About two years ago, I posted here after receiving the traditional law firm wedding gift of unemployment and severance. https://www.reddit.com/r/biglaw/s/WMEt1fQxUA
It took nearly my entire severance period, but I eventually found another position. Two years later, I genuinely enjoy my new firm, my PG, and the work I am doing. I have found a sense of pride in my practice that I did not realize I had lost.
With some distance, I can also admit that I was miserable at the job that fired me. I probably wanted out but lacked either the courage or sufficient intervention from the Wheel of Fortuna to do anything about it. The firm ultimately solved that problem for me with all the tenderness of a livestock auction.
Getting fired shortly before my wedding felt catastrophic. It was embarrassing, frightening, and absurdly timed. In retrospect, it was a bad break that prevented a worse one. I could have remained there for years, growing increasingly bitter while insisting everything was fine because my direct deposit continued to arrive.
So, for the young and mid-level associates reading this post/forum and concluding that every firm is miserable, every partner is deranged, and the profession is merely a prolonged administrative punishment: it is not all doom and gloom. Sometimes the problem is not the practice of law. Sometimes you are simply in the wrong building with the wrong people.
There can be light at the end of the tunnel. Occasionally, it is even something other than an approaching train.