How Important Is It for Attorneys to Work at a Major Law Firm?
In the DNA of most attorneys is a motivation to work in the largest and most prestigious law firms. If I were to phone a representative sample of attorneys and tell them that a major law firm much more prestigious than their current firm was interested in them, most would jump at the chance to join the more prestigious firm. Not all attorneys would, but the majority would. As I discuss in this article, and without placing a value judgment on those who either cannot or choose not to work in such firms, there are several reasons that make it extremely important for attorneys to work in major law firms.
While I hate to be the messenger, here are the reasons why working in a large law firm is so highly valued:
- Major Law Firms Have Access to Waterfalls of Money and Many Smaller Firms Do Not
While there are many reasons that major law firms are better than smaller ones, the reason I believe is most important is that major law firms have access to waterfalls of money. Clients with money to pay high large firm billing rates are lining up to have their matters worked on and staffed by large firm attorneys. There is more work to be done inside of the largest and most successful law firms—often more work than the firms even have time to take on. This healthy amount of work results in “waterfalls of money” that supports the entire system. It allows the law firms to have lavish summer associate programs, multiple practice areas, huge average profits-per-partner, huge associate salaries, giant support departments of legal secretaries, paralegals, and others, and the opportunity to pursue even larger clients for even more substantial work.
In contrast, smaller law firms have fee-sensitive clients and lack waterfalls of money coming into them. They need to be careful how much they pay associates, rarely have summer associate programs, cannot pay high profits per partner, and cannot staff up large matters. Important, large clients have no interest in these firms and everything else suffers. Without waterfalls of money pouring in, attorneys have fewer opportunities, which limits the potential of everyone there. Small firm attorneys are limited regarding their earning potential, quality of clientele, recruiting base, and everything else.
Because we are in a capitalist society, money is very important. To grow, law firms need access to waterfalls of money and clients to send large checks each month.
2. Attorneys Judge Other Attorneys by the Quality of Their Law Firms
The entire legal profession continually ranks, classifies, and partitions attorneys into boxes. The legal profession is interested in your school, your practice area, who you worked with, your history, and all sorts of other things. Within your firm, there will be snobbery based on who you are close to, your practice area, who gives you work, who you give work to, and more.
However, the presumed “quality” of an attorney’s peers (the quality of an attorney’s law firm) is the most important box and indicia by which an attorney will be measured by other attorneys. The first two questions any attorney has about any other attorney are (1) where the attorney works and (2) what the attorney’s title is. Attorneys working at smaller or poorer law firms get placed in less prestigious and enviable boxes. Everything the attorney may have done up until that point in his or her life will be discounted and the attorney will simply be labeled a “small firm attorney” or “an attorney working at a regional firm” or something along those lines.
Regarding how attorneys judge each other, there is nothing more important than the quality of the attorney’s law firm. The quality of the law firm is more important than
- the quality of the attorney’s law school,
- how well the attorney did in that law school,
- the attorney’s practice area, and
- the attorney’s social class, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
The most important qualification for how an attorney judges another attorney is the quality of the attorney’s law firm. The presumption is that if an outstanding group of peers has accepted you to be one of its members, you too must be outstanding.
In the realm of legal recruiting and placement, nothing is more important than the quality of the law firm. Even if a candidate went to a fourth-tier law school, good law firms will ignore this negative (within reason) if the candidate is coming from a prestigious major law firm. No one cares for the most part about anything else besides the quality of the attorney’s law firm. If the attorney is considered part of an “elite” peer group, then the attorney is considered elite. Attorneys will be more respected by courts, corporations, and everyone else if they are with major law firms. They will be considered smarter, more driven, and more professional if they are with major law firms. If you care what other attorneys think of you, you should be at a major law firm.
3. As a General Rule, Larger Law Firms Have More Sophisticated and Important Work
Larger law firms attract more sophisticated work than smaller law firms. Larger law firms attract larger clients, charge more money, and companies believe that large law firms offer “superior” services and hire them over smaller law firms. Major companies hire the best attorneys they can find for all of their matters.
- If an attorney is working on more sophisticated matters, there are all sorts of benefits that flow out of this: (1) there is more money to go around, (2) more attorneys are needed, (3) only the best attorneys staff the case, and (4) the matter is more important to business and society.
- In contrast, the smaller the law firm: (1) the less likely there is to be a lot of money to go around, (2) the fewer attorneys are used, (3) the less there will be a need for good attorneys, and (4) the less likely the matter is to be important to business and society.
Attorneys are competitive with one another and are constantly judging each other. The attorneys with the most motivation tend to seek out the most sophisticated work by moving to major American legal markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the Bay Area. In these markets, you will find most of the largest law firms and a preponderance of top law school graduates competing for jobs. The most sophisticated work is in the largest markets. Many attorneys would never consider working in any market where they could not be working on the most sophisticated matters.
4. As a General Rule, Larger Firms Produce Higher Quality Work
Regardless of the intelligence of an attorney, an attorney associated with a major law firm as opposed to a smaller law firm is almost always more likely to do better work. Major law firms do better quality work than smaller law firms because they have (1) more resources (people and support), (2) more money to throw at problems, and (3) better people doing the work.
Larger law firms do better work because they typically have more levels of people working on problems. They will have people to research problems and people to work on problems higher up the chain. The law firm will have an institutional set of checks and balances and internal competitions that encourage the best quality work. Also, unlike smaller law firms, larger law firm clients have much larger budgets and are willing to pay for the best possible work to be done. Large law firms generally do work that is more thorough and analyzed than smaller law firms. Finally, surrounded by other intelligent and motivated people, the collaborative effect of problem-solving and work quality in larger law firms is often clearly distinguishable from that of smaller firms.
Attorneys who produce better quality work command more respect by other attorneys and the market.
5. Larger Law Firms Almost Always Pay More Money
While money may not be your driving force, you are much more likely to make far more money working in a major law firm than in a smaller one because—as discussed above—large law firms have access to “waterfalls of money.” More money means you can save more, live better, support your family better, and do and buy more of whatever else is important to you. And, because we are living in a capitalist society where people judge each other based on wealth, this is a concern to many attorneys as well. Many attorneys are obsessed with how much money they make and are constantly seeking to make more. If compensation is your driving factor, there is much more to be made in major law firms than smaller ones.
READ THE REST OF THE REASONS HERE: https://www.bcgsearch.com/article/900047572/How-Important-Is-It-to-Work-at-a-Major-Law-Firm/