The Top 15 Reasons Attorneys Should Leave Their Law Firm Jobs and Look for a New Job

1. The Top 15 Reasons Attorneys Should Leave Their Law Firm Jobs
and Look for a New Job
By Harrison Barnes from Los Angeles Office Managing Director
Summary: Thinking of leaving your law firm and finding a new job? If you are experiencing any of the fifteen
reasons discussed below, it is time to start your search.
It's a perfectly fine decision to want a higher salary and better career prospects.
Before leaving your current law firm, you should know what the consequences are in the law world.
Leaving a small firm for a larger more prestigious firm is a keen move.
Meanwhile, leaving a large prestigious firm for a smaller one could hurt your career.
The decision to leave any law firm can have positive or negative consequences, so it is important to evaluate
it carefully. Leaving a smaller law firm to move to a larger, more prestigious one could drastically increase
your salary and career prospects. On the other hand, leaving a large, prestigious law firm to join a smaller
firm, or to go in-house, will make it difficult for you ever to get into a major law firm again. Whenever you make
a decision to leave a law firm, you make a decision that will either take you one step closer to being
successful and happy, or that will take you one step further away from the sort of career and life you are
seeking.
The Quality of Your Life Is Proportional to the Quality of Your Decisions
A person's success is largely a product of that person's decisions--good and bad. When you look at the most
successful people in any profession, you can see that a large part of what made them successful was the
decisions they made. Your decisions in your life and career will determine who you become and what you
achieve. It is all about making good decisions.
See the following article for more information:
Your Life Is Controlled by Your Decisions and Commitment to Decisions
If you are an attorney, there is often no better way to get ahead, achieve more, and find happiness than by
leaving your current law firm and moving to a new one. As a legal placement professional, I believe I am in
the self-improvement industry because I am trying to help people improve their happiness, careers, and lives.
Since we spend the majority of our lives at work, there is no more important place to do this than through our
jobs. While there are plenty of good, solid arguments to be made for staying at your current law firm,there
also are many reasons why it makes sense to look around and find a new position.
To Get into a More Prestigious Law Firm.
In my profession, there are two types of attorneys who move law firms: (1) those who are motivated and trying
to trade up and (2) those who are trying to trade down (or anywhere). Law firms like attorneys who are trying
to trade up. If a law firm thinks you are trying to trade down, the firm will view you with suspicion due to "the
law of momentum"--once an attorney starts trading down, he or she will generally not stop that downward
slide and will leave the profession, or the law firm environment shortly. Prospective firms will think the
attorney is just trying out an "experiment" and will soon make yet another move.
If there is one characteristic I would say defines the majority of attorneys who get the most jobs working with
me, it is the desire to get into a more prestigious law firm. The desire to get into the most prestigious law firm
you can is something that the best law firms love. When prestigious law firms take a chance on someone like
this, the attorney respects the firm, works hard, and is motivated to improve. These are almost always the best
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2. hires.
The entire lateral market thrives and functions by attorneys trying to move to more prestigious law firms.
Attorneys get indoctrinated into the law firm pecking order through a series of rejections in law school. Once
the attorney starts practicing, though, the attorney can often move to the same law firms that once rejected the
attorney by lateralling to them. Lateralling is a very good way to get ahead.
The more prestigious the law firm that you are working for and that has trained you, the more the market will
respect you. Not only can you more easily move to the best in-house jobs, you will be able to bring in larger
clients, get access to better and more important work, and make more money. While certainly not always the
case, the opportunity to get into a much more prestigious law firm is a very good reason to move. From
government to academia to other law firms, the ability to get a job with the most prestigious law firms, and
learn and compete at this level, is something that carries a lot of weight and is a reason to move.
Every week, our firm places people from smaller markets and relatively unknown law firms into large,
prestigious law firms all over the country. These sorts of moves can be life-changing regarding salary,
potential, and more. A second-year associate from a small law firm who moves to a larger market may
suddenly be making more money than partners with twenty years of experience at their prior firm and be
getting world-class training and the opportunity to work on major matters. Moving in a large city to a more
prestigious law firm is also a good idea and can change your career.
What is nice about lateraling between law firms as an associate is that you will be evaluated in a different
manner than you were as a law student. When a law student is being interviewed and hired, all the law firm
has to go on is the student's grades, personality, and the prestige of the student's law school. When firms
interview you as a lateral, however, you have by now developed a specialty in a particular area of law, and
there will be far fewer of you in the market. You may also have strengthened your commitment to work hard,
to do good work, and to become an expert in your practice area. You can get into a better law firm as a
practicing attorney, based on who you have become by specializing and learning a craft, as opposed to just
your law school grades and law school ranking (all within reason).
As a partner lateralling between law firms, law firms will be most concerned with your book of business. I
have seen solo practitioners who have never worked for major law firms manage to move to major law firms
once their books of business got large enough. You can always move to a more prestigious law firm as a
partner if you have enough business and clients willing to pay the rates of the major law firm.
Are Compensated Poorly.
Some law firms pay as little money as they can to their attorneys or as much as they can afford. If you are
making a significantly under-market salary for the region of the country you are in, it often makes sense to
investigate the market--but not always. It is important to consider the reasons a law firm may be
compensating you poorly. A law firm will compensate you poorly for some of the following reasons:
The law firm does not have the money to pay you well. If the law firm cannot afford to pay you well, this
means that the firm does not have the work, or is not bringing in enough business (or charging enough), or is
doing something wrong in the market. The firm may not have a good enough reputation, may have a bad
reputation--or, more likely, its "market niche" (or location) is serving a certain type of client that pays lower
rates, or does work less frequently. Despite the reasons, you are working for a group without the market
power and strength to pay you well. The law firm may not work well in the market and you are being
penalized for it. Regardless of how nice the people may be, or how collegial the environment is, the law firm's
absence of money to pay you well is not something that will change. Moving law firms will often mean that
you will also get access to more sophisticated work in addition to more money.
The law firm has the money to pay you well but is doing something else with it. The law firm is paying
others (not you) money, paying very high rent to look successful, or perhaps maintaining significant legacy
costs (paying retired partners lots of money)--who knows? If the law firm does not have the money to pay you
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3. well, then this is not likely to change in the future. You should move firms. Partners often have this issue
because the law firm will take the income of the most productive partners and redistribute it to nonproductive
partners, open new offices, and make other unnecessary expenditures. In these sorts of situations, it makes
sense to move and many partners move several times over their careers due to just this.
The law firm is having financial problems. If the law firm is experiencing financial problems, this means that
you may have no future. Just as law firms want to hire attorneys "on the way up," you too should want to work
in law firms "on the way up" and that are not having issues. If the law firm cannot pay you well because of its
problems, you should move to a firm that can.
The law firm does not value you. The law firm may simply believe that it does not need to pay you well, that
you are a "fungible commodity," and that it can easily find someone else to do your job if you leave. If this is
the case and you sense this, you should try and find a new firm that values you. I have worked with countless
brilliant and talented attorneys who were limited by law firms that did not value them--so they moved firms
and experienced massive success at their new firms. Money shows value, and if you do not believe that your
law firm values you, you should leave.
To Be Closer to a Significant Other.
If your significant other lives somewhere else and you believe that the relationship is likely to last, then
moving firms to be closer to that person is a good idea. It is also a good idea to move if your significant other
is in a legal market where there is more opportunity than the one you are in, or where you see yourself more
likely to settle down.
At the start, though, a question to ask is: "Whose career is more important?" If you are doing well at your
current firm, have one or more mentors, feel comfortable with the people, and are compensated fairly, then is
it really in your best interest to leave behind all of the political capital you have accumulated? Law firms
typically prefer that the careers of their attorneys are the ones prioritized in their romantic relationships--and
not the other way around. All things considered, who would you want to hire if you were a law firm: Someone
whose career took second place in a relationship, or someone whose career was in first place? Law firms
want you to have obligations, need to work, have mortgages, and all sorts of other obligations hanging over
you that make you likely to do your best to bill a lot of hours, generate business, not lose your job, and so
forth. They would prefer you have the obligations and responsibility (and not the other way around).
See Beware! Once You Start Working in a Law Firm, If You Leave You Will Almost Certainly Not Be Able
to Return for more information.
Law firms like it when people are moving to be closer to a significant other because this suggests that the
attorney is likely to settle down in the market and be stable. Moving to be closer to a significant other is
something that you should do if--all things considered--it will benefit your career. While this seems to work
out most of the time, I would be remiss if I did not mention that on an ongoing basis I encounter people in
small markets all over the country who made a move to be closer to a significant other and it did not work out.
I recently spoke to an attorney working in a small law firm in a small South Carolina city. She had been there
for a few years after relocating from a large law firm in Chicago to join a significant other. She was having an
extraordinarily difficult time fitting in, found the city quite insular, and discovered that many cliques that started
in high school were still going strong in the city. Incredibly, everyone she met knew her ex-fiance very well.
Because she was now at a smaller firm and had developed generalist as opposed to specialist skills (not to
mention that she was also now senior), I told her that the odds of her going back to a large firm in Chicago
were very slim. When you relocate to join a significant other somewhere, you need to be confident that you
will stay there long term.
To Be Closer to a Family Member, or to Go Home (Where You Are from and Grew Up).
Moving to be closer to a family member, or where you are from, is a common reason for moving firms and
also a good one. Law firms like it when an attorney relocates to join a family member and go home. If this is
something you are considering doing, you should do so between your second and sixth years of practice--
the time when you will be most marketable as a lateral attorney. Partners with significant portable business
can make this move at any time.
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4. Law firms like hiring people relocating to be closer to their families, or going home, because they know that
the attorney will almost always stay and not leave the market. There is also much less suspicion associated
with attorneys relocating because law firms do not question whether they are leaving their last firms because
they were fired, having problems at work, and so forth. In fact, attorneys with good credentials relocating
home, or to be closer to family typically: (1) get more interviews and (2) convert a higher percentage of
interviews into offers. I make a high number of these sorts of placements each year and do so because law
firms love attorneys relocating. Relocating shows a commitment to your family and a commitment to a
geographic area. Relocating also raises few questions. How could you not like someone who wants to be
closer to his or her mother?
It is very common for attorneys to go to work in New York City, the Bay Area, Boston, and other markets for a
few to several years, before relocating to their home markets. Typically, the training that the attorney receives,
the "big city work ethic," and the other skills the attorney gets in a large market will also be valued in the
attorney's home market. It is also quite common for attorneys to return home to large markets as well, after
having worked in a smaller market.
To Get Exposed to More Sophisticated Work.
The sort of work done in a large law firm in New York or Palo Alto is going to be much different than the work
done by a firm in a smaller market--especially on the corporate transactional side. Within markets, differences
regarding the sophistication of work offered can be quite profound. Small litigation matters are different than
class actions. Large real estate deals involve different skills than smaller ones. Working on more
sophisticated work has the following advantages:
You learn how to do work at the level required by sophisticated clients and become a better attorney.
Sophisticated clients pay a lot of money to their attorneys because they expect the best quality work. The
largest and richest clients will pay their firms to do in-depth research on various issues and have the work
reviewed and considered by various layers of attorneys. Well researched work means the final work product
is close to the best that it can be. This attention to detail, the way teams of very smart people approach
problems, and the learning entailed with this is what helps make an outstanding attorney. Learning to work
on issues the way large law firms do is extremely important. Going to a good law school and graduating puts
you on the 95-yard line when it comes to learning how to be a good attorney. To learn to be an exceptional
attorney, you need to spend at least five years in a very good law firm. Attorneys trained in large law firms
typically are far better attorneys, win more, and get better terms for their clients than those trained at law firms
doing less sophisticated work.
You learn skills that have a higher value in the market. Learning how to do cutting-edge corporate
transactions, class actions, patent litigation, and other sorts of sophisticated work has a higher value in the
market than the work of a generalist. Clients pay more for specialists, and the more sophisticated and rare
your skillset, the more money you can charge for your legal work and the more law firms will pay you. As a
legal recruiter, almost all of the placements I make and interviews I have going on at any given time are for
attorneys with highly specialized skills. Law firms,and the market in general, value specialization.
The work is often more intellectually challenging and interesting. When you are doing specialized work in
a law firm, you are not "glossing over" problems and, instead, are looking at problems in considerable depth
and getting to the heart of matters. Learning to do in-depth work takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of money
for clients to be willing to pay for this. Moreover, if you like delving deeply into problems to solve them, the
more specialized the work you are doing, the more fun it is from an intellectual standpoint.
You become a better attorney. Getting exposed to more sophisticated work will make you a better attorney.
Instead of doing mundane, predictable work, learning a practice area in-depth will make you a better
attorney.
To Get Better Training.
I know an attorney who started work in an insurance defense firm for his first job out of law school. He was
handed 100 cases and told to "handle them" with no training whatsoever offered. As a young attorney, it is
important that you surround yourself with senior attorneys who train you and offer you guidance--about the
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5. work you are doing and even about the politics of the law firm as well. When you have people training you
and offering you guidance, you become a much better attorney more quickly and do not develop habits that
may hurt you in the long run. Having someone hanging over you and critiquing your work is a real benefit
and something that can help you grow. If you do not feel you are getting any training and there is no one to
offer you guidance, you are often best off looking for a new position.
Your Physical Health Can No Longer Tolerate the Conditions of Your Current Firm.
Over the past year, I have encountered numerous attorneys who have had serious health issues (in
particular immune disorders) that seem to have been brought about by the draconian hours and working
conditions of their law firms. These immune disorders seem to have affected a high number of women
associates in New York, in particular (I can think of at least five women I have spoken to over the past year
who left their firms due to immune disorders, and there is likely something to this that merits further study. I
am sure it will be studied at some time in the future because this is happening too much). Other attorneys get
heart problems from sitting at a desk all day, not exercising, and being exposed to so much stress. I know
several attorneys I have worked with who died in their late thirties to late forties from heart attacks (this seems
to affect men more than women).
Many attorneys are so motivated, wired to fight to the death, and try as hard as they can in whatever
environment they are in, that being in a law firm may not be the best place for their health. Other attorneys will
take whatever work and abuse is thrown at them by the law firm and work so hard their health is hurt as well.
If you cannot control any of this, you need to leave.
Your Mental Health Cannot Tolerate Your Current Firm.
If you work in a large law firm, the odds are very good that you know of people who have experienced mental
health issues working inside of a law firm. The working conditions inside of many law firms are not natural
and are too much for many attorneys. The politics of many law firms can create mental health issues for many
attorneys as well.
More common than not, attorneys start relying on alcohol, antidepressants, tranquilizers, marijuana, cocaine,
crystal meth, Adderall, statin, and other substances to help them push through. It should be clear that once all
of this starts there is something wrong. Your health should be your priority, and if the law firm you are with is
interfering drastically with your health and you cannot fix it, you need to leave.
In many cases, the mental health issues you are experiencing may have more to do with the law firm than
you. Once you leave, you may get better very quickly in a different environment. The environments we are in
have everything to do with our state of mind, confidence, and how well we do in the world. The people you
surround yourself with can make or break you. Surround yourself with healthy, happy people, and you may
very well become the same. The problem is not always you and leaving and finding a new firm can often fix
your issues.
There Is Not Enough Work at Your Current Firm.
If your firm does not have a lot of work--and this seems to be consistent--you are well served by looking for a
new position and should. Work is the lifeblood of a law firm and if there is not work for you to do this means
that there will not be an opportunity for you to advance, you will not get enough on-the-job experience, and
the odds are good that you will lose your job at some time in the future.
One of the biggest mistakes that attorneys make in their careers is sitting around law firms where there is not
enough work and thinking things will get better. Things do get better often, but if you are not working hard,
you may be an excess cost the firm will want to get rid of. Law firms are very serious about profits per partner
and making money. If there is not enough work, they will look for ways to cut as many costs as possible so
they can make more money. If partners are hoarding work and not giving it to other partners or associates,
this means that they also do not have enough work.
If you get slow and cannot get work, you should start at least seriously considering looking for a new job. You
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6. need to be where there is a lot of work to do.
Another common occurrence is that you may be at a law firm and the firm is giving others work but not you. If
you are not getting work, the law firm may not like your work and you either need to redeem yourself or find
another job. It is a poor exercise to stick around a law firm where people do not give you work. You are losing
your job--the message is clear--and you need to start looking around.
See the following article for more information:
The Most Valuable Work Is Work That Repeats Itself
You Are a Staff Attorney.
As a strategic cost-saving measure, many prestigious law firms are now hiring attorneys with great
credentials and from good schools as permanent staff attorneys. I am increasingly seeing attorneys from
Harvard, NYU, and other prestigious law schools working as staff attorneys. It is perplexing that law firms are
doing this with such regularity. Many attorneys apply for associate positions, go through rounds of interviews,
and then at the end of the process are offered positions as staff attorneys with the firm. To my astonishment,
the majority of the time these offers are typically extended to women and minorities. Over the past year, I do
not think I have encountered a single white male who was offered a staff attorney position (not necessarily
through me). In contrast, all of the men offered these positions were black and the majority of women offered
these positions were minorities (black or Hispanic) as well. I am not saying there is any racism going on
here--because other aspects of these attorneys' background may have merited these decisions to call them
staff attorneys--but it does seem like this title is increasingly given to women and minorities in particular.
Law firms have all sorts of names for what they call staff attorneys, but in all cases, the messages are the
same:
You are a second-class citizen.
You have no future here.
We do not think highly enough of you to even call you an associate.
You will be the first fired if things get slow.
We want to pay you less.
We are going to give you the worst work we can.
No, you are not invited on our retreats--those are only for partners and associates.
No, you are not eligible for a class year raise each year.
Did we mention we think less of you than associates?
While this is more honest than hiring an associate, and killing the associate with work and then asking the
associate to leave after 12 years, the staff attorney position has a stigma to it. If you are a staff attorney and
are motivated and want to get ahead, you should constantly be looking for a new position as an associate at
any firm--where you might have a future at least. If you are not motivated and like the role that is fine, but you
should realize the limitations.
I recommend that if a staff attorney wants to get ahead, the staff attorney must either try to get "promoted" to
an associate or counsel in his or her firm, or get a position in a new firm where the attorney has the prospect
of advancement.
To Work in a Practice Area That Matches Your Skills and Interests.
Many attorneys join law firms expecting and hoping to do a certain type of work and then once they start work
they find the kind of work they sought is not available. Other attorneys develop an interest in a subject matter
while practicing at a given firm and find that they cannot do a lot of this work because it is not available.
If you have a real interest in doing a certain type of work, it makes a lot of sense to investigate the market and
see what else is out there. There is no reason that you should be doing work you do not enjoy--or where you
do not see a future. It is very common for attorneys to move in search of the work that they want and in most
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7. cases they can find it. In every large city, there are a variety of law firms that do all sorts of different types of
work and are a specialist in this. I spend the majority of my day tracking down firms and jobs that match what
the candidates I am working with are seeking to do.
To Have a Better Opportunity for Advancement in a New Firm.
If there is no opportunity for advancement at your current firm, or the opportunity looks remote, it is important
that you investigate new firms.
At any one time, I am representing senior associates, counsel, and others at major firms across the country
seeking new positions because they know that the possibility of partnership is remote at their current firms--
and they want to go somewhere where there is a significant opportunity for advancement.
I also constantly represent numerous partners where the compensation systems at their current firms are
such that they would make much more at different firms, or where there are not enough opportunities for
"spin-off" work at their current firms.
I also represent associates at all levels where it has been conveyed to them (indirectly or directly) that there
are not advancement opportunities at their current firms.
If there are no opportunities at your current firm, and you are unable to create opportunities on your own, then
you should look for a new firm. There is no reason to work in a law firm where there is a dearth of
opportunities.
When there is an opportunity for advancement, then everyone is happier in the firm. When there is the
opportunity for advancement, it is a sign the market is rewarding your firm for doing something well. When
there is opportunity for advancement, the law firm can grow and expand. You need to be at a place where
there is opportunity. If you do not have it, then it is time to look for a new job.
If the Culture of the Law Firm Is Wrong for You.
The culture of the law firm you are in is extremely important. If you are a fit for the culture, then you will be
around people who understand you and will help advance you. But if you are in the wrong culture, then
everything you do might be taken in a negative way. You need to surround yourself with people you feel
comfortable with, understand and vice versa. There are countless benefits to this, but chief among them is
your happiness.
When I was in middle school, I attended a private school that was very regimented and had many rules--it
was not even that good of a school and did not send many kids to Ivy League colleges, for example. I did not
do well in this school and was given "C's" in everything from physical education to English (which was a
series of grammar tests and rules and no writing). Everything I did seemed to be wrong and looked upon in a
negative way. The next year I went to a school that had a much different culture--and was a prestigious
boarding school that sent kids to all sorts of Ivy League schools (I am not sure how I got in). Without doing
much different, suddenly I was getting great grades and positive feedback in most of what I did. It was a
different culture, and I excelled.
Cultures are like this in law firms as well. If you are in a law firm that is not a good cultural fit for you, then you
may think you are not a good lawyer and not happy practicing law. Many attorneys from large law firms in
New York City get so beaten down by the experience of working in a large, super-demanding law firm that
they think they never want to work in a law firm again. In contrast, attorneys who start their careers in smaller
markets rarely leave the law firm route and stick with it and enjoy being attorneys. You need to work with
people you like and who make you feel comfortable. Many issues that attorneys face inside of law firms are
related to the culture of the law firm.
I have written extensively about the importance of firm culture in the articles hyperlinked below. If you have
any hesitations about where you are at and whether or not you belong there, I recommend reading these
articles. The issue of cultural fit comes up far too often and is very important for your happiness practicing
law.
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8. See the following articles for more information:
Why You Should Find Your "Tribe" and Not Just Focus on Money in Making Law Firm Decisions
Firm Culture Matters Most
You Have Made Serious Mistakes at Your Job (Social, Sexual, Political, Work-Related) That Will Haunt
You If You Stay at the Firm.
Many attorneys make serious mistakes at their law firms and need to leave. Here are some examples from
the past few years:
People get drunk and say and do dumb things at parties. Attorneys commonly get in trouble for drinking
and saying and doing dumb things. Attorneys are cooped up all day inside of offices and dealing with stress,
then have a few drinks and words start to flow. Unfortunately, if your errors are serious enough, you can do
major harm to your brand inside of a law firm. Law firms expect you to be in control because that is the job
you are supposed to be doing for your clients. I see at least a few attorneys looking for jobs due to reasons
related to this sort of thing each year. Depending on the culture of your law firm, you may or may not feel
ostracized after the poor behavior.
Attorneys side with the wrong people in political squabbles and get on the wrong side of those in power.
Inside of law firms, partners will get into political fights over money, policies, and all sorts of issues and these
fights can often be fatal for the losing side. If you are on the wrong side of those in power, they may let you go
at the first opportunity, give you poor reviews, keep your compensation from increasing and make you
endure other unpleasantries. If you are in this situation and is it not rectifiable in the long run, then it may
make sense to leave. A significant portion of the partners and associates I work with are looking for positions
due to being on the wrong side of those in power.
Attorneys make giant mistakes in their legal work and mess up matters. Every attorney makes mistakes
in the course of their work. Nevertheless, if you make serious enough errors where you and the firm are open
to malpractice, and you lose the trust of those you are working with, you may have to look for a new position.
If an attorney makes a serious mistake, the attorney will lose the trust of those the attorney is working with at
the firm, and if this happens the attorney will be in a position where others will not want to give the attorney
work or trust the attorney with important assignments. In some instances, the mistakes an attorney makes are
so large that they will hang like a dark cloud over the attorney in virtual perpetuity if the attorney remains at
the firm and so the attorney needs to go.
Attorneys oversleep and miss court or an important closing. I bring this up because I have seen it a few
times over the past year and it does happen. Many law firms will fire an attorney for this, and those that do not
will often stop giving the attorney work--if the attorney is an associate. While the culture of your firm will
determine the reaction to this, it will do enough harm to your brand that it is best to look if you have not built
up enough political capital.
Attorneys take too much time off of work and have very low billable hours. If you take too much time off
from work and your hours are low, this can do harm to you. In a large class of associates inside of a law firm,
the law firm is always to some extent "culling the herd" and looking for reasons to penalize you and elevate
others. If your hours are very low compared to your peers and the law firm is under the impression that you
are not "all in" with your commitment to the firm--and you believe it will be difficult to change--looking for a
new position may be in your best interest. Many of the attorneys I work with made this mistake, and it can be
a good reason to look.
You make a flippant remark that upsets someone. Many attorneys are so wired that I have seen one
flippant remark to the wrong person completely doom someone's career in a law firm. I recently saw an
associate fired because he told a partner he did not think a certain assignment was necessary. You need to
be careful inside of law firms--they are unique places.
Attorneys somehow upset an important attorney about something and get blackballed. I have seen
attorneys get blackballed because a partner's wife flirted with them, or because they upset someone who
became upset for an irrational, nonsensical reason. The upset attorney then proceeded to create all sorts of
issues for the attorney who did the upsetting.
In large law firms, affairs with superiors are dangerous--because everyone almost always finds out.
Affairs occur with regularity in just about every large law firm because humans are animals and that is what
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9. animals do. In most instances, the affair occurs with the attorney's "mentor." Affairs with mentors are
particularly dangerous because the attorney who has an affair loses a valuable supporter in the firm. Both
during the affair (no one trusts the work evaluation of the senior attorney for the more junior attorney) and
after (if things go wrong--and they do--the junior attorney has possibly lost the support of the senior attorney),
the junior attorney is penalized. Regardless of how all this comes about, it is almost always the junior
attorney whose career is damaged and in a position where the junior attorney needs to leave
Attorneys get hospitalized for psychiatric conditions, substance abuse issues, and so forth. I have seen
more attorneys than I remember getting hospitalized for these sorts of issues. When this does occur, though,
word gets around and when it does the credibility of the attorney may be an issue going forward. People
remember the bad more than the good and will define the attorney based on this. Finding a new firm is often
a good idea in this situation.
Attorneys recklessly talk to people outside the firm about a matter. While I have not seen this often, I
have seen a few attorneys look for jobs for this reason. If the law firm does not trust you, then you have a lot to
overcome. Attorneys are expected to be rational and in control.
Attorneys get caught lying about something they should never have. I have seen this happen once. If an
attorney is caught lying to other attorneys, the presumption is that the attorney cannot be trusted.
Attorneys get caught doing something illegal, and word gets back to the firm. I once saw an attorney fired
after a news story ran that he had appeared in court to defend himself against charges that he solicited
someone online for sex whom he thought was an underage girl and got arrested in a hotel "sting."
Unbeknownst to him, when the story broke, he spent the better part of the day in his firm thinking that no one
knew what he had done while attorneys discussed the online news stories all throughout the firm. He lost his
job later that day. Illegal activity that gets back to your firm can get you fired or at least put you in a position
where you need to look for a new position.
Attorneys get sued by their secretaries, or others in the firm for sexual harassment, racist remarks or
something else. I have also seen this happen at least a few times and it can harm the attorney as well. If the
firm needs to represent you for something wrong you have done and you make the firm look bad publicly, the
firm may ask you to leave.
There are countless minefields that attorneys need to negotiate when practicing law and most attorneys
make mistakes at one time or another. If an attorney makes a serious enough mistake, the attorney may need
to leave. In most instances, it is a "you know it when you see it" type of issue that attorneys face. If your
reputation is harmed too much at your existing firm, this will permanently harm your brand where you are at,
and you need to find another law firm.
You Have No Mentors or the Attorneys Who Hired You (or Give You Work) Have Moved on or Are in
Trouble.
When an attorney is inside of a law firm, the attorney typically needs to have an individual (or individuals)
who give the attorney work and who will look out for the attorney and support the attorney. You need to have
supporters in your job, and nothing is more important than this. If you do not have any supporters inside of
your law firm and believe it will be difficult to find them, then leaving is something you should consider--
whether you are a partner or an associate.
Every attorney needs a champion (preferably more than one) to ensure that the attorney gets access to work,
gets advanced, and has someone to defend the attorney when work gets slow and the law firm is considering
layoffs. When an attorney is laid off, it is typically very difficult for the attorney to get a new job. One reason for
this difficulty is because law firms never layoff everyone. Some attorneys have supporters and people who
stick up for them. You need this in your career, and if you do not have it at your firm, you should find it or
move on. Almost all successful attorneys have people who have their backs.
See the following articles for more information:
The Importance of and How to Find a Mentor
Mentors, Attachment Disorders and Your Career
Seek Out Environments, Conditions, and People That Create Positive Beliefs in Yourself
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10. Conclusions
There are several classes of attorneys who make the decision to leave their law firms and look for new jobs.
First, there are attorneys who are asked to leave, told they have no futures or given this advice indirectly in a
thousand possible ways. In this sort of case, the attorney needs to make sure he or she is evaluating the
situation rationally and move on as quickly as possible. Make no mistake about it: Once a law firm has asked
you to move on, you need to and should not prolong it under any circumstances. You need to get out and
leave now. The law firm does not want you around, and it is bad for your mental health to remain in a place
where you are not wanted. Look immediately and look far and wide for a new position.
Second, the attorney may be experiencing a long-lasting, incessant feeling that is telling the attorney with
certainty that the attorney needs to get out, that the attorney is not happy, that the situation cannot continue,
and that the attorney cannot take it any longer. Feeling ill-at-ease in a job is a very common feeling among
attorneys--and it is not necessarily a sign that the attorney is in the wrong firm. Nevertheless, being unhappy
in your law firm job, more likely than not, is a sign you are in the wrong part of your profession (you might be
happy in another practice setting--in-house, government, solo practice, for example) or that you are in the
wrong law firm. Being in the wrong law firm is also a reason to move and a good one as well.
See 60 Nontraditional Jobs You Can Do with a Law Degree (and Should Strongly Consider Doing) for
more information.
If you think you are experiencing any of the fifteen reasons discussed above, you should consider moving.
Of course, leaving may not be the right decision either. Before you move, consider these fifteen reasons you
should not leave your current law firm: 15 Reasons Law Firm Attorneys Should Not Look for New Jobs.
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