The DC Legal Proletariat Isn't Rich - the Bourgeoisie Is

[Anonymous]

Professional accident or disability insurance exists but hardly anyone gets it. It is expensive and you have to be able to guess the accident or disability that will sideline you in order to make it affordable. There is no universal coverage. Even if you guess the exact thing that keeps you from working, the payout is unlikely to maintain your lifestyle for more than 2-3 years.

[Anonymous]

An array of insurance products are available to me through my company for 2-5 dollars per pay period.

[Anonymous]

Why aren’t more law firms corporations or owned by private equity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t more law firms corporations or owned by private equity?

In virtually every state, non lawyers cannot own law firms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An array of insurance products are available to me through my company for 2-5 dollars per pay period.

You get what you pay for. The lottery is also available to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think one requirement for being wealthy is to have the option to not work. Not sure if you are wealthy, no matter how much you have, without this option.

I keep seeing this and this is nonsense. I have new worth of $12 million --- that would not replace my income -- I am wealthy nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t more law firms corporations or owned by private equity?

In virtually every state, non lawyers cannot own law firms.

True and there is no money in it for private equity. You could pay partners 500k and keep the other 1.5 million in profits per partner at top firms but they wouild not keep their partners and the people willing to work for 500k could not keep the clients needed for 2.0 million in profits per partner. It is an odd model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Professional accident or disability insurance exists but hardly anyone gets it. It is expensive and you have to be able to guess the accident or disability that will sideline you in order to make it affordable. There is no universal coverage. Even if you guess the exact thing that keeps you from working, the payout is unlikely to maintain your lifestyle for more than 2-3 years.

At biglaw and my policy covers kust about anything for 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You would think that the legal profession fosters social mobility but instead it stifles it. The money is in ossified relationships and social circles. It may help to be educationally accomplished to you get in the door but success at a high level depends on access and that comes largely from your social background. The ones that move up without the background are lottery winners.

This was true --- and I agree with the part that the key relationships are controlled by a few but those few are from very varried backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know that the kind of law OP is describing existed until I moved to DC. I thought all lawyers helped you with your divorce or to sue someone because they injured you.

Same! I never heard of Biglaw until I read about it here.

odd. You did not know that the best lawyers were helping the people with the most money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a DC biglaw partner was childfree & lived in a <$1M house they’d be able to retire by 45.

Not really. They would not be a partner till 35-40 so that is not enough time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:or shift to working on legal matters that may be less remunerative but closer to what they enjoy doing

Wait, you think most DC Big Law partners are not passionate about the substance of their work and don't truly love it?
I thought that is why they still work long hours as partners.

Their “work” at that stage consists of schmoozing 90% of the time to keep a big book of business. Lots of wining & dining potential clients. Golfing, too.

If that were true -- it would be a great job. That is not close to true. Most firms do not have people who do this 90% of the time. In addition to doing this they need to be utterly brilliant in legal work on average 40-50 hours per week with another 20 for this stuff and 10-15 for some firm management role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Professional accident or disability insurance exists but hardly anyone gets it. It is expensive and you have to be able to guess the accident or disability that will sideline you in order to make it affordable. There is no universal coverage. Even if you guess the exact thing that keeps you from working, the payout is unlikely to maintain your lifestyle for more than 2-3 years.

At biglaw and my policy covers kust about anything for 20 years.

You sound like you sling fries at McDonald's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a DC biglaw partner was childfree & lived in a <$1M house they’d be able to retire by 45.

Not really. They would not be a partner till 35-40 so that is not enough time.

Most firms start promoting associates to partners around years 7/8. So someone who went straight through UG to law school could be a partner in their early 30s. That’s pretty typical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think one requirement for being wealthy is to have the option to not work. Not sure if you are wealthy, no matter how much you have, without this option.

Many, many DC homeowners could sell their home $1.5M home, move somewhere a few hours away & never work again.

I doubt that people who have a lifestyle that includes a $1.5m home will be able to live for life on the proceeds of their home. Will they move to a lower COL location and suddenly live on puppy chow?

And that cheap home they would buy would be a shack in the boonies. I don’t think pp has actually looked at real estate in what used to be low cost areas post Covid. We bought a house in a lower COL area in 2017 and it has appreciated by about 250%.