Is it a career suicide to go from big law to a boutique firm?

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Big law isn't the end all be all 🙄🙄🙄. Just depends on what's important to you.

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What do you want to do with your life? Answer that question, and you’ll find your answer. Case in point: a mentor of mine many years ago told me he would consider himself a failure if he didn’t become a big law partner. He did, and is. Another person told me he’d consider himself a failure if he didn’t use big law to start a company and do something with it. He did and is. Point: what do you want out of your career? “Career suicide” depends on what career you want to kill and what your reincarnation might be.

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Depends if it’s a boutique or a “boutique.”

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I don’t understand why this industry is so cruel to family life and generally a balanced life?

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Absolutely not. I work 100% harder and have a thousand times more responsibility now than I ever did in BigLaw. I’m not putting down BigLaw—I just think there’s this stereotype that the only people who have meaningful careers and who are working hard/getting amazing opportunities are at gigantic firms. That’s just not the case.

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I’m working harder, but it’s more fun, and I have more control over my time. My hours are longer now because I have so many fun opportunities coming my way with different clients, but I also get to set my own schedule, and I’m not micromanaged. All in all, I honestly feel more balanced now than I did when I would sit in my BL office and just wait for work.

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Definitely not if you are a litigator. I left biglaw as a 4th year and I’m so glad I did - otherwise I would have little to no marketable skills out of the bizarro carnival mirror world of biglaw litigation. Now I’m running my own cases and getting the standup experience I was trying so hard (and failing) to get. The hours can be more intense because there are fewer people around you who can cover, but if you are looking to be a “real litigator” it will definitely offer you more of those opportunities.

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no def not

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This is an insulting question to post in the general “law” bowl lol, plenty of lawyers have full careers without ever working in biglaw.

But of course it’s not career suicide. It’s a different career path. It may make it difficult to go back to biglaw though. Personally I tried it, didn’t like it, went back to biglaw.

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Family life, serving clients well, and having good people as co-workers. Didn’t have that in big law.

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You could have just been at the wrong firm. My life has changed drastically since I switched big law firms.

likefunny

Not necessarily. It depends on the boutique. And even if you inadvertently end up at an unsophisticated boutique and you need to lateral again, it’s do-able with the right narrative. Don’t be afraid to make a change if you’re not happy.

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Thank you!

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Not necessarily.

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Depends on definition of “career”

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It’s not career suicide, but depending on where you land, it may be difficult to go back to biglaw.

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I do transactional work but my guess is that the answer would be the same. Broader and more hands on experience in small firms

Thank you!

It’s the way the majority of attorneys make partner and get clients

Yes

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