Biglaw, Boutique Law Firms, Small Law Firms

From Biglaw to Boutique: Why Wait?

Tom Wallerstein thinks that if you are in law school and you have the choice between working for an established firm -- big or small -- or working for yourself/starting your own firm, it’s a no-brainer that you should go with the established firm first. You can always leave the firm to pursue your own practice at any time, but the converse isn’t true....

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Thanks to everyone who has sent me emails; really, I’m flattered. I promise I will get back to everyone. A lot of people have asked me questions. For example:

“I am currently a third-year law student . . . . I am hoping to eventually open my own firm (sooner rather than later perhaps) as I am willing to suffer the first few years of practice and not making money in hopes that I can recoup that years down the road . . . . I do not feel that my best years should be wasted working for somebody else (my opinion of a firm is that they are useful right out of school to ‘learn the trade’ but outside of that the firm benefits more from an associate than the associate benefits from the firm . . . .”

I’ll answer this one publicly:

If you are in law school and you have the choice between working for an established firm — big or small — or working for yourself/starting your own firm, it’s a no-brainer that you should go with the established firm first. You can always leave the firm to pursue your own practice at any time, but the converse isn’t true: Once you go out on your own you might forever lose opportunities you have as a student.

In any event, I disagree that a firm necessarily benefits from an associate more than an associate benefits from the firm. I’ll stick with the only thing I really know: my own personal experience. I wrote in my first-ever blog post that “none of my limited success would have been possible without my Biglaw experience.” I think there are three reasons this is true for me….

Experience

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I learned an awful lot of stuff during my first 10 years of practice, both in my clerkship and when working for firms. I never felt like I was learning an awful lot; but, over time, the more I worked with junior attorneys, the more I realized I actually knew what I was doing. At least most of the time.

It’s true, as many people say, that in a lot of ways you can “learn the trade” more by working for yourself or in a small firm environment than you would doing years of document review or due diligence for a big firm. After all, as a first-year solo practitioner, you can be in court, or taking depositions, and meeting real clients. But let’s be honest; the types of cases you will be handling are far less complex and have much less at stake than the cases you would work on in a big firm.

And you can learn a lot as a Biglaw associate, even if you feel like you are little more than a lowly cog in a machine. I’ve already written about how to make the most of your Biglaw time while you plan to open your own practice someday. You can’t keep from paying dues, but watch what you’re doing with your time. The trick is to do great work — even if menial — and keep your eyes and ears open, and try to keep a healthy mindset. That often pays off with more and better experience. Maybe I was lucky that my firms offered such substantial early experience, but I still think it can pay to affirmatively try to take on as much responsibility as possible. (But not by trumpeting your superior legal mind.)

As a junior associate, I simply didn’t have the skills to do all the work or fully handle the cases that I’m handling now. My prior experience was essential to the success of my current venture.

Connections

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Biglaw firms, by definition, have lots of lawyers working for them. If nothing else, a stint in Biglaw gives you an opportunity to meet hundreds of more attorneys than you are likely to meet if working for a small firm or for yourself. I’ve written how important I believe relationships are, and how to use your Biglaw time to build those relationships.

Again, I view my Biglaw connections as essential for the success I’ve had with Colt Wallerstein. I still have important clients that I met when working for them in Biglaw. I have attorney connections I met in Biglaw who refer cases to me when they have a conflict, or when the amount at stake does not justify their rates. Without these important connections, my business never would have survived its critical first year.

Pedigree

A lot of clients won’t care where you went to law school. And a lot of clients won’t care about your big firm pedigree. But some will. I am certain that many of my clients hired me in part because they knew of and respected the firms I used to work for.

A lot of associates enter Biglaw precisely because of the perceived boost to their résumé. I don’t think that’s a big secret, and I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I’m not an elitist, but I am a realist. You may not necessarily get a better education at Harvard or Penn, but you will get more opportunities because of the pedigree. The same goes for law firms. Working for what is thought to be a prestigious firm can only help you with your later ventures, whatever they are.

* * *

I really love the current iteration of my career. It is so much more fulfilling than was being an associate in Biglaw that sometimes I regret that I waited so long to make the move. But then I remember that my professional past is an essential component of where I am today. However much value my past firms got from me, I’m confident I received critical value in return.

Tom Wallerstein lives in San Francisco and is a partner with Colt Wallerstein LLP, a Silicon Valley litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on high tech trade secret, employment, and general complex-commercial litigation. He can be reached at tomwallerstein@coltwallerstein.com.

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