No matter how you stack it, an attorney with 25 cases will have at least 100 to 200 people looking over everything the attorney does in anticipation of the attorney screwing up. An email, phone call, text, or anything could be news that the attorney has screwed up—or someone is out to get the attorney.
All these deadlines create many opportunities for mistakes. Deadlines in litigation can have huge consequences and a missed deadline can cost an attorney both the case and his or her career. I have seen many litigators get fired for missing deadlines—this is very common. Most litigators feel a constant sense of anxiety about deadlines and many have recurrent nightmares about missing deadlines. The stress of these deadlines can wear an attorney down and make him or her feel old, paranoid, defensive, and on constant pins and needles. The attitude of large firm litigation attorneys especially—where the stakes are highest—becomes similar to that of a high strung lap dog. They will start barking and going crazy at the slightest provocation. They become this way because they are in a world where they are running around like maniacs with one deadline after another hanging over their heads.
To be competitive, lateral litigation attorneys looking for new positions (as associates) at large law firms must have top credentials—order of the coif, law review, and so forth from top law schools. If an attorney attended a law school ranked below the top 15, he or she should have been ranked in the top 5 students in his or her class. Litigation is very competitive.
Litigation is by and large unglamorous work spent outside the courtroom. Heck, many litigators do not even go to trial because most cases settle. Litigators spend the majority of working hours doing piles of mundane discovery and other busywork. For many litigators, the daily grind involves working mindlessly on matters about as interesting as watching dew form on sand overnight in the middle of the desert.
Most litigation jobs involve working in small offices and doing things like representing families suing nursing homes over bedsores. These thankless jobs may pay by the hour or they may pay low salaries. Many litigation jobs pay less than an attorney would make working as a manager for a restaurant. There are tons of bad litigation jobs out there and this is where most of the jobs are. Most of the attorneys doing these jobs do not enjoy them. Many litigators are not happy, healthy, or successful by any means.
Some litigators can get clients, but can never get them to pay their bills because they are losing all the time or are easily intimidated by clients. Most litigators eke out unsatisfying careers and never amount to much. The job is not pleasant.
It is very hard to distinguish yourself because there are so many litigators out there. Moreover, while there are countless litigators practicing, few are any good and most get their hats handed to them more often than not. Litigators are demoralized by courts, employers, opposing counsel, and clients.