Law school at age 40 to get a government or in-house counsel job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn’t seem like a good idea at his age. Maybe get a non-lawyer job at the SEC or FINRA? I’m sure they would love to have him with that experience.

He's been searching for several months, and there is virtually nothing for people with investments experience (vs. corporate finance/accounting). Just one specific office at the DFC, but even that one has a lot of travel, so seems intense...and he has applied for several jobs there with no results.

SEC hires lawyers and economists, not niche PE guys. He hasn't been able to find anything in finance at 40-45 hours/week, even at a much lower salary.

It feels really hard to be trapped at age 37. He's so unhappy and all he wants to do is to work normal hours so he can spend time with the kids and have a life.

If he's a finance guy, he should be looking at analyst and examiner positions at the federal banking agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn’t seem like a good idea at his age. Maybe get a non-lawyer job at the SEC or FINRA? I’m sure they would love to have him with that experience.

He's been searching for several months, and there is virtually nothing for people with investments experience (vs. corporate finance/accounting). Just one specific office at the DFC, but even that one has a lot of travel, so seems intense...and he has applied for several jobs there with no results.

SEC hires lawyers and economists, not niche PE guys. He hasn't been able to find anything in finance at 40-45 hours/week, even at a much lower salary.

It feels really hard to be trapped at age 37. He's so unhappy and all he wants to do is to work normal hours so he can spend time with the kids and have a life.

go do something else. or tighten the budget and lower the salary requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the job prospects for someone graduating the law school at University of Maryland at age 40 and looking to get into government or in-house legal work? Prior experience is all in PE/hedge fund. Do you have to basically start over? Is a 200k salary working 40 hours/week realistic?

DH really wants to make this switch because he can't find a 40 hour/week job in investing (government, nonprofit, or private sector), and his heart isn't in finance anymore, and he's always been interested in doing legal work. He worked closely with lawyers on the legal aspects of deals and feels like legal work is a good fit for him. We do not have a ton of savings, I'm in a low paid field, but we wouldn't go into debt for this degree. I want to be supportive but just not sure if he will be able to get the kind of job he wants.

So, your husband has been working at hedge funds for years, but your family has minimal savings? Seems like you and your husband should examine your life choices.

Not everyone working at a hedge fund makes millions of dollars. Not every hedge fund is ubersuccessful. We saved a couple of million over the decade he was working there - part of that is for retirement and the other part was used to buy a house in cash. More recently, he has tried impact investing jobs, which really cut into his salary, but still don't have the work-life balance he's looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, a 200k salary is not realistic in government straight out of law school. Have him look at a GS scale.

He has, and GS-15 is close to that salary, but it sounds like it would not be realistic to get there within a couple of years?

The only way to get a Federal job straight out of law school is through an honors program, and those are competitive at every agency. Even then, he'll start as a GS11, step 1.

There's also no reason to think that a federal job is easily in reach for a UMD grad. To have a decent chance, he needs to finish in the top 10 to 25% of his class (and guess what, everyone attending plans to do that).

The most realistic outcome is a local prosecutors office or a small firm. He needs to be OK with that to consider attending.

this is the answer. I do know firms that hire UMD grads but they do not start at 6 figures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the job prospects for someone graduating the law school at University of Maryland at age 40 and looking to get into government or in-house legal work? Prior experience is all in PE/hedge fund. Do you have to basically start over? Is a 200k salary working 40 hours/week realistic?

DH really wants to make this switch because he can't find a 40 hour/week job in investing (government, nonprofit, or private sector), and his heart isn't in finance anymore, and he's always been interested in doing legal work. He worked closely with lawyers on the legal aspects of deals and feels like legal work is a good fit for him. We do not have a ton of savings, I'm in a low paid field, but we wouldn't go into debt for this degree. I want to be supportive but just not sure if he will be able to get the kind of job he wants.

So, your husband has been working at hedge funds for years, but your family has minimal savings? Seems like you and your husband should examine your life choices.

Not everyone working at a hedge fund makes millions of dollars. Not every hedge fund is ubersuccessful. We saved a couple of million over the decade he was working there - part of that is for retirement and the other part was used to buy a house in cash. More recently, he has tried impact investing jobs, which really cut into his salary, but still don't have the work-life balance he's looking for.

so. you dont have a mortgage yet he still needs to make 200 grand?

[Anonymous]

Why do you need 200k?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you need 200k?

also, if you need 200K to survive how were you planning on surviving during his 3 years of law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the job prospects for someone graduating the law school at University of Maryland at age 40 and looking to get into government or in-house legal work? Prior experience is all in PE/hedge fund. Do you have to basically start over? Is a 200k salary working 40 hours/week realistic?

DH really wants to make this switch because he can't find a 40 hour/week job in investing (government, nonprofit, or private sector), and his heart isn't in finance anymore, and he's always been interested in doing legal work. He worked closely with lawyers on the legal aspects of deals and feels like legal work is a good fit for him. We do not have a ton of savings, I'm in a low paid field, but we wouldn't go into debt for this degree. I want to be supportive but just not sure if he will be able to get the kind of job he wants.

So, your husband has been working at hedge funds for years, but your family has minimal savings? Seems like you and your husband should examine your life choices.

Not everyone working at a hedge fund makes millions of dollars. Not every hedge fund is ubersuccessful. We saved a couple of million over the decade he was working there - part of that is for retirement and the other part was used to buy a house in cash. More recently, he has tried impact investing jobs, which really cut into his salary, but still don't have the work-life balance he's looking for.

so. you dont have a mortgage yet he still needs to make 200 grand?

I think OP is a troll. So, she and her husband saved up millions of dollars, and now, her husband wants to start over and go to law school. Why would someone who earned millions of dollars want to settle for only $200k a year?

[Anonymous]

Election year is not a good time to get a government job: not a lot of agencies are hiring. That's part of why he's getting no bites right now. But if he starts law school next year (2025) he'll graduate in 2028 which will have the same problem.

I'd really encourage him to drop the law school idea and look at what roles he could fill at consultants that contract with government - your Booze Allens and the like - as well as small companies that need compliance help or accountants/auditors that might find his background interesting. Keep applying to government jobs: there will be more of them next year if/when a new budget passes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn’t seem like a good idea at his age. Maybe get a non-lawyer job at the SEC or FINRA? I’m sure they would love to have him with that experience.

He's been searching for several months, and there is virtually nothing for people with investments experience (vs. corporate finance/accounting). Just one specific office at the DFC, but even that one has a lot of travel, so seems intense...and he has applied for several jobs there with no results.

SEC hires lawyers and economists, not niche PE guys. He hasn't been able to find anything in finance at 40-45 hours/week, even at a much lower salary.

It feels really hard to be trapped at age 37. He's so unhappy and all he wants to do is to work normal hours so he can spend time with the kids and have a life.

If he's a finance guy, he should be looking at analyst and examiner positions at the federal banking agencies.

... but he doesn't want to be on the road (examiner positions) or ever work more than 40 hours or supervise AND earn $200K... He's looking for a unicorn position whether it is finance or legal. It might be out there but they're aren't many of them.

[Anonymous]

The SEC would hire him in a heart beat- for maybe a bit under 200k to start. However, the current congressional funding situation does not allow any hiring and I’m not sure when that will happen again- could be years.

Signed,

Someone in an adjacent job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, a 200k salary is not realistic in government straight out of law school. Have him look at a GS scale.

He has, and GS-15 is close to that salary, but it sounds like it would not be realistic to get there within a couple of years?

The only way to get a Federal job straight out of law school is through an honors program, and those are competitive at every agency. Even then, he'll start as a GS11, step 1.

There's also no reason to think that a federal job is easily in reach for a UMD grad. To have a decent chance, he needs to finish in the top 10 to 25% of his class (and guess what, everyone attending plans to do that).

The most realistic outcome is a local prosecutors office or a small firm. He needs to be OK with that to consider attending.

This. I've worked in government for years, and most lawyers are snobs. They won't hire a UMD grad when they can get one from a T14 law school easily.

[Anonymous]

200k government job straight out of UMD law school?


Haahhaaaahaaaahaaaa

No, he'd start at GS 11 or maybe GS12. Likely under 100k.

[Anonymous]

The legal profession is one of the worst in terms of quality of life. Lawyers who earn a lot of money tend to travel a lot and work long hours.

[Anonymous]

While very troll like I will play.

OP you need to step up and get a better paying job. He can stay home with kids (I assume you have them) and go to law school at night in DC. Really common. While most people have a job and go to law school it seems like he can't hack it. So you pull your weight -- even if you don't have kids, pay for night law school with your cash and he can relax/work dumb job/watch kids. Then he can get a real job. Or if you do t have kids he can work AND GO TO SCHOOL. Shocking I know.