#100: What 100 Episodes Reveal About BigLaw: Career Realities, Recurring Challenges, and Industry Shifts
Release Date: 11/26/2025
#109: When You Were Assured of BigLaw Partnership This Year But It Didn’t Happen
Big Law Life
Being told you ready for partnership creates expectations that are hard to unlearn. In this episode, I walk through what it really means when you are encouraged, guided, and perhaps even implicitly promised by firm leadership, only to be told at the end of the cycle that you did not make partner. This is not just a professional disappointment. It often feels like a betrayal of an assumed agreement, especially when you followed the roadmap you were given and told if you followed that this was your year. I explain why this situation is far more common in BigLaw than firms admit, including how...
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#108: Inside Goodwin’s Client Immersion Program for Junior Associates with Lynda Galligan and Josh Klatzkin
Big Law Life
Junior associates in BigLaw often ask for more client exposure early in their careers, but what they really need most is a clearer understanding of how clients actually operate and make decisions. In this episode, I speak with Lynda Galligan and Josh Klatzkin, both members of Goodwin’s management and executive committees, and co-chairs of the firm’s Business Law Department, about why the firm's early client immersion program for junior associates addresses this key development and training issue. Lynda and Josh explain how traditional BigLaw training can delay meaningful client exposure,...
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#107: Do You Have to Be a Big Rainmaker to Succeed in BigLaw?
Big Law Life
hear this question constantly: do you actually have to be a rainmaker to succeed in BigLaw? The short answer is no, but the longer, more important answer is that success depends on whether your firm truly rewards lawyers who help win, grow, and retain clients without personally originating them. In this episode, I break down what that looks like in practice. I explain why firms that rely on a handful of star originators are more vulnerable over time, and also why many firms say they value collaboration and the contrbutions of many to major firm clients but quietly reward something...
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#106: 10 Things BigLaw Attorneys and Business Professionals Should Do in January (But Usually Don’t)
Big Law Life
As the calendar turns, I see the same pattern repeat inside large law firms. We talk about fresh starts, priorities, and strategy, but most people carry the exact same work habits, assumptions, and risks into the new year. And yet the beginning of the calendar year when you can slow the system down just enough to make some key but deliberate decisions before urgency takes over. This episode is not a motivational reset or a list of aspirational goals, but rather some practical actions that can give BigLaw lawyers and business professionals more control over how the year unfolds. I walk through...
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#105: Cringe-Free BigLaw Goals for Associates in the New Year
Big Law Life
As the year closes, I'm focusing in this episode on BigLaw goals for associates without resorting to platitudes, firm retreat slogans, or vague resolutions that quietly collapse by February. After years as an equity partner in BigLaw, I’ve seen that the associates who actually move forward are not the ones making dramatic promises to work less, do everything better, or reinvent themselves overnight. Instead, the associates who most often make progress are the ones who focus on taking smaller, actionable steps in specific, visible ways that compound inside a system that is in many ways beyond...
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#104: BigLaw Partnership Timing: What Actually Controls When You Make Partner
Big Law Life
If you are a senior associate staring at year seven, eight, or nine and trying to decode whether you are “behind,” I want you to hear this clearly: your timeline is not controlled by your work ethic or your reviews. In this episode, I break down why partnership timing is driven by structural economics inside your firm, not individual merit. We walk through the forces that actually move or stop the process, including practice group capacity, leverage ratios, PEP pressure, capital constraints, succession bottlenecks, client portability, and internal power dynamics. I also give...
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#103: The Mid-Career BigLaw Partner Crossroad - Should You Stay or Make a Lateral Move?
Big Law Life
Mid-career partners can begin quietly wondering whether they should stay where they are or explore a move. This isn’t driven by crisis or failure. It’s driven by subtle shifts, such as declining energy for a platform that once fit well, strategy drift inside the firm, client relationships that feel different, or internal politics that have grown wearisome. Yet most partners stall making a decision because they don’t want to make the wrong call and the ambiguity keeps them stuck. In today’s episode, I walk through the five stages I see that partners typically move through when...
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#102: The Most Dangerous Time in BigLaw - What Mid-Senior Associates Should Be Thinking About
Big Law Life
After years as a partner inside global law firms, I’ve seen one stage of a BigLaw career quietly determine everything that comes after it. It isn’t the first year, when everyone expects some struggle and a lot of learning. And it isn’t partnership, when you've reached that tier and are now working to build your book of business and establish your role in that space. The most dangerous stage is the mid to senior associate years. Years four through seven are where many lawyers stall without realizing it. They’re billing hard, getting strong reviews, and hearing they’re “doing...
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#101: The Seven Billable Hour Pitfalls That Hold BigLaw Associates Back
Big Law Life
After years as a partner in global firms, I’ve watched countless associates struggle with the billable hour for reasons that have nothing to do with their talent or work ethic. What often derails them are avoidable habits: reconstructing time at the end of the month, underbilling to appear efficient, overlawyering simple assignments, taking on too much work at once, relying on one partner for all their hours, failing to bill fully legitimate work, and assuming non-billable hours will meaningfully count toward their annual target. In this episode, I walk through the seven most common pitfalls...
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#100: What 100 Episodes Reveal About BigLaw: Career Realities, Recurring Challenges, and Industry Shifts
Big Law Life
After over two decades in BigLaw, I’ve seen just how rare it is to find candid, practical conversations about what life in a large firm is really like. That’s why reaching the 100-episode milestone of Big Law Life feels so significant. In this special episode, I step out from behind my usual role behind the microphone and reflect on the real stories, hidden challenges, and universal themes that have surfaced over the past hundred conversations. I share why I started this podcast, what continues to surprise me, which episodes unexpectedly struck a chord with lawyers across firms, and...
info_outlineAfter over two decades in BigLaw, I’ve seen just how rare it is to find candid, practical conversations about what life in a large firm is really like. That’s why reaching the 100-episode milestone of Big Law Life feels so significant.
In this special episode, I step out from behind my usual role behind the microphone and reflect on the real stories, hidden challenges, and universal themes that have surfaced over the past hundred conversations. I share why I started this podcast, what continues to surprise me, which episodes unexpectedly struck a chord with lawyers across firms, and how this work has continued to expand and deepen my own appreciation BigLaw culture.
If you’ve ever felt isolated in your BigLaw career or wondered whether others are grappling with the same uncertainties, this behind-the-scenes milestone episode offers clarity, validation, a preview for what comes next.
At a Glance
00:00 Why I launched Big Law Life and the gap it fills
01:20 Celebrating 100 episodes and shifting to a special interview
02:49 How my experience sparked the idea for the podcast
03:28 What practical BigLaw conversations were missing elsewhere
05:12 The unseen challenges lawyers face in firms
07:18 The most meaningful listener feedback
08:41 How many BigLAw attorneys lack mentorship and internal guidance
10:23 Themes that repeat across firms and career levels
12:57 Some of the episodes that particularly resonated with listeners(#39 & #79)
14:40 Why partnership and practice area choices carry so much uncertainty
16:25 Reactions from lawyers who find the show while seeking help
18:18 What’s ahead for the next 100 episodes
19:16 Innovations from firms that have been great to spotlight on the podcast
21:19 Gratitude for listeners and the community
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Interested in doing 1-2-1 coaching with Laura Terrell? Or learning more about her work coaching and consulting?
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laura@lauraterrell.com
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Show notes: https://www.lauraterrell.com/podcast