Currently working at a large civil defense firm but have the opportunity to move to a small two person firm and take over for an attorney becoming a judge. The partners were honest with me and informed me that the firm is having money problems this year- the remaining partner said he may not take a salary next year to ensure I (and our paralegal) are paid. I am a bit worried to leave my financially stable position but also think it’s a great opportunity, thoughts?

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I wouldn't leave a secure position for an insure one. Money in smaller firms can be short.

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Don’t do it unless you can bring money in immediately.

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I could have misread. I read "they have consistently brought in . . ." as referring to the "around 80 cases." If its referring to the attorneys, sure.

As far as overhead goes, if the shop is bringing in $300K per attorney, you are probably right, then 50% can go to overhead. But if its $600-900K per attorney, then 50% is wildly excessive.

I'm in a pretty expensive town, we have one assistant per attorney, and we are in IP, which is admin and overhead heavy, and we are around 30%. I've spoken to a few other local firms recently about pay structure, and its been pretty similar.

If your read of the situation is right, and each attorney is billing $300K, you are likely right.

Can you afford to have a substantial amount of financial uncertainty and the possibility of being out of work if things go bad? If the answer is anything other than an unqualified yes, then now is not the time.

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Thanks everyone for your advice- but decided to do it anyways 🤷‍♀️ I hate my job/ civil defense and this would be transferring almost entirely to criminal defense with some civil work on the side. Which is what I did before moving to a bigger firm, and I loved every minute of it. I live in a pretty rural/ not expensive state, and what they have offered me for a salary is still plenty to live on.

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Money aside, the work would become your life, are you ready for that? I know I’m not, but you might be.

Don't do it. It sounds like a good opportunity to learn but a financially unstable firm is not a good move right now.

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