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Biglawyers: How is the culture now that p'ship isnt a realistic possibility?
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Date: February 25th, 2026 2:17 PM Author: Canary Wild Den presumably the culture of Partner rule through fear and associate subservience has abated now that the carrot has evaporated? the associates must realize they have zero incentive other than to maximize their own bonuses and earnings?
maybe some of the associate really, really need their jobs, but surely they realize they can make money lawyering many other places? it's just hard to see how the management and incentive model continues to work now that the rug has been pulled completely out from under |
Date: February 25th, 2026 2:33 PM Author: Heady Bisexual Fortuitous Meteor Partnership is much more attainable than 15 years ago. Of course it’s all salaried non-equity bullshit though if you’re good but not equity material at least they’ll keep you around indefinitely at $600-700k rather than force you out at year ten. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49694655) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 2:35 PM Author: Electric Nighttime Associate Business Firm (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49694660) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 5:23 PM Author: Canary Wild Den got it. just never ending wage slavery fueled by the absolute highest level of gunning imaginable. or "partnership" as you call it (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695049) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 5:26 PM Author: Sooty Razzle-dazzle Base Prole 700k a year doesn't sound that bad particularly if you're not in NY/SF. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695055) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:11 PM Author: Canary Wild Den but it's a lifetime of working biglaw hours, in the biglaw environment (i.e., fake bullshit pressure for meaningless bullshit). have you ever wondered what the world looks like at 5pm? what it's like to play catch with your kids in the street without either currently being on a call or having to race back inside to do more work? I don't know either, but I'm going to find out soon (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695153) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:13 PM Author: Ivory pisswyrm boltzmann The biggest myth of BigLaw is that every year is a 2700 heater. Most partners who are doing fine are at 1800 at AmLaw 200. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695160) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:20 PM Author: Canary Wild Den I work like 1800-2000 for about 10 years now and my life feels completely dominated by work during the week. early morning until evening. i'm pretty good about disconnecting on weekends and for family time (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695164) |
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Date: February 27th, 2026 12:39 PM Author: rambunctious newt cr. i'm at 2,000 - 2,200 and work is omnipresent. evenings, weekends, vacations. it doesn't all just neatly fall during weekday working hours even if the math says it could (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49699607) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 8:48 PM Author: Abusive Casino You're correct. I think that the average hours worked in big law is something like 1700 - thogh that's probably dragged down by people ramping up / ramping down.
But billing 1700 hours is way more work than your average 9-5. |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 9:11 AM Author: Indecent outnumbered stead amlaw 200 is midlaw. but even within biglaw, there are plenty of firms where people aren't grinding at 2500 hours a year. when i was at baker hostetler (classic example of a low-end biglaw firm), i billed around 1700-1800 a year as a partner and nobody ever said shit. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696206) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 2:39 PM Author: Mind-boggling walnut puppy I work for my partner in a tiny niche specialty that he created that doesn't even exist in most biglaw firms, much less out on my own. Well, I guess I could try to leave and steal his clients, by my aspie, xo-reading ass wouldn't be able to steal a single client from his charismatic self. So I'm going to ride the gravy train as long as I can- it pays a lot and, best of all, most of the time we can just recycle old work and bill full price for it. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49694674) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 2:41 PM Author: Electric Nighttime Associate Business Firm 180^180, unironically happy for you my pumo brother (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49694678) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 2:44 PM Author: Mind-boggling walnut puppy Ty, it could all be over fast if someone figures out how bad we are ripping companies off and starts undercutting us. My partner keeps me around because there's too much work for him to do by himself, but that could change. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49694685) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 2:45 PM Author: Electric Nighttime Associate Business Firm (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49694686) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 5:28 PM Author: Violet deranged rigor Living the dream (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695066) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 9:53 AM Author: tan cheese-eating address legal warrant must be nice to profit off the profiteers (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696276) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 9:55 AM Author: Indecent outnumbered stead how much are u making? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696281) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 5:31 PM Author: vibrant crotch roommate partnership wasnt a realistic possibility even 20 years ago (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695074) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 5:31 PM Author: rambunctious newt equity partnership is absolutely a realistic possibility at my firm (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695076) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:12 PM Author: Canary Wild Den out the level of firm (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695155) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:14 PM Author: Ivory pisswyrm boltzmann AmLaw 237 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695162) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:40 PM Author: rambunctious newt v50 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695202) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:56 PM Author: Canary Wild Den is that realistic possibility reflected in the culture? do associates yes sir no sir and gun and every opportunity because they feel they have a serious chance at the brass ring? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695240) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 9:00 PM Author: rambunctious newt no, they by and large don't care enough to try. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695566) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 9:33 AM Author: cerise love of her life theater Post-ITE and especially by about 2015 or so Tech inhouse was seen as the goal for many over making partner in biglaw. It was paying as much or more than what senior associates made and you were set up with a clear career trajectory if you had a modicum of generic white collar social awareness. The only people who didn’t think this way were litfags and hardcore aspies like Tax dorks (and only the bottom half EQ most aspie ones because plenty of Tax people go inhouse). I gather this has normalized somewhat, but my class year and the 2-3 on either side are illustrative. I was at a v10 and literally everyone was inhouse by 2015 regardless of whether they got Latham’d or not. The one exception was this turbo striver girl who went to specialized midlaw after she was Latham’d and then firm hopped her way back to make partner at at v100 and then leave for a v50. She was also pretty hot and managed to stay reasonably thin and fuckable through having 3 kids, so she would’ve crushed if she’d gone inhouse for peak woke. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696232) |
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Date: February 27th, 2026 1:09 PM Author: Shaky tattoo turdskin I got pwned by this.
Circa 2013, I bailed out of biglawyer after almost exactly 1 year old go inhouse at a smallish tech company.
Still inhouse.
Felt like a badass at first since xoxo made it out to be THE GOAL for all lawyers.
Quality of life has admittedly been great, but I'm now stuck unable to break ~$350k / year.
When I was in-house in my late 20s making $250k I felt like a badass
Now I'm in-house in my late 30s making ~$350k and I feel like a poor as fuck loser. Except for retirement accounts, I've barely been able to save any money since having kids. |
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Date: February 27th, 2026 1:27 PM Author: rambunctious newt you maed it bro (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49699780) |
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Date: February 27th, 2026 1:38 PM Author: Shaky tattoo turdskin If I lived in ARae country, maybe.
But I live in mega expensive big city usa and so I'm thououghly poor. |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 6:13 PM Author: Shaky tattoo turdskin Husch Blackwell "biglawyer" (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695161) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 9:46 AM Author: Indecent outnumbered stead fwiw, i talked to husch blackwell last year when i was looking to move. it seems like a decent firm, but they told me you need like $2.5 million to make equity. lol at that, that's basically biglaw numbers (albeit low-end biglaw) for a firm that isn't biglaw. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696267) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 12:31 PM Author: rough-skinned contagious tanning salon My question always is even if you make equity, if you don’t have a book or are indispensable to another book, etc are they really going to throw money at you just because you are “equity.” It seems through classes of equity and other discretionary shit everyone is essentially paid on production one way or another with far fewer free rides (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696789) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 12:38 PM Author: Indecent outnumbered stead yeah, firms are all over the place i think.
im at a midlaw firm now. i'm converting to equity effective 1/1/27 and just talked to the firm COO about what comp looks like. it's roughly 40% of your working attorney number and 20% of your originations. so on a $2m book, assuming $1.2m in revenue being collected off my billable hours, i'll make $880-900k. pretty good for a $2m book.
i was at baker hostetler, and they are black box on everything. i know a dood who also has a $2m book and he's making 700-750k. |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 1:07 PM Author: rambunctious newt ime it's easier to make money in biglaw than xo thinks (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696866) |
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Date: February 25th, 2026 8:58 PM Author: chocolate alpha trust fund Key is to find non-NYC, non-cyclical area of MIDLAW. Pretty easy to make $500-700k with occasional pop up higher in a good year, total job security, no angry conniving miserable "New York" types allowed, stayed in the office later than 5:30 exactly twice in the past year (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49695564) |
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Date: February 26th, 2026 9:45 AM Author: cocky mad-dog skullcap range stfu you lowenstein sandler (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49696265) |
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Date: February 27th, 2026 8:11 AM Author: Indecent outnumbered stead (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5838318&forum_id=2...id.#49699048) |