People who left big law, how did you mentally justify the pay cut?! I need strength 🙏🏻

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I saved a lot of money first.

likesmart

It also depends on your home situation. If you have kids it’s certainly a different calculus in terms of how much you may want to make sure you have in the bank, but so long as you can make the finances work (which you should be able to, it’s not like in house law positions pay minimum wage) it can be a simple determination that the time you get back is more valuable than the compensation you give up.

Never let myself live beyond making $200K/yr (I started when it was $160K/yr). Paid off student loans. Put down a down payment on a reasonable mortgage. Then left!

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Yeah, took care of extended family so was bound for some time to suffer the hours for them. If I only had myself to worry about would’ve paid things off much sooner than 10 years and left, but overall I had a great experience over those 10 years and some very slow years from 2015-2017 helped.

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Having self-respect and knowing that 80 hours per week on end was not an acceptable or healthy life choice.

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Getting my time back was worth the money I lost.

likesmart

I paid off student loans, bought a house with a good down payment, invested a couple hundred thousand dollars, made sure I had a nest egg for expenses/emergencies and just made the jump.

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In big law for 5 years, also did 1.5 years before that at a smaller firm.

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