Biglaw Burnout

How much of a cut in pay are you willing to take? Have you considered being a hearing officer? Applying for state, county and federal jobs? Working in a bank as in house counsel? An insurance company as in house counsel? Yes, it can be tough and can require a significant cut in pay but it might allow you to get a better work/life balance. Some of the government jobs really pay a fraction of what you get now–we have many in our state paying 5 figures. Will that work for you?

I am an attorney have have seen a LOT of attorneys burn out. Some do switch to government or one of these other types of jobs where a law background is helpful but not required. I am running a nonprofit I started but it doesn’t pay unless you go and scramble regularly for grants and funding. It’s OK that we don’t make much as it costs very little to keep our organization going, but a lot of nonprofit jobs have very low pay (some do offer some forgiveness of educational loans as a benefit).