alt.legal: The Spooky Specter Of A Return To Practice

Last week, I was visiting clients and discussing some new and exciting things happening at my company. It’s bizarre to sit in meetings with associates and attorneys at large law firms, alongside another former Biglaw attorney-turned-alt, as if we’re all getting together to sift through boxes of documents or divvy up a massive summary judgment brief. But only some of us were still in practice. Others of us (like me and my colleague), we chose differently. We were on the other side of an invisible line. Because of providers like ours, 17% of law firms report that we’re taking their business and 38% see us as a threat. Hell yes, we are alt.legal, and we are on the side of the line where the cool kids sit.

One of our contacts had followed a path, like us. He left a large law practice as a mid-level associate, became a consultant, then later moved into a legal services provider. Then, somehow, he ended up back in practice at a large law firm. He crossed back over that invisible line! Upon hearing this, without appearing too eager, I really wanted to dig in and ask, “What’s in your head, man? How did this happen?”

Even If You Wanted To…

Not because it’s so insane to me that someone would want to go back to a large law environment (although that is definitely a little strange), but more because I’m intrigued by the idea. Some here have detailed the advantages of being in-house and the strange move it would be to go back into practice, and others (with financial incentive) have discouraged people from leaving private practice in the first place (and the same source notes elsewhere that less than 20% of in-house lawyers that want to come back to the law firm secure positions at prestigious ones, and less than 50% end up back at law firms at all). In a more recent article covering in-house attorneys who returned to firm practice, some very senior in-house attorneys choose to return to law to be entrepreneurial.

This twilight zone of a topic is weirding me out. It’s as if we’re saying, “poor baby, you don’t get to go back to the law firm, you don’t have the honor of putting a massive squeeze on your social life and physical health and mental health to bill more hours, you poor thing.” And maybe it’s a Stockholm Syndrome thing, maybe it’s just the money, maybe it’s the offices with big glass windows and having an assistant keep your life in order, I don’t really know, but I have to admit that there’s something there. Last week, taking meetings with large law clients, I strode into those offices, greeted the receptionist at the massive marble desk, grabbed a Diet Coke off the buffet and a cup with ice, and pensively turned to look out the window. And it all came rushing back.

Being the Best

Of course, a desire to return to practice is more than Diet Coke and thoughtful gazing at windows. For better or worse, the biggest law firms theoretically got that way because they do the best, most complex work for the biggest, most complex clients. Being the best at what you do in the world often means being at the best firms. To run the biggest deals or to litigate some of the biggest business cases, you usually need to be in Biglaw.

A friend of mine, before leaving the firm to go in-house, was required to go and see the partners on her team. She was an excellent associate by all accounts, and partners were making pitches to keep her at the firm. She said that the most compelling pitch, the one that made her actually hesitate for even a brief second, was that in-house life was the life of a generalist with a single client, while being at a law firm offered the opportunity of being the best in a specific practice with a diversity of clients. It wasn’t enough to keep her there, but it was the one thing that gave her pause.

Quality of Work

One of the most gratifying experiences I have had working with Thomson Reuters is a specific engagement when our managed litigation services was embedded with a team at trial, working the documents and timelines to free up very junior associates to really practice law, prep cross outlines for witnesses, and sit 3^rd chair at a high-profile trial. I realize that in part, this is because if I had that opportunity when I was a junior associate, I might have felt more engaged with the actual practice of law.

This isn’t status quo just yet, but things might be changing at firms. With technology enabling firms to do more with less (see this from our friends at CaseRails), and alternative legal service providers helping to winnow the chaff from billable hours, it’s possible that the practice of law at law firms is much more substantive than in years past.

The Alternative

Being either in-house or in an alt.legal career offers the challenge of joining a normal company, often times at levels where you are expected to understand your role in the financial plan. For some, that role is just limiting cost, and it shows up in real life—no big glass offices, no thinking while staring out windows, no Diet Cokes or weekly happy hours. Public shareholders tend to be a little less interested in being spendy than law firm partners seeking to maintain the air of power and prestige. For others, it’s the stress of papering and enabling transactions, sometimes hundreds of little transactions a month. And often, lawyers bring to the table a different perspective, one focused on risk management and what can go terribly wrong. Attorneys tend to focus on that clause or phrase or single former-employee-turned-supposed-whistleblower that can bring down an entire company, rather than reckless optimism about aggressive growth targets. Working inside of a business can feel very bizarre.

A Matter of Context

Let’s get back to the client visits from last week. In answering my question, this attorney-turned-consultant-turned-attorney noted that he was ready and able to handle the challenge of being at a large firm, as his kids are more grown. Maybe that’s all it is, right? Maybe it’s just a matter of schedule and being an adult that can focus his or her attention? Maybe when you take away some of the external factors that many of us experience in the midst of our Biglaw lives (usually we’re in our 20s and 30s, single, doing mindless work and under a mountain of crushing debt), some of us would find practicing law at a large law firm worth some of the sacrifices in our lifestyles.

I’m satisfied in my current role. I am excited about what we’re doing at the company and believe that we’re providing serious value to the legal industry. I do believe that my experience as a lawyer is critical in shaping our offerings. But I’d be lying if there wasn’t always a tiny specter in the back of my head, the idea of taking to completion a fulsome legal career.

So, for all of the talk about work-life balance and grueling hours, how does one fully shut the door on being a Biglaw attorney? What is it that scares off the specter of a return to practice, for good? Is it lifestyle, the sacrifices that will never be worth it? Is it a fervor for technology? At the heart of things, do you ultimately have to be turned off of being a lawyer? Are there any lawyers out there that are truly ex-lawyers, and how did you know?

I’m open to comments.

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Ed Sohn is a Global Director at Thomson Reuters’ award-winning legal outsourcing company, Pangea3, which employs approximately 1,000 full-time attorneys globally. After five and a half years as a Biglaw litigation associate, Ed spent over two years in New Delhi, India, managing hundreds of Indian attorneys and professionals in delivering high-value managed legal services. He now focuses on developing integrated technology and outsourced legal solutions. You can contact Ed about e-discovery, managed legal services, theology, chess, Star Trek The Next Generation, or the Chicago Bulls at [email protected].