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I see it as typical large law firm elitist bs. It’s essentially saying that the attorney has the skills to work in big law, but not the right pedigree.
No, you will be asked to work the same as partner track people and people naturally expect the same commitment to the job as they are giving themselves (which I don’t think is fair in this context).
If I go for a staff attorney for a new area in BigLaw, when I want to jump, does that hurt or help my resume?
No.
It is very hard to get onto the partner track from the non-partner track at most places even if you are great.
While possible, it is certainly much harder to switch to a partner track position either internally or externally
Yeah, that’s odd to me for a third year. I didn’t start thinking about being partner track or not until probably 7th or 8th year.
Partnership salary isn’t much more than senior attorney salary. At most places, it’s actually less in your account each month at first because a lot of firms have mandatory retirement contributions that add 40k+ of your income being pushed to your 401k plus a buy in with after tax money if they have one. If you don’t work to build a book of business while also billing a lot of hours, it’s not clearly better to be equity partner. All attorney jobs at big firms pay a lot of money. I think many attorneys ignore how much we make compared to others and are ungrateful. I grew up poor and am very grateful I can bill at my rate and have been able to build a book of business. Perspective is important.
A1, I think your partners treat you differently than I treat my team. We don’t have people in the role you described. It’s more that we have associates that we make clear aren’t doing what they need to for partnership and eventually they move to of counsel. They could change that at any time, but in my experience, it is very rare for a mediocre worker to turn into a rockstar.
Also, when you start getting a law firm with hundreds or thousands of lawyers, it’s not up to one person to fire someone. I handle my team and most are above average, but I can’t make the firm force associates overall to do anything (unless I wanted to dedicate lots of nonbillable time to associate review committees and I don’t). Hiring sucks and firms are very reluctant to fire because of bad reputation concerns. I’m also AmLaw 100, not AmLaw 10 so we don’t churn and burn people.
When do you normally have the talk (partner track vs non partner track)?
In this scenario there isn’t any “talk” per se. It’s a completely different position in which you do the same work for a fraction of the money and limited possibility for advancement. Another word for it is “staff attorney.”
Depends on the salary and your other options