25 y/o $4M Net Worth-should I go to law school?

[Anonymous]

You would be ancient to be a first year!

[NickScarfo]

Anonymous wrote:Take some money as an investment in you - to figure out where you get energy. Where are your passions.

Throughout this thread - I have not heard ..... what I really Love is .....
what did you right in your college application? I am sure there was some element of changing the world. Go find that person.

Law School can be great - do you want to do immigration law? Work for the Southern Poverty Law Center? Another part of society that is underserved? [There are students in DC who have learning needs who are 5th year 9th graders - but parents never realized that their children were not getting the services that Federal Laws require DC to provide] You are in the financial position to take your father's hard work, pay it forward, and have a great life.

When you are 50 - and you look back - what do you want to have accomplished?

My college apps were done very cynically. I did activities and marketed myself in a way that would appeal to adcoms.
Unfortunately, I don't have strong passions at this point.
I know that I want a financially rewarding career and that I want to maximize my wealth. That's about it.

[Anonymous]

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take some money as an investment in you - to figure out where you get energy. Where are your passions.

Throughout this thread - I have not heard ..... what I really Love is .....
what did you right in your college application? I am sure there was some element of changing the world. Go find that person.

Law School can be great - do you want to do immigration law? Work for the Southern Poverty Law Center? Another part of society that is underserved? [There are students in DC who have learning needs who are 5th year 9th graders - but parents never realized that their children were not getting the services that Federal Laws require DC to provide] You are in the financial position to take your father's hard work, pay it forward, and have a great life.

When you are 50 - and you look back - what do you want to have accomplished?

My college apps were done very cynically. I did activities and marketed myself in a way that would appeal to adcoms.
Unfortunately, I don't have strong passions at this point.
I know that I want a financially rewarding career and that I want to maximize my wealth. That's about it.

If I had $4M, age 25, and wanted to maximize wealth, I would head to Silicon Valley and start a tech startup. Or get a job at a pre-IPO company using your business skills, start networking there and start angel investing in other people's startups (hopefully meeting good co-founders along the way). But that's me! You have to do something that aligns with your interests and risk / reward profile. Having $4M at such a young age is already a huge leg up, so IMO you should do something that has a greater risk/reward profile than biglaw, finance or consulting working for others.

[Anonymous]

YOLO it into Dogecoin. And also get some top notch prostitutes, and some grade A cocaine.

[NickScarfo]

Anonymous wrote:

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take some money as an investment in you - to figure out where you get energy. Where are your passions.

Throughout this thread - I have not heard ..... what I really Love is .....
what did you right in your college application? I am sure there was some element of changing the world. Go find that person.

Law School can be great - do you want to do immigration law? Work for the Southern Poverty Law Center? Another part of society that is underserved? [There are students in DC who have learning needs who are 5th year 9th graders - but parents never realized that their children were not getting the services that Federal Laws require DC to provide] You are in the financial position to take your father's hard work, pay it forward, and have a great life.

When you are 50 - and you look back - what do you want to have accomplished?

My college apps were done very cynically. I did activities and marketed myself in a way that would appeal to adcoms.
Unfortunately, I don't have strong passions at this point.
I know that I want a financially rewarding career and that I want to maximize my wealth. That's about it.

If I had $4M, age 25, and wanted to maximize wealth, I would head to Silicon Valley and start a tech startup. Or get a job at a pre-IPO company using your business skills, start networking there and start angel investing in other people's startups (hopefully meeting good co-founders along the way). But that's me! You have to do something that aligns with your interests and risk / reward profile. Having $4M at such a young age is already a huge leg up, so IMO you should do something that has a greater risk/reward profile than biglaw, finance or consulting working for others.

I don't think I have the knowledge base to confidently and intelligently direct invest. Frankly, I don't have enough money to matter to the VC crowd [and I don't care to]! I'm better off with plain vanilla holdings that yield solid, but not crazy returns. Thanks, though!

[Anonymous]

Don’t go to law school. pls dont give law schools a cent for tuition out of this money. And don’t miss out on 3 good earning years at this point.

Just work hard and rise up in some other field.

I would have done that if I were you.

~ Top biglaw after going to top law school, F*ing exhausted

[Anonymous]

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t want to practice law, it seems.

Regardless of your nest egg, I would advise working for a few years anyway, since you are not feeling driven to go to law school.

You can always go to law school when you are older, especially since you won’t have to take out debt.

I inherited seven million dollars recently and am a lawyer. If I knew that was going to be my situation, I probably would have tried to get a job in finance, private wealth management etc after college, gone to law school and taken lots of trust and estate classes, and then gone into estate law.

But I’m a nerd who likes law.

Lots of great jobs out there that don’t require a law degree.

Why do you feel you would need an education in wealth mgmt/T&E to handle a windfall? I had a great lawyer, CPA, and now, an RIA, handle estate matters.
My question only related to law school from a financial POV.

PP did not say that at all. You would not be a very good lawyer.

Ouch! He seemed to imply the knowledge would be useful, but it seems like overkill to me. I don't think I misread the post.

Previous poster here. I’m very ignorant about how to invest money. And I’m paying someone half percent of my net worth every year to invest it for me. It doesn’t seem like rocket science but I’m afraid to do it by myself but the fees are really annoying.

I agree that if you have a really good trust estate lawyer you feel like you can really trust then you don’t really need the education yourself.

[Anonymous]

No. Do not go to law school unless you want to be a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

I loved law school. Did a very policy- focused course at Georgetown (section 3 for other GULCers) and found it so interesting. Clerked on federal court - also fascinating. Worked in govt - decent salary and hours and interesting, generally meaningful work. Skip BigLaw for sure, but there are other avenues available. But you need to start out wanting to learn. That needs to be the end goal as opposed to wanting to go BigLaw, which is miserable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to law school. pls dont give law schools a cent for tuition out of this money. And don’t miss out on 3 good earning years at this point.

Just work hard and rise up in some other field.

I would have done that if I were you.

~ Top biglaw after going to top law school, F*ing exhausted

Agree. Do whatever you want, you’re set.

~ Top Biglaw somehow for my entire career after going to top law school, f*ing exhausted d have been forever but now it’s worse, and after a divorce and some weird career decisions just now at the net worth OP has.

[NickScarfo]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to law school. pls dont give law schools a cent for tuition out of this money. And don’t miss out on 3 good earning years at this point.

Just work hard and rise up in some other field.

I would have done that if I were you.

~ Top biglaw after going to top law school, F*ing exhausted

Agree. Do whatever you want, you’re set.

~ Top Biglaw somehow for my entire career after going to top law school, f*ing exhausted d have been forever but now it’s worse, and after a divorce and some weird career decisions just now at the net worth OP has.

I'm surprised that attorneys would even get married to begin with. Seems like a huge liability. Outside of religious meaning, why would anyone invite the government to define their partnership?

[Anonymous]

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to law school. pls dont give law schools a cent for tuition out of this money. And don’t miss out on 3 good earning years at this point.

Just work hard and rise up in some other field.

I would have done that if I were you.

~ Top biglaw after going to top law school, F*ing exhausted

Agree. Do whatever you want, you’re set.

~ Top Biglaw somehow for my entire career after going to top law school, f*ing exhausted d have been forever but now it’s worse, and after a divorce and some weird career decisions just now at the net worth OP has.

I'm surprised that attorneys would even get married to begin with. Seems like a huge liability. Outside of religious meaning, why would anyone invite the government to define their partnership?

Lol ok. I’m a gay dude who fought for that right for decades. Being married carries with it a huge list of legal responsibilities and benefits. Among other things MFJ tax rates are fantastic for a high income/low income couple. I’m suffering at single rates.

Of course if I’d known then what I know now, but whatever.

But you do you.

[NickScarfo]

Anonymous wrote:

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NickScarfo wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t want to practice law, it seems.

Regardless of your nest egg, I would advise working for a few years anyway, since you are not feeling driven to go to law school.

You can always go to law school when you are older, especially since you won’t have to take out debt.

I inherited seven million dollars recently and am a lawyer. If I knew that was going to be my situation, I probably would have tried to get a job in finance, private wealth management etc after college, gone to law school and taken lots of trust and estate classes, and then gone into estate law.

But I’m a nerd who likes law.

Lots of great jobs out there that don’t require a law degree.

Why do you feel you would need an education in wealth mgmt/T&E to handle a windfall? I had a great lawyer, CPA, and now, an RIA, handle estate matters.
My question only related to law school from a financial POV.

PP did not say that at all. You would not be a very good lawyer.

Ouch! He seemed to imply the knowledge would be useful, but it seems like overkill to me. I don't think I misread the post.

Previous poster here. I’m very ignorant about how to invest money. And I’m paying someone half percent of my net worth every year to invest it for me. It doesn’t seem like rocket science but I’m afraid to do it by myself but the fees are really annoying.

I agree that if you have a really good trust estate lawyer you feel like you can really trust then you don’t really need the education yourself.

Honestly, I don't love the fees either and am halfway tempted to throw everything in a 2-index fund portfolio and call it a day. But, I'm hoping that the returns, net of fees, will be worth it. Otherwise, after a few years of lackluster performance (compared to an index), I'll just use ETFs/index funds. I'm only 25% invested and want to give these folks a fair shot.

[Anonymous]

Congrats. If I were in your position, I'd go where the smart, beautiful, ambitious women are. Maybe that's law school, idk.

[Anonymous]

The issue tactics of law is a stupid way to earn a living.