Advice Forum

[Anonymous User]

TLDR: Debating staying at firm vs. law professor gig.

Hi all,

I'm a senior associate at a boutique firm in my city's version of Clement & Murphy (mostly appellate stuff and lobbying type stuff for our city - think like Louisville). I'm up for partner in 3 years or so. I currently make 150k or so and have a 1500 hour billable req. and a soft req of 1200. It's certainly not a bad gig at all and I enjoy it. Most of our partners make between 200-400 depending on the year. I've always fancied myself becoming a judge or at the end of my career becoming a law professor - but this is much sooner than I had expected and I expected to build a bit of a nest egg prior to seeing this and candidly, those were really just pipe dreams. I went to the local law school (think like U of L or U of Tulsa etc) the other day to talk with them about adjuncting and they offered me a tenured track position. Pay's 90k, but they aren't opposed to *some outside work. It seems most of the tenure track, non special chair folks make around 120-140k. And the life style seems awesome. I'm not sure what publication expectations are yet. The one caveat is I'd like my spouse to stop working in the next year or two and I think it'll be tough on that salary (it'll be hard enough on an associate's salary). The firm has some politics that I'm not great at playing and I'm a bit afraid of when my feeder partner retires (he's looking at 3-5 year off ramp). There's always a chance I don't make partner or I don't get tenured.

Finances: My partner makes about 125k or so. We've got about 600k in savings excluding retirement. Our expenses for our family run about 8k. It might grow because we are thinking of having another kid, but I don't think it'll ever go over 9k a month.

Personal Background: T1 Southern school (think W&M or W&L), biglaw, AUSA, boutique firm back home. Have some publications but didn't clerk or anything, so again, really surprised about this offer without other tangibles.

Appreciate the help thinking this one out. Obviously, it'll come down to a personal choice, but just trying to think this out better.

[CanadianWolf]

Simple math: Current combined earnings are about $275,000 and you want your significant other to stop working while you take a position at $90,000 per year. That is a reduction from $23,000 a month to $7,500 per month household income. This is a different version of a pipe dream.

Even if your significant other stays employed, the monthly income drops to $18,000.

My impression is that you are asking the wrong folks as this is a family matter.

Can you discuss salary with the law school ?

[Anonymous User]

This is the OP. I did discuss with the law school and they raised it to 125k. I decided to take it. The pipe dream of partner staying home will just have to wait, unfortunately. We do live beneath our means but it's nice to be socking away $ for a rainy day.

Appreciate you taking the time to read this.

[CanadianWolf]

Congratulations !!!

Great start.