Related Posts
Bowl Leader
Conversation Starter
Enthusiast
Additional Posts in Consulting
Spoken like true consultants! 😆
Chief
Pro
Best books on leadership and sales skills?
Reason for not getting promoted. Go!
People who don't use Oxford commas are barbarians.
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Pro
Former MBB with a former Big law spouse.
Big law hours can be ibanking level of awful, especially the first few years, but you’re not traveling much. Big Law pay ramps up faster, but they reach pretty close to parity at partner level.
MBB offers a lot more varied and interesting (imo) exit options, many with pretty good WLB. In my experience, they also tended to pay better than the most common big law exit (going in house somewhere).
The worst part to me about big law was just an absolute utter lack of boundaries. While there can be some rough projects in MBB, it seemed the norm in big law—vacation, holiday, didn’t matter you were expected to be on call 24/7.
Rising Star
From what I gathered big law is worse than ibanking…when the bankers close their stuff the lawyers still have a lot of work to do…
Rising Star
Revealing that you didn’t ask about arguably the most important factor — the actual work you do in each job. If you aren’t a good fit for Big Law (or MBB), then you won’t last long to experience the other factors you listed
Chief
Big law will pay you more , significantly.
“Exit”? Associate, consulting is the only profession when someone join it to exit. Not every job works as a prison sentence. Pick a career that you will enjoy
S&1 wrong. Median age starting T14 law school is 24 and it’s usually a 3 year gig unless you do joint degree, then 4 years. Average age entering M7 B-school is 27. So that would put average JD graduate around 27 and average MBA graduate around 29. Not really that different in the grand scheme of things.
Chief
Both are soul crushing
Can't go wrong with either
Consultant with big law spouse here: big law makes consulting hours seem like 9-5… but pay is almost double for the first 3-4 years, with an actual expertise to exit to.
I have a STEM PhD so my exits are comparable to my partner’s in terms of opportunities and pay… side note we share our dinner stipends to feed the neighbors sometimes
Life science PhD, corporate strategy in big pharma is comparable to in house counsel… speaking from experience but ymmv
Honestly I think big law may be the move bc you have an actual profession and you can exit into industry but still have a good moat. Feels like MBB is becoming less valuable esp in this age of AI and in house strategy teams
Interesting use of a term for medieval castles in a 21st century context
Big law. That’s an easy one.
F
What’s funny with big law is Skadden will tell you how much each class makes on their website. Find an industry that is that transparent with pay. It’s not the work that is the selling point here. Your comp is literally tied to how many hours you work and there are billing minimums. WLB has to be the most brutal in any profession but it does pay.
I’ve done both. Happy to chat if helpful.
The work is vastly different - chances are one will motivate you over the other. Would get a sense of that before you make a decision - comp isn’t everything in these two intense jobs.
Totally agree. Testing the waters of big law now and likely will jump right back into consulting.
Former Bain and my best friend is BigLaw, so from what I’ve seen…
Bain definitely is less bad on hours, and LT actively try to work with you to manage, given lack of hourly billing. This is especially relevant on weekends.
BigLaw pays more and I don’t think it evens out at the partner level anymore
Consulting exits are more varied and can have a lot of upside but not always. BigLaw mostly exists to in-house counsel which is boring as sh*t
I imagine comparing revenue per employee gives you a pretty good indication of relative earning power
Latham & Watkins: $7bn revenue for ~7k employees
McK: $16-18bn revenue for 40k employees
Sure there may be some market bias but likely doesn't explain the 2-3x delta
Plus when you are considering earnings potential - you probably want to factor in analyst to partner realisation potential / years required - in which case, better partner ratios are probably more favourable?
So in summary, mbb is probably more varied with more interesting work and exits, but less job security and comp in the long run.
Big law more intense in terms of hours, exits limited and you need to love law to enjoy the work, but higher comp and less intense up or out.
I thought big law up and out was way more intense, all things considered... Multiple friends there