Are you thinking about leaving your law firm? Make sure you don’t leave your firm for the wrong reason and harm your career.

1. 15 Reasons
Law Firm
Attorneys
Should Not
Look for
New Jobs

2. Summary:
Are you thinking about leaving
your law firm? Make sure you
don’t leave your firm for the
wrong reason and harm your
career.
BCG ATTORNEY SEARCH

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Many attorneys at some point in their careers—six
months or thirty years out—decide that they need to
find new jobs. There are concrete reasons that many
should find new jobs; however, in over half of cases it is
generally inadvisable for attorneys to look for new
positions.
For attorneys who are unhappy, the problem is generally
not where they are currently working; the problem is
generally the attorney and how the attorney is thinking
about his or her position.

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1. You Are Compensated Well but Feel Unappreciated
Just about all attorneys inside of law firms feel
unappreciated.
i) Partners with the most business feel unappreciated
because they feel like they are giving away the fees
they collect to support unproductive partners and
associates.
ii) Senior associates making over $500,000 a year feel
unappreciated because they are not partners.

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iii) Junior associates feel unappreciated because there
is too much work, or because they are not given the
work they want.
2. There Is Too Much Work
Too much work is a very common complaint. The law
firm world runs by having associates bill as many
hours as possible in exchange for a fixed salary and
bonus. Law firms of all sizes (boutique to large firms)
function and are successful to the degree that there
is a lot of work to be done, and you are paid as little
as possible for doing this work.

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3. Morale Is Low
Morale is low in most law firms. Morale is low when
people leave, when there are irrational and mean
partners, when people get fired, when clients are
lost, when cases are lost, when people do not make
partner, when there are layoffs, when there is too
much work, when there is bad news in the press
about the firm, when there is not enough work, when
bonuses are not paid, and when bonuses are not as
high as people were hoping for or expected.

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4. Others Are Leaving, and You Decide to Look as Well
A man I know is very wealthy and has been married a
few times. He controls his “trophy” wife very closely
and dictates whom she can associate with. After a
few failed marriages, he realized that if his wife
started associating with women who were unhappy
in their marriages and complaining all the time, then
his wife would start doing the same—because
unhappiness is contagious and people want to be
around others like them.

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5. You Received a Poor Review or Have Gotten Poor
Reviews.
Did you receive a poor review? Think about it.
When I was a summer associate at a major law firm
in New York, I billed maybe 35 hours a week. There
was a major legal recession at the time (it was the
mid-1990s), and things were not going well at most
law firms in New York. When I received my first
review, halfway through the summer program, I could
not believe how harsh it was.

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6. You Think You Would Be Happier in a Boutique.
A constant fantasy of attorneys from large law firms is
transferring to boutique law firms and being happy.
They believe that the pressures of a large law firm
will suddenly disappear and they will be happier if
they join a boutique law firm. The fantasy is that
there will be fewer hours, a nicer atmosphere, and
that life will be much better. Here is the problem with
this logic.

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7. You Are Not Being Given Enough Authority (Running
Deals, Doing Depositions, and So Forth).
A common complaint that attorneys have is that they
do not have enough authority or responsibility. In
one way, being upset about not having enough
authority can be interpreted as a good sign because it
shows you are ambitious, hungry, and want to
improve. Notwithstanding, this is not a good reason
to look for a new position.

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8. You Are Getting Senior and Will Not Make Partner.
It is very common for attorneys who have 8+ years of
experience to look for jobs because they are not
going to be partners at their current firms—yet they
are not being asked to leave. If the attorney is at a
large law firm, the attorney may be making over
$500,000 a year to sit around and bill 2,000 to 2,200
hour a year.

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9. You Are Unhappy and Think It Is Because of Your
Law Firm.
Many attorneys are unhappy. But stress,
disappointment, anger, depression, substance abuse,
health problems, and other issues are par for the
course for attorneys. Many attorneys are unhappy
people to begin with. To get into one of the best law
schools, an attorney typically needs to study harder
and work harder than most others. The major of the
attorneys I work with from large law firms were Phi
Beta Kappa in college and have histories of
remarkable achievement.

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10. You Think You Would Be Happier Doing another
Practice Area
It is very common for attorneys to want to switch
firms, or find new jobs, because they believe they
would be happier in other practice areas. Every week,
I speak with attorneys interested in switching practice
areas and who are unhappy in their existing practice
areas.

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11. You Are Bored.
There are attorneys who like the thrill of looking for a
new position—meeting new people, selling
themselves, and the thrill of getting interviews and
offers. I have seen attorneys move yearly for a decade
or more. Most often attorneys move around between
firms like this because they get bored and restless.

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12. You Think You Want to Work In-House.
This is extremely common, and it is incredibly
common for attorneys inside of big law firms to
dream of going in-house. The fantasy is that if you go
in-house that all of the stresses of your current
position will go away and you will be happy, have
more free time, and be able to be on the business
side of things advising your clients.

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13. You Have a Mentor and Someone Looking Out for
You.
If you have a mentor and someone looking out for
you inside of your existing law firm—someone you
truly believe is trying to help you—then it is not
always a good idea to leave.

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14. The Firm Is Telling You That You Have a Future.
If a firm tells you that you have a future with the firm,
and if the firm means it, then you should not look
elsewhere—unless there are other reasons
motivating the move. If the firm likes you, you have
enough work, and you have a future in the law firm,
then looking for a new position may not be in your
best interest.

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15. You Would Like to Try Another Career (Government,
In-House) Before Committing to a Law Firm.
If you are in a law firm now, you have one shot to
succeed. Once you leave the law firm world, it is
difficult to impossible to come back. That is like
telling someone you are dating that you want to see
other people for a while and then try to start up
again. It does not work. Law firms almost always only
hire from law firms.

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Conclusions
Attorneys can be classified into a couple of camps: (1) junior
associates, (2) midlevel associates, (3) senior associates, and
(4) partner level attorneys.
It takes about five years for most attorneys to learn what they
are doing and become competent in any practice area.
This article “15 Reasons Law Firm Attorneys Should Not Look
for New Jobs” first appeared on BCG Attorney Search is widely
known to be the most selective recruiting firm in terms of who
it represents in the United States.