I'm studying big firm compensation this week and it's a screaming validation for not trying to go into a big firm. My skin crawls just thinking about origination credits, etc. The thought of sucking up to rainmakers to ensure I can generate enough billable hours to justify my existence on an annual basis makes me cringe. Sorry Shyster, I know it's your bread and butter but you're a better man than me.
I used to be a lobbyist at a top law firm in D.C. I remember my first week being paraded around to different partner's offices in the legislative group (a mix of attorneys and lobbyists or attorney-lobbyists) and being told "on the dl" by my handler specific individuals were KINGMAKERS. Suck up to this specific man or woman and they'll bring you into their world and the sky will be the limit. It turned out to be 100% accurate for anyone willing to play that game.
Find the right individual and you're all set to the point where you kind of have a blank check to do whatever you want and the rules sort of no longer apply to you. Get this.....I was very close with one of these Kingmakers and had a falling out over the fact that I was co-habitating with my gf at the time and we were not married yet. This person wanted me to move out until I was officially married. They were VERY religious and sort of blackballed me when it became apparent that I wasn't moving out of my place with my then gf (now wife) to make them feel better. It was so bizarre. Certain projects, hookups, and potential "strategic placement" at other outside organizations that were hinted at that were supposed to happen, didn't happen. I did just fine and moved on to other clients and projects but my role as "right hand man" of the Kingmaker was blown.
One example of the king making.....the in-house General Counsel at my previous place of employment is out somewhere and meets somebody at one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. They express interest in getting some additional legislative help for something coming up at the end of the year. My former GC is friends with my Kingmaker at the new firm and facilitates a call, meeting, etc. I had absolutely nothing to do with this deal or introduction AT ALL but was given partial credit by my kingmaker because the intro came from my former GC. I had been at my new job for about 6 weeks at that point and got credit for landing this company and received a 25% raise a few weeks later. No HR, no red tape, just a letter placed on my desk one afternoon informing me of the new $$.