Sander Zagzebski

BigLaw associates following me: Let this be a warning to you. As an 8-year plus attorney, you need to be able to sell, market, network, lead entire projects from start to finish with quality, manage a team… essentially be self sufficient. Most firms have you on a bill, bill, bill treadmill where your head is down, door is shut, and you’re only thinking about your pace to hitting 2,000 hours, effectively building none of these skills. It’s the incentive structure that they create to maximize profit per lawyer, not to maximize your career. You have to pick your head up and demand more early (starting in year 3, but especially in years 5 plus), but it’s also up to you to do more than the bare minimum. If you’re going to make partner at an elite firm, you have to make a name for yourself inside the firm first, then outside the firm to clients and the practice area community you serve next. If you can’t do this at your current firm, switch firms and consider going down market (it’s not a terrible as you think!). If you don’t, you’ll end up like this individual… with a niche skillset (Rule 144A bond offerings or something weird and inapplicable to 99.9% of people) with bloated salary expectations and insane lifestyle demands but no real-world transferable skillset. This works out OK when the wind is at your back and there is high demand for your service, but it works out terribly when that demand dries up and your firm tosses you out. Oh… and, by the way, they’ll toss your ass out the very second it’s to their benefit. Don’t get left flat footed.

There are bad people in life and you won't recognize them until it's too late. They don't care about you and are motivated only be greed. I have these conversations too often. Here's what I'm getting at: Sellers intentionally violate non-competes all the time! More...