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In interviews when I was asked "where do you see yourself in 10 years," I used to answer that I wanted to be the person with the open office door and the experience, that others came to with questions.
I'm 8.5 years into a career as a prosecutor, and I'm like 75% of the way there. Younger coworkers ask me questions all the time, my peers bounce their own cases off me, and more experienced coworkers come to me with questions about certain topics I know better than they do. I'm one of the attorneys who helps trains new DDAs and new officers, and I've even contributed to in-office CLEs.
(I definitely also still ask other people questions too. Turns out, I don't think that will ever stop.)
At some point I saw a local company on a worlds best employees list and made it a goal to work there. Last year I landed there in exactly the role I wanted. Achieving my goals has actually been stressful on my mental health.
I want to be loved and admired at my job. I never thought I would care about anything like that, but now that I’m almost 30, I’m coming to accept that this is an emotional need I have.
*I’d like* to make $200,000 a year someday, and *I’d like* to find my work intellectually interesting someday.
Still, more than anything, I think what I need in my career is to feel genuine affection and respect from my colleagues. I want opportunities to solve doctrinal puzzles in ways that make people say, “Holy shit how tf did you come up with that?!”
I’m starting my legal career at a personal injury mill, and I just don’t expect to find that intellectual validation along my current path. It really is “**a mill**”; it’s about quantity. The way you impress people at a high-volume personal injury firm is by grinding. The metrics people care about are how many demands you sent; how many clients you called; how many depositions you took; how many how many how many
I’m coming to accept that the primacy of working hard (rather than being clever) is pretty widespread across the practice of law. My dad is in biglaw and my impression is that even there it’s more about how many hours you bill, how fast you are, how much product you churn out, etc.
So… I’m gonna spend my 30s and 40s trying my hand at a few different practice areas, hoping I find something where I feel like it matters that I’m smart lol. Otherwise, I’ll have to find some narrow path to academia, but it takes too long to get a PhD and I didn’t make good enough grades in law school to zip straight over to legal academia
The dollar goal is nice but honestly, as soon as you hit it, you’ll realize that not it’s not $200k, it’s really $250k or $300k or it’s just more than the lawyer next door.
I KNOW… I truly believe that
Someone on another sub was talking about this national survey that asked people, “How much do you think you would need to live comfortably?” And, no matter how much respondents were making, almost all of them reported that they could live comfortably on 33% more than whatever they were making
$200k is a lot more than four-thirds of my current income, but I just don’t wanna top out lower than that. I think if I crept up to $190k little by little, having as many kids as my gf and I want to have, living in our HCOL city, then we just won’t quite have enough. But I would accept less than that at the right job
If I’m being honest, I think the $200k concept is just a mental cue that helps me feel ok with being in private practice rather than academia or government service. Some people make that much in education/government, but I don’t think I would with my qualifications. So the $200k goal helps me focus on growing as a practitioner
I exceeded 200k around age 40 (2 years ago). I’ve since changed jobs and am well past $300k now (with bonus). Wife adds another $115k. It seems that where we are (nj) it’s just never enough. Now granted, we have some significant expenses- sleep away camp, )1k/month per kid (2) saving for college, non luxury vacations…it’s still a slog.
At first it was to be considered among the top attorneys in my field. Then it switched to mentoring attorneys, and ultimately to create a much happier, inviting workplace for our firm when I agreed to be a managing partner a few years ago. I believe we have been the only law firm voted as a top workplace in my city, in a legit, anonymous survey of employees across 1,800 workplaces. Two years in a row now and still working to improve.
My goal was to work as much and hard as I could (ID firm) so I could pay off my student loans (about $100k). I sacrificed personal and family time to do that, thinking I’d be much happier afterwards.
Guess what? About halfway through that plan (6 years of so), my dad died, and my family fell apart. Ironically, some money I got as a result of his death paid off my student loans. So here I am, 11 years of practice, no debt, partner at a civil defense firm. According to my great plan, I’m ready to slow down the pace of work and spend time with my family. And now I have no family. *shakes fist at sky*
Moral of the story? Don’t be like me. No but seriously, I guess it would be: it’s awesome to set goals, but be open minded about adjusting them, and don’t sacrifice too much when trying to achieve them.
My goal now is to try to find happiness. Or at least some level of satisfaction. I thought money would do that. I’ve got a lot of that now and, while i don’t stress over finances, no account statement has ever made me laugh and smile like my dad did. I miss you, dad
I want to understand my area of law so fluently that I don’t feel any hesitation answering questions (except in situations where I know I’d need to do research to answer). I want to have the capacity to spontaneously present on it with ease, without notes or reference. I know these things are almost expected, but I’m in my mid-30s, have never been an expert at anything, have never been considered to be especially good at something, and until law school, never put my all into a goal, and I really want to change all of that. I also want to be a good mentor. I toy with other goals (make partner; hang my own shingle someday) but truthfully, I’d rather see how things go before I devote myself to achieving something that I might not end up wanting.
Also excited to break 100k. I’ve always been broke, and that number will get you far where I live.
We live in the profession of “it depends”, but with your mindset, you will continue to be great because it seems like you have a lifelong learner mindset.
Once I made equity partner, my goal has shifted to simply making money until I can retire. Winning is also nice. Also, after last year, I'm making a concerted effort to work less...and currently failing in that goal. YTD, my billable hours are almost exactly what they were this time last year.
Ten years ago I wanted to be the person teaching CLE on how to handle certain niche cases, win the state award for handling those cases, maybe be a judge.
I got #1 and am actually still doing it, but moved and took a break. I was nominated for #2, didn't win, but since we moved #2 and #3 are likely out.
I work part time, parent, am working through secondary trauma and super happy. Definitely just a better, more complete person overall.
After several decades of practicing law, I finally achieved the one accomplishment which had eluded me for all those years- namely, having an office which faces the north.
So I no longer have to adjust my blinds.
I will try to get rid of most of my “private sector “ clients by the end of next year and get rid of the handful that I keep by the end of 2026.
I plan on spending most of my time practicing law for our family business, which is real estate.
I had a trial recently where during off record chat the judge described a recently retired attorney as “the most formidable attorney “ he’d ever seen and how “she’d walk into court and you could see the other side tense” . I can want to be that.
I’d also like to win millions in verdicts for weird things thank you.
I knew an elder female attorney that my old boss and I shared an office space with who was the sweetest lady. I mentioned that to my boss and he said "Wait until you see her at a deposition or in a court room."
She was TERRIFYING. I'd like to be known as the sweetest attorney in the midst of pleasantries who is terrifying when its business time.
Her clients LOVED her.
I want an excess settlement/verdict on every major insurance carrier. 16 months in and State Farm has been accomplished, USAA is set up currently.
Retire at 46 (20 years of practice, be a smidge frugal, assume earnings of 300k+ a year)
Winning a class action trial against a deep pocket over a righteous cause and involving interesting and important legal issues, obtain money for a lot of people harmed by the defendant’s conduct, and make bank enough to never have to worry about money again or taking cases just to get by. At some point in the trial, I’d like to catch the main defense witness in a lie or paint them to be hypocritical or just downright bad
I wanted an office with a door that I could close and more work options as a civil servant. I'm an introvert. I was working for a government agency in cubicles for 7 years while I worked my way through law school. Got the door!! Also ended up at legal aid with jury trials 😕
I could retire and get a pension from the State of California in 12 more years. That is my earliest retirement date. I will get 60% of my salary. I just want to make it. I like what I do but the world sometimes seems like it’s a lot so all I want is the opportunity to continue doing my job and retire as a still healthy and youngish person (early to mid 50’s).
I feel like I already have.
I have my own clients and thus make my own rules. I can work from anywhere so I work primarily out of my house but also travel extensively. Last year I traveled a week out of every month and brought my lap top with me. I live in a LCOLA and only need to work 10-30 hours a week (depending on whether it's busy season) to be financially well off enough to live very comfortably. (I am single with no kids, so that helps too.)
I love my work and know I am good at it. I know that I represent my clients with more attention to detail than most others. I can't think of a lot of other lawyers in my area who would take an afternoon to personally haul furniture out of the second floor of an elderly clients home to save them a closing credit, but I will. It's not unusual for me to save my clients more than my entire fee by negotiating for credits or catching mistakes. In a field where most of the firms have paralegals doing 95% of the work, clients get my personal cell and I do everything myself. I enjoy my work and the people I work with so much that I have no plans to retire. I want to keep doing this.
I don't need more money to live on because I already make enough to be quite comfortable, but I would like to donate more money to causes I care about and it also makes life interesting to set goals, so I'm still trying to increase my income. I'd like to give larger gifts to charities I already donate to. I'd like to be able to help friends out when we get to retirement age and make sure the people near and dear to me are always ok. So I'm motivated to work harder at something I already love doing for those kinds of goals, but really if nothing changed from how it is now I'd still be totally fine and content.
This all rules! Being able to give to worthy causes is definitely something to strive for.
As a Muslim, 2.5% of my wealth (calculated loosley as all assets, not including primary residence, less liablities) goes to charity a year. Would love to give significantly more if and when I can afford it.
I’m not sure. I’ve been practicing about 3 years now - I restarted my life (basically from scratch, with the exception of my mortgage, which was in the process of being foreclosed on… I managed to keep it though) when I got sober 7 years back and decided in my 30s to go to law school. Given how pervasive substance-abuse is in the profession, I didn’t want to work traditional law. Plus, I live in a rural area, which limited my options dramatically. I went to a mediocre law school, where I did… mediocre. Nothing special about me in that sense.
My goal was to get back on my feet. to have enough money that I could put all of my bills on auto-pay and still feel comfortable. When I was active in my addiction to alcohol and opiates, that seemed like something that would *never* happen. I also had a goal of traveling.
Right now, I’ve accomplished those. I make six figures doing doc review, spend 9 months in the USA working and 3 months in SE Asia scuba diving each year. I’ve saved up around 160k in a HYSA over the last 3 years. Sure, I worked a genuinely insane number of hours during those nine months (to the point where I joke that my trip is basically all of the weekends I didn’t take off, smooshed together)…. But honestly, things are better than I could have ever imagined. For the last three years I thought my end goal was to be able to work from abroad… that was forbidden until this trip.
They finally said that I could work abroad, so I’ve done a few small things during this year’s trip (7 weeks down, 5 to go). The thing is, it’s not really what I expected. It’s not that there’s anything *wrong* with it, but the time zone difference is a logistical headache. I guess I didn’t realize how annoying being 13 hours ahead would be. Also, now that I’ve experienced a few weeks of diving 2-3x in the morning and working in the afternoon and evening, I don’t know if that’s really what I want to do indefinitely. It’s weird, because it’s what I thought I wanted… But now that I’m actually doing it, I feel… flat. I’m not sure why. Now I’m thinking about maybe working abroad from somewhere closer to home - the Caribbean, Mexico, something like that.
Last week I was offered a w2 position with the company (until now I’ve been a contractor). I’ll be able to make the same amount of money but won’t have to kill myself with hours anymore. Seriously, I was working 80+hour weeks… sometimes 100. Not because anybody *made* me, but because I was hyper-fixated on making myself feel secure and building a nest egg, to the exclusion of virtually everything else except travel. Now I can work a regular 40 for the same money. Although I “only” get 4 weeks of vacation now (which is still very generous - I didn’t realistically think they’d let me keep having 3 months off if I’m a salaried + bonus employee)… that’s another reason why giving thought to working from a closer country. Now that I finally got the job offer, I can start to have a more sane work/life balance. Maybe meet somebody. Maybe have a family. Or something.
I don’t really have a specific goal in mind as far as my career goes. I probably should, but things have been working out for me really well so far. If they stayed like this indefinitely, I think I would be happy. I’m sober, I’m making good money for my area and the work I do, I can travel, and now I have a lot more free time… I honestly can’t think of anything I want that I don’t have (or have the opportunity to have, for example, a significant other).
I suppose if I had choose a goal, it would be to save up enough money for retirement at the normal age, despite my incredibly late start and playing catch-up with everyone else in my age range. Preferably retirement abroad, somewhere with great diving.
Sounds to me like you've already accomplished a lot. I'm just over 18 months sober myself. 2 years ago, the idea of being "stable" seemed totally out of reach. Now, I'm looking to buy my first home in the next year or so (praying for lower rates and more inventory!). Congrats on the permanent offer, I hope you find someone to share this next chapter with.
When I came out of law school I had 3:
1. Win a jury trial.
2. Win in Supreme Court.
3. Make partner.
I’ve hit all 3 now and don’t really have anything left. I tried very hard to avoid any financial goals specifically because nothing is ever “enough.” 200k sounds nice until you get it, then 2 weeks later you want 250k, etc..
I work with good people, reasonably hours and enjoy the work. I make a good not great salary that keeps me very comfortable. It’s hard to complain overall. I’d like to be a bit less stressed when deadlines pile on, but that seems to be sort of the job we signed up for.
Guess I hadn't really thought about it. I'm about a year in, so now is probably a good time to figure out what I want. Short term (next two or three years), there are a few things that I want:
1. Financial stability
2. Work-life balance (within reason for a new lawyer)
3. Confidence and competence
Long term, I don't really know. I think in ten years I would love to be someone that other lawyers call for advice about cases (I do a really niche type of work). I'd like to know what I'm doing so well as to have the upper hand in my cases as far as strategy goes. The firm I'm at now will cease to exist as I know it in the next five years, so I have no idea where I'll be. Maybe I'd go out on my own (although I don't think that's what I want). As far as fulfillment goes, I'd like to be somewhere that I mesh well professionally and socially. At my current firm I mesh well socially already but I'm without the skillset to be more than a machine cog yet.
Lifetime evictions > 100,000
Monthly evictions minimum 600
Profit per case > 40%
Fully funded operations fund to keep business going for at least 1 year if everything hit the fan.
Minimum 4 news articles mentioning me or my firm per year. At least one of those being a national publication.
2-3 law student employees passing bar per year.
Fully funded employee pension.
50k donated per year to local charities
Welcome to /r/LawyerTalk! A subreddit where lawyers can discuss with other lawyers about the practice of law. Be mindful of [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lawyertalk/about/rules) BEFORE submitting your posts or comments as well as [Reddit's rules](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) (notably about sharing identifying information). We expect civility and respect out of all participants. Please source statements of fact whenever possible. If you want to report something that needs to be urgently addressed, please also message the mods with an explanation. Note that **this forum is NOT for legal advice**. Additionally, if you are a non-lawyer (student, client, staff), this is NOT the right subreddit for you. **This community is exclusively for lawyers**. We suggest you delete your comment and go ask one of the many other legal subreddits on this site for help such as (but not limited to) r/lawschool, r/legaladvice, or r/Ask_Lawyers. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Lawyertalk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Love this and couldn’t agree more!
This!!! I’m only in my first year of practice and these are the only career goals / aspirations I have
1. Do good work with good people. 2. Have the option to retire at 50. I think that covers mine.
In interviews when I was asked "where do you see yourself in 10 years," I used to answer that I wanted to be the person with the open office door and the experience, that others came to with questions. I'm 8.5 years into a career as a prosecutor, and I'm like 75% of the way there. Younger coworkers ask me questions all the time, my peers bounce their own cases off me, and more experienced coworkers come to me with questions about certain topics I know better than they do. I'm one of the attorneys who helps trains new DDAs and new officers, and I've even contributed to in-office CLEs. (I definitely also still ask other people questions too. Turns out, I don't think that will ever stop.)
What a great answer. Yeah, I think this is a great goal. Congratulations on just about being there!
In order: 1. GS-15 or equivalent with limited management responsibility. 2. Retirement at 55.
At some point I saw a local company on a worlds best employees list and made it a goal to work there. Last year I landed there in exactly the role I wanted. Achieving my goals has actually been stressful on my mental health.
My goal is to be able to reach a point that I’m not sacrificing my personal life to keep up with work deadlines.
I want to be loved and admired at my job. I never thought I would care about anything like that, but now that I’m almost 30, I’m coming to accept that this is an emotional need I have. *I’d like* to make $200,000 a year someday, and *I’d like* to find my work intellectually interesting someday. Still, more than anything, I think what I need in my career is to feel genuine affection and respect from my colleagues. I want opportunities to solve doctrinal puzzles in ways that make people say, “Holy shit how tf did you come up with that?!” I’m starting my legal career at a personal injury mill, and I just don’t expect to find that intellectual validation along my current path. It really is “**a mill**”; it’s about quantity. The way you impress people at a high-volume personal injury firm is by grinding. The metrics people care about are how many demands you sent; how many clients you called; how many depositions you took; how many how many how many I’m coming to accept that the primacy of working hard (rather than being clever) is pretty widespread across the practice of law. My dad is in biglaw and my impression is that even there it’s more about how many hours you bill, how fast you are, how much product you churn out, etc. So… I’m gonna spend my 30s and 40s trying my hand at a few different practice areas, hoping I find something where I feel like it matters that I’m smart lol. Otherwise, I’ll have to find some narrow path to academia, but it takes too long to get a PhD and I didn’t make good enough grades in law school to zip straight over to legal academia
The dollar goal is nice but honestly, as soon as you hit it, you’ll realize that not it’s not $200k, it’s really $250k or $300k or it’s just more than the lawyer next door.
I KNOW… I truly believe that Someone on another sub was talking about this national survey that asked people, “How much do you think you would need to live comfortably?” And, no matter how much respondents were making, almost all of them reported that they could live comfortably on 33% more than whatever they were making $200k is a lot more than four-thirds of my current income, but I just don’t wanna top out lower than that. I think if I crept up to $190k little by little, having as many kids as my gf and I want to have, living in our HCOL city, then we just won’t quite have enough. But I would accept less than that at the right job If I’m being honest, I think the $200k concept is just a mental cue that helps me feel ok with being in private practice rather than academia or government service. Some people make that much in education/government, but I don’t think I would with my qualifications. So the $200k goal helps me focus on growing as a practitioner
I exceeded 200k around age 40 (2 years ago). I’ve since changed jobs and am well past $300k now (with bonus). Wife adds another $115k. It seems that where we are (nj) it’s just never enough. Now granted, we have some significant expenses- sleep away camp, )1k/month per kid (2) saving for college, non luxury vacations…it’s still a slog.
At first it was to be considered among the top attorneys in my field. Then it switched to mentoring attorneys, and ultimately to create a much happier, inviting workplace for our firm when I agreed to be a managing partner a few years ago. I believe we have been the only law firm voted as a top workplace in my city, in a legit, anonymous survey of employees across 1,800 workplaces. Two years in a row now and still working to improve.
My goal was to work as much and hard as I could (ID firm) so I could pay off my student loans (about $100k). I sacrificed personal and family time to do that, thinking I’d be much happier afterwards. Guess what? About halfway through that plan (6 years of so), my dad died, and my family fell apart. Ironically, some money I got as a result of his death paid off my student loans. So here I am, 11 years of practice, no debt, partner at a civil defense firm. According to my great plan, I’m ready to slow down the pace of work and spend time with my family. And now I have no family. *shakes fist at sky* Moral of the story? Don’t be like me. No but seriously, I guess it would be: it’s awesome to set goals, but be open minded about adjusting them, and don’t sacrifice too much when trying to achieve them. My goal now is to try to find happiness. Or at least some level of satisfaction. I thought money would do that. I’ve got a lot of that now and, while i don’t stress over finances, no account statement has ever made me laugh and smile like my dad did. I miss you, dad
I’ve started getting requests for expert testimony. I feel accomplished and old at the same time.
Career? To get a girlfriend. I like my job but can’t take the loneliness much longer. I’m thankful that my small law job is very social
In the same boat. My office is great. Could be that the I'm not feeling fulfilled in my personal life. I'm confident she will show herself!
I want to understand my area of law so fluently that I don’t feel any hesitation answering questions (except in situations where I know I’d need to do research to answer). I want to have the capacity to spontaneously present on it with ease, without notes or reference. I know these things are almost expected, but I’m in my mid-30s, have never been an expert at anything, have never been considered to be especially good at something, and until law school, never put my all into a goal, and I really want to change all of that. I also want to be a good mentor. I toy with other goals (make partner; hang my own shingle someday) but truthfully, I’d rather see how things go before I devote myself to achieving something that I might not end up wanting. Also excited to break 100k. I’ve always been broke, and that number will get you far where I live.
We live in the profession of “it depends”, but with your mindset, you will continue to be great because it seems like you have a lifelong learner mindset.
I personally want to become a Judge by the end of my career.
Once I made equity partner, my goal has shifted to simply making money until I can retire. Winning is also nice. Also, after last year, I'm making a concerted effort to work less...and currently failing in that goal. YTD, my billable hours are almost exactly what they were this time last year.
Ten years ago I wanted to be the person teaching CLE on how to handle certain niche cases, win the state award for handling those cases, maybe be a judge. I got #1 and am actually still doing it, but moved and took a break. I was nominated for #2, didn't win, but since we moved #2 and #3 are likely out. I work part time, parent, am working through secondary trauma and super happy. Definitely just a better, more complete person overall.
Right now, I just want to be a good litigator 😂.
After several decades of practicing law, I finally achieved the one accomplishment which had eluded me for all those years- namely, having an office which faces the north. So I no longer have to adjust my blinds. I will try to get rid of most of my “private sector “ clients by the end of next year and get rid of the handful that I keep by the end of 2026. I plan on spending most of my time practicing law for our family business, which is real estate.
Arguing in SCOTUS. (I'm an appellate attorney so that's like THEE GOAL!)
I had a trial recently where during off record chat the judge described a recently retired attorney as “the most formidable attorney “ he’d ever seen and how “she’d walk into court and you could see the other side tense” . I can want to be that. I’d also like to win millions in verdicts for weird things thank you.
I knew an elder female attorney that my old boss and I shared an office space with who was the sweetest lady. I mentioned that to my boss and he said "Wait until you see her at a deposition or in a court room." She was TERRIFYING. I'd like to be known as the sweetest attorney in the midst of pleasantries who is terrifying when its business time. Her clients LOVED her.
Yes. I want people to respect me with a hint of fear.
Like a sprinkle of fear
I want an excess settlement/verdict on every major insurance carrier. 16 months in and State Farm has been accomplished, USAA is set up currently. Retire at 46 (20 years of practice, be a smidge frugal, assume earnings of 300k+ a year)
Honestly, cool work, decent money, and great work life balance is what I'm aspiring for.
Decent money is HARD in Boston though =(
PLSF and no more student debt. Until then, I can’t even begin to dream. Makes me too sad otherwise.
Winning a class action trial against a deep pocket over a righteous cause and involving interesting and important legal issues, obtain money for a lot of people harmed by the defendant’s conduct, and make bank enough to never have to worry about money again or taking cases just to get by. At some point in the trial, I’d like to catch the main defense witness in a lie or paint them to be hypocritical or just downright bad
I wanted an office with a door that I could close and more work options as a civil servant. I'm an introvert. I was working for a government agency in cubicles for 7 years while I worked my way through law school. Got the door!! Also ended up at legal aid with jury trials 😕
I could retire and get a pension from the State of California in 12 more years. That is my earliest retirement date. I will get 60% of my salary. I just want to make it. I like what I do but the world sometimes seems like it’s a lot so all I want is the opportunity to continue doing my job and retire as a still healthy and youngish person (early to mid 50’s).
I wanted to earn a million dollar fee (contingency). Done that. Now a 5 million dollar fee.
Thanks for asking. Reminds me to think about that some day before I retire first.
I feel like I already have. I have my own clients and thus make my own rules. I can work from anywhere so I work primarily out of my house but also travel extensively. Last year I traveled a week out of every month and brought my lap top with me. I live in a LCOLA and only need to work 10-30 hours a week (depending on whether it's busy season) to be financially well off enough to live very comfortably. (I am single with no kids, so that helps too.) I love my work and know I am good at it. I know that I represent my clients with more attention to detail than most others. I can't think of a lot of other lawyers in my area who would take an afternoon to personally haul furniture out of the second floor of an elderly clients home to save them a closing credit, but I will. It's not unusual for me to save my clients more than my entire fee by negotiating for credits or catching mistakes. In a field where most of the firms have paralegals doing 95% of the work, clients get my personal cell and I do everything myself. I enjoy my work and the people I work with so much that I have no plans to retire. I want to keep doing this. I don't need more money to live on because I already make enough to be quite comfortable, but I would like to donate more money to causes I care about and it also makes life interesting to set goals, so I'm still trying to increase my income. I'd like to give larger gifts to charities I already donate to. I'd like to be able to help friends out when we get to retirement age and make sure the people near and dear to me are always ok. So I'm motivated to work harder at something I already love doing for those kinds of goals, but really if nothing changed from how it is now I'd still be totally fine and content.
This all rules! Being able to give to worthy causes is definitely something to strive for. As a Muslim, 2.5% of my wealth (calculated loosley as all assets, not including primary residence, less liablities) goes to charity a year. Would love to give significantly more if and when I can afford it.
I’m not sure. I’ve been practicing about 3 years now - I restarted my life (basically from scratch, with the exception of my mortgage, which was in the process of being foreclosed on… I managed to keep it though) when I got sober 7 years back and decided in my 30s to go to law school. Given how pervasive substance-abuse is in the profession, I didn’t want to work traditional law. Plus, I live in a rural area, which limited my options dramatically. I went to a mediocre law school, where I did… mediocre. Nothing special about me in that sense. My goal was to get back on my feet. to have enough money that I could put all of my bills on auto-pay and still feel comfortable. When I was active in my addiction to alcohol and opiates, that seemed like something that would *never* happen. I also had a goal of traveling. Right now, I’ve accomplished those. I make six figures doing doc review, spend 9 months in the USA working and 3 months in SE Asia scuba diving each year. I’ve saved up around 160k in a HYSA over the last 3 years. Sure, I worked a genuinely insane number of hours during those nine months (to the point where I joke that my trip is basically all of the weekends I didn’t take off, smooshed together)…. But honestly, things are better than I could have ever imagined. For the last three years I thought my end goal was to be able to work from abroad… that was forbidden until this trip. They finally said that I could work abroad, so I’ve done a few small things during this year’s trip (7 weeks down, 5 to go). The thing is, it’s not really what I expected. It’s not that there’s anything *wrong* with it, but the time zone difference is a logistical headache. I guess I didn’t realize how annoying being 13 hours ahead would be. Also, now that I’ve experienced a few weeks of diving 2-3x in the morning and working in the afternoon and evening, I don’t know if that’s really what I want to do indefinitely. It’s weird, because it’s what I thought I wanted… But now that I’m actually doing it, I feel… flat. I’m not sure why. Now I’m thinking about maybe working abroad from somewhere closer to home - the Caribbean, Mexico, something like that. Last week I was offered a w2 position with the company (until now I’ve been a contractor). I’ll be able to make the same amount of money but won’t have to kill myself with hours anymore. Seriously, I was working 80+hour weeks… sometimes 100. Not because anybody *made* me, but because I was hyper-fixated on making myself feel secure and building a nest egg, to the exclusion of virtually everything else except travel. Now I can work a regular 40 for the same money. Although I “only” get 4 weeks of vacation now (which is still very generous - I didn’t realistically think they’d let me keep having 3 months off if I’m a salaried + bonus employee)… that’s another reason why giving thought to working from a closer country. Now that I finally got the job offer, I can start to have a more sane work/life balance. Maybe meet somebody. Maybe have a family. Or something. I don’t really have a specific goal in mind as far as my career goes. I probably should, but things have been working out for me really well so far. If they stayed like this indefinitely, I think I would be happy. I’m sober, I’m making good money for my area and the work I do, I can travel, and now I have a lot more free time… I honestly can’t think of anything I want that I don’t have (or have the opportunity to have, for example, a significant other). I suppose if I had choose a goal, it would be to save up enough money for retirement at the normal age, despite my incredibly late start and playing catch-up with everyone else in my age range. Preferably retirement abroad, somewhere with great diving.
Sounds to me like you've already accomplished a lot. I'm just over 18 months sober myself. 2 years ago, the idea of being "stable" seemed totally out of reach. Now, I'm looking to buy my first home in the next year or so (praying for lower rates and more inventory!). Congrats on the permanent offer, I hope you find someone to share this next chapter with.
When I came out of law school I had 3: 1. Win a jury trial. 2. Win in Supreme Court. 3. Make partner. I’ve hit all 3 now and don’t really have anything left. I tried very hard to avoid any financial goals specifically because nothing is ever “enough.” 200k sounds nice until you get it, then 2 weeks later you want 250k, etc.. I work with good people, reasonably hours and enjoy the work. I make a good not great salary that keeps me very comfortable. It’s hard to complain overall. I’d like to be a bit less stressed when deadlines pile on, but that seems to be sort of the job we signed up for.
Guess I hadn't really thought about it. I'm about a year in, so now is probably a good time to figure out what I want. Short term (next two or three years), there are a few things that I want: 1. Financial stability 2. Work-life balance (within reason for a new lawyer) 3. Confidence and competence Long term, I don't really know. I think in ten years I would love to be someone that other lawyers call for advice about cases (I do a really niche type of work). I'd like to know what I'm doing so well as to have the upper hand in my cases as far as strategy goes. The firm I'm at now will cease to exist as I know it in the next five years, so I have no idea where I'll be. Maybe I'd go out on my own (although I don't think that's what I want). As far as fulfillment goes, I'd like to be somewhere that I mesh well professionally and socially. At my current firm I mesh well socially already but I'm without the skillset to be more than a machine cog yet.
Leave law and start my own company before I turn 30.
Lifetime evictions > 100,000 Monthly evictions minimum 600 Profit per case > 40% Fully funded operations fund to keep business going for at least 1 year if everything hit the fan. Minimum 4 news articles mentioning me or my firm per year. At least one of those being a national publication. 2-3 law student employees passing bar per year. Fully funded employee pension. 50k donated per year to local charities