I’m a 8-year government attorney specializing in administrative enforcement on environmental crimes. For background, I’ve conducted over 250 administrative hearings and 18 solo civil trials. I’ve handled well over 1,500 cases.
Opposing counsel on a large case I handled last year recently made me an offered to join her team at a BigLaw firm in LA. The money offer is almost triple my current salary and the additional monetary benefits seem amazing. However, reading these threads - and word of mouth - has given me a lot of concern. I currently work remote three days a week, start around 10am and I’m done by 3 every day unless I’m in trial. My salary is 245k plus good retirement, 401k, heath insurance and good holiday and vacation accruals. I’m my own boss (yes I have management bosses, but no one touches my cases or tells me what to do) I run my cases how I want; I enjoy that ethical freedom.
I also love my free time and family and will not give up time with them for work. I’ve made this clear and it seems to be understood.
My question for you all: how should I analyze this? What do I not know, that I should know? There a seems to be a lot of unknowns in BigLaw and I’m fairly ignorant to what I should be considering besides the jaw dropping money. What would you do?