I don't know what else you can do.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4809057&forum_id=2#42267680)

Otherwise, you're stuck doing something totally new, whether that's moving down 50 spots in Vault (I don't know anything about that, so I'll focus on what I do know about), going to a USAO, doing midlaw/boutique, or starting your own biz.

There are biglawyers who end up loving being an AUSA and want to make it a career. I didn't personally, but I've found it to be a good credential and a surprisingly good source of referrals (your former colleagues are prestigious and connected lawyers who can't take good cases for themselves); I was lucky to do it way younger than you and probably wouldn't have done it later, but, in my office at least, the super-young guys were treated more poorly by the supervisors than the equally clueless older guys.

Consider starting your own business; it's fun and there's a *lot* more skill involved than xo thinks. Xo constantly talks about skills being useless and personal salesmanship (etc.) being the only things that matter, but I haven't found that to be true. I'm as aspie and introverted as they come and get fantastic referrals and prestige clients (newspapers, politicians, etc.) and made six figures my very first year. There's also a constant feeling of expanding your practice / that you're still sort of starting up, which is kind of cool.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4809057&forum_id=2#42272034)

Again I really appreciate your post. You’re a good dude.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4809057&forum_id=2#42273011)

Dude, once you start doing more cookie cutter defense there’s tons of rate pressure. I have a ton of cases where my rate is $300. The firm somehow decided its worth it to bring this client in because they have so much work and I was the dummy that volunteered for the first one. I’ve tried my ass off to get away from that client but somehow I keep getting roped in.

This is like a v60 or something that follows Cravath but probably shouldn’t. When I was at a v15 my rate was double that ... as a third year.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4809057&forum_id=2#42273647)

I used to openly make fun of my reviewing partner when they'd give me the overhead breakdown, which was more than my base salary and was literally an even-steven breakdown of all overhead divided by number of attorneys with no attempt whatsoever to assign marginal costs -- I think my first year they didn't even separate out the different offices. I'd say shit like "well the firm paid out $200M in total comp to all 110 attorneys, and I'm one attorney, so really my comp alone costs the firm almost $2M, right?" (This was when I was making ~$300K total comp.)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4809057&forum_id=2#42274180)

think about what you're doing with your life

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4809057&forum_id=2#42273613)