[DrewDevil]

Noah, congrats on the grades, but you are seriously deluding yourself if you think you are going to find a "quality of life biglaw firm."

The big firms compete with each other for candidates by telling them outright lies about the workload. The chairman of the recruiting committee at the law firm where I worked right out of law school looked me directly in the eye and lied right to my face about the billable hour requirements. I asked around and this is totally standard.

Beware, young one, beware. If you like the prestige and moneys, go for it, but seriously, knock out your student loans and then GTFO while you still have a soul.