In-House Counsel

The Road Less Taken: I’m Not In it For You, Princess. I’m In It for the Money.

Earning a salary that isn't making you happy? You may already have the tools that will help you make up the difference.

By Celeste Harrison Forst on December 30, 2014 12:00 pm

Last week, I wrote a touchy-feely article about using the holidays as an opportunity to find the intangible gifts in one’s job. It was kindly pointed out to me that most people prefer money as a “gift” from one’s job. I’m not surprising anyone when I state that most lawyers (heck, most people even) don’t receive as much money in exchange for their labors as they think they deserve. I’m sure there are lawyers out there who feel appropriately compensated for their efforts and are content with their career trajectory. There has to be at least two lawyers out in the world who feel that way.

I wish I were one of those two lawyers. I wish I had that job. I wish I were a person whose greed could be satiated with more money; but my employer has budgets to adhere to and there will always be people who make more than I do for me to envy. Resentful and envious is a horrible way to exist. After the effort lawyers put into their education and training, we should want more for ourselves than just existing. We deserve to thrive, not just survive.

There are pockets of the legal industry that have recovered well enough to resemble something like the heady days of the late 90s/early 00s, but for most of the legal industry, those days are over. The monetary “gifts” we receive from our employer are called our salary and bonus. We quickly become accustomed to our salary, plus with expected raises and bonuses. Money as compensation is a pit that is always at least a little underfilled. There has to be something more than money to make up the difference.  A wise princess of Alderaan once said, “If money is all that you love, then that’s what you’ll receive.” As Han Solo ultimately learns, even the mercenary captain of the Millennium Falcon can love something (or someone) more than money.

There are a finite numbers of ways an employee can extract more money from his employer. We lawyers, as employees, have varying degrees of control over our compensation, depending on our position and employer, but not full control. What we do have control over is how we filter and interpret what we do receive. The intangible “gifts” that I wrote about finding last week are within my control, and enable me to make up the difference between what I am paid and what I feel I deserve.

Money is great. I absolutely agree that more money is better than less money. However, jobs and, ultimately, careers are rarely that simple. For most of us, the legal industry cannot now be as generous as it once was with compensation. There has to be something more than just money to justify the long hours, the tedium, the stress, and the strain that come with practicing law. I can quantify my own “something more” because when I take the time to identify the intangible gifts, this “something more” makes up the difference between my monetary compensation and what I wish I earned.

Princess Leia accurately summarized the issue when she said: “If money is all that you love, then that’s what you’ll receive.” Even though the amount of money the Alliance could offer was probably more than Han Solo thought he craved, it wasn’t enough to make him happy. For us, we don’t have an inter-galactic treasury to fund our reward, much less a rebel princess to offer it to us. We earn a salary that may not be enough to make us happy. If that’s your situation, and if you want “something more,” you need only realize that you have the tools to help you find a way to make up the difference.

Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].