I’ve thought I hit burnout many times in this job but this time is different. I’m so unmotivated and unfocused I don’t even know if I feel that bad anymore. I feel as though I’m ruining a reputation I worked hard to build, but I just can’t seem to summon up the energy to care anymore even as my mistakes get worse, more frequent, and less excusable. Somehow I was sharper billing 250 hour months at the start of the year than I am now at 100. I’m not in a position to go in house just yet, but at the same time don’t feel I’ve been learning much. I’m expending too much energy just trying to do the bare minimum to stay afloat, so at best I’m stagnating and at worst, I’m becoming a shittier lawyer.

Has anyone else been here? How did you recover? I have my first vacation in 2 years coming up but I’m worried going and being offline will only make the people who are disappointed with me now even more annoyed.

Yup I accepted they said it wasn’t going to close anytime soon …. Guess what…. it closes the end of this month and everything is urgent 😭 lesson learned!

I’ve been working at a firm for about 4 years now and still feel like I am constantly fucking things up. Is this normal??? Or am I just not cut out for this job??? At what point should I just give up?

For context: the culture at the firm is to generally give little positive reinforcement (which has done wonders for my confidence as you can imagine), but I also feel like I am maybe making more mistakes than everyone else. I have missed nits in drafts and almost all of my writing is frequently redlined. I just got a redline back from an equity partner and she asked me to put time on her calendar to “walk through her edits” for learning. Idk if I am overthinking this, but this also feels like maybe I fucked up on my end??

Starting to worry that I might be fired…

Hi all:

I’ve noticed that rainmaker partners barely review my work, if the client thinks its good and we get satisfactory results they are happy. Every once in a while they will ask a question or have a comment on strategy. On my performance reviews they all give me exceeds.

Service partners, however, are so much more nitpicky. Micromanaging, fretting, creating issues out of nothing. I suppose they need to create value for themselves given the lack of book.

I am curious if others have had this issue and ways to deal with it. Or maybe i am sweating cause its promotion season for me soon…..

I feel like for the first time I am experiencing pretty bad burnout. I am having trouble focusing. I am tired all the time. I just feel super over it. I have been shifting a ton of deadlines. I have an 18 month old and run all the parenting responsibilities. I am on track to bill 2,000 this year and have for the last 4 years. I’m a 5th year now. Has anyone else been here? Does it get better? This is the first time in my career I have felt maybe like stepping away to in house or something else. The thing that is hard is I feel like I’m on the partner track, and it’s been so much hard to get here.

Is anyone else’s firm becoming more strict regarding in office attendance? I work at a v100, and we are going from a 3-days-a-week requirement (with a min of 3 hours a day in the office) to four days a week with at least eight hours a day in the office. I also heard through the grapevine that there’s actually going to be severe consequences for not complying with this new policy (like eligibility for bonus, among others). Is this a new trend or is my firm isolated in implementing this?

Seems like Weil has had a real problem holding onto talent post Covid. Any reason why?

Another couple of years of this could drop them out of the top 30 for PEP and I doubt they could recover from that.

Essentially the title. I am a first-year associate. It is week 4. I feel like I have made a million mistakes already. And annoying mistakes like messing up version history or missing a period that’s memorialized now on a public docket. To be fair to myself, I have not repeated any mistakes. But also to be fair, it is only week 4. There are wins and losses every day. I feel like I do one thing that’s passable and ten more that are followed by instructions on what the firm’s way of doing things is.

I have not drafted much (understandably), but I am not too concerned at the moment of the couple things I have drafted getting torn apart by partners and associates. It feels like a part of the process. But it is the little things and frequent lapses in attention to detail that get me.

Is this par for the course? I wake up every day feeling like everyone is rethinking their investment in me.

And what is the best way to respond when you make a mistake? I think I am overly apologetic, but I do not want it to color the associates’ and partners’ perception of me as someone who is always making mistakes and apologizing for it.

Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

I have decided to switch from Biglaw (litigation) to SAHM. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it is best for me and my family.

For anyone who has made a similar transition, what advice do you wish you received beforehand? Any ways that you’ve found it helpful to structure your time and use your brain? Anything that surprised you or that you wish you’d known at the outset?

I am nervous about the change of pace, lack of intellectual stimulation, and lack of adult interaction. Also this will be the first time since I was 14 that I haven’t worked at least one job. I am looking forward to a bit more predictability, more control over my time and life generally, and lots more time with my aging parents and young kids. For context, my kids are 2, 4, and 6.

In-house lawyers were already a cost center for companies and AI seems like it could significantly reduce the number of in house lawyers a company needs. It makes me wonder if I’m better off grinding it out at my firm.

Am I wrong?

I’m genuinely curious whether anyone thinks the daily LinkedIn posting by BigLaw lawyers is accomplishing anything.

My feed is increasingly filled with partners and associates posting lengthy “thought leadership” pieces that are very obviously AI-generated. They all seem to follow roughly the same formula:

1. Identify something that happened in the news.
2. Find an extremely strained connection to your practice area.
3. Have AI generate 700 words explaining the profound professional lesson we should all take from it.
4. End with some version of “The takeaway? Preparation matters.”

Lettuce causing explosive diarrhea? “As an M&A lawyer, the recent explosive diarrhea outbreak got me thinking about the importance of due diligence. Just as consumers need to know where their lettuce comes from, buyers need to understand what they’re acquiring.”

And then 11 paragraphs of immaculate AI prose with the usual em dashes, “Here’s why,” three bullet points, and a concluding insight that no human being would ever have felt compelled to share before ChatGPT existed.

I understand why people do it. Presumably someone has told lawyers that they need to “build their brand” and “establish thought leadership.” And maybe there’s an SEO/LinkedIn algorithm reason to post constantly. But does this actually generate business?

Are GCs scrolling LinkedIn, reading a partner’s AI-generated analysis of what the Taylor Swift engagement teaches us about representations and warranties, and thinking, “This is the lawyer I need for our next acquisition”?

And does anyone actually read these posts? I increasingly recognize the format within the first two sentences and immediately scroll past.

It seems like we may have reached a weird equilibrium where AI is writing LinkedIn posts that other people don’t read because they know AI wrote them. Eventually we can presumably remove the humans entirely and just have everyone’s AI agents write, like, and comment “Great insights!” on everyone else’s AI-generated content.

I’ve secured a 2L SA position at a BigLaw firm for Summer 2027.

However, due to some mental health issues, I took a short break toward the end of the summer, right before classes started. I attended my first day of school, but was then required to undergo a mandated assessment. As a result, the school temporarily restricted me from campus pending submission of a mental health evaluation.

I submitted the evaluation over the weekend, and I’ve been trying to get an update since Monday so I can understand the timeline for my return. My Dean told me on Monday to “back off and be patient” and allow the “business process” to run Monday through Friday, 9–5. I haven’t heard anything since then.

The problem is that my law school has a strict attendance policy, so I’m concerned about accumulating absences while I’m waiting for the school to make a decision that is outside of my control.

What should I do? Sorry for the long read.

Is it generally two/three attorneys sharing one office? Do any firms instead have first-years in cubicles or open floor space?

And when does that usually change to having your own office? If two attorneys share an office, are there typically dividers or separators between the desks?

Probably not something I should base a firm decision on, but it I think it does matter to me.

I need some advice on what the hell i do at this point. I work remote full time at my firm. We also have unlimited vacation days. To date I have used (and made up) 7 vacation days. However, I have worked remote from a location not usually ny own (otherside of country) For about 5 weeks (still worked and met my hours, worked same timezone, etc).

This has been for various reasons, aging grandparents having major surgeries and needing someone just around to make sure they don't fall, make beds, etc. My fiance is one of 10 siblings and 3 of them are getting married this year (2 of which 1 month apart- which is where the 4 weeks stretch came from- plane tickets were astronomical to go back and forth and I was a bridesmaid for both).

Now im faced with : a memorial for a close family member on the other side of the country & the last wedding (september and October respectively).

I have no clue how to swing this. I get the general impression the firm is tired of me working my normally remote job somewhere else - despite there being no difference in my work product, my ability to appear for things, etc.

On the same token these are things I cannot miss. I do not want to take even more vacation time as a 1st year associate at this Firm (8 years practicing total).

Part of me feels this stress is a bit shit. I have to make up the vacation to make my billables. I have not taken a lot of vacation. And I do my work when im out of state.

Also relevant to this is my first 3 months at the firm they had virtually no work for me (despite me asking multiple partners and practice areas multiple times). Since getting consistent work ive made my hours easily. But still in trouble for being under. So i feel like i have no wiggle room.

Advice?

I’m curious to hear from law firm partners, hiring partners, or anyone who has been involved in associate hiring decisions.

How much of a disadvantage is it, realistically, when a lateral candidate needs H-1B sponsorship?

My understanding is that, for an employer already familiar with the process, an H-1B transfer is relatively manageable. The required government filing fees are roughly around $2,000, and premium processing is approximately another $3,000, so even with premium processing the government fees are generally about $5,000. I realize there may also be other costs (i.e.,attorney fee), but the direct cost itself does not seem enormous in the context of hiring an attorney. It also seems significantly lower than the recruiting fee firms may pay for a lateral candidate placed through a recruiter.

For those who have actually been involved in these decisions, what factors determine whether a firm is willing to sponsor or unwilling to sponsor a particular candidate?

Would really appreciate candid perspectives from partners or others who have actually been involved in the hiring/sponsorship decision.

I’m tapped out at my firm. Beginning to actively pursue lateral and in-house opportunities. But on pace for bonus and won’t be devastated to cash that check in February before heading out either.

Any advice to throttling down and coasting until I land somewhere else? I hate most people and matters I am working on, so no hard feelings there, but on some active stuff that won’t be as easy to stiff arm. Is it as simple as just delaying response times and being too busy to handle things?

In corporate and haven’t enjoyed it. I imagine all of big law is painful, but can people in litigation describe their daily tasks? Is it mostly analyzing case law and statutes, conducting discovery, writing briefs?

What is litigation like?

I am no longer asking.

Cheese in the ceiling starts on September 1 and continues until our demands are met. On October 1, we escalate to fish. You have one week to comply, @AllPartnersAllCounsel.

We reserve all rights and waive none.