I want to be a trial litigator going to court regularly. I feel trapped in big law.

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Why’d you go to big law in the first place if what you wanted is trial work?

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Teacher 1 was a big law trial lawyer, ask him!

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I’d say two things generally: (1) there are very few trial lawyers (ie people who try cases on any regular basis) at large firms anymore and (2) even those people aren’t in court that often. Civil litigators are mostly discovery lawyers and settlement negotiators at this point. That isn’t a knock on them, it’s just a reflection of modern litigation and the relative lack of trials (especially large trials).

If you really want to be in court, I’d look into the US Attorneys Office, local DA, or public defender. Obviously the pay is lower (potentially much lower) and some of those roles are very hard to get, but you’ll be on your feet in court.

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OP, what year are you? I was a biglaw trial lawyer for decades and wasn’t in court regularly. The most cases I ever tried in a 12 month period was 5, and my total number of court days in that span was about 60. The cases biglaw lawyers handle just don’t translate to lots of court time. In a typical case we might have some discovery or motion hearings, but I usually delegated those to other people on the team, because I found motions practice mind numbing.

If you want to be in court every week get a job as a DA or public defender in a busy urban location. The cases aren’t too complex but you’re on your feet all the time.

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Mass torts. Hustle hard and you may find yourself still in big law but also in court all the time helping manage a large consolidated state or federal litigation. The trade off for not going government or boutique is billing 2750 a year.

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