Has anyone transitioned out of immigration law?

Third year associate at an AmLaw 100 firm (non Frag or BAL, but doesn’t pay market), and I feel that growth is severely limited in this field.

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So I know of an immigration attorney of my vintage with 15 YOE who went in-house after 4-5 years of practice who went in doing international employment compliance. She now is SVP and GC for Compliance at Darden. I’ve also heard of 2 Fragomen associates going to Orrick to do transactional employment work, but they’re also doing some immigration. With the Orrick folks I’d be concerned I’d get stuck back with immigration.
I’ve been in-house for some time doing immigration and now lead our HR and Employment Compliance teams in addition to immigration (despite my title).

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Also following… things I personally dislike: Carrying a massive caseload, the majority of which are cases for employees who are impatient & disrespectful (possibly just my interpretation due to cultural differences) and cases where our primary contact at the client company does zero to assist us in maintaining the employee’s expectations re. timelines. It’s a thankless field. You either take the time to develop a thorough & successful case, or you expedite to meet unreasonable demands and accept an RFE as if RFEs are just part of every case (when they don’t have to be!). Not to mention, firms compete by reducing prices, which is why we’re not an especially well paid niche. But perhaps all fields are thankless, and perhaps the better paying fields truly are more hours & stress… and maybe these fears are why we all stay where we’re at for as long as we do?

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100% true

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Seems like a lot of us are not content with the practice.

What don’t you like? The actual work, or growth opportunities ?

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Low pay and babysitting clients to send their documents. I would love immigration if it wasn’t for these.

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