Anyone know anything about what it’s like to work plaintiff-side? Would it be dumb for someone with stellar credentials to leave biglaw for plaintiffs’ side work?

Nobody has really ever explained much about this side of private practice to me. From what I can tell based on my experience:
(1) their cases are usually really weak (maybe my biglaw defense-side bias)
(2) their lawyers tend not to be as highly credentialed
(3) would offer better experiences for junior litigators

(Continued below)

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Don't know much about it, but one thing I can comment on having clerked is that their cases are not usually weak, especially if they can get in front of a jury. They know how to screen clients and only take cases they know they could win in front of a jury. Not to say every case is a slam dunk, but definitely not as weak as some BigLaw folks would like to believe.

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This depends on the type of work and the firm. I moved from plaintiffs side to big law, and big law is more manageable for me. Not all firms screen well, so the cases may be very weak and sometimes frivolous. The clients may be abusive. The exit options are very limited. The hours will likely be the same or more for significantly less pay. You will probably get more substantive experience, but depending on the type of firm/partners, you will be drowning and trying to figure out your cases on your own with no help or mentorship. Don’t want to dissuade you but these are some things to think about before taking the plunge!

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(4) the pay is less, but how much less? Also, seems like the ceiling is way higher than the defense side even if the mean/median is lower

(5) it’s seen as less prestigious and perhaps harder to later transition to in-house or back to defense side (what about govt, the same?)

(6) hours seem to be lower? Maybe a bit more humane of a culture as well?

(7) perhaps a bit more entrepreneurial/risky than biglaw and certainly less stifling/conservative

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Depends what kind of plaintiff firm. What kind of cases? Personal injury? Complex commercial lit?

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I was a plaintiff side securities lawyer who transitioned to biglaw. My thoughts roughly in the order you posted.

1) as a whole on paper the lawyers were not as well "credentialed" as some biglaw firms. But as a whole I think the the average lawyer was better at the p-side shop. It's kind of a necessity thing, can't have any week links when you're that keenly staffed and you don't benefit from billing out not great juniors and mid-levels. (Also the firm didn't give you a long runway or wait long to fire you, know multiple juniors fired in the first year they joined the firm.)

2) we thought out cases were strong ... I dunno, hard to judge there.

4) pay was honestly pretty bad compared to big law, especially once you hit like years 3/4 (where big law pay really jumps). Equity partners made $10m+ but that's obviously a rare gig that takes a longggg time to get.

5) exit options are weak, govt is kind of on the table (sec) but in house is not. (Reasons 4/5 are why I left).

6) substantive experience was better in some sense (got to take depos starting year 3, lots of substantive writing experience) but also very narrow. I was basically a specialist from day 1.

7) culturally the firm was less hierarchal. I could talk freely with partners and had a lot of leeway to respond to experts and opposing counsel without vetting everything. That said, client contact has actually been better at my big law firm but that may just be circumstances.

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8) forgot to mention hours, worse at the plaintiffs firm. A 2200 hour year was on the slow side and basically every senior associate billed 3k hour years (another factor for leaving, I knew I could make partner but wasn't sure I could mentally handle the 3 3k hour years I would need to pull during the run up period).

The schedule was pretty predictable though, so it was more just everyday being super long than a lot of last minute all nighters.

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Joe Jamail spent exactly 20 minutes in BigLaw before he quit, saying he knew it wasn’t going to work out. He went plaintiffs side and ended up becoming the wealthiest practicing attorney in the US. That is an exceptional case but to answer your question no it is not dumb

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Fulbright and Jaworski, now called Norton Rose Fulbright. He went to the DAs office first to get trial experience then plaintiffs side

(Also, the reason I’m posting in this bowl is to get the biglaw perspective on the other side)

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