Best practice area for work/life balance Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know there's tax. And it depends on firm and the market... but other than tax, what practice areas seem to offer the best work life balance down the road? I think this is something I should be thinking about now rather than later, and I thought a message board might elicit more honest replies than the recruitment process!

[paratactical]

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[BeautifulSW]

If work life balance is really, really important to you, more important than making six figures out of the box (or maybe ever), look into doing administrative law for a state or local government entity. Unless you join the local Public Defender, you will work essentially forty hours a week and have weekends and holidays off. Even the PD won't work you much harder than that.

But starting salaries run as low as the mid-$40s so be aware that a decent family life comes at a price.

[Anonymous User]

What about if we change the question to "better"... corporate versus litigation even? Or within there? are there other specialized groups like tax that are worth considering?

[270910]

Not NYC would help. Speaking of which, NYC deal oriented tax is likely as brutal as other practices.

Trusts and estates is a tiny but likely very life styly choice.

In general large law firms are not life style choices. The key is you become a highly paid service provider, and a lot of the value that you and your firm add comes from being available at the drop of a hat.

[vanwinkle]

Not NYC would help.

Well, fuck.

[paratactical]

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[wiseowl]

Patent prosecution somewhere other than NY

[Zugzwang]

Patent prosecution somewhere other than NY

x99

[edcrane]

Employee benefits is probably better than tax with respect to quality of life. This is especially true if you can get away from deal-related EB work.