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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Options:

1. Start volunteering at legal aid pro bono to get some lawyering experience under supervision. They have training programs specific to the advice you will be giving.  Here is a link to training if you are in DC: https://www.dcbar.org/pro-bono/resources-and-training

2. HR certification: Get an entry level job in HR, do it for one year and then start the process to become certified. Once you do that you can move up the ranks in HR and your law degree will be of value. https://www.shrm.org/certification/about/Pages/Not-Sure-Where-To-Begin.aspx

3. Start attending every and any training sessions available at your bar association. This is about training and networking.

4. Invest in your next step: get a masters degree in legal studies in a compliance area that interests you. Health care  is an excellent and extremely marketable choice, and you can do it on line: https://www.online.drexel.edu/online-degrees/law-degrees/cert-hc-comp/index.aspx

Take control and take action. Also consider seeing your doctor for depression.[/quote]

Good thoughts.

OP, I worked in e-discovery when I first moved to DC (over a decade ago). I was pregnant at the time and wasn't getting hired elsewhere (surprise!), though I had 1-2 years prior experience in my field. E-discovery was easy and flexible and paid well given the language bump. However, the flexibility allowed me to simultaneously open a sole proprietorship that admittedly made peanuts initially. I kept e-discovery as a steady paycheck until the side gig started to gain traction. Though e-discovery I did meet folks, passed my name around in my niche area, and made 1 really good connection (of the dozens of feelers that I put out). I finally opted to quit e-discovery to be hired as a FREAKING asst/paralegal in my field of choice because the small firm needed someone virtual and was willing to train. I worked with them doing the grunt work but more importantly getting valuable experience and learning the ropes so that I would feel more comfortably going out on my own. That ended after about a year because as the gods would have it, my managing atty wanted to leave that field and do something new. She passed off one of her corp clients to me for my budding practice after we negotiated a reasonable fee between us. Since I'd simultaneously been working on my own business it was enough to get me moving. That was about 10 years ago and I now do well enough to support my solo practice. I don't make a ton by DCUM standards but I bring home between 300-350k. That is really all that I need, though I do hope to keep growing.

I share this because, honestly, if you humble yourself and start at zero you can build up. You also have to really want to make it work badly enough. I know that lots of people will say that it may not be financially feasible for all, and they are 100% correct. I do offer the story, however, because I did drudge it out in e-discovery for a few years and backtracked to a paralegal position. I cried about that for a year but it was a great classroom for me. This may be helpful to OP to push her to something new. [/quote]
[/quote]

I'm not trying to attack you, just making an observation.  300-350 K is a lot of money.  For a solo, it is an enormous sum of money.  You are to be congratulated because obviously you have a skillset that people will pay for.  However, someone who says 300-350 "is all you really need" is living in a different world than the rest of us.  I know it is DC and I know some people make far more, but its a delusional to downplay that kind of money.  That's a significant sum of money and unless you're paying 80K a year for your kids to go to private school, you should be able to live a very full and robust life on a lot less than 350K a year.  [/quote]

I made that comment to deflect the biglaw attys who, in the past, have told me that amount is "unlivable" and less than their bonus (because I have heard that from people before). I know that there are many of that type in DC. Among lawyers, the pay scale is massively skewed, and I understand that. I mean, I used to work in doc review. I make the point above only to highlight to OP that there are other options if you're willing to work in the trenches for a bit. WE are attorneys. We can work for ourselves if all else fails. My first year as a solo, I made $15K. The following year was $35K. And year three was $55K. Every year after that increased slightly. I have now been solo for 10+ years so I wanted to highlight that this has been a gradual work in progress whereby I had to go hunt for business annually to get the business pipeline running.

And yes, I'm very happy with where I"m at now and do not discount that - particularly since I know what it's like to function with income of $15K. Point taken. But I always try to emphasize to attorneys that we absolutely can be self sufficient by nature of our trade.  [/quote] how can a single person live on 15k a year? That’s onky possibly if you have someone supporting you. Not everyone has that [/quote]

If you read the original post, I stated that I had to supplement with doc review projects for additional income while I worked up the business. So the doc review had to be the steady pay check while I concurrently opened up a business because I could not have supported myself otherwise. But yes, I was married at the time. But no, he was not a high earner. [/quote] doc review gigs forbid you from doing any other work. So you must have done this outside of business hours but even that violates their rules. I guess they don’t enforce it [/quote]

I never had any regs presented to me about solo work. Again, this was 10 years ago so things may have changed but there were a good handful of solo attorneys on project so it was not uncommon. No, I did not do work concurrently for another position during doc review. I would answer work emails after or before. Plus, doc review gigs that I had would sometimes last 1 week or 2 weeks. I'd have gaps in between. And then I'd sign up for another project when I had the time and needed the work. Doc review is very flexible. You can be creative with it. [/quote]

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