AT ABOVE THE LAW: Departure Memo of the Day: Parenting Gets The Best Of One Biglaw Associate. It’s true. You can’t “have it all.” But you never could, and it was never just a problem for women. They’re just the ones who complain about it most loudly. I remember one bigshot partner at my old firm — a huge success, but when his five-year-old drew a family picture in Kindergarten, he left him out of it. That caused him to do some soul-searching and change his approach to work, and undoubtedly his career suffered as a result.

As David Lat Elie Mystal observes: “A lot of people have trouble keeping friendships while working Biglaw.” That’s why these jobs pay a lot. They’re hard.