Small Law Firms

Sometimes, It's Fine To Burn Bridges With Past Employers

Aim for the near-retirees and the true jerks to minimize damage.

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FirePeople are commonly told that they should not burn bridges in their professional lives since they never know when they might need to rely on someone from the past for a future opportunity. In nearly every situation, this is good advice, since people may have far more chances to excel in their careers if they can rely on references and suggestions from people in their past. However, sometimes people cannot resist burning bridges in their professional lives because they have particular disdain for someone or because they are especially peeved about their situation in a workplace. In some situations, burning bridges might not have too many consequences, and people might be emboldened to throw bombs on their way out of a job.

One time when it might be fine to burn bridges is if people who might be upset with the words or conduct of a departing lawyer are close to retirement. If managers will soon leave the legal profession, they might not be able to interfere with a former employee’s career ambitions, and they might not serve as a reference for much longer. Earlier in my career, I knew someone who was particularly peeved by a workplace that was run by people who were all close to retirement. On his way out the door, he made it clear that he was not satisfied with the firm’s management, and he did not do a particularly good job handing off his work tasks to his successor.

After leaving that firm, he had a successful career, and it is not clear that burning any bridges had a negative impact on him. As expected, some of the senior management retired a year or two after he left, so there was likely no one who could make difficulties. To some extent, many of the contemporaries of the person respected him more since he departed on his own terms and spoke his mind about some of the issues at the firm. In that way, perhaps burning bridges with some of the senior management actually helped improve his reputation with people who would spend longer in the legal profession than the soon-to-retire senior managers at that shop.

Another time when it might be okay to burn bridges is when the person to be scorned is a known jerk. Some people in the legal profession have horrible reputations with other people in local legal communities. Sometimes, this is because of how the person treats employees. In other instances, it is due to how that person treats adversaries who might also be parties in a given legal matter. In any event, even if people have considerable “juice” within the legal profession, they can still be held in contempt by others in the same legal community.

If someone burns bridges with such a contemptible individual, it might not have much of an impact on that person’s legal career. If the jerk lawyer says anything bad about the other lawyer, people in the community might not give the bad review much weight since people know that the person is a jerk. In addition, since people might not like the jerk lawyer, a negative review of someone by that individual might be received positively. I knew an individual who, shortly before leaving a firm and seeking new opportunities, had a shouting match with a contemptible lawyer. That person ended up landing on his feet, and I have to believe that other people within the legal community also did not like the contemptible lawyer and did not give much weight to any negative comments by that person about the departing lawyer.

In any case, it’s always safer to not burn bridges to ensure you have the most opportunities in the legal profession. However, if you can’t resist the urge, burning bridges in some instances likely will not hurt your career.

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Rothman Larger HeadshotJordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

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