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It depends on your goals. If you're using it as a launchpad, to pay down debt, gain experience, or open doors—it can be worth it for a few years. But staying long-term? Only if the lifestyle genuinely works for you.
I left and ultimately came back about a decade later. Big law is a great place to learn how to be a good lawyer. I came back because the work is more challenging and fast paced than in house (and the money is great). It was never about prestige for me.
I make more than double what I did in house. The most challenging thing about coming back has been building a book. That’s much harder to do from scratch, which is why I came back as counsel.
I left after 7 years to go in house to big tech. Honestly, it was worth it in terms of learning a ton, getting trained by some of the best and the credibility. The money didn't hurt either. But do I wish I'd left sooner? Yes.
5th year
If it’s a resume-builder for you, 2 years is enough. I hope you find something better soon.
The combo**
10 years in. It’s not. It takes more than it gives.
Think of it this way. If you’re in BigLaw, your salary from Day 1 puts up in the top 10 percent of wage earners in every major city (except NYC).
By year 8, you’re in the Top 5% in many major cities.
If you make equity, at most BigLaw firms, even from day 1 as equity (~$1.5m average) you’re in the top 1% in every major city, including NYC.
If you start in BigLaw at 25-26, work for 10 years and quit, you’ll have made right about $5mil total.
There are plenty of better ways to spend 10 years of your life, but not many of them reliably pay $5mil.
I clearly meant the term “net” informally (for fuck sake, I even said pre-tax!), as I defined want I meant by $5mil (salary + bonus over 10 years). All sorts of taxes, state/federal, cost-of-living differences, but salary and bonus are the figures driving the $5 million number I provided.
If you’re concerned about the difference of a constant salary scale (no salary or bonus increases for 10 straight years) only amounting to $4.3mil over 10 years, then I’ll add an extra year for good measure… 11years to get to $5million.
I hated this job as a second year. It has and always will have bad stretches. It’s inevitable. Enjoying who you work with is crucial to me. If your team (up or down) is difficult then the job is particularly miserable.
I’m not sure if it is worth it, really depends on goals. The money is great but there are other ways to make money. Legal recruiters can do really well but you’re giving up prestige.
That lifestyle almost killed me and I'm still recovering from the great blessing of big law
What did you end up doing after ?
IMO it’s worth it for 3 years for the resume and experience/training, but after that you get seriously diminishing returns if you don’t plan to make BL your long-term career.
I think the answer has to be personal to you and what you value and want in life. For me, it was not worth it at all.
what city and what group?
You have to love the work itself to make it worthwhile.
Agree this job blows unless you genuinely like at least a good chunk of what you are doing
Even then it’s hard and has serious tradeoffs but at least you’re getting paid boatloads of money to do something actually interesting
It sounds like you to evaluate your priorities. Is it your job, or is it everything else? There is no one size fits all answer. I decided long ago that I was not interested in making partner or working 85 hour weeks (I prefer the 40 and under range with minimal stress). I make decent money but will probably never make so much that I can buy sports cars and vacation homes on a whim. And I am just fine with that. But you may have different priorities than I do.
I had a friend at an AmLaw 25 firm (second job out of school). He stayed eight years (made partner seven years in) and then got out...presumably to spend more time with his wife and small child. Running his own high-end plaintiffs firm now. You've got to reflect on where you want to be in 5-10 years, your health, personal life, etc. Money isn't everything.
I wonder if he felt like he wasted his time making partner.
To me big law was worth every second. It wasn’t all great and good, but I learned so much from the best of the best. I lasted until Junior partner and the work just became more and more interesting as I progressed. But here’s the key—I really wanted to climb the ladder, both to advance my career and to not be bored. When I was younger, I was always around and my field was such that I worked with corner office partners from day one—even as a summer associate. I’m sure what the junior ranks do has changed much since I was in OP’s position, but I always found something I was doing to be interesting. I did see the first years lost in document review never to return, and most of them quit. But I don’t think they really wanted to be there and only liked the paycheck. But to me it was certainly worth it. I wouldn’t be where I am now without it. See it for the tremendous opportunity it is.
With or without student loan debt?
What is your goal?
Biglaw will open more doors statistically but it comes at a cost.
I agree with most of the comments below. It's great way to train and to pay off your student debt, if you are carrying any. Beyond that, it's a difficult choice regarding personal priorities. I didn't mind working those hours when I was young because I had a plan to save the earnings and transition into something more "family friendly" down the road. There is also a heavy social component to big law - meaning that you not only need to be at the office long hours, but you are also expected to socialize with clients - hence allowing very little time to live your own life and make your own choices. So, again, it's a series of trade-offs.
No
Most people are correct - it's what you value. I also think as someone who has seen people at true big law firms (Skadden/Wachtell/Hughes Hubbard) and been at adjacent BL (top 100 law firm), I would say stick it out. Every job is rough. I worked as a prosecutor for 4 years and had weeks where I was on trial AND working a night shift...those are 18 hour days, not just doing doc review, but being on trial, then handling arraignments, case intakes, etc. Understand that if you can stick it out, what everyone said about the salary and types of cases you'll get an opportunity to work on is correct. My last point would be that if, after you've truly given it a shot at making a go at getting to partner and you're still not all in, walk away and you'll have the chance to go ANYWHERE. That includes smaller boutique firms that may be doing exactly what you were doing at BL, but with a better work/life balance and very similar pay. Good luck.
It's definitely not for everybody. You can learn a lot and use that to transition into a corporate counsel job that has more reasonable hours.