Biglaw Burnout

BiglawLawyer
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 22:37:08 +0000

Because the cost of law school and living has not scaled comparably with salaries since you were in your 30s. Maybe 500k was a slight underestimate, but I doubt more recent law grads will have 1mm in savings by their late 30s if they live in a high COL area.

Most of my family and s/o’s family made their living and money by opening their own businesses. They worked a lot, but not lawyer hours, and on average made a shitload more money. Most of them retired with more investment income than lawyers make on average per year. Most of it wasn’t just sitting in an office doing paper work either. Their jobs were more interesting. And did I mention, they made a shitload more money on average. It’s riskier, but pretty much everyone in our families at least earned a reasonable living as business owners. Some of these family members are a lot richer than biglaw partners, too, as in they could be clients at a biglaw firm’s trust and estates practice. There are other ways to make a living aside from working for a large company or working for a firm. Maybe even start a solo practice. The mindset of “you can only work for others” is also partly what gets people stuck in a rut imo.