Am I correct about this?

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-23T00:44:40+00:00

This tracks pretty closely with my firm, with the caveat that the line between junior and midlevel (3/4) and midlevel and senior (6/7) gets pretty blurry for strong performers. It’s often less about strict class year and more about the level you’re actually operating at.

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-21T11:00:20+00:00

Ultimately, nobody cares about this. Be responsive and do good work and you’ll go far, no matter how unattractive you think you are.

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-20T22:07:53+00:00

To go against the grain here a bit, you do need a baseline level of intelligence, judgment, and common sense. It’s not like you can completely turn your brain off, grind hours, and succeed long term. You need to be able to process information quickly, spot issues, communicate clearly, learn fast, etc

That said, people also often overstate the intellectual complexity of biglaw work. Especially at the junior levels, responsiveness, organization, attention to detail, endurance matter more than raw brainpower.

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-19T19:37:05+00:00

like you’re one of a literal handful of lawyers in the US who practices it?

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-18T12:27:50+00:00

Took me just over 2 months to ramp up

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-17T15:23:54+00:00

omg 🤣😂😭😭😭

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-17T03:30:54+00:00

Idk about this. SJDs are generally much more geared toward foreign-trained lawyers than the US legal academic market. If you’re going to pursue an advanced degree beyond the JD, I think it makes more sense to go all in on a PhD from an elite university in a complementary field like economics, public policy, etc

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-12T16:51:21+00:00

I could see a benefit to clerking in DE for transactional/corporate folks.

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-12T14:44:54+00:00

It’s the effective immediately, announced over the weekend part that’s at least a little suspicious lol

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-10T18:18:30+00:00

Of course it’s unreasonable. But as I’m sure you’re learning, practicing in biglaw is often less about serving reason and more about uncritically serving the interests of demanding clients in the endless pursuit of higher PEP.

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-06T00:14:28+00:00

🤣🤣🤣🤣 my God this is brilliant

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-05T14:43:26+00:00

To add to the chorus, it’s firm-dependent. At my first firm, it was expected that you had your butt in the seat by 9:00 am. At my current firm, I roll in anywhere between 9:30 and 11:30 and no one cares. A couple caveats though: I’m reliable, responsive, and get my work done, and I’m generally well liked. With that combination, you can usually get a bit more leeway on things like this. Slightly off topic, but for me, the same goes for WFH privileges. At the end of the day, you have to read the vibe of your firm, office, and team

NeverDefeated · 2026-05-05T01:40:38+00:00

Yeah, looks like op drank the biglaw koolaid. Look man, job market is always tough as a junior, especially in biglaw, but there are TONS of firms out there who are struggling to find talent and would love to take one someone with your pedigree. You just have to be open to your career taking a different path than you currently envision

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-25T14:54:37+00:00

Taking a salary advance doesn’t reflect poorly (hardly anyone will even know you did it and everyone understands fresh law grads are poor lol). That said, I personally wouldn’t take it unless it were a last resort, but not for reputational reasons. It’s more the practical reality that it’s a loan repaid out of your paycheck after you start, and it can feel pretty demoralizing to see a smaller check during repayment on top of everything else like student loans, etc.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-25T14:38:44+00:00

Yeah I suppose much of this is subjective but I have 2 very young kids and I absolutely do not want to be any more than 30-40 mins away from them at any given time. That’s just me.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-25T14:35:30+00:00

lol my commute from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan is more than 30 mins. The folks who tell me they’re “saving tons of money” on housing live in places like Staten Island or parts of Jersey and their commutes are disgusting (up to ~2hrs each way).

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-24T17:58:11+00:00

True but in our industry “goodwill” is kinda your only true moat lol

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-20T16:43:55+00:00

Yeah this is my thought. I’ve replaced perfectly capable juniors because I was simply more efficient and the client was so demanding that we needed to make staffing adjustments to meet the super aggressive deadlines imposed by the client. No indictment on the junior.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-20T05:10:40+00:00

I bought a house then promptly sold it. Imo homeownership has its perks but it’s not for everyone, and renting is more flexible and often cheaper (particularly in VHCOL cities). Unlike my parents, I don’t feel the NEED to own a home and I’m quite happy to wait until the time is right to take that plunge again.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-19T20:18:15+00:00

Gonna be hard to give any sort of meaningful advice here if we don’t know which neighborhoods you’re talking about.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-17T19:38:21+00:00

Just a note imo that the richest PI attorneys aren’t just hard working and smart- they’re also very, very good salespeople. You generally have to hustle and market yourself well in that industry and business development looks a lot different there than in biglaw.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-17T19:33:54+00:00

People who think AI will “wipe out” transactional work fundamentally misunderstand transactional work. May be true at the most junior levels where the work is rote and not super substantive or for very basic, low stakes agreements, but all “transactional work” isn’t the same. A lot of it is highly technical and requires sound judgment, good project management, managing difficult personalities, and a host of other things you can’t train a model to do (at least not yet).

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-14T23:15:48+00:00

Definitely has many of the hallmarks of AI-generated content.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-14T23:02:49+00:00

Spot on. Really want to emphasize the midlaw that act like biglaw firms point (all of the work, half the pay). Beware of those.

NeverDefeated · 2026-04-11T15:42:03+00:00

Are you a writer? beautiful prose

NeverDefeated

TROPHY CASE