Just resigned from a top Big Law firm as a mid-level to go to a national firm for (hopefully) better work life balance. I’ve done it for my mental health but now feel like I may have made a huge mistake. Words of wisdom if you’ve done this before?

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You are in the very early days after the reality of a big decision is setting in, especially if you are in the communications phase. I don’t think it’s unusual to have moments when it can feel like the wrong decision, especially if suddenly everything is unfamiliar. Especially if you’re hearing regret about your choice from people you like/care about. Stick it out. I’m confident you were very thoughtful in this decision, you weighed all of the pros and cons. You agonized. And then you, you very smart and accomplished person, you made the right choice. I trust your decision, and maybe it’s just a moment when YOU need to trust it….? You absolutely deserve a saner life and you absolutely DO get to choose this over everything else.
Hang in there! You got this!

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I have found that sometimes national firms (mid law) will claim to have better work life balance when in reality they do not. I resigned from a biglaw firm to go to midlaw expecting work life balance and potentially more opportunity and realized that I had it way better at the biglaw firm.

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I work at a national insurance defense law firm and find the work life balance is very good. I worked in a regional big law firm and hated it. Would never go back.

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Depends. Which practice group?

I just made the opposite trek. Just resigned from a mid-sized national firm as a mid level to go to Big Law. I found that I was personally working big law hours but without big law pay. But I was in a unique situation where I was supporting a top firm producer who had a ton of work and needed me 24/7. The expectations though are not the same between mid sized firms and Big Law. I genuinely could have gotten away with murder at my prior firm and had ton of flexibility regarding where I worked, when I worked, who I worked with (other than the producer I mentioned), and across the firm the actual billable requirement was a joke and you only needed to meet it if you wanted to make bonus. It’s very hard to get fired at these firms, you genuinely have to be terrible. You just need to earn the flexibility after grinding a bit And proving yourself. For me, it wasn’t worth it because I was personally still billing 2,000 hours. It was worth the exchange of a little less flexibility for the 100K pay bump And pay predictably.

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venting
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Ty

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