I've been in practice for a fair amount of time and have seen a variety of work. And this is just my opinion.

There isn't anything more glamorous or more prestigious about complex corp work or IPOs. Whether you are a partner or a low level practice trainee, you are just helping rich people become richer. After a while, you just get pretty jaded about it. Such "complex" and glamorous work simply has no application to the man on the street. Not to mention, the hours are just generally longer and the work is pretty damn boring.

Yes, general Liti or civil claims doesn't pay as well as advance corp. But come on, it's not as if we are making peanuts. Look at some of the threads here regarding the accounting firms. A fresh entry associate in a law firm could easily be making more than a 5th year accountin person in a big 4 acct firm. The work in small firms is generally more fulfilling, and you get a lot more freedom in managing an entire file by yourself. That is far more fun and far less stressful than M&A work; if you screw up an accident claim or small civil file, you are much less likely to get fired, than if you screw up a multimillion IPO offering.