I just finished taking a practice MBE bar exam (well, the morning session), and I have a few minutes, so I figured that I would record my thoughts. B"H as things stand right now, if I took the bar exam today, (at least for the MBE portion of the exam), I would pass. This is quite a relief, especially since the substantive portion of the bar review hasn't even begun. So I'm in a good place right now. Now to learn state-specific law these next few weeks.
I was talking to my wife last night about areas of law I would like to focus in with regard to my practice, and I was telling her that I felt threatened that people are now trying to put me in touch with people who would possibly be willing to throw me a job. While that's all great, I'm not so excited to find someone here in NY who would give me a $50K/yr attorney job when I know in my heart of hearts that I could make at least that working my own practice with one hand tied behind my back. My wife says that there are priorities and that I have a responsibility to put food on the table and to support our family, and if I get an offer for $50K or $60K, I should jump on it because even though it wouldn't make us rich, we would get by.
I seem to completely differ, and I believe that once I'm licensed in this state, I can jump into getting started in a law practice and I can do whatever it takes to make this work. ...and even if I failed, there are likely going to be document review positions and projects that come and go over the year so I am relatively certain that we wouldn't starve. She just believes that security trumps being a visionary, and I feel that being a realist AND a visionary is the responsible way to provide long term for my family.
$50K doesn't sound so good when our rent is $1000/month, electricity and gas is ~$300/month, school loans hover around $450-600/month, and that's before we even consider taxes on that income (NY seems to be disgusting regarding income taxes), and the daily living expenses such as food, health insurance (~$550/month), diapers, formula, etc. I just can't see how we can even think of settling for this kind of lifestyle when there is something better just waiting for me to grasp for it.
3 comments:
"I felt threatened that people are now trying to put me in touch with people who would possibly be willing to throw me a job"
sorry, i just found that to be comical. just the idea that someone is out there throwing out jobs, you might be in touch with these people, and that this potential touching with job-throwers actually threatened you. thanks, that was a great laugh.
"I'm not so excited to find someone here in NY who would give me a $50K/yr attorney job when I know in my heart of hearts that I could make at least that working my own practice with one hand tied behind my back"
well, this may be true in your heart of hearts (where unicorns may also be flying amongst pink cotton candy clouds), but in the heart of New York, you will not: a) be thrown a $50k job as an attorney, or b) make even $12k in your own practice unless you have an established practice (meaning for over 5 years)
"I believe that once I'm licensed in this state, I can jump into getting started in a law practice and I can do whatever it takes to make this work. ...and even if I failed, there are likely going to be document review positions and projects that come and go over the year so I am relatively certain that we wouldn't starve."
sorry, but document review is completely saturated. you can believe what you want, but in fact, your strong belief system is highly suspect, and childish at best.
my advice? take a job someone is "throwing" at you making "only" $50k so you can start gaining experience as an attorney, which is the only way to be a good attorney. succeeding in your own practice fresh out of law school is impossible, especially in this economy.
Hey, thanks for the advice. I can't believe your $12K figure is correct, but I do get the jist of your point. In this economy, take what you can get, and I would.
If someone offered me that $50K job which I wrote that I was threatened by (and I am), I would take it against my heart's wishes.
Remember however, $50K doesn't get far in NY, especially for someone like me with dreadful student loan debt both for myself and my wife. It might not even pay the basic bills.
Follow your instincts. Things will work out.
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