I'm a 4th year associate (class of 2021) and I'm not sure what to do with myself. I spent the first two years of my career at a well-respected boutique firm in a major market. The firm had it all-- interesting work, great mentors, good work-life balance (got my bonus at 1800 billable hours)-- and I would have liked to spend my whole career there.
In late 2023 my girlfriend at the time got a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity in NYC and I decided to move with her. My old firm does not have a New York office, so I had to lateral. I was able to find work at an AmLaw 100 firm, but its been pretty middling. The pay is fairly substantially off market and I feel like (1) I've taken a big step back in terms of the quality of assignments that I'm getting and (2) I no longer have mentors that are personally interested in my career growth. The only thing this place has going for it is that the hour expectations are very light; I only billed about 1700 hours last year (including 75 hours of pro bono). I'm not sure if I'm getting a bonus, but I know I billed more than at least half of the other associates in my group and I'm not worried about getting fired or anything.
My girlfriend and I broke up a few months ago and my life has been a mess. I feel very unmotivated at work and I'm strongly considering lateraling again, but I'm not sure if I'd actually feel better at another firm. I would like to make more money and build an impressive deal sheet, but I don't know if it would be worth the trade-off of worse work-life balance, especially when I'm trying to find time to date, make friends in a new city, and generally work on myself.
I would appreciate any advice about my current situation, but I also have a few specific questions:
Is it at all reasonable to expect to find a firm that pays within, like, 70% of the Cravath scale and genuinely doesn't expect associates to bill over 2000 hours a year? Recruiters keep telling me that this or that firm pays market salary for 1900 hours per year, but it mostly just seems like they're lying to me. After three years of billing in the 1600-1800 range, I don't know if I have the stamina to hit 2100 or 2200+.
Does it make sense to start looking to lateral before I am barred in New York? I'm in the middle of my application, but its been a slog and I am now waiting for approval to use my "stale" UBE score from 2021. I don't have an urgent reason to leave my current firm, but I also feel like I'm falling behind in terms of substantive work experience and I'm worried that my lateral prospects are getting worse the longer I stay here.
Should I just leave New York and try to return to my old firm? Despite the recent turbulence in my personal life, I really like NYC a lot and leaving kind of feels like accepting defeat, but maybe it would make sense if it meant returning to a job that I was really happy with.