My senior year of college I applied to law school and didn’t get in (I’m pretty sure this is a well known fact amongst the ten of you that read the drivel I post here in what is my own piece of narcissistic Internet idiocy) (Hello Bad Mood, meet the internet.). I ended up getting a job as a legal assistant at Big Law Firm (BLF). While at BLF I worked three trials and had met my billable hours requirement eight months into the year. I worked a lot. Not as much as Random does now, but a lot.
During that time I realized I did not like working a lot for prolonged periods of time. I liked having time to get my hair cut or go to the grocery store. So when I got into law school and was looking for a place to work I picked a quality of life firm. I worked normal hours (unless we had a trial), got to be casual dress wise unless I was meeting a client and generally was enjoying my job and life.
I’m here in Texas working for my old boss right now. He basically sold his maverick law firm to a bigger firm and the office is now very BLF. They moved to a new floor, redecorated and instituted a new dress code. You wouldn’t think that those things would make a big difference right? I mean the people are the same people it just looks fancier, but it is different. Whereas before people would pitch in wherever now everyone has a specific jobs. Mary can’t make copies because that is Bob’s job. And Bob can’t deliver mail because that is Dan’s job.
All this is to say, I still don’t like Big Law Firms and I don’t think I will ever go back to working in one.
