As a threshold matter, all of this discussion above is awesome and is 100% welcome. I love discussing the practice whether it relates to me personally or not. If I can be used as a case study for other lawyers to examine, have at it. Keep it coming.
My first phone call today was from the judge's bailiff advising that my bench trial Wednesday was continued due to an F1 rape case proceeding to trial. My schedule is entirely open, thus allowing me almost 90 minutes to type away on a personal finance forum. This job maybe isn't so bad.
I'm responding to various posts, so quote whatever portion you'd like.
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I don't want to re-litigate my decision to leave my prior firm, but just wanted to engage Shawn's thoughtful posts and critiques. First, this move was not just about increasing take-home pay in the short term. I had some very frank discussions with a mentor at my firm. Assuming I made partner (big assumption), my five year window was set to look something like $52k, $55k, $70k, $80k, $90k.
But that $90k was close to my *long-term* ceiling. My mentor brought in some of the highest receipts in the firm for three years running, and he was making about $95k-$100k a year. The overhead was out of control at this firm: too much staff, too much office space, too much paying old partners. My mentor told me that, while the partnership formula was complicated, you could expect to take home about 40% of your receipts. Essentially, the partnership itself DRAMATICALLY affected your take home pay, and the partnership was entirely unable to address that in the 3-4 years I was there. Sorry, but I'm not interested in a law firm with a 60% overhead.
The inability to properly manage the practice's finances trickled to each individual's practice: the dynamics of the firm made it an environment where you lacked control. And that was my biggest concern: about 95% of my practice was becoming ERISA defense and workers' comp defense. I could handle doing workers' comp defense and not ERISA, or vice versa, but man, doing both, day in, day out, day in, day out...that's a tough way to make $50k a year. More importantly, practicing full time in these practice areas aren't really transferable, and I feared feeling naked if I needed to move on if I'd been cornered into these niches for too long.
Ultimately, this decision to move was about the path I saw myself *long-term,* both in terms of practice areas and income. My goal is to make a decent living with as much autonomy as possible over what I was doing. I was losing control of that, seemingly in an unstoppable fashion, so I left.
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I've worded the "taking clients" portion of my posts very poorly. I will leave here within the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct. Here's the relevant portion of the Ohio Advisory Opinion on the subject:
The Board advises that a departing attorney may notify clients of his or her departure from a law firm, identify his or her new location of practice, and indicate a willingness to provide legal services at the new location. A law firm may notify clients of the departure of a lawyer from the law firm and inform the clients of the law firm’s desire to provide continued representation of the client. The notification may be made to the clients in person or through an announcement card or letter. Such communication is permitted under DR 2-102(A)(1) and (2) and DR 2-103(A).
The departing lawyer and the law firm should handle the departure professionally and ethically. Both the departing lawyer and the law firm should be made aware of the planned departure before any announcement is made to the client. The announcement to the client of the departure may be communicated separately or jointly. The departing lawyer should not unfairly disparage the law firm to the client. The law firm should not unfairly disparage the departing lawyer to the client. The law firm should not withhold the departing lawyer’s whereabouts from the client. Client files should neither be “raided” by the departing lawyer nor “locked up” by the law firm for this can cause prejudice to the client. Client files should remain with the law firm if that is the client’s choice. However, if the client chooses the services of the departing attorney, the files should be handed over in a professional and timely manner per the client’s instructions. Respect for a client’s choice demonstrates to the client and to the public that the lawyer and law firm are truly practicing a profession.
Another advisory opinion indicates that one should only send a departure letter to clients with whom he or she has substantial contacts. And because my boss is never here, there's quite a bit of these. My standard for substantial contacts will likely be "Did I handle their entire case?" If so, those clients are on my "client log," and I will send a departure letter.
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RSM, sorry for the digression, but hopefully it's illustrative of how people who might hire you are thinking, and maybe give you some ideas for the future. I can say that at my firm we are always looking for motivated entrepreneurial associates and there's probably a firm like ours in your hood if you look hard enough. My worry for you from your practice description is that you are turning into a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. Down the road you can usually bill more if you have a specialized skill set (but that of course also means that you have a narrower list of potential clients than "everybody"). Some of the diversification is absolutely necessary as a smaller market lawyer... you aren't going to find a small town lawyer who only does M&A work, for instance. But cranking out consumer oriented work (basic divorces, basic wills, etc) is a volume/price kinda market, where what you can charge is to some degree going to be governed by what your lowest priced competitors are charging.
This is certainly valid, and early on in my career, I complained about being just that--a jack of all trades, master of none. But I've had 4-5 years to scale the landscape, and this consumer type of work is what's in demand in my area. My geographic area is what they call blighted, but people need wills, they get divorced, they get in car accidents, they get in civil disputes. Bottom line is that the market almost demands not having a niche practice where I'm from, and the most successful attorneys I know are consumer attorneys.
Also, I *love* the variety the consumer practice brings. I'm constantly seeking to learn. I'm in the public library every three weeks getting new books. I swing by the law library every time I'm at the courthouse to get a book on something that I know is coming up. I have a list of mentors in practice areas who I bounce questions off of on a regular basis. So this stuff is kind of a harmonization between what I believe the local market demands and what I enjoy doing.
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To wrap all this up, my ultimate goal in my career is to have autonomy over what I do. We're all on here presumably aiming to reach FIRE, but to me, the independence is by far the most appealing of everything. I'm not saying anything revolutionary here, but you don't need to reach FIRE asset numbers before acting independently.
I don't stuff money in retirement accounts and keep expenses low just to FIRE. I do it to give me present day leverage. My wife's income covers all our expenses (and more), and that fact alone gives me a ton of leverage to take risks and do what I think aligns most with my career goals.
This current job is one such decision. Maybe long term I would have made more by staying. Maybe not. But I want autonomy over my career, and despite my gripes about my current practice, I still think it's a step in the right direction towards forging my own path.
And forging my own path involves, as FIREby35 indicates, utilizing my contacts and skill set. I'm strong with interpersonal communication, diligence, organization, and putting out quality work product. The things I'm missing are clients and a nose for marketing, and hopefully I can learn that in my current job.
Moving on from here, if I can find a firm that will provide decent autonomy (rather than shove practice areas down my throat), then I may go there. If I can join another more reputable solo, I may do that. I may ultimately go out on my own if my receipts demonstrate that my practice is stable and profitable enough to do so.
But ultimately, I want to be in control of what I'm doing, and I'm attempting to plan my career trajectory on that principle more than anything else.