For those who left big law for DOJ, SEC, etc., what do you see as the best benefit to have done so (other than the reduction in workload)?

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Meaningful work, kind and supportive colleagues (no assholes), vacation time galore, never a sense of dread over an unexpected email ruining your life, super substantive work, own your own cases, excitement to do the work, ability to live my life outside of work, etc. I may make 1/3 of what I made as a biglaw midlevel but I’m easily 5x as happy.

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Cannot agree more. Moving from big law to DOJ was like taking a huge, deep breath and remembering why I wanted to be an attorney in the first place.

And I have a life now, which is nice.

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Vacation. Like real, stress free vacation. First you get a bunch of comp time hours. Most agencies have a policy that your hours after 40 convert to comp time which is just extra 1/1 leave. So you take a week and a half off. No pressure to work. I check my phone once a day just in case something interesting happens but don't feel the need to respond. Leave the United States and by law you can't even bring your phone or laptop without permission from a variety of offices across the government. So you go and you don't hear a peep about work.

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