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There is a lot to weigh in making this decision. I started my own firm last year and found 1099 work to be a great bridge to transition.
Pay is about as dependent on the resources available to the firm as it is your experience. I had a solo pay me $25/hr and a 30 attorney firm pay be $40/hr. A mentor of mine runs a small firm with 3 other attorneys and told me she pays an very experienced 1099 attorney $100/hr. As a 1099 attorney you will most likely be paid less, but you have to consider that against what you gain from the arrangement. Freedom to choose your workload. The ability to start building your own business. For me, I wasn't going to go broke or lose my house at $40/hr so I saw it as an opportunity to stay sharp and maybe pilfer some form templates while I did the early start-up work that brings in no revenue.
Also, I spoke with multiple contract attorneys who told me to be careful with the "of counsel" label. I was told that if the IRS sees your face on a firms website, it's almost guaranteed you'll be considered an employee regardless of the 1099 status. Being out-of-state may help, but the "of counsel" label loses some value to you when you aren't marketing yourself in that state anymore. You could, and probably should, do 1099 work as a "ghost writer" with no client contact.
There is nothing wrong with being an Of Counsel employee if that is how you want to structure your practice. But if that is the case, you probably aren't considering starting you own firm, as was mentioned by the OP.
For someone who wants to establish their own firm and do 1099 work, I'd say the taxes aren't the primary issue. As an employee, you and the firm you work for impute conflicts on each other regarding the clients you represent. So if you are a 1099 IC, but can reasonable be presumed to be an employee of the firm, you should be running you own clients through the firm's conflict check to avoid ethics issues. As a solo attorney with private clients and multiple 1099 contracts, I surely do not want to run my clients through each firms conflict system and I am sure they don't want the burden either.
If I know anything about EE vs. IC is it basically comes down to control. If the firm has your picture on their website, they are marketing you as an option for their clients. This suggests quite a bit of control over you and the matters you handle. So if you are a 1099 Of Counsel being paid at an hourly rate likely less than you'd be paid as a salaried employee, but the firm has the power to manage your book, then you might as well just be an employee and get paid for the work you do. And as for the benefit of not having the pay self-employment taxes if the IRS decides you aren't an IC; that may be nice for you but I can't imagine the firm being happy with the unexpected tax bill they would be stuck with.
So, to your point, there are times when being an Of Counsel employee is a good idea. My comment was directed at the context of the OP in which there is a goal of starting a solo practice and doing 1099 work as a supplement.
1099 means you are on the hook for both employee and employer side of the taxes. I wouldn’t work remotely as a 1099 contractor for another firm for less than 1/4 of what it was billed out for.
If OP is starting his own firm, he will have to pay both sides of taxes either way. Might as well take some easy income until he is able to build his practice.
What was your salary and how does it translate to an hourly rate? How consistent will the work be, and conversely, how flexible? Making a consistent livable wage that would offer you the flexibility of stepping back as your own practice grows would be the dream come true for the situation you're describing. Remote document review attorney work can go for as low as $25 an hour. Depending on the type of work you're doing, and the billable hours that they're going to make off of you, the right rate for doing contract work will depend. Don't forget to factor in that says you're moving from another state, while still doing work in the previous date, that you may have a higher premium on any insurance coverage that you need to get for your firm.
I think it’s a great gig for you while you build your brand for your own firm but make sure it doesn’t keep you so busy where you aren’t able to also focus on developing your firm. I don’t know what would be a fair amount per hour since I’m not sure what area of law you’d be practicing but I’d take no less than 1/3 of the bill.
Also! My firm is a larger firm and a regional managing partner explained to me when I once asked the difference of the titles, “of counsel” is a fancy way to get to charge a higher rate per hour than you would an “associate” but not as much as a “partner.” I don’t know if that’s standard, but I’d keep that in mind when the firm is valuing your rate and you your cut.
1099 is the IRS tax form you receive as an independent contractor. Instead of W2 as an employee. In some states working as an attorney cannot be as an independent contractor. There must be supervision for ethical reasons.