John G. Balestriere
Much of the conventional wisdom about how to build a legal career is outright unwise for many people. Be careful. And be confident that things will work out.
One of the lawyers at my firm recently was on trial and worked the nonstop-nonstop hours for days on end that most good trial work demands. After trial she was doing what all good trial lawyers do, telling war stories about the crazy things that happen on trial to anyone who will listen (or at least doesn’t run away when we don’t stop talking). When she was sharing her stories, one of her friends couldn’t understand why my colleague wasn’t angry about the long hours she worked for the better part of a month. How could my colleague actually enjoy such nonstop work? Didn’t she hate the way work took over her life for a few weeks? No, thankfully, she didn’t (and it’s obviously a tough balance, especially when you have a family). Quite the contrary: she and others on trial with her had a fantastic time.
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But the interesting part of this to me is that my colleague’s friend was a law school classmate of my colleague who himself was a practicing litigator at a big firm. He routinely worked long hours. He sought out that big firm job in law school. He did so because of the “training” countless people told him, countless times during law school, that he would receive at that elite big firm. While he certainly learned something in his half decade at a big firm, he wasn’t sure how much he had learned (especially compared to my colleague) and learned to resent the long hours he put in, week after week, month after month, and not for trials and hearings, but for regular old junior associate work.
That advice — go to big firms for training — is common wisdom. While I can’t dispute its commonality, I seriously question its wisdom. I struggle to think of anyone with whom I started law school more than two decades ago who speaks glowingly of the “training” he or she received at a big firm. It was nice to pay off debt and it sure is prestigious, but I’m not sure who feels well trained in those early (or not so early) days in a big firm.
I don’t intend to write a screed against big firms, but instead to caution lawyers, especially young ones, about adopting any common “wisdoms” as they pursue what they should view as their calling. Lots and lots of people can say the same thing, and say it over and over, and still be very wrong. And — while obvious, I still need to write it — maybe such advice is wise, sometimes, but simply doesn’t apply to everyone.
I had such a drive to become a prosecutor in law school and was blessed enough to attend a school with a generous loan repayment program so I was never tempted by the big firm. I thought that I would get training at a big firm (since that’s what everyone said, right?) but not the training I wanted as a prosecutor, so I didn’t even apply to any firms for post-graduation jobs. Ironically, twenty years later, I’m at a firm that focuses on complex business disputes, generally international ones, which at one time only those big firms handled.
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I promise you I still don’t wish I would have worked at a big firm. It simply and very clearly wasn’t for me, even if I’m sure I would have considered big firms in law school if I knew I’d eventually focus my work on business litigation. Yet, things worked out for me, even though I rejected the common wisdom. Just as this is not an anti-big-firm piece, it’s not a religious one on the first of the theological virtues. But young lawyers in particular need to be reminded (because this is hardly a commonly shared view): in our careers, if we work hard, maintain our integrity, and don’t worry so damned much, things really do tend to work out.
When making your own career choices take care to hear, but challenge, any common wisdoms or rules (absolutely including anything I write with purported authority in this column). And do so with the confidence that as a lawyer in America you’ve already won the lottery and are amongst the most fortunate people alive. Things will work out.
John Balestriere is an entrepreneurial trial lawyer who founded his firm after working as a prosecutor and litigator at a small firm. He is a partner at trial and investigations law firm Balestriere Fariello in New York, where he and his colleagues represent domestic and international clients in litigation, arbitration, appeals, and investigations. You can reach him by email at [email protected].