So, you were looking to make a change, and you did it! You found that lateral, in-house, or other job, and it’s time to let your current colleagues know. (Please please wait until conflicts clear before giving notice - not the topic of this blog post, but worth mentioning!) Leaving your job professionally (even if you dislike it and hope to never go back), is critical.
One of the most common pieces of advice that I give to law students and junior lawyers is to make a good impression wherever you go... even if it’s a job that you hate, a small internship in a random area of law, or some other opportunity.
The first reason is because it’s the right thing to do - even if you don’t care about the job, it is important to do good work, be professional, and make a good impression. The second reason is more practical: making a good impression among colleagues, classmates, and others can lead to opportunities down the road. (For a great book on the power of maintaining professional ties, check out Relationships to Infinity, by my friend Jason Levin.)
This is especially important in our small world of law (ironically, even smaller world of BigLaw), where many people know each other and can call for recommendations, references, or ideas. Maintaining a positive reputation is always critical, even with firms or colleagues that you no longer work with (or even hope to never work with again) - it’s no secret that BigLaw attorneys (and employees and almost any other industry) switch jobs often. Not just to other BigLaw firms, but also to interesting in-house jobs, government, and others. And, by the way, I’m not just talking about associates leaving after a few years... it has become increasingly common for partners to move around, even (or, especially) those who are the chairs of practice groups with large books of business, and have been at their firm for decades.
This advice applies to all aspects of a job, but it is especially important for leaving a job professionally. Why? Because it’s the last interaction you will have with your colleagues at that job, until you (maybe) reconnect later. When they think about you, it is chronologically the most likely thing they will remember. And, due to the humans being subject to recency bias, you will be judged more based on your most recent interaction, even if you worked there for a few years.
Resigning from a job is one of the more difficult things most people will do in their career and approaching it with tact and grace is critical to your professional (and personal!) brand.
In this blog post, we share advice from our experiences leaving jobs in BigLaw, but also being on the receiving end of colleagues leaving.
Whether a job change is weeks, months, or years away, these are important tips to keep in mind to ensure you exit in way that maintains your strong professional reputation.
Give reasonable notice. In BigLaw, the standard is generally two weeks, although some associates may give more, once they accept an offer and clear conflicts. When people find a new job, they are excited about the change and ready to move on ASAP. And usually you will want to take at least a week off in between jobs.
Between notice time and time off (and perhaps pressure from your next employer to start sooner), this can lead to a very condensed notice period, negatively affecting your professional brand. Be honest and up-front with your new/potential employer early on in the recruiting process on how soon you could realistically start and 99% of the time, they are willing to accommodate your reasonable timeline. Usually a couple of weeks one way or the other does not make a difference to your next employer, but makes a huge difference for you. (If financially viable for you, try to take at least 2 weeks off in between jobs — because of the demands and responsiveness required from BigLaw associates, it is rare to have this time between jobs where this no access to email... you can’t even check your email if you tried.)
Finally, when you have accepted your offer for a new job, and cleared conflicts, consider giving notice (especially for your practice group leaders), sooner rather than later. Even one or two days more notice, beyond two weeks, can be impactful to your current manager and teammates.
Take the time to let your team know. Once you give notice to HR/practice group leaders, it is important to identify the handful of colleagues that you work with the most, to let them know yourself. If you are on a small team, best to let each person on the team know individually. In BigLaw, it is generally accepted practice to stop by the colleague’s office (or call them / ask them if they have time to chat, if you are in different offices or are home that day) to let them know. Block off time to properly do that. Don’t just rely on an email to people that you work closely with. (That may be appropriate to colleagues in a large group who you don’t have much of a relationship with.) Better for them to hear from you directly than from someone else.
These conversations will provide surprising results. As a junior or mid-level associate, it is easy to assume that everyone else is planning to stay, and you are betraying them by leaving. But, once you sit down with other associates in your group, you’ll see a lot of excitement. Some will have great questions about what you are planning long-term and what you are excited about. They may even want to help you if they have friends at the new firm/company you are joining. Many of them will confidentially share that they are also in the process of looking for a new job, and they are excited that you succeeded in that process.
Don’t “check-out” or complain once you resign. When you are leaving your job, especially a difficult one, it is normal to feel a strong sense of relief and desire to just not care anymore. Don’t let this mindset take over, again at the expense of your professional brand. Meet with your practice group shortly after you resign (they will probably need a few hours to process it), and work with them to create a transition plan on all of your current matters. Then work hard to fulfill whatever is needed in this plan and make sure you leave detailed notes and files on your matters - usually taking the form of a long hand-off email with the relevant attachments, and a short meeting with whomever is taking over. The more time you have to transition, the better — and even if you are not actively working on that matter anymore during your notice period, you can still answer questions to your colleagues (which you pretty much can’t do once you leave). Not only will this matter to the partners you work with, but also to your fellow associates, who will likely have to take on more responsibility after you go.
When I (AT) was an associate, a fellow associate on our small team decided to leave the firm for a new opportunity - I was very happy for my colleague, but I was also the person taking on the brunt of the work being left behind. Some of it was cool stuff. Others, not so much. During the two weeks’ notice, the partner would ask this associate to help with small-ish projects - he knew that the rest of us were busy (and were going to get even busier) and he could use the help for the time being. After all, this associate was still an associate at the firm. It wasn’t an insane amount of work. As we were grabbing coffee in the common area, this associate complained repeatedly about getting new work during the two weeks’ notice. As someone who was taking on dozens of hours of work due to the departure, it was hard to sympathize. In my mind, the right approach would have been to be a team player and take it in stride, especially knowing it had an end date in less than two weeks.
Years later, when I was leaving my job to start Lateral Hub, I remembered how I felt when this colleague left and made it a point to properly wrap up my matters, handle anything that came in for clients I worked on, and prepare materials for my colleagues to utilize after I left. My colleagues (many of whom I am still in touch with today) expressed how much they appreciated it.
Maintain a consistent story, even if it’s not the full story. Sometimes people leave a job that they like because a new opportunity arose that they couldn’t pass up. All smiles. But, let’s face it - a lot of the time, people leave their job because of something they don’t like about their current job. The hours, the people, the stress, the work, something. It is very tempting to give the real reason when colleagues ask why you are leaving. And all the things that you think the firm does wrong. But, as tempting as it is, it often does more harm than good.
It is important to be honest (in a professional manner) in a confidential exit interview with HR about what you liked and didn’t like about the job or organization, and what ultimately led you to leave, but those conversations are likely not something you should share with your teammates and other colleagues. With your teammates and other colleagues, instead of focusing on the negatives of your current job (”we get no substantive work,” “the hours are terrible,” or “I can’t stand the people”), focus on the positives of your new job and keep it diplomatic (“more responsibility”, “new type of environment,” “better culture fit”). (This also great interview advice, by the way, when you are asked why you are looking to leave.)
You don’t want your personal workplace gripes to be the watercooler topic of discussion after you leave. And if you tell just that one person the “real reason” and keep it guarded with others, you’ll create more gossip that’s not worthwhile, especially if the reason involves certain people at the firm that have caused you to leave.
Of course, every individual situation is unique and your resignation might look different. But we hope these general insights are helpful for you as you think about your professional brand and how job resignation/transition affects it.
