Career Center: Top 4 Reasons to Be Thankful for Your Biglaw Job This Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving just a week away, turkey may already be on your mind. But hopefully so are family, friends, and a time to reflect on what you are thankful for this year. If you’re having trouble with that last part, the Career Center has put together a list of the top 4 reasons Biglaw associates can be thankful for their jobs this holiday season.

1. Next up, bonus season. Most of you have actually been feeling quite optimistic that bonuses will be bigger than last year’s combined year-end bonus plus spring bonus. Of course, we’ll have to wait until Cravath makes the first move to see whether there’s any truth to those predictions, but at least you know there will be bonuses to be had.

So what else made the list?

2. A nice, six-figure salary. Even if your top of the market salary doesn’t afford you quite the same buying power in New York City as it would in Texas, that’s nothing to weep about. It certainly pays the bills, and perhaps more importantly, it pays off your massive law school debt. And if that weren’t enough, just consider the tough job market out there for recent law school grads (see, e.g., here and here).

3. More billable hours. Although you may be working more this year, the upside is that you are probably getting better work experience than when work was scarce and everyone’s hours were frighteningly low. At the very least, you can be thankful that you survived another year, and if your firm pays you on a lockstep salary scale, you can look forward to a bump in your salary next year.

4. Stronger associate job market. We all remember the depressing number of associate jobs that law firms shed during the height of the recession. But 2011 saw a big comeback, with law firms posting over 1,000 associate job openings. That translates into more lateral opportunities for you, not to mention more peace of mind about your job security.

If you’ve been thinking about making a lateral or in-house move, Lateral Link’s team of experienced recruiters can help you find the right position at one of the hundreds of law firms or in-house positions in their network.


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