One of my goals from the first moment I graduated from law school was to make partner, and not partner as a solo attorney, but partner at a well established and large firm.

Overtime I saw that was less and less likely to happen and eventually I started to plan go out on my own and start my own firm. But then, somewhat out of the blue, I landed my current in-house job.

I knew that meant I would probably have to give up on my partnership dreams as I was giving up my minuscule book of business and the client development connections I had worked so hard to build. (I moved two counties away.)

In July of this year, rather unexpectedly, I was offered a position as a non-equity partner at a large national firm. It wasn’t my dream job- but it was that elusive title that had avoided me for so long and there was a path to equity.

After a lot of conversations with someone I knew at the firm in a different department, with someone in a similar position in the same department at the firm, my close friends, and my assistant, I decided to stay at my company and told the owner what had transpired.

It was a hard decision and one of my close friends, who is a partner at a national firm, pulled me aside and asked- “Is it the title? Because if that’s it, know that you and I came up together through law school and in my mind we share our titles.

So you’re a partner because I’m a partner and you might never have that title and I’m a VP of Legal Affairs because you are and I’ll never be one.” And as corny as that sounds it made me cry and I realized almost everything I ever wanted from a legal job I have right now.

I run the legal department, I have near complete autonomy over my cases and how I run them, I have the trust of my company and they rely on me, I have a seat at the executive table, and I don’t do any client development. It’s honestly the best legal job I’ve ever had.

So, just a reminder, our legal careers are not a straight path and it can be hard, very hard, to not reach the career goals we once set for ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t accomplished great things.