I’m working at an insurance defense firm, trying to target my practice to L&E. I’m overworked and underpaid, but gaining valuable experience I hope to pivot toward an eventual in-house counsel position. I recently was offered an opportunity to lateral to a national firm for a significant pay increase (150% salary increase, much better benefits, hybrid WFH options). Problem-I would be shifting gears to Toxic Tort. I’m torn between my passion and the money. I’m a second year associate. WWYD?

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Posting as :
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Stick to L&E and not go to an area that will take you away from that

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You need to grind it out for another year. In my experience, employment defense firms with a national presence (I spent the last decade working for two of them) wait until the 3 or 4 year mark to hire laterals because they would much rather you get trained on someone else’s dime and reap the benefits of your current firm’s efforts. You will also have recruiters beating down the door to place you at that time and should be in good shape to see a marked improvement in salary without sacrificing your long term goal. Unfortunately, you are going to be underpaid In the interim. I was too. I made $60k/yr. my first year as as associate at a firm that requires 2100 hours per year and only gave you credit for hours passed through. You should focus on mastering the nuances of employment defense, for example, how to maximize realization, limit write-offs, the differences in carrier billing practices, and the words you can and cannot use when you enter time. I actually got my first big law job by putting these figures as well as the revenue I generated on my resume. If it don’t make dollars then it don’t make sense!

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This is really great advice, thank you.

Agreed re: above. The market is hot right now for L&E though so you may have some luck trying to lateral now. You could also consider a lateral move to an insurance defense L&E practice like Lewis Brisbois or Gordon & Rees as an intermediate step.

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