Lawyers 10+ years out who are not BigLaw or MidLaw partners...

[Anonymous]

15 years out. Did a mix of nonprofit, startup, mid size tech. Maxed out in mid size tech in-house at around 500k last year. My favorite job of all was $120k as half time GC at a startup. I’m going to do that again. I’ve never learned so much and enjoyed a job so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I babysit extremely boring litigation matters as in-house counsel. I spend about 2-3 hours a day working and have a lot of flexibility to handle home organization and kids activities. Make about $400k in a good year.

You have the dream job!! Are you happy?

[Anonymous]

14 years out of law school; I am partner at a litigation boutique. I make between $400K-$500K.

[Anonymous]

40 year old associate at boutique. Former gov. 200 plus bonus. Looking to go in house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I babysit extremely boring litigation matters as in-house counsel. I spend about 2-3 hours a day working and have a lot of flexibility to handle home organization and kids activities. Make about $400k in a good year.

Doing better than me. Same type of job at the SEC - not litigation specifically but babysitting - for 225k. I probably work about 5 hours/wk. Haven't yet gotten over the fact that I'm wasting my time and life but I guess unless/until I figure out something better I'll take the money and benefits.

Enforcement?

[Anonymous]

What does babysitting mean in the SEC context for cases?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does babysitting mean in the SEC context for cases?

Work up investigations and if it goes to litigation, pass it off to the trial team.

[Anonymous]

14 years out from law school. Maxed out non-supervisory GS-15 in large federal agency, work from home 4 days/week, 40 hour weeks most of the time.

[Anonymous]

20 years out, local gov’t attorney in an agency GC’s office, $160k base salary. Gov’t contributes 5% to my retirement, small performance bonus every year, I take every bit of the 26 days of annual leave I accrue a year, WFH flexibility, excellent work-life balance. I also actually really enjoy the work, it is adjacent to a litigating job I had previously, so I kept the interest while shedding the stress of litigating.

[Anonymous]

For those who have responded and who like their work, what advice would you offer my DC, who is a 2021 law school grad now clerking for a federal district court judge. DC is working in LA and has a job waiting at a litigation boutique there. DC is realistic about the stress of litigation and is willing to make tradeoffs to have a more balanced life, including moving to another part of the country, going inhouse or going into government or an NGO. DC is in a fortunate place financially: no loans to pay back and a small inheritance from grandparents that will be helpful in buying a house or apartment. Thanks for your suggestions and thoughts about what you wish you'd known at an earlier point in your career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does babysitting mean in the SEC context for cases?

Work up investigations and if it goes to litigation, pass it off to the trial team.

Interesting, so is the "investigations attorney" jobs more cush than the Trials Positions? You can investigate and then settle things, but if anything more is needed, you can pass it off? Do you need to "assist" them at trial? Thanks for any info.

[Anonymous]

18 years GS 15/10 non supervisory. Make $183 plus govt benefits. Salary has been stagnant for last 5 years- pay cap- but work is interesting and low stress, 2 days telework. Probably work 25/40 hours most weeks. Some travel which makes up for downtime. A little intellectually stagnated but I love work life balance and I fear leaving for more money won’t be worth it. Will probably stay 10 more years to minimum retirement date and then who knows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those who have responded and who like their work, what advice would you offer my DC, who is a 2021 law school grad now clerking for a federal district court judge. DC is working in LA and has a job waiting at a litigation boutique there. DC is realistic about the stress of litigation and is willing to make tradeoffs to have a more balanced life, including moving to another part of the country, going inhouse or going into government or an NGO. DC is in a fortunate place financially: no loans to pay back and a small inheritance from grandparents that will be helpful in buying a house or apartment. Thanks for your suggestions and thoughts about what you wish you'd known at an earlier point in your career.

So I would say advice wise, life in coastal cities is still quite expensive. This is very close to DHs situation - 2007 law graduate, parents paid for law school and we had about 300k from his grandparents as an inheritance. All this set us up nicely but we aren’t rolling in it and thankful feel comfortable in DMV with kids in public and a nice close in house. But we will very much need to work quite a bit. HHI is around 400k - 300k from my DH in house salary and 100k for my salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those who have responded and who like their work, what advice would you offer my DC, who is a 2021 law school grad now clerking for a federal district court judge. DC is working in LA and has a job waiting at a litigation boutique there. DC is realistic about the stress of litigation and is willing to make tradeoffs to have a more balanced life, including moving to another part of the country, going inhouse or going into government or an NGO. DC is in a fortunate place financially: no loans to pay back and a small inheritance from grandparents that will be helpful in buying a house or apartment. Thanks for your suggestions and thoughts about what you wish you'd known at an earlier point in your career.

Well I’m N=1 and had lots of luck along the way, but if your DC already has all these advantages then my advice is: find some legal work that is interesting and enjoyable. Keep learning, keep trying things, bring creativity to the work.

I bet your DC can think of at least one kind of law they enjoy and they should go in that direction. If money isn’t so much of a concern they can try out a different specialty down the line.

I’m the PP who’s been in a few different kinds of law so far (public interest, startup work and more) and really enjoyed the ride. My career isn’t nearly as prestigious as those of some of my peers, but I enjoy my work and have plenty of time for non-work pursuits.

[Anonymous]

15 years out. Work for one of the federal financial regulators making $260. Prior to moving to management, I worked in a very low stress, flexible, low workload position (averaged 10ish hours/week of "real" work). Moved to a managerial position right before the pandemic. I still have a relatively flexible position, but working a ton more and dealing with more crap. Not worth the small pay raise.

Prior to moving to government, I worked in biglaw for several years. I would never go back because billing is soul sucking, but I always wonder what working in-house would be like (assuming I could land a job) and whether the pay bump would be worth the added stress.