Tag Archives: career

Quitting BigLaw: Part I – Why Is It So Hard?

Posted on January 10, 2011 by admin

As mentioned in my last entry, I am going to write about what it takes for associates who are thinking about quitting BigLaw to actually do so. I am going address this topic in four parts: BigLaw life and why is it so hard to quit; the three questions every BigLaw associate should ask him or herself; some practical tips to consider before quitting; and where I am now (a final added part that will feed nicely into my next quarterly review).… Continue reading →

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Can I Be a Momentum Changer?

Posted on January 4, 2011 by admin

The football season for my team, the New York Giants, ended on Sunday. But it really ended when we were unprepared for an onside kick with 7.5 minutes to go in a critical Eagles/Giants game on December 19. We never recovered – restarted – since then.

Despite suffering a bad cold I made it to the New Meadowlands Stadium on that fateful day, hoping to witness my G-Men defeat their arch nemesis.… Continue reading →

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34 Going On the Rest of My Life

Posted on November 30, 2010 by admin

I haven’t blogged for a while. To my surprise, I missed it. I missed pouring out my thoughts onto a blank page, translating — approximating — their complexity into a string of words. Words with meaning and rhythm. I missed the revision process of trashing, trimming, tweaking — searching for the right words that seemed to be lodged in the abyss of my gray matter ready to be found, so close yet so far.… Continue reading →

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Q1 Report: Mental and Emotional

Posted on November 4, 2010 by admin

Because my mental and emotional states for the past three months have been so intertwined, I am going to review both areas in this single post.

Much of this blog has been focusing on my mental and emotional journey after leaving BigLaw. For this Q1 report, I won’t repeat or summarize the experiences I have already written about.… Continue reading →

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Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Part V – Money, Money, Money

Posted on September 27, 2010 by admin

In the last post of this series about my decision to leave law, I talked in detail about the emotional niggles of forfeiture of sweat equity, loss of prestige, and negative perceptions from others. This post is dedicated to the niggle of not making money. Numerous spreadsheets and countless internal debates went into wrestling with this niggle.… Continue reading →

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Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Part IV – Dealing with the Emotional Niggles

Posted on September 16, 2010 by admin

I have been writing in this series the thought process behind my decision to quit law. The part that I wrestled with the most was dealing with a few emotional niggles, four to be exact. These niggles didn’t disappear when I gave notice. Indeed, I am still dealing with them. But as I have become more removed from the work environment, dug deeper into the underlying causes of these niggles, and gained new perspectives during the road trip and from talking to others, some of the niggles have morphed from hang-ups into challenges to better myself.… Continue reading →

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Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Part III – The Risk Factors of Quitting Law

Posted on September 13, 2010 by admin

Part I and Part II of this series covered how I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to stay in law. So, what’s next?

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to explore what I wanted to do while continuing to work as a BigLaw associate. If you are drunk and want to get sober, the first step is to stop downing the shots, then to detox (an uncomfortable but necessary step which I’m in right now), and finally to gain the clarity to look objectively at the future.… Continue reading →

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Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Part II – Do I Want to Stay in Law?

Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin

In Part I of this series about the decision-making process that led me to quit law, I talked about how I reached the conclusion that I didn’t want to gun for partnership at Simpson Thacher, in large part due to the fact that work/life balance for junior partners still stinks (as it does at all BigLaw firms) and it would have been an uncertain uphill battle for me to make it.… Continue reading →

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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Part I – The Allure of Partnership

Posted on August 27, 2010 by admin

Greetings from Missoula, Montana. Since my husband left for New York last Sunday, I have been traveling around Montana by myself. Like what the lyrics say — “life is a highway and I want to ride it all night long” — long-distance driving alone always puts me in a contemplative mood reflecting on where I have been and where I am heading.

… Continue reading →
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Perpetual Wednesdays

Posted on August 12, 2010 by admin

I used to hate Wednesdays.  It is smack in the middle of a working week.  You are tired from working two full days already, yet there’s no respite in sight.

When I was a first year in Hong Kong, I worked on a deal that won the International Financial Law Review Debt Deal of the Year award. … Continue reading →

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