How To Say Goodbye To Your Biglaw Salary
How much money would you be willing to give up to have some work-life balance?
Now is not a terrible time to think about leaving Biglaw. Legal technology is allowing corporate legal departments and small to midsize firms to take on more work, and there are new products that are making it easier to become a solo lawyer (more on that soon). Legal technology is growing and more lawyers will be able to find jobs with these companies (if you want to know more about legal tech openings, you should check out Evolve Law’s new job board). More lawyers are realizing that they, too, can start their own companies: Jake Heller, founder of Casetext, was an associate at Ropes & Gray, and Noah Waisberg, founder of Kira Systems, worked at Weil. One of my favorite bloggers, Will Ha, is leading the charge on why lawyers should quit law and code.
But for many lawyers, the biggest obstacle to leaving — and it’s very real — is saying goodbye to their Biglaw salary. For some lawyers, law school debt makes this nearly impossible. Full transparency: had my parents not set aside money for my law school tuition, I would never have been able to leave Biglaw to start ReplyAll. For lawyers like me, leaving behind a Biglaw salary is a question of comfort, not an inability to pay back your debts. If you are one of those lawyers, I want to tell you how I made the decision to leave.
It’s all about the mindset.
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You might not love the work you do as a lawyer, but imagine for a moment that you were fully able to control your hours. You could come and go as you please and have complete control of how much work you did and when you did it. This would allow you to hit the gym whenever you want, get as much sleep as you need, take vacations at your discretion, and see your family more regularly.
How much would you pay for that flexibility?
When I was a junior associate, I realized that I would pay back $100K of my salary to have the ability to control my own hours, and I would still make that deal again today. Every time I go to my kids’ soccer games, I realize that I’m paying money to attend, and I am 100 percent cool with that arrangement. As soon as I had the ability to pay myself a salary that was at least $60K, it was entirely worth it for me to start my own company. To be clear, I work more hours now than I ever did at my law firm. I work every single night, weekend, and vacation (and I am entirely grateful to Schulte Roth & Zabel for teaching me that work ethic). But, for me, both the flexibility and the ability to control my hours was something I valued more than $100K — and something I simply could not have at SRZ. That’s not their fault, it’s just how it is.
Now, is this the most novel advice? No. But you would be shocked how many people I speak to who cannot frame their decision in these terms. So, whether you’re looking for independence, better work-life balance, more interesting legal work, or an opportunity to be part of a growing startup, try to attach an actual monetary value to your decision.
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Are you thinking about saying goodbye to your Biglaw salary? Email me, Tweet to me, or leave a comment below.
Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at [email protected].
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