpose other than bragging about your and your wife's jobs? The OP was about working at a big law firm.

Friendly crowd. I suppose I thought that the OP was mostly looking to hear whether a law degree could lead to decent-paying jobs that don't ruin your life. I thought my experience might be relevant to the question. YMMV.

[dsamuels]

Worked at a small boutique as a patent agent. Everyone was nice, 40-50 hour work weeks were typical, reasonable compensation. My wife works as a government attorney. Works 40 hours per week with every other Friday off, and earns 6 figures. Law jobs that aren't awful do exist--you just don't get paid 160k right out of school.

Does this post serve any purpose other than bragging about your and your wife's jobs? The OP was about working at a big law firm.

Friendly crowd. I suppose I thought that the OP was mostly looking to hear whether a law degree could lead to decent-paying jobs that don't ruin your life. I thought my experience might be relevant to the question. YMMV.

Exactly why we were confused my friend. No one knows what he is truly asking. You did your best though!

[Danger Zone]

It was a bit harsh, but as a 0L answering questions in the "ask a law student/grad" forum you kinda brought it on yourself.

[homestyle28]

Paid for back-up child care.

For use when I can't take the day off just b/c kids school is closed.

[kcdc1]

It was a bit harsh, but as a 0L answering questions in the "ask a law student/grad" forum you kinda brought it on yourself.

Just thought my experience might be relevant to the OP's question. I do live with a practicing attorney.