Life as a litigation partner at a large law firm has complications aplenty: The deadlines, the plane flights, the cranky mid-level associates, the often hapless junior associates, the client fires to put out, the stress, the meetings, the pitches … the list goes on and on.

That's why I'm repeatedly impressed by Big Law litigators who tackle all those challenges and then decide they still have the capacity and the appetite to tackle leadership roles within their respective organizations. My colleagues at Law.com have been capturing the experiences of those sorts of extraordinary lawyers through their "How I Made It" series, and today I'd like to focus on a quartet of litigators featured in those Q&As since the turn of the year who are helping lead local offices at their respective firms: Joseph Lipchitz and Jared Hawk of Saul Ewing, Nicole Shaffer of Jackson Lewis and Sashi Bach of Boies Schiller Flexner