Opportunity to be a professor at a community college

[Anonymous]

DH has been at a midlaw firm for almost a decade and hates it. Last week, he got an offer to teach a couple of law-adjacent classes at a local community college. He is dying to take it, but it will mean a steep drop in income from $300k to about $105k. He says the quality of life and flexibility will more than make up for it, but I just don’t know how we’re going to deal with the money gap. Anyone have experience with this?

[Anonymous]

Do you have a job?

[Anonymous]

Do you have a job? Would he have a contract with the school or is this a kind of year-by-year thing? What is the teaching load he would have? $105,000 suggests a full teaching load, not “a couple” of classes. Which of you provide provides the health benefits for your family?

If your husband is miserable, what exactly is he miserable about? Does he not like being a lawyer, does he not like the amount of hours, would he be open to finding a different lawyer job? Is he a partner or on partner track?

[Anonymous]

No experience but I wonder if he would have time to practice law on the side to increase his income a bit.

[Anonymous]

Time for you to get a job OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have a job? Would he have a contract with the school or is this a kind of year-by-year thing? What is the teaching load he would have? $105,000 suggests a full teaching load, not “a couple” of classes. Which of you provide provides the health benefits for your family?

If your husband is miserable, what exactly is he miserable about? Does he not like being a lawyer, does he not like the amount of hours, would he be open to finding a different lawyer job? Is he a partner or on partner track?

+1 These are good questions.

It seems like your husband should be looking at state/local government jobs for stability and less stress in the 150/200k range. He can still teach at night for extra money.

[Anonymous]

He's getting offered $105k to teach just a couple of "law-adjacent" classes? At a community college?? I don't even believe this is real.

[Anonymous]

He should keep his day job and try teaching one class to start. My DH started teaching adjunct and eventually transitioned to a full-time faculty role (though at a 4-year university).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's getting offered $105k to teach just a couple of "law-adjacent" classes? At a community college?? I don't even believe this is real.

There is no way a community college would pay a JD professor that much out the gate.

[Anonymous]

CC jobs are not stable.

[Anonymous]

Lawyer here who now teaches at the CC level.

It doesn’t pay “about 105k” to teach “a couple of classes.” Probably more like less than 1/4 of that. So I don’t know what you are on about with this post, OP. Or perhaps you aren’t making this up and your DH is lying? I don’t know, but that is not what the pay is. It’s a lot lower than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lawyer here who now teaches at the CC level.

It doesn’t pay “about 105k” to teach “a couple of classes.” Probably more like less than 1/4 of that. So I don’t know what you are on about with this post, OP. Or perhaps you aren’t making this up and your DH is lying? I don’t know, but that is not what the pay is. It’s a lot lower than that.

I'm also confused. I had some professors in law school who just taught a couple classes and they all still had full time jobs.

[Anonymous]

Community college pays like 10k/class...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Community college pays like 10k/class...

My husband teaches an advanced engineering class at a university nesr here it's around 5k for the class. It's more a hobby than anything. His full time employer supports it because it's a recruiting benefit for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH has been at a midlaw firm for almost a decade and hates it. Last week, he got an offer to teach a couple of law-adjacent classes at a local community college. He is dying to take it, but it will mean a steep drop in income from $300k to about $105k. He says the quality of life and flexibility will more than make up for it, but I just don’t know how we’re going to deal with the money gap. Anyone have experience with this?

Yes, you downsize your lifestyle. It's not that hard to comprehend. BTW, if his work is killing him, you might have to sooner or later anyway, unless he has really good life insurance.

The only thing I'll say is be wary of the grass is greener syndrome.