Description
If Your Leaving, Be Kind, Show Gratitude and Don't Burn Bridges
[00:00:00] What are some tips for quitting, a biglaw job?
Okay. One of the big things, and this is something that everyone should remember.
Is the person you are today, is not going to be a person slash attorney you are today. It's not likely that you'd be the same person you are and by twenty-five years. So right now, you may be, who knows, you may be angry.
You may have a sense of entitlement.
You may not be angry. You may be grateful.
Who knows, but the person you are in 25 years may not be the same person.
The people that you've met in your current firm in terms of associates and also partners may become a general counsel of companies that could give you business in the future. They may go to work at other firms where you want to work, out in the future. They may have better work in other companies you want to work at in the future.
None of this stuff is anonymous, and that means that everything you do will follow you, like it or not, into your future and in some way.
One of the nice things about the legal profession and especially a lot of the larger law firms and the most prestigious law firms, there's almost like an [00:01:00] invisible code where people will not talk negatively about each other to other attorneys outside the firm. And, this is a lot of firms, because they don't want to destroy that person's reputation. You can't control that, but that's the kind of unspoken rule. So what that means is, if you do something horrible or bad in your job, the attorneys for the most class and stuff at your firm are probably not going to talk to people about that in the future. If you're at a smaller law firm and there's a little bit more maturity and stuff there or, even a larger firm with immaturity, that may happen.
I've seen, some major law firms that are just very classy places and they would never behave horribly in litigation, but when it comes to protecting even their former people. The point you need to mention, remember when you're quitting a job are all of those people who will potentially be references in the future. You want them to say nice things about you and even if they don't say nice things about you. Again, there are questions they can ask, if someone asks, would you hire them again? And they say no, that's basically a bad reference or you want these people to defend you.
The best [00:02:00] way to quit a biglaw job is to go to whoever you're working with and say, listen I'm leaving and I'm happy to stick around as long as you want. And then after you leave, send thank you notes to everyone for hiring you and for giving you the opportunity and what you learned and maybe some nice notes. People that do that, really leave the employer feeling good. 'Cause no one does that. And, so telling everyone you appreciated them hiring you, you appreciate the opportunity. You really enjoyed it, and all those sorts of things is typically the best thing you can do.
Now, when you quit, the biggest tip I can give you, especially at a biglaw job this year, you really need to make sure that you have another job lined up. You can't just walk off the job and expect everything to work out for you. You need to do whatever you can to have something else lined up.
That would be my biggest piece of advice to you. Make sure that if you are quitting a biglaw job, don't just quit. If you leave a biglaw job that pays as much money and isn't much prestige and stuff, without a job lined up, people will assume that you got fired or lost your job, or [00:03:00] you have personality issues that made it difficult for you to get along there, and then you will lose those opportunities in the past.
