A litigation lawyer working at a prestigious law firm reportedly quit his job on the spot after being denied a non-transfer request so he could spend time with his pregnant wife. Nick Huber, founder of Somewhere, shared the lawyer’s story in a now-viral X thread.
“I spoke to a guy last year who spent 5 years at a big prestigious law firm. One of the top firms in the world working litigation,” Huber wrote on X (now Twitter).
He revealed that the lawyer had graduated from an Ivy League school and worked thousands of hours to reach a position of power in the law firm. At the age of just 32, he was earning close to $900,000 or ₹7.8 crore a year.
But the high salary came at a cost. According to Huber, the lawyer regularly worked upwards of 80 hours a week.
Quit on the spot
It so happened that the lawyer was assigned a case in a different city while his wife was eight months pregnant.
“He told the senior partner he couldn’t miss the birth and asked for an exception,” said Huber.
{{/usCountry}}“He told the senior partner he couldn’t miss the birth and asked for an exception,” said Huber.
{{/usCountry}}Instead of approving his no-transfer request, the senior partner asked him to “work through it.” The partner even mentioned that he himself, along with other lawyers, had similarly ignored their personal lives for professional reasons.
The lawyer was told he could miss the birth of his son or walk away from the job. He chose the latter.
According to Huber, the 32-year-old quit on the spot and “made a scene.” He even told his boss to “F*** off,” says Huber.
The American entrepreneur called it a “sad deal”, noting how the lawyer had worked hard to rise up from humble beginnings.
The post has gone viral online, with public opinion overwhelmingly in favour of the lawyer. Many X users praised him for taking a stand against toxic workplaces, while others weighed in on the ongoing issue of work-life balance.
“He can always birth another kid. But he’ll never get the chance to litigate that case again!” wrote one X user sarcastically.
“I don’t see sadness here. I see a man who was given a choice, made the right/moral one, and now has the finances and resume to go do anything he wants in life. With a new child, and no longer handcuffed by work,” another said.
“Sounds like a win if he saved money and didn’t live like a fool. Prob got another solid job and is set for life assuming he invested,” a third person opined.