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I worked 264 hours in July. Just got my first paycheck (which they give monthly on the 1st), and my check was $2,889.16.

Small corporate law office in NY. I feel like giving up on law as a career.

I’m confused. What were you expecting? Did you not know your salary before getting your paycheck?

Worked or billed?

I sympathize, because this clearly isn't what you hoped for post law school, but as others have mentioned when you took on a $50k/year position, presumably you anticipated a pay check in this region? This is in the region of the median household income for NYC.

If your salary is actually much greater than $50k, I suggest you double check the deductions.

Are you admitted yet? If not, will your salary increase after you are? I've heard of some smaller firms doing that.

Your goal now should be to get meaningful experience so you can move up and out quickly. Good luck.

Agree with the above. You should try and get the best experience you can and network while you're doing so. After a couple years you could jump over to a larger shop like Schulte Roth Zabel or similar.

I know what you mean, so I'm not going to act stupid. You could have dropped out of high school, gotten a GED, and got hired as a mailman and made that same salary working 8 hour days with far less stress...

But, you have a ton of upward mobility with your law license, and where you are now definitely isn't where you will be five years from now. I have plenty of friends who graduated with shit law jobs, and even no job at all, who are now all in six figure salaries. Just get the experience, pay your expenses, and keep your eyes open for better opportunities. It will get better, and the sky is the limit.

I'm somebody who jumped from jobs that had lower salaries than yours now, and everything turned out quite fine

Anonymous User wrote:I worked 264 hours in July. Just got my first paycheck (which they give monthly on the 1st), and my check was $2,889.16.

Small corporate law office in NY. I feel like giving up on law as a career.

Unsolicited, but I recommend the bolded.

Law is a soul-sucking, colorless, boring profession filled with daily conflict and miserable people.

Some people enjoy that kind of environment (not sure who), but the vast majority don't. Not sure why people voluntarily elect to stay in a bleak, pressure-filled position where everyone around you is stressed all the time. Hell, even if you're making a big law salary, all you're doing is making money so that you can go and keep on doing what you hate.

Life is too short to spend the majority of your time doing something that's not worth it, and I don't necessarily mean in the monetary sense. There are plenty of jobs that pay a livable wage where you could be outdoors, have normal hours, do something internally fulfilling, etc. Just because you've started down a career path doesn't mean you have to stay on that path forever.