At least the window opens all the way and I’m on the 20th floor...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276817)

The window begins to creep up...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276852)

but isn't that why most people are in biglaw past, say, 4th or 5th year?

the benefit to biglaw and midlaw is partnership and being able to build a book and realize more of your billings.

a partner i worked for when i first started told me that the true benefit to biglaw was the partnership prospects and not the associate salaries. his feeling was that, past a certain point, the work and the clients are just way too demanding for it to make sense to keep working in biglaw for $400k as an of counsel or whatever, and that if you didn't see yourself getting to the point where you made $1M+ then you should look for a better job.

i think that's pretty accurate.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276853)

But "partner" doesn't mean the same thing in midlaw. I have cases against a couple of 32 yo midlaw partners who are still doing the discovery work.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276869)

i mean, shit, i have a friend who is at a transactional boutique in the NYC metro where new partners are making about $400k and the avg partner takes home $1M, and that's way smaller than midlaw even.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276967)

according to him they have very low overhead and some good clients and thus make very good money year to year

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36277001)

having said that, i left the L&E firm just as i was about to make partner - that firm caps nonequity parter salary at $250k (nationwide, so you can live in DC/NY/SF and that is your cap, just like the insurance defense partner in nebraska). i left for a middling v100 firm and was making about that as a senior associate. firm also makes it near-impossible to make equity - you basically have to be a rainmaker, in which case you might as well go to a better firm and make more money.

i also made partner at the biglaw firm right after the 2-year waiting period expired, for what it's worth.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276873)

the comp is very similar at both of these shithouse firms.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36276905)

At least cop dat 10-8 biglaw gig.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36277386)

the chances that you rise beyond that are negligible.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36280646)

plus a good number of your coworkers, particularly the partners, and particularly partners who control business and are therefore untouchable, will be mentally ill assholes. i know there are a lot of weirdos in govt (did both my law school summer jobs with the feds), but law firm partners are a whole different animal.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36280637)

For example, I once told my partner that I couldn’t sit in on call because I had to leave by certain time that one day. He was ok but casually referred to it as “leaving early”.... it was 6pm.

Now, given all that, imagine what it’s like to be an associate who just wants to leave at five everyday.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36280798)

they take all this shit out on people working under them.

my firm has very few of these, and i don't work with any, but every firm has its share.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4006238&forum_id=2#36280813)