1. Do not quit without another job in hand - Your market-value takes a nose dive when you start looking without a job.
2. Do not resign abruptly, if possible. Offer to serve a notice-period. If the law office you work with is known to sack its associates abruptly, when they express an intent to leave or for any other reason, then quit only with a job in hand. Shady people deserve shady treatment and will never change, not even for you. If you are unsure of their practices, then offer to resign only with a job in hand.
3. Ensure you leave with a letter of recommendation which briefly describes your achievents at the firm. This is more important than you think !
4. Be vary of recruitment-firms, especially the leading ones, if you are planning to quit without notice and a job in hand - read point 2.
Know this - these recruitment-firms exist only because of the law-frims they service. Their loyalties are with the law-firms before any thing else.
When you approach a recruiter, two things happen:
1 - your recruiter looks at this as an opportunity to approach your present-employer with prospects to replace you.
2 - your application is put in a talent-pool, which is shared with potential-empoyers.
Now, this may seem harmless, only that it isn't!
You should also know: most of these recruiters are not bound by any form of self-regulation. Competition among them is cut-throat. They will not even blink before telling your present employer that you had approached them for a job- if it helps their cause. I say this with first hand experience.
What say, Kian?