Career change into law
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Anonymous
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Thinking about a career change at 40 to JD. Full ride to T1 school, so no debt. What are my chances to do well -$400-$500k range? Specialized skill set and extensive career prior to the jump. Planning on 10 years of work after graduation.
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Anonymous
Not right out of law school, not matter what your pre-law work history. You'll need at least 15 years of practice experience, unless you have a ready-client base from your pre-law career, in which case you're solely responsible for your own success. |
Anonymous
| So you'll be 43 when you graduate and start as a first year associate where you could start off making $225 at a top firm working grueling hours with associates twenty years younger than you. If you're the very best and work your butt off for 8 years or so, sure, you could make a lot of money. |
Anonymous
$225k that is |
Anonymous
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With a full ride to a T1 (did you mean T10?) school I'd just go ahead and do it if you are interested in law and want to be a lawyer. But you can't make any assumptions, even coming from a top school, about what you will be making when you graduate, or even after years of experience. Well, you can assume -- as PPs explained -- that it certainly won't be 500k to start, even with an offer from one of the firms that are paying associates the most.
It's possible that you could eventually make that $400-500k, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. For multiple reasons. First, ageism in hiring is real -- you are going to have a hard time competing with your 25 year old counterparts during interview season just because of ageism. Second -- you admit you only want to work 10 years; as a new lawyer you don't even know what you are doing for 5 or so (especially in big firms where you don't get to do much heavy lifting or have cases of your own for years), and you are talking about quitting right around the time that most lawyers have finally honed their skills into true expertise. On a similar note -- someone who only wants to practice 10 years is not partner material; which is fine, but that means you don't have the full potential that firms are looking for, which is again going to affect your ability to get hired. Also, you go into law school thinking you know what you want and you come out thinking something else altogether -- I managed to get a job at DOJ, which is amazing and everything I could ever want; but I won't ever make $500k, even if I make SES. Having a "specialized skill set" can help (I'm thinking of a CPA who enters a tax practice for example) but it isn't going to allow you to sail over the other hurdles. The only hope I see for you, as far as making the kind of money you are interested in, and doing so fairly quickly, is if you have clients from your former professional relationships waiting to hire you and pay you huge amounts of money. But that would probably be an eat-what-you-kill firm situation, and like I said above, you aren't really going to be capable of representing big clients right out of law school -- you won't know what you are doing yet. So. Go to law school if you want to practice. But don't count on making $400-$500k out of the gate -- or even ever. Most lawyers don't ever make that much, let alone lawyers who only practice 10 years. |
Anonymous
| Biglaw is far from guaranteed at a T1, and if you don’t start in biglaw the paths to $500k are limited. |
Anonymous
| Will you be able to work while in law school? No debt but what about living expenses; you’re giving up 3 years of salary and time in the market for savings. IF you do well enough in law school and a firm wants to hire you (there’s a bit of bias against second careers at some firms bc the model is folks come onboard in their 20s/early 30s) then you’ll need about 6-7 years to get to the mid to upper 6 figures. In all likelihood you will be miserable for most of that time. What are your other options. |
Anonymous
Yeah I was wondering about opportunity cost, if her career is all that she could be leaving $1M or more to take this gamble. |
Anonymous
Believing you're special because of a nonlegal "specialized skill set and extensive career" will not help you. Yes, work experience is helpful, but a first year associate is a first year associate regardless of prelaw experience. To get the sort of outcome you want, you need to go T14 and you need to at least be in the top half of your class. |
Anonymous
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Big law is extremely tough to pull off (not impossible) graduating at 43. It also isn’t a random distribution—those that do pull it off have some specialization that translates to legal work (IP, the senior person who knows construction and you find the last firm that is doing high stakes construction litigation). If you have expertise in an area that is legal adjacent you have a better shot than most at your goal.
I think the real thing to appreciate is that you are starting over. You don’t graduate at 43 and go into the world as a respected lawyer. You’ll spend the next 5-10 years after graduation grinding away, making senior lawyers look good and really learning your practice area. Somewhere at the end of that you may be ready to be a lead lawyer. FWIW, I went to law school at 29, graduated at 32, got on the big law train and eventually transitioned to something really cool that pays extremely well. But the first day of law school to that outcome was a 13 year process. |
Anonymous
This. Do you want to put in biglaw hours in your 40s? Those 20-something first-years have boundless energy and no other responsibilities. |
Anonymous
Thanks for the insight. I’m in very closely connected law adjacent field. My path forward needs to be either PhD or JD. JD seems like a better flexible direction. |
Anonymous
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You will face age discrimination and won’t be hired by biglaw.
-biglaw partner |
Anonymous
The probability of getting a very high paying attorney job is not great. You're more likely to end up in doc review or a doc review adjacent job, such as at the Board of Veterans' Appeals. |
Anonymous
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Not sure what your current comp is, but I imagine it would not make much financial sense to forego 3 years of comp in your existing role just to work for 10 years as a lawyer and bow out. If you could see yourself practicing law for 20+ years, maybe there would be clearer financial upside. Even if you got an entry level job in BigLaw at top of market, you wouldn’t clear $400k (including bonus) until 5th year. IF you lasted that long in BigLaw. Some associates get laid off, many hit the eject button themselves because of the hours, stress, and interference with their personal lives. (If you want to change careers
not because you perceive that you could make more money, but because you passionately want to do some specific legal work, then go for it.) |