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My friend at Cleary is taking 2 months unpaid leave just to rest. I’ve had friends quit and take 3+ months off to just rest before back into big law (new firms). Market is still hot assuming you’re transactional.
I don’t want to be partner at a firm. I’m just scared of not being able to continue on the professional path I worked so hard for.
I've also known ppl taking 3-6 months off unpaid medical leave and come back unscathed and going up a class year with their original class. They have no intent on making partner so why not?
Also know 3 people across different firms who took California SDI leave (paid) for mental health/burnout. Their therapists helped them navigate it.
I left a big law job after less than 2 years and took 5 months off. It took me less than a month to find a new law job at a small firm once I started looking. Anecdotal experience, I know, but it was the best move I could have made, having decided I could not deal with big law life.
Thank you! Makes me happy to hear. Also—glad it worked out for you.
A colleague of mine recently left big law without having anything else lined up. It’s really hard to find another job while sometimes working 60-100 hours a week! I agree that the market will still be hot after a couple of months. I told the head of my group that this sounded great and she already knows I might have one foot out the door and am unhappy. She essentially said if I want to work under my hours, that’s fine and she’d help make that happen. Honestly, she called a bunch of other people I work for and essentially said, transition this associate off. It’s the beginning, and I know I will still be busy at times, but I’m now more open about taking time off from work and went from being 100%+ of my hours to date to 87% of my hours to date in three months. I feel so much better. I’m not making my bonus, which sucks, but I’m not willing to lateral and work more for more money. I’m eating dinner with my family on a regular basis and little things like that have slowly helped me regain energy. If I could afford to, I would have left for a couple of months, but family circumstances make that difficult for me at the moment.
Fourth year
It’s much easier to land a job when you have a job, even though the market is still hot. Can you look into taking leave from your firm for a month or two? People at my firm have taken 2-3 months off for burnout/mental health issues, and they’ve been able to come back and get reintegrated without any issues. When you come back from leave and still don’t like your job, then you can try and lateral.