Thinking about leaving biglaw to join a small PI firm. Would love to get trial experience. Pay cut is substantial. 225 to 115. Has anyone made this switch? Curious on thoughts.

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I’m assuming you’re a first year if your current big law pay is 225K. I wouldn’t make the move. Ask your big law if you can join the litigation group at your firm or ask to work with partners in the litigation group. There are alternatives than accepting a small firm that pays substantially less.

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Look into more elite plaintiffs side shops. That salary is really low and with big law experience you should be able to get an offer at a firm with a higher salary.

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I'm curious what firms you're talking about. I'm about to make this switch myself so have researched extensively and AFAIK the standard compensation at "elite" PI firms is about 100k base plus a small and discretionary bonus (potentially up to 100k but often 30k or less). Unless you mean, e.g., Keller Postman or another plaintiff-side mass tort firm, but those firms are not going to offer much more courtroom experience than biglaw.

Is this public interest or personal injury? And what is the main reason for the move?

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I’m about to got from amlaw 200 (165k) to ID (125k). Very excited. I worked in ID before and it just works better for me. I also have chances for raises and bonuses built into my offer and future years it’s discretionary. Anything 6 figures is still great and you should do what will make you happy. However, you could probably find a mid sized firm doing litigation that pays closer to 140 or 150, depending on your location.

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The money is in the bonus structure not the base

Amlaw 100 firm. 3rd year associate. The 115 is base with 1/3 of anything the firm makes of the cases I bring. Mainly making the switch for better work life balance.

Uhhhhh maybe you’re not going to a busy firm, but every plaintiff attorney opposite us on trials is literally killing themselves, so moving into this role, for less pay, for better work life balance does not resonate with me at all. And trial work in general is not better work life balance.

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