Leaving Big Law Behind

By Jill Priluck
Slate
Click here to read the full article
Lawyers often enter the profession because it’s a safe bet, and they’re paid handsomely to be risk-averse. But increasingly, Big Law partners like Marc Zwillinger and Christian Genetski—who started their Internet-focused firm in March and have since doubled the client roster—reach the pinnacle of success only to leave it behind.
After a career of being coddled—and drained—by esteemed institutions, these high-achieving lawyers, hardly naturals for entrepreneurship, find themselves choked, financially and otherwise, at the top of the heap. As the Big Law model—in which the nation’s largest law firms turn the top law students into billable-hour-crazed associates and, sometimes, partners—evolves to accommodate global entities, companies below the $100 million-revenue level that can’t or don’t want to pay Big Law rates are being squeezed. And this presents a window for partners, fed up with the Big Law model, to strike out on their own.