What does betting on yourself look like?

and introducing Khurram's List

One of my posts this week struck a chord:

The problem of status in law

The legal profession is built around status. We need to get admitted to top-14 law schools, we’re ranked in law school, and we’re judged on whether we’re qualified for clerkships. Then there’s biglaw, a hilariously literal name to describe the biggest and most prestigious firms to practice in.

Buying into this system has a cost. You can pull up r/biglaw on reddit to read gripes from stressed-out lawyers trying to figure out their exit. The thing is, if you’re working so much, you mostly only know lawyers, and they’re probably in the same boat.

Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) described this dynamic in a commencement speech at Hamilton College in 2016:

So some lawyers learn to be less reliant on these firms and institutions for success. What did they do?

Betting on institutions v. betting on yourself

It seems to me that the alternative to depending on institutions is depending on yourself. That means (1) developing some unique skillset or asset that separates you from your comparably smart and hard-working peers (2) that you fully own.

But you also don’t have to do one or the other. I went to a non-target law school on full scholarship in Chicago instead of a great state law school in a distant town on partial scholarship, because I bet on my ability to network my way into the big Chicago law firms.

Then, I relied on the institution of biglaw to build my confidence and credibility, which I leveraged as a legal recruiter. After joining an established agency, I bet on the audience I built and my expertise as a patent lawyer and litigator and launched my recruiting agency.

Pushback on this model

A lot of people thought the framework was helpful, and weighed in with decisions they made that mapped onto the spectrum. But a couple of people objected:

It seems these responses are trying to identify what we even mean by making a bet.

Let’s take Adam’s point. The interesting thing about law is that there are a lot of benefits correlated in legal practice - stakes of matters, skill of peers, comp. I knew a smart peer from law school who worked at a small family law firm after graduating law school. Her pay was low, the partner was obnoxious, and the clients could be difficult, and she worked a lot. It seemed to me that she got a raw deal.

But there are always tradeoffs when you rely on institutions - less control, more specialization, less security. It would be really hard for an individual to leave biglaw

In biglaw, you have skilled hard-working colleagues. But you have less control over those teams - look at the layoffs at big firms. So there is simply no guarantee of sustaining the team for career success at institutions.

Cecilia’s point is about how we can even realize a bet. We have to go where the opportunities are. Let’s look at my decision on which law school to attend. The bet on myself was that I would successfully navigate Chicago, one of the largest legal markets. What made this a good bet is that this was an asymmetric bet - more upside than downside. Attending law school on full scholarship in, say, Kenosha, Wisconsin would likely have had less career upside (it does have a charming lake walk, with a trolley).

So I agree with Cecilia that we need to create bets that have payoffs, and we need to put ourselves in a position to capture those payoffs. That involves costs - rent in dense urban areas in the case of law school, or grueling hours and less career security in the case of biglaw.

Any framework is necessarily limited to make it actionable, but I’ll definitely be giving this topic more thought.

Khurram’s List

I run Freshwater Counsel, a recruiting agency. To discuss a move you’re considering or a hire you’d like to make, contact me.

• In-House

  • A ~$1 billion publicly traded solar company based in Stamford, CT is looking for an Associate General Counsel with experience in corporate or commercial matters. Experience in M&A, structured finance, or consumer law is valuable. I placed this company’s first AGC.

• Law Firm

  • I’m working with an elite trial firm on a unique role. They have a busy docket with complex commercial litigation and are looking for a litigator from a top firm who wants to be an expert on all things discovery. This is a great fit for a detail-driven lawyer focued on operations. Market comp. NY or LA.

  • I’m working on an unlisted search for an AmLaw 50 firm. The patent litigation practice is growing rapidly servicing large-cap tech companies. The firm is looking for two 3rd-year associates, two 6th-year associates, and an 8th-year associate. This is a unique opportunity to grow a patent practice at a prestige brand.

  • I’m working with my former firm Goodwin on these key searches:

    • Life Science Corporate Midlevel Associate: join a Band 1 practice and work on the highest-stakes life science transactions.

    • IP Litigation Associate: represent growing tech companies in bet-the-company disputes - trade secrets, patent, and more.

    • Employment Midlevel Associate: represent growing and large-cap tech and life sciences companies in high-stakes disputes and compliance matters.

  • Moving from biglaw to an elite litigation boutique? Let’s discuss these clients that are hiring.