Thinking about leaving

I’m a fourth year at v20 without a billable requirement in a small but reputable transactional group and not sure how much longer I can take it. This year I’ll be a bit over 2400 billable hrs and the partners are saying that next year is expected to be even busier. Our group is actively growing at the top with new partners, the bottom with bigger first year classes but we have hardly any mid level and senior associates and I’m feeling the squeeze.

I like my colleagues, I think we do interesting work, and I’m doing well at work but the hours are becoming too much for me and recently the stress and anxiety have been affecting my sleep and health.

I have no desire to be a partner but had the goal to make it to be about a 6th year before I left biglaw to go in house to hone skills and hopefully land somewhere with a good balance of interesting work, decent pay and better work-life balance.

I’m interested in what others in similar positions did or are thinking about doing. I don’t want to burn bridges at my firm by going to a competitor for (hopefully) a better work life balance but also concerned that if I stay, the stress will get too much and my work and reputation will decline or if I go in-house, I’ll be limited by only doing 3 years of Biglaw and be left with boring, dead-end and/or low-paying jobs and holding on for a few more years would open better doors.

For those that have been here, what did you do?