Lawyers - big firm to small boutique firm?

[mandy214]

Considering a move to a small firm after working for 8 or 9 years (some of it PT) in a large, regional practice? Same specialism but much more hand on, business development etc.

Anyone done it? Any advice?

[Lunastarfish]

I left a large national firm and now work for a small specialist firm (I mean small - only 4 sols and 1 admin!).

I am though much happier here. My workload is much much smaller and I am very involved in marketing and business development which I prefer (I am currently re writing the firm's website, articles, organising client 'dos'), which never happened at my old firm.

However, as it is so small, invoicing clients promptly and obtaining clients is somewhat more important compared to my last firm due to cash flow issues. There is also a lot less support re CPD and professional conduct issues and less people to bounce ideas off if you need a second opinion.

But i find the lifestyle is better, despite practising litigation I have only worked beyond 5.30 twice in 6 months. However, I do find the quality of cases I have now is of a lower quality than I did before. I am 5 pqe and about 80% of my cases I could have done as NQ.

I suppose it really depends on what area of law you practice and how boutique the firm is so I would do your research first before leaving.

I should add that my salary is the same as before.

[mandy214]

That's really interesting. I'm also in litigation but have ended up being quite narrow in my specialism, and this is going back to more general commercial litigation. It sounds a very similar role in terms of BD, client focus etc and I suppose the worry is the lack of a 2nd opinion, having that comfort blanket almost. I'm coming up to 12yrs PQE (but have been PT for over half of that and have had mat leave) and have only been at 1 firm!! Thank you for your reply, its really useful.