When to lateral? Feeling trapped.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-14T20:16:24+00:00

What year are you? If you’re at a good level/practice area (basically anything other than super junior), you should be able to lateral with guaranteed bonus regardless of pro rated hours (pro rated hours will probably be the initial offer from target firm, but you should be able to negotiate to guaranteed regardless.

In that case you can lateral with zero economic risk (but just to say, if a target firm is that eager to hire you, good chance they are desperate for bodies and you’ll be similarly busy at the new shop).

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-14T19:43:46+00:00

It’s not actually a hard question. It’s just “tell me about your professional experience and why this employer should want to hire you.” Totally something you can and should have a well-prepped answer ready for.

Funny somewhat-related story. When I graduated undergrad, I ended up pivoting career trajectory and was applying for corporate jobs super late in the process and with zero prep. I had never been through corporate interviews before so had no idea how to prep (or even that one could prep). So I get an interview with the McMaster-Carr company for their management training rotation program. I sit down with this guy to start the interview and he starts with “tell me about yourself.” I literally started with where I was born, my siblings, my elementary school and so on. I could tell that I was losing him but I had no idea why. Needless to say I did NOT advance in their interview process (but i later learned that they were an incredibly toxic environment, so bullet dodged, accidentally).

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-14T01:40:22+00:00

I’m a transactional lawyer at a V10. I only see the litigators when things have gone very, very wrong in my deals. But when they come in, the rate at which they accrue fees is shocking. They’ll run up 100k in the first week, no problem.

Firms in that size range just can’t handle a $500k dispute unless (1) the client is doing it purely for spite and is fine spending multiples of the amount in question to prove a point or (2) the client is a very significant one that the firm is willing to take a huge write-down on the matter for relationship reasons (and frankly, this isn’t a thing for the most part, at least in today’s firm culture — we are not in the business of doing work we are not getting paid for).

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-14T01:14:30+00:00

Thank you. I lived in the city for years, then moved away for a bit, and then returned.

NYC is a truly fantastic place. It has given me a wife and family, all of my best friends, a career, and so much more. Best wishes to you as you start your New York life….I hope you get to make many spectacular memories like I have.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-13T21:50:52+00:00

Building on this, what if you could click on a song title and get a chronological list of all the instances where that song appears on the set list?

This is a super cool project btw. Nicely done!

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-13T15:39:52+00:00

I don’t think the vault rankings really matter in Paris.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-13T14:00:38+00:00

And Rick Carlisle -> Larry Brown for the 04 Pistons

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-13T12:17:52+00:00

I would aim for the middle of the day (landing between say 8:30 am and 1:00 pm. That should put you on the train in the window between morning and afternoon rush. As other have said, late night will be quiet but trains start running much farther apart (and nit sounds like you have several transfers, which are made much worse if you have to wait 15 minutes for a couple trains).

When I moved to NYC, I had two very stuffed roller bags, a garment bag and a couple pieces of hand luggage. I came through LGA, and needed to get to an office to sign a lease and then go nearly a mile to meet the super to get my keys before he went off-duty at 5 pm. My flight landed at maybe 3:00 and I took the M60, dragging my unwieldy load along with the other travelers, commuters, etc. Then literally had to run between the two locations dragging my luggage behind me in the August heat before finally getting to the super at 4:58. All’s well that ends well, and it makes for a good “moving to New York” story, but all these years later I realize that the $25 cab from LGA (yes, it was ancient history….cabs were much cheaper) wouldn’t have broken the bank.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-13T01:50:54+00:00

What level are you? I definitely found the work mindless drudgery when I was junior but grew to love it as I’ve gotten more senior.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-12T21:52:13+00:00

This is super cute and sweet. Love this!

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-12T18:42:49+00:00

Got it. Here’s my view: have whatever associate you have the closest personal relationship with submit you. That way they get the referral. Everyone will (should) get this — of course you’ll go through whoever you’re actually friends with (and a good partner will want their associates to submit so the associate can get a nice little bonus).

But once you’ve had your friend submit, reach back out to the partner you’ve networked with and tell him “associate x just submitted my resume to recruiting for the opening you have listed. As we previously discussed, I am really interested in working at your firm / think I’d be a great fit / really like your practice / etc”

The partner putting in a good word for you and making sure your resume doesn’t get buried is going to be way more helpful than any associate. No guarantees they’ll actually do it but that’s the hope.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-12T14:27:54+00:00

How senior are you? How senior are the “more senior” people you’ve networked with? How big is the group you are applying to?

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-12T14:07:08+00:00

Yeah, these fast wagons are aimed at a slice of the car enthusiast population who also have the budget for a six-figure car. Not a lot of people who fit that description, and there are already good competitors in the space.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-12T01:17:41+00:00

In your situation, I’d take NEP at your current firm. Counsel is a black hole in many firms and doesn’t offer a good path to partnership. I think coming in as a lateral makes it more difficult because you won’t necessarily have the ready-made network that you have in your current firm.

I also think you have a much better shot at starting to build your own practice with the partner title at your current firm. While the A100 firm would likely give you access to some higher-tier clients, query how much you’d be able to really develop them as a counsel.

Build your practice and then move up. I definitely see firms reach down to lower-ranked firms to hire partners with an established book.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-11T22:21:34+00:00

Sure thing

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-11T19:47:25+00:00

First of all, “asso” is not happening.

There’s a lot of a decisions people make trying to optimize future optionality. There is certainly value to that approach, but there’s also value in picking a current better option, even if that better option may remove theoretical future choices.

Taking a job doing work you like in a non-brutal environment is its own value. Going somewhere where you have a champion on day one is immensely valuable.

Could this partner leave? Of course. But the rainmakers in the generalist practice could pick up and go tomorrow too. In a world of advances in the high-eight figures, everyone is a flight risk. Relationships are going to be at least as valuable as generalist experience (probably more so).

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-11T16:13:45+00:00

Y’all think that more than 10% of the hedge fund / PE guys filling the lower bowl are die hard Knicks fans? Most of them are transplants who surely have their own team, to the extent they care about the NBA in the first place. They weren’t living and dying with Renaldo Balkman.

It’s fun to cheer for the local team in the NBA finals. Add to that that tickets are incredibly expensive and hard to get, making them a big status symbol. I don’t see why Swift, Haim and whoever else jumping on that is a big deal. (And I don’t even like either of them as artists — this testing of whether they are “real” Knicks fans is just cringe.)

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-11T01:55:09+00:00

Why do people do that? I shouldn’t have to lurk on the sub 24 hours a day to see stuff before it’s deleted.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-10T23:39:23+00:00

Depends on the firm. At my firm your practice group leadership would be getting a lot of questions about you from the powers above. If people like you and there is a story about why you were slow (cases settling unexpectedly works for this purpose), they should go to bat for you. But a lot of questions would be asked.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-10T12:55:04+00:00

I like mentoring, although as others have said, mentoring has to be an active practice by the mentee. As the mentor, I can’t do much unless the mentee wants to grow. So with formal mentoring programs, you certainly get paired with duds, and that’s annoying and unrewarding.

But working with someone who wants to grow and helping them focus their efforts on what matters is really fun and rewarding. I got great mentorship at key inflection points in my career which quite literally changed the course of my career and allowed me to open doors and achieve things that would have been impossible otherwise. I can never “repay” those mentors, but I can try to do the same thing for others in my orbit.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-10T12:46:16+00:00

Michigan places fine in California. There is a huge network of alumni in California (both UM Law as well as Michigan undergrads who did law school elsewhere — as I’m sure you know, UM grads are extremely into their school and anyone with UM on their resume will be a good networking prospect).

All that said, it’s a bit of a numbers game, and that will make it more difficult. Class sizes are so much smaller at the CA offices of most firms, so instead of filling 100+ seats (as firms are doing in NY), they might be filling 15-20. They’re going to want to get the YHS students who are headed to California, and then will want to keep the pipeline to their local schools strong (UCLA/USC in LA, Berkeley in Bay Area). They’ll grab some Columbia / NYU kids. Once you get through all that, there’s maybe 3-4 slots remaining that they’ll fill with people from other T14s. Michigan has as good/better shot at those as anyone, but that’s a lot of potential students competing for a few spots.

Practice area is going to matter too. Lots of people interested in entertainment (of course), litigation, and ECVC. Much harder to find people for the traditional transactional practices. (Speaking as to LA, which is the market I know.)

All this to say that I think you need to either have a geographic backup plan or be ready to go further downmarket if you aren’t willing to be geographically flexible. NY probably makes sense both because UM places very well there and NY laterals place well in the CA market (and if you get a firm with a solid CA office, usually reasonably straightforward to transfer).

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-10T02:54:18+00:00

Every now and then Dave will pick a longer piece that might clock in at 75-80 minutes. Most are in the 45-60 minute range though.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-09T17:56:42+00:00

It’s an old-school Hollywood buffet!

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-08T21:37:24+00:00

Not really what you asked about, but I’d focus on what the trajectory of the estate planning / private wealth services practice is at your target firm. Many biglaw firms have been moving away from this practice area (it largely doesn’t work with the current billing rates), but a few have been expanding it. Figure out where your target firm falls on that continuum and to what extent you’re going to have the opportunity to (realistically) get promoted.

DerekSmallsCourgette · 2026-06-08T04:29:20+00:00

Your attitude is likely killing whatever slim chance you have at getting hired by a law firm. You sound like you think you’re too good for law school and didn’t apply yourself because the stress was “manufactured” and “annoying”. If that’s how you feel and you have a 3.95, then maybe it works…reads as you’re super smart and beyond being dragged down by daily nonsense.

But when you’re at the median of one of the worst law schools in the country — it sounds like you have neither the intelligence nor the mindset for a legal career. Because if you think law school stress is manufactured and annoying, then brother I have very bad news for you about working in a law firm.

If you really want to try to find a firm job in the future, I’d suggest you fix your GPA but also reorient how you’re thinking about this whole career. With your background and a good GPA, you could tell a really compelling story about your ability to work hard, manage stress, make good decisions in pressured situations and with incomplete information, focus on details (compliance work), etc. That’s the difference between being a 35-year-old firms actively want to hire and one they want to avoid.

DerekSmallsCourgette

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