New Grads Bound For Biglaw: Do You Know What You're Getting Into?
Words of warning.
You worked damn hard in law school. And what did you get for it? Well, likely a debt that you have to work off for God knows how many years. You suffered boorish instructors and perhaps more boorish classmates, and the scrambling to move up the grade ladder, hoping for that brass ring.
Well, you passed the fraternity hazing that is law school, and now you likely just spent two days of your life, and untold hundreds of dollars or more, taking an exam which, if you are lucky and are allowed to pass, will permit you to enter the hallowed trade guild that is the bar.
Law school is the gatekeeper that assures a constant flow of raw material to Biglaw — it brands and clones you to fit right in. No coincidence that law school (1) is so expensive and lasts three long years, and (2) doesn’t teach you how to be a lawyer. That way Biglaw can keep you chained to your desk — you get the big bucks which you need to pay off your law school loans, and you get to hear — often — that you are not a real lawyer — yet. It’s a nice little arrangement.
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Assuming that you are, God willing, allowed into the Brotherhood — now what? Do you know what you bargained for?
(And Biglaw still is, for the most part, a Brotherhood. I previously mentioned a 2016 study by Major, Lindsey & Africa, which found that women law partners average about 69% of the compensation of male partners.)
You must jump on the treadmill, which will only start moving faster until you are running seemingly for your life. Is it lifestyle? Client contact? Hands-on trial work?
I went “over the wall” and can say that Biglaw is, indeed, an impersonal factory that demands loyalty but is anything but loyal in return. (Hmmm, where have I heard that expression recently?).
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Collegiality?
As I wrote here before:
“Collegiality” is probably the most overused, disingenuous word in the Biglaw recruiting lexicon, and I suspect that every Biglaw firm touts it as its number one quality – and many naïve (new) lawyers believe the pitch. Yet likely no one who has ever plied the lawyer’s trade in Biglaw can say – if they are honest – that their firm is truly “collegial.” Fat fees and greed are the prevailing ethos – how can you afford to be “collegial” when “shareholder value” is the summum bonum?
But Are There Advantages To Biglaw — Besides The Money?
Besides the money, there is the status.
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And did I mention the money?
Besides the money, you will learn every possible way of carrying voluminous litigation files up and down courthouse stairs, and reviewing millions of documents — useful skills if you later want to become a paralegal. And maybe — just maybe — by your fifth or sixth year you will be permitted a front row seat at a real trial!
And if you’re really lucky, maybe after you become a partner, you will be allowed to second seat a trial! (You gotta be a partner first — sorry you 90 percent who will never make it.)
But seriously, you will learn to be thorough, to be complete, and to leave no stone unturned. You will train with a lot of smart people and learn how (up to a point) to be a complete lawyer — even if you can’t try a case. And, best of all, you will be well-situated to leave Biglaw and decide then what you really want to do.
Oh, did I mention the money?
There Are Other Options
But Biglaw is not the only endpoint for all of your training, although it will allow you to repay loans faster than other types of practice — assuming you are not ignominiously let go after giving your last full measure of devotion.
Many grads opt for public service or government service (not exactly the same, at least not these days).
The money is a fraction of Biglaw, but the hours usually let you have a life. The hands-on experience cannot be beat, as well as the job satisfaction. This is nothing to sneeze at, believe me. Depending upon the job, you may try dozens of cases in a few short years — first seat! — argue appeals to the highest courts, become a Deputy Commissioner, and in many ways truly learn how to do it all on your own.
Good experience in and of itself, but great if you then want to open your own shop.
Then there’s SmallLaw, which is like Biglaw — except it’s not. First there’s the money — nowhere near Biglaw. But the hours are usually better, and the experience can be somewhere between Biglaw and government or public service. That is, you are likely to be in court more on all sorts of matters and proceedings, dealing with clients more, and learning how private practice works — all of its nuts and bolts from soup to nuts (to mix a metaphor).
This is actually a good alternative to Biglaw — if you can afford it.
In-house work? Usually that requires some law practice experience first, but if you can swing it you may be in for a surprise– it has become more than ever like Biglaw in that the hours are no longer “civil service” hours, but the client contact and hands-on work have increased. Not a bad gig — unless your company merges and you become redundant.
Then there’s the increasingly popular “alternative” practice modes.
Trying not to sound shamelessly self-promoting (I am a lawyer, after all!), after 40 years of every type of practice I found the ideal platform — what we call the “2.0 Firm,” or “cloud” firm. All of us are partners, and virtually all are Biglaw escapees looking for a better way to practice — and live. We’ve eliminated costly overhead so that we — the working attorneys! — keep most of what we earn from our work. We can therefore charge our clients less, and — best of all — we have no billing requirements! No 2,000+ hours for which we have to account, and no one we have to account to for our time! Like being a solo within the cocoon of 200 actually collegial lawyers who are proficient in every type of law.
But this is not yet for you, Law Grad. You need to be a real lawyer first. So wait a few, learn your trade, and then — give me call!
Richard B. Cohen has litigated and arbitrated complex business and employment disputes for almost 40 years, and is a partner in the NYC office of the national “cloud” law firm FisherBroyles. He is the creator and author of his firm’s Employment Discrimination blog, and received an award from the American Bar Association for his blog posts. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @richard09535496.
