The moment I decided to quit my attorney job and do something else with my life.
The story starts with me graduating law school and not really knowing in which state I should end up practicing law. I enjoyed the area where I went to school so I decided to stick around after law school. Passed the bar and got a job working as an associate attorney at a small law firm in the area.
Things went well for the most part and I got to do some cool work, but there was one Partner who either hated me or was just mean. In my opinion only, the worst manager I've ever had in my life. Partner would yell at and berate me whenever Partner felt like it. Partner also played these weird passive aggressive games where Partner would be cordial and nice to me when we were in court or in public, but inside the office Partner would either actively put me down in front of coworkers or just completely give me the cold shoulder. At the same time, Partner maintained good relationships with the other partners and would shoot the shit with them and talk shop. One time I overheard Partner talking to AnotherPartner about a trial and congratulating AnotherPartner on a recent jury trial he had one in a criminal case (we did a lot of small-office law work, including criminal defense).
Anyway, I worked hard to earn Partner's respect, but nothing really seemed to work. Partner ended up being dissatisfied with me for not bringing in enough revenue from my work while, at the same time, not delegating any work to me. I guess Partner expected me to go out and generate business somehow, even though it's ethically prohibited to solicit business in person. I would regularly ask for work and Partner would not give me anything. Things definitely were acrimonious about a year into my employment there.
Anyway, one of my criminal defense clients was being prosecuted for this misdemeanor charge for which I knew my client was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the prosecutor wouldn't dismiss the case. I take the case to trial in what would be my first (and only) jury trial.
Now, I never had any trial experience before this. However, I did have court experience before a judge and knew my way around criminal defense pretty well. Ethical rules don't prohibit you from taking a case to trial if you don't have any trial experience so long as you're sufficiently prepared and provide competent defense. However, I couldn't bill for that time that I spent bringing my own skills up to par (I did bill for normal case and trial preparation, however). So, I spent a hell of a lot of time preparing, researching evidence rules, learning about objections and court room procedure, and generally becoming sufficiently competent to conduct a trial. None of this was on firm or my client's dime. I did most of this stuff at night when the office was closed or at home.
Anyway, so after all of my hard work, I win. Things go smoothly. OtherPartner is pleased. I get congratulations from circuit judges who I barely appeared before. I was kind of the talk of the courthouse for a few days, I guess. Client pleased. Great moment for justice. Future is bright.
Except for Partner. Partner actually ran into me (or maybe went to snoop on me) in the courthouse during a recess and asked me how things were going. I told Partner that things were going well. I think Partner liked to keep up appearances that things were cool between us. Partner was super cool during that time (in public). But when I told partner that I ended up winning back at the office, Partner only said, "That's good...", nothing else, and has this look of disbelief in Parner's face. Never said, "Congratulations," and our relationship actually got worse after. Partner ended up acting nastier to me afterwards. Partner's manner of treating me coupled with the lack of recognition ended up being just a HUGE slap in the face, complete disrespect. I ended up quitting a few months later. There's only so far your dignity can sink before you just cut your losses and move on. I have better things to do with my time than to have someone belittle me like that.