Other than higher pay (I didn’t become a lawyer to get rich 🤣) what is the benefit of working for BigLaw, or private practice in general? As a government lawyer, I make 6 figures, have excellent benefits, no billable hours requirements, more time off than I know what to do with (including mental health days), a pension, a 401(K), option to chose whether to WFH or not, no weekend work, no working before 8am or after 5pm. It seems like so many lawyers in private practice are unhappy.

It really seems like you made this post to boast about yourself and potentially even to try to make big law attorneys feel bad? There’s nothing wrong with being motivated by money or prestige. Frankly half the time we hear about some groundbreaking social initiative case, there was a biglaw attorney behind that doing it as pro bono. A lot of biglaw attorneys are in it just so they can pay off massive amount of debt, so that they can support their families, and often because they grew up in poverty themselves and don’t want their families to experience that (seriously seems like 1/2 biglaw attorneys I know grew up in houses where they were food scared at least once).

So it sounds like you have a good gig for what you’re looking for in your life.

Financial freedom goes above meeting immediate family needs. Double Big Law household, both under 40, combined income close to $1M. We both enjoy the complex nature of the work, but both coming from low to middle income homes, we are maximizing the opportunity to skip a generation of wealth building and give our children an astronomically better life than either of us had growing up.

It's really about working for our kids and hopefully grandkids. Generational wealth has to start somewhere. I don't look down on government attorneys by any means but the original post was really demeaning to those of us who ARE working very hard in exchange for potentially generation-changing money. I think that is a pretty good reason to stay practicing at this level.

Substantive training, trial by fire, better exit ops, money.

Humble brag but not great at hiding it. This post is toxic and patronizing af. What was the point here really? If you like it, then stay. Wouldn’t we all want to make the big bucks and leave by 5?

Honestly, this sounds like a “I like my job better than yours, you folks are crazy, but I want to phrase it as something other than that” post.

The reality is that people take jobs for lots of different reasons. Money, prestige, intellectual stimulation, expectations of others, and the list goes on.

It sounds like you have a gig that gives you the things that you want. Asking others why they’ve chosen to take jobs that give them the things they seek and then explaining why those things aren’t important to you seems like a silly exercise.

I made over $500k last year as an associate that took 6 months maternity leave.

I’m confused do you not have student loans? I pay 3k a month just in loans to have them paid off in FIVE YEARS. I couldn’t do that on a non-big law salary while also putting money in retirement and savings and also have enough left over for rent and food, not to mention trying to save enough for a down payment on a house? You say you have kids, are you able to save up for college as well? I know I wouldn’t be able to but if you’re doing all the things you want to do then that’s fine! I love that you’re happy! It’s not nice to put ppl down for their choices, we’re not all greedy monsters it’s just that if I want to upgrade from my 700 sq ft apartment to buying a house that’s 1300 sq ft in my neighborhood its like 1mil so like what the hell else am I supposed to do haha

If you’re content with the money, then you’re not missing out on anything. Biglaw is about money. If you don’t care about making multiples of your current salary, you’re golden!

Why do you need to one up everyone on the thread? You’re happy in govt, plenty of people wouldn’t. What’s the big accomplishment us private lawyers aren’t reaching?

Luxuries: A vacation house; a watch collection; a car(s) you can’t drive anywhere near its limits; private school tuition

Working with smart, competent people on the most complex, newsworthy matters. The working with smart, competent people piece cannot be overstated because I have experienced the opposite when I had a stint in the government and it was horrific.

I make six figures working part-time in big law, and I think the staff we have is better than government staff. My husband makes seven figures working in big law. He doesn’t work that many hours, because he’s a rainmaker who has a lot of attorneys working on his cases and gets a portion of everything they bill. Big law has worked out really well for us. But you do you.

Confused. You mention BL in the post but it looks like you have been interviewing at/offered posts at private firms that are not necessarily BL (AmLaw 100/200, V50). There is a huge pay disparity in private vs biglaw. Plus I just don’t think you appreciate the pay differential in major markets vs non (BL attorneys in non-major markets, even within the same firm do not make major market salaries. Including Phoenix as non major). In order to maintain the same life you have based on $150k in Phoenix you’d have to make $385k in Manhattan. Therefore in some places people are forced to work for literally triple your salary just to make ends meet. It seems to me that you don’t appreciate how your blanket statements seem our of touch.

Sounds like you feel insecure about not being in BigLaw and are just trying to convince yourself it’s okay you couldn’t make it in. People who are happy with their life usually don’t post stuff like this.

You touched a nerve for some of these folks 😂. I’ve often wondered the same and I guess the only thing besides money is people wouldn’t look down on me for defending “bad” people. I’d rather have a go at the government any day.

God this thread went off the rails 😈

And people say biglaw attorneys have big egos... OP, you need an attitude check

OP is a weirdo

This post did not go as OP planned lol. She was looking for cookies but got crap instead