22 Jul, 2021

One of the hardest questions for an associate looking to leave biglaw is how long they should stick it out. Certainly the money is better at the firm, but associates rightly worry about the impacts of firm life on their personal life and health. When I left I was a sixth year associate and I think the range from 4-7 years is the perfect time to make the move. Read on for the benefits and drawbacks of leaving at different times.

0-3 Years in Practice

  • As a junior associate you are not well positioned to make the jump in-house. This is a time of tremendous development and each additional year you add at this stage pays huge dividends in terms of your experience and ability. If you choose to go in-house this early in your career, expect to be limited in your options. Most in-house jobs available to attorneys at this stage of practice will be limited to repetitive work and may have limited opportunity for advancement. Additionally, you’re likely looking at taking a large pay cut compared to waiting even a few years.

4-7 Years in Practice

  • Making the move in-house as a mid-level to senior associate (or very junior non-share partner if you’re at a place like Kirkland & Ellis) makes the most sense for long-term career development. At this level you’ve seen enough deal flow (or enough cases if you’re a litigator) to be competent in your abilities and should have had the time to pay off most or all of your loan balance and develop a nest egg. That said you aren’t so senior that you are viewed as too expensive or un-trainable. The mid-level to senior associate time really is the sweet spot for a move in-house.

7+ Years in Practice

  • By the time you make it to senior associate/junior partner level the options for moving in-house become more limited. Many employers begin to wonder why you are choosing to move in-house at a time when earnings are poised to really take off (were you passed over for partner? Can you not hack the practice anymore?).. Additionally, you become priced out of many more junior roles. It’s a hard sell to make an 8th year attorney jump to a corporate counsel or even senior corporate counsel role and so they are stuck competing for more senior in-house roles Associate General Counsel roles, many of which value prior in-house experience.

If you’ve made the jump in-house when did you decide to do it? Do you feel like you moved at the right time?

21 Jul, 2021

A little over six years ago in May of 2015 I graduated from law school with approximately $250,000 in student loans and an overall net worth (combined with my lovely wife) of roughly negative $175,000. A little over six weeks ago I left my biglaw job for a new life in-house with a net worth of approximately $1 million and an abiding passion for personal finance and the drive to achieve financial independence.

The guidance, support, and inspiration I got from reading personal finance blogs like WhiteCoat Investor, Physician on FIRE, 1500 Days to Freedom, XRAYVSN, Abandoned Cubicle, Biglaw Investor, Crispy Doc, Financial Panther, Physician REI, and Thoughts of an Anonymous Lawyer (among others) has been a big part of my journey to paying off that debt and building up a big nest egg came.  I debated for years starting a blog myself but always decided that the costs in terms of the use of my (exceptionally) limited free time while in biglaw outweighed the benefits. Now that I have more time, I hope for this place to be a resource as I continue my journey toward financial independence and learn to navigate the in-house life and I hope I can share some of my experiences as a way to give back.While I’ve come a long way in the past six years, my financial journey is far from over.

Additionally, while there is lots of information out there targeted at physicians, and there is more and more targeted at lawyers, I found myself there was little that addressed the strange position that those of us who leave biglaw to make a move in-house (or to a government position), trading the high salary but horrid lifestyle of biglaw for the lower paying but more hospitable waters of in-house life.  I hope that this blog can be a resource to others who are thinking of making the jump from biglaw.

Topics I hope to cover include finding and choosing an in-house job, life as an in-house counsel, personal finance, debt, early retirement, the legal industry, and more.  

Thanks for joining me in this experiment!