1. My personal suggestion: Don't move at this point. Just grit your teeth and stick it out for another up to four to five years. I know it's hard, but the chance that you'll get good fruit out of this is much higher.

2. At the same time: An anecdotal example for you to consider (from the London market). One of my best friends is a lawyer in Britain (having attended university there straight after school) who worked at a prominent Anglo-American law firm's London office for just under six years (the amount of time required under current British immigration law to go from immigrant to citizen), and then moved in-house. This individual worked in the securitisation practice of the law firm and moved to a prominent investment bank, where she has been working for under a year (it is one of the top players). The major difference between her CV and yours (unless you have omitted relevant information) is likely to be that she worked at the Mainland Europe office of a second prominent investment bank on secondment from her law firm for three months, early in her career.

I graduated in 2020 and have been working at a Tier-1 law firm since then. My plan is to move in-house as soon as I receive an offer from a good organization. At the moment, most in-house roles I see require 7–9 years of post-qualification experience.

I’m considering moving to a smaller law firm until I reach the required PQE, but I’m concerned about whether that could affect my exit opportunities. Would my six years at a Tier-1 firm still carry sufficient weight, or could a move now negatively impact my prospects? I’ve reached a point where I can’t continue here and need some semblance of work-life balance until I make the transition in-house.