Can You Have Your Cake and Eat it Too?
What if you could work with big firm lawyers, get good work and come home for dinner most nights? That seems to be what many young associates want today; but it is not really one of the options for most lawyers who work for large firms.In Law.Com today, I read an article about Gen Y lawyers heading to boutique firms whose founders came from biglaw. These associates are billing 1600 hours on sophisticated matters and trading a chunk of salary in order to have time in their lives for other pursuits. Recruiters quoted in this article describe it as a new phenomenon.
Actually, I think the basic business model has been around for a while (i.e. leave a large firm with a few partners, cut your size and overhead, lower your rates somewhat and let associates work livable hours--oh and pay them less.) There are a lot of smart associates out there who would be happy to earn less and work less. I certainly meet a lot of them. Is the trend picking up?
Labels: work life balance
posted by Stephen Seckler, Esq. at 1:22 PM
1 Comments:
I think the problem these firms face is sustainability. I was at a firm such as this in Los Angeles, after spending my first 5 years at Latham. The initial attraction was being able to do the same type of work -- but it quickly became apparent that (i) that was more bluster than truth, and (ii) even to the extent they had *existing* work from clients they'd had since leaving Big Firm 15 years earlier... they weren't bringing more / new such work in the door. The big firms have a huge marketing advantage, and even if a group of attorneys can leave and start a boutique with a defecting client or two, in the long run (change of general counsel, departure of the relationship partner, etc.) that work may leave, while it's simultaneously much harder to get new (substantive) clients and work than with that big firm business card in hand.
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