June 10, 2025

BigLaw to Starting a Firm: How I Got Here

By Emily Poler
True confession: I was feeling a little stuck about what to write about in this week’s post. At first, I considered the summary judgment motions on fair use in cases against Anthropic and Meta over AI, but I’m kind of over writing about AI at the moment. I also thought about getting into the trademark issues associated with dupes and/or whether the card mahjong players use is copyrightable, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I’ll likely come back to these topics in coming weeks (especially the one about the mahjong card), but none of these were really inspiring me. 

I mean, things feel like a lot right now. Even putting aside the stress of a world burning down around us, work has been super busy. Plus, there are a number of changes afoot here at Trachtman & Poler (all good, and more on that to come). Getting some space in which to free my mind from the parade of daily tasks is a key step in my process of thinking about things, reaching conclusions, and then writing them down for this blog. That space has been missing lately.

And then, it happened. I went to a BigLaw event this week, and seeing all those shiny, soon-to-be 3L students working at large firms for the summer got me thinking about the tradeoffs people make for a career in BigLaw. It also made me ponder some of the myths of what it’s like working at a legal behemoth, as well as the misconceptions people have regarding starting your own law firm. So here we go!

For those who don’t know, BigLaw (yes, that’s how people spell it) firms hire people who have just completed their second year of law school for internships. These jobs pay well, and usually come with a lot of wining and dining meant to lure the “lucky” students into signing their lives over to these firms after graduation. This is exactly what I did.

Why? When you’re starting out as an adult (and plenty of other times too), I think some people want stability and predictability, while others are ok with or hungry for open options and unexpected opportunities. Some of this may be innate, but I also think people’s backgrounds and experiences have a lot to do with how they enter the working world. As you might have guessed, I was one of those eager for stability and predictability. 

Without getting too deep into my childhood, let’s just say I grew up in a somewhat chaotic family environment. Looking back, I see how that motivated me to choose a well-mapped career path with a well defined beginning, middle and end, where through sheer hard work and grit I could outlast just about everyone else and make it to the top. 

Also, money. Somewhere along the line, probably around 10 or 12 years old, it became pretty clear to me that I couldn’t — or shouldn’t — rely on anyone to support me; I definitely didn’t ever want to have to ask someone else for money. So yeah, it’s kind of obvious why I ended up going to a top law school and working in BigLaw, because if you’re any good at it, it’s a straight climb to making a lot of money pretty quickly. 

But, things changed. For starters, my young adult life turned out not to be as financially unpredictable as I had imagined. I managed to graduate college and law school with pretty minimal debt, and by my second year as an attorney I was able to buy an apartment in a neighborhood that, at the time, was considered less than desirable. That meant I knew I’d be able to pay my mortgage even if I took a significant pay cut.

So once the miseries of working for BigLaw began to take their toll on me, losing 20 pounds I would rather have kept and sending me into therapy, I started realizing maybe I didn’t have to stick to the painful BigLaw career path. I became less willing to prioritize financial stability over having control of when I got to and left the office, the clients and cases I handled while I was there, who I worked for, and how I interacted with the people I worked with. So eventually, I left and went to a smaller firm. After that, I started my own firm and, recently, joined forces with the wonderful Laura Trachtman. 

This background means that I now really love meeting others who also left BigLaw to forge their own paths. What we all have in common is having made a calculus about the need to balance predictability with exerting a degree of control over how and when we work. That calculation is a key element that I think often gets overlooked by people when they’re mired in the day-to-day of their careers: How much predictability (and income) do you want, how much do you actually need, and how much are you willing to exchange in the short term for more control over your daily work and life and, eventually, long-term satisfaction and earning potential?  

Thinking about all this the past few days, I’ve also come to understand how people tend to look at those of us who took the risk, left high paying jobs and started our own businesses, as being somewhat brave. And sure, it definitely takes a measure of courage to do so. But it’s not necessarily harder than working for BigLaw, it’s just different. Each has its own set of sacrifices, but while the travails of working for a large firm are pretty well known (as are the $$ rewards), the tradeoffs, worries and stresses of going it alone are less well documented. This is something I’ve tried to address periodically on this blog, while also sharing the ways I’ve overcome the obstacles and made it work for me. It’s been very gratifying to hear from people that my thoughts and insights into starting and growing one’s own business have been appreciated. And hopefully, it’s helped a few people make that leap for themselves. Because one thing is certain: The sacrifices and hardships of going it alone are, ultimately, more than compensated by the freedoms and satisfactions of choosing your own road to success.