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Anyone have any info on Ausley McMullen?
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Happy to share the details if you DM me. Been here in Fla 20 years and can assist.
If your firm would allow you to go fully remote, you could continue working for your firm and practicing in that state. We have an attorney on our team who is fully remote and lives in Ohio, but only practices in florida court so she didn’t get a new job or take a new bar. Now that almost everything is remote since COVID, it’s pretty easy to do this since in person stuff is so infrequent, so she rarely ever has to be in Florida.
Oh I’m not a litigator (I just review contracts). I got a written ethics opinions from a state I want to move to and they said I could practice for my out of state firm and not have to be licensed in their state. It’s obviously situational.
No reciprocity so would need to take FL bar exam.
I should add the second biggest con can depend on your practice area: the FL legal market is primarily insurance defense and PI
I’m in non-estate planning tax and there’s very little I can do in Florida compared to other markets
Here's a con - depending on where you live and practice, you may find Florida lawyers to be extremely hostile and overly aggressive. South Florida in particular is renown for having some of the biggest assholes in law.
I have been in Florida for 30 years. As noted above, no reciprocity so you would need to take the Florida Bar Exam. The other issue I see with Florida is that so many people have moved here during/after the pandemic that real estate prices have really gone up …. but I don’t think lawyer compensation has gone up all that much.Finally, South Florida gets HOT during the summer. I would try not to go any further south than Orlando-Tampa. It’s not that much cooler but even a couple of degrees helps. I went to Gainesville (UF) for my Tax LL.M. and loved the cooler winters.
If you’re a litigator, this is a terrible state for exit opportunities that pay well, perhaps aside from whatever you land first, unless you are in real estate/construction litigation, immigration, insurance defense litigation, or plaintiff’s injury. Biglaw senior associate in Miami here; been trying to lateral to a litigation position in SFL that is none of what I just mentioned for about 2 years now (looked beyond to FL generally, and it’s not much better). The in-house, midlaw, and boutique opportunities that pay someone reasonably at my level (8-10 YOE, reasonable I would consider to be in the mid $200ks) and not in one of those areas of law (or would require me to spend some significant amount of my time in one of those areas of law) are very, very few. I think this would carry over to certain transactional practices as well; for example, niche groups doing capital markets/securities related work. Even niche healthcare related work has surprised me at how little there is here. Having lateraled from NY over 7 years ago, it’s a stark change from what I would have found there (or D.C., Chicago, etc.). Looking back, I would not have moved here unless I had some strong reason to (family ties, etc.).
I agree completely with Attorney 4 above. There are just not enough major corporate headquarters (yet) in Florida to create a market for relatively high paying jobs in the more “sophisticated” practice areas. I worked for a couple of years in the Atlanta area before moving back to Florida and am still amazed at the number of good in-house job opportunities there are in the Atlanta area - but Atlanta has also attracted quite a few major corporations for business operations in the past several decades.
Oh, I totally glossed over the no more than 2 years part. Absolutely, 100% do NOT go to Florida then. If you want to be closer to family, your best bet closest to Florida that is going to have portability is D.C., and possibly Atlanta. Don’t move to Florida, take a whole other bar exam, and potentially severely limit your exit options all for a 1-3 year time period.
Agree. This ain't the place to be temporary if you plan to be a lawyer.
Chief
Pros - great body of case law, big state bar, if you’re in a major city more than likely a good city or county bar
Con - lack of reciprocity
Stick to west coast. A much more gentile bar. The east coast is hyper aggressive.
Oh haha. That sounds about right, Miami has to be the worst of FL in this regard.
As a florida attorney looking to leave Florida, unless it’s absolutely necessary, don’t do it. Housing market is outrageous, now new law allows permit-less gun carry, and the list goes on and on
I’m looking at litigation practice areas to be close to my partner and his family for two years max. Does this advice still stand if I’m a more junior attorney? Also does anyone pay clerkship bonuses down there?
Yes, absolutely. Even if you got in with one of the NY,CHI, etc. biglaw firms with satellite offices here, it’s not easy to simply transfer out after a couple years (unless you were at Quinn). Clerkship bonuses at biglaw and certain midlaw/boutiques, same as anywhere else. But the short of it is, don’t move to Florida and become a Florida attorney unless you are prepared to stick around here for several years+ (obviously there are always exceptions to this, like for SCOTUS clerks, people who leave a prior firm on good terms and that firm would reasonably hire them back, excellent inside connections elsewhere, etc. but this is the general rule I would give). And you’re taking another bar, doing all the effort of becoming an attorney in another jurisdiction, and potentially burning a bridge by leaving in no more than 2 years.
I'm making this transition right now. I am moving from PA to FL. I'm planning on staying permanently in FL to be closer to family. I am in-house and will work remote for my same employer.