Thanks for the recent posts
@BradminOxt19 ,
@Malum Prohibitum , and
@FIREby35 .
Apparently I've built a reputation on here (in other threads) for "JADE" -- justify, argue, defend, explain. I'm not sure how you engage in a forum about personal decisions like this without doing this, but I'll try not to do that here while also trying to articulate my rationale.
To outsiders, mid-60s sounds like a nothing salary. But I'm in a LCOL rustbelt town. Some figures:
-My 1,100 square foot ranch with a finished basement cost $127,000.
-The average *household* income in my county is $42,000.
-I know for a fact that associates with 3+ years at the "big" firms in town (20ish attorneys) start at around $55,000.
Accepting a job at $68,000 effectively guarantees my wife and me a gross income of about $113,000 before I earn anything from my private practice -- PLUS amazing benefits. It's really, really hard to turn down. Especially with a 10-month old son. And especially when my wife is begging me to take this job so she has more security.
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I haven't shared my struggles with my practice on here, because I don't want to complain. But as it's grown, it's been a lot. The work has felt suffocating at times. Especially the administrative work. A lot of that will go away when I scale it down. My mileage log will be 1/20th of what it was. For local hearing coverage, no more downloading hearing packets, reviewing files, driving there, and filling out hearing reports. For appointment cases, no more administrative work and fee slips. Also, no more small matters, which are more work than I bill for.
I tried to hire someone else, but that fell through twice. Then I tried to have my wife help out, and I just don't like taking her away from my son.
My gross receipts were $117k this year. I could probably do better with case selection and the like, but trust me -- I hustled to earn this much. An extremely successful lawyer who I used to office with says that the ceiling, most years, is around $200-225k. He knows maybe 3-4 lawyers who do better. There's just not that much work to go around. And trust me -- this guy works like a dog. We're talking 70-80 hour weeks. I don't want to be like him.
I view this as a cleansing of sorts. I can turn it back on if I want, but the goal is to just do $200/hour work moving forward. If that increases to the point the city job is not worth it, GREAT.
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The interesting thing here is that my local city is small enough that departments do not have HR departments. The police, fire, parks and rec, sanitation, city counsel, mayor's office, health department, prosecutor's office, etc., do not have HR departments. The Law Department *is* the HR department. So a lot of experience that goes well beyond the city can apply to my practice.
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At this point I've talked about this with my wife, my dad (also a lawyer), my best two clients, my best referral source, and about five other attorneys. Their advice was unanimous to take the job and see what happens. Most people in the know seem to think extremely good experience and connections can be made at the law office.
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I went for my second meeting today. I confirmed in no uncertain terms that I can keep my practice going. I stayed until 4:02 and, sure as shit, not even a mouse was in the office past 4:00, including the other attorneys.
I drove to my office and finished my most important project for the day, and was home by 5:35. Not bad.
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I have to meet the mayor tomorrow, but it seems to be a formality at this point. I'm going to give it a shot. Maybe it will be a bad decision, but my experience in working for that "psycho" lawyer, as another poster described it, taught me one thing -- the worst case scenario is never as bad as you think. I think this is especially true now that I have my practice to fall back on.
I really, truly appreciate everyone's advice and comments. I've weighed it all heavily on several long walks over the last few days, especially those who think this is a bad decision. Honestly, this thread is one of the only reasons I haven't just deleted my account on this forum. I appreciate all of your advice.