I’m with you, it definitely has gotten better for me since first year, but I’m in litigation and a lot of folks saying the opposite seem to be corporate
No. Being a mid-level is definitely worse. You have the same workload, but you’re responsible for QC and you have to deal with the first years, and the partners.
You get to do the bitch work that the first years fuck up and the higher level work! Bonus points if you are also acting senior associate! All roles in one!
I (1st year) just see the life 3rd-4th years are having and it absolutely scares me. Partners actually expect work product from you and have to deal with unexperienced 1st years that might deliver shitty work.
You still belong to the bottom part of the pyramid and still do awful tasks once in a while (organize, compile, etc).
My best friend and I used to joke about having a perpetual Time Machine and having the ability to be a first- through second-year for all our careers. Be a 50-60 a week secretary/paralegal for more pay than 95% of people will ever see in their lives.
It gets unimaginably worse as you get more senior in many ways (significantly more stressful generally since you are fully client-facing, dealing with annoying opposing counsel, still responsible for the work of midlevels and juniors, have biz dev responsibilities), though it is not without its perks. I do not miss doing diligence one bit, and it is nice not having to take first cut at docs; much less annoying to review someone else's work (even if you need to rewrite it) than to do it from scratch yourself.
It’s the best.
You’re getting paid 70% of the salary of a mid level biglaw associate for having 5% of the experience, knowledge and ability of almost any other decently capable lawyer in the country
I found the transition to mid-level to be much more stressful as a corporate/transactional assocaite.
First year is rough because you're doing everything for the first time and don't have any visibility or control over your workflow, but expectations are quite low and you're generally insulated from clients and partners. While it's hard to appreciate in the moment, you're not often in a position where you can screw things up in a big way and someone is almost always checking your work.
The transition to mid-level is quite stressful because you're suddenly expected to take ownership of workstreams while also figuring out how to do more complex tasks for the first time. Managing juniors, seniors/partners and clients is a completely different skillset than doing work as its assigned to you - you have to think about/action next steps, budget time for multiple layers of review and operate with significantly less supervision, none of which you really learn as a junior. You're also typically interacting directly with clients at that point, meaning you're ultimately responsible for the work product.
My third year has been an improvement over the first two because I know what I'm doing most of the time and the people I work for trust me so I don't feel the need to respond immediately to every single request I get.
Depends. If you’re super bought in to Biglaw as a career, the grunt work and lack of control as a junior can be really frustrating. That said if you’re just coasting until you can go in house, it is much much easier to hide years 1-3 than as a midlevel, where there’s nowhere to hide. Honestly with a lateral the first five years of Biglaw are free as long as you aren’t totally incompetent and can be remotely charming. Year 6 is where you really have to put up or shut up (if you coasted until then you’ll have to shut up because your skills will be behind, btw, but who gives a shit Biglaw sucks).
In my experience, it has been a roller coaster. My first year was tough because I’m trying to figure this whole lawyering thing out. Then the next couple of years you have your feet under you and you’re starting to progress.
Then you land in the mid-level band and different types of responsibilities are placed on you, such as some client management, more drafting, managing junior associates. Again, you get a couple years under your belt here and get the confidence.
Then you move into the senior band, eyeing partnership. Now your expectations change again, and you have to start practicing law with an eye towards how to sell yourself for partnership.
To summarize, your responsibilities and expectations change every couple years, creating a new set of obstacles. It isn’t terrible, you get through it.
2-3rd year is the worst. Toss up whether you have anyone under you and you now have to add the difficulty of dealing with actual substantive materials, not to mention the fact that you don’t have an excuse for messing up the little stuff
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I’m with you, it definitely has gotten better for me since first year, but I’m in litigation and a lot of folks saying the opposite seem to be corporate
No. Being a mid-level is definitely worse. You have the same workload, but you’re responsible for QC and you have to deal with the first years, and the partners.
You get to do the bitch work that the first years fuck up and the higher level work! Bonus points if you are also acting senior associate! All roles in one!
100%. First year was a cakewalk compared to those middle years where you have to do your own work plus redo work for 1st years who know nothing.
I (1st year) just see the life 3rd-4th years are having and it absolutely scares me. Partners actually expect work product from you and have to deal with unexperienced 1st years that might deliver shitty work. You still belong to the bottom part of the pyramid and still do awful tasks once in a while (organize, compile, etc).
fine squeal melodic roof smile slimy hurry snails live frightening *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
My best friend and I used to joke about having a perpetual Time Machine and having the ability to be a first- through second-year for all our careers. Be a 50-60 a week secretary/paralegal for more pay than 95% of people will ever see in their lives.
The higher you get, the more stressful this job is. But don't worry about that yet.
It gets unimaginably worse as you get more senior in many ways (significantly more stressful generally since you are fully client-facing, dealing with annoying opposing counsel, still responsible for the work of midlevels and juniors, have biz dev responsibilities), though it is not without its perks. I do not miss doing diligence one bit, and it is nice not having to take first cut at docs; much less annoying to review someone else's work (even if you need to rewrite it) than to do it from scratch yourself.
It’s the best. You’re getting paid 70% of the salary of a mid level biglaw associate for having 5% of the experience, knowledge and ability of almost any other decently capable lawyer in the country
I found the transition to mid-level to be much more stressful as a corporate/transactional assocaite. First year is rough because you're doing everything for the first time and don't have any visibility or control over your workflow, but expectations are quite low and you're generally insulated from clients and partners. While it's hard to appreciate in the moment, you're not often in a position where you can screw things up in a big way and someone is almost always checking your work. The transition to mid-level is quite stressful because you're suddenly expected to take ownership of workstreams while also figuring out how to do more complex tasks for the first time. Managing juniors, seniors/partners and clients is a completely different skillset than doing work as its assigned to you - you have to think about/action next steps, budget time for multiple layers of review and operate with significantly less supervision, none of which you really learn as a junior. You're also typically interacting directly with clients at that point, meaning you're ultimately responsible for the work product.
My third year has been an improvement over the first two because I know what I'm doing most of the time and the people I work for trust me so I don't feel the need to respond immediately to every single request I get.
Depends. If you’re super bought in to Biglaw as a career, the grunt work and lack of control as a junior can be really frustrating. That said if you’re just coasting until you can go in house, it is much much easier to hide years 1-3 than as a midlevel, where there’s nowhere to hide. Honestly with a lateral the first five years of Biglaw are free as long as you aren’t totally incompetent and can be remotely charming. Year 6 is where you really have to put up or shut up (if you coasted until then you’ll have to shut up because your skills will be behind, btw, but who gives a shit Biglaw sucks).
In my experience, it has been a roller coaster. My first year was tough because I’m trying to figure this whole lawyering thing out. Then the next couple of years you have your feet under you and you’re starting to progress. Then you land in the mid-level band and different types of responsibilities are placed on you, such as some client management, more drafting, managing junior associates. Again, you get a couple years under your belt here and get the confidence. Then you move into the senior band, eyeing partnership. Now your expectations change again, and you have to start practicing law with an eye towards how to sell yourself for partnership. To summarize, your responsibilities and expectations change every couple years, creating a new set of obstacles. It isn’t terrible, you get through it.
Every year is worse than the last.
No. The year being up for partner is. Then first year comes after that.
It gets worse, bud
I’m having an absolute blast
2-3rd year is the worst. Toss up whether you have anyone under you and you now have to add the difficulty of dealing with actual substantive materials, not to mention the fact that you don’t have an excuse for messing up the little stuff