re: Lawyers in: Practice what you really enjoy or what makes you money?

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To the lawyers of the OT board. Do you practice what you really enjoy or do you practice what makes you the big money? If you were single, no debt, minimal bills and expenses, what would you do?

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I worked at a regional firm in Memphis after graduating from law school and tax school doing M&A, corporate tax and corporate compliance, and a little estate planning for several years. I absolutely hated it, I could really feel my shoulders drop and become defeated every day I got on the elevator to go to my office, and every day I left I felt like I was getting out of jail. It eventually got to where I wasn't enjoying things outside of work because of how miserable I was at work. I left and took a job doing accounting/controller work which was a pay cut for me initially, but I got good experience and moved on to a job where I make more than I did at a law firm and get to go home at 4:45 every day. Just me personally, but my gf at the time (now wife and mother of my 2 little boys) never would have married me if I hadn't gotten the eff out, I was really becoming that miserable to be around. A lot of words to say, do what makes you happy or the money won't matter

I basically retired 3 years ago at 49 not because I didn't like the work but because I had built up a solid passive income stream from the firm and I just wanted to be able to have the time to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I still consult and try maybe 4 cases a year but I can always say no.

Over my career, I built up a litigation arm for a multi-state tort firm. It allowed me to try as many cases as I wanted which is why I became a lawyer in the first place. After a few years, I was able to concentrate on larger (6 figure +) tort cases mainly med mal, legal mal, products liability and the occasional auto accident that included significant injuries usually with extensive surgery and 100K+ in medical bills.

I simply love trying cases, the rollercoaster ride followed by the verdict is like a drug. I have always been an adventure/extreme sports person and trials are a similar rush.

I knew/know a lot of attorneys that are miserable, most of the ones I graduated law school with went Big Law and they are just now in the early 50s getting to the point they can breathe.

First, you have to decide if the law is the right profession (hopefully avocation) then find the niche that makes you excited when the alarm goes off in the morning. Money isn't that helpful when 2 days into a 2-week vacation you are already dreading going back to work. Build your life around what you can make and still enjoy or at least not hate your work.

I have carved out a varied general small firm practice (RE transactions, ep/probate, PI, general litigation) that can test my anxiety at times, but overall I enjoy it. I actually enjoy running the firm and the small town marketing that we do. I know that sounds a little hokey but I enjoy going to service clubs, networking clubs, public meetings where I serve as counsel for the public body, playing charity scrambles and going to different galas for non profits that are charitable in nature. My academics were not great coming out of school so I didn't have many choices. I was telling someone today I'm not sure if I would go through law school again but if I did I wouldn't change anything about my career to this point.

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Not behind a laptop sending request for medical records or building demand packages.

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That is secretary/paralegal work, the only attorneys that will do that are solo practitioners with zero support staff. The grind in PI work is the phone time talking to adjusters and clients. The voice mails multiply like rabbits on extasy.

I practice bankruptcy for the most part. It is not the most exciting area of law to me but I don't hate it and chose it for other reasons. It is 95% done on a computer. I may have to visit a courtroom twice a month but usually once. This works for me because I invest in real estate and other ventures which require my time as well. In addition, a well trained staff person can do ~75% of the work without me in the office.

The negative side to that is each case is nearly identical and it becomes very routine.

I will say that getting a practice up and running in this area can take a lot of time. The positive to that, is it acts as a barrier to entry for competitors. If you aren't filing a lot of cases then you are wasting your time. For that reason, I get a lot of referrals from social security lawyers, criminal, etc and new lawyers fresh out of school don't typically try to compete.

Edited to add that I am a solo practitioner in a smaller market. If it were a larger market I'm not sure I could have even got my business off the ground against larger competition.

I left private practice to work in private wealth. Doing what I love without having to bill hours. Not going to win the lottery, but I also don’t have to put up a billboard to make a good living.

I think the problem is most of the jobs that you might enjoy don't pay much, unless you find something decent in-house (and people kill for those jobs).

I make good money, probably have it better than most people in private practice and am still basically a miserable alcoholic.

I know everybody says insurance defense sucks, but they just merged an insurance defense unit into our firm a year ago and these dudes seem to bill 200 hours easy per month working 9-4. I think it's all form work. They don't make a ton because their rates are really low, but these kids seem happy.

But, for the most part, I know maybe one guy whose legal job I envy -- it's a buddy in patent law. I think the litigation side of that gets ugly, but he just grinds out patent applications and has a great lifestyle.

Took an intellectual property course as an elective in law school and looking at a patent application made me want to jump off a bridge.

Have you figured out a way to invest your pretax monies into your real estate ventures? I'm trying to figure that out now