What do you think about my job/pay? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just wondering if anyone can comment on my job/pay.

-Role: non-practicing attorney role in a foreign country I do basically communications and translations for international clients
- Pay: 80K
-Cost of Adjustment pay: 90-95K or even more ( income tax rates are low, etc) as I save 50K a year. No loans. No expectation of significant pay raise (2% raise a year)
- Discretionary bonus: none to 2K
-9-6, no billable requirement, W&L is fantastic

I got an offer from a firm located in the USA. 75K with no billable requirement. 9-6 job.

Would you basically start as a first year asso after a couple of years?

[trebekismyhero]

Do you want to be a practicing attorney and live in the U.S.? If yes, take the offer. If you don't care, stay where you are

[Yugihoe]

So you're making 80K + an additional 90k or do you mean after adjusting for taxes etc., you're effective gross income is 95k instead of 80k? If the former, that's a fantastic deal for a 9-6 and I would probably just live it up in this foreign country because being an attorney is overrated anyway. If the latter scenario, if you value living in the US and practicing, the 15 or 20k difference should not really be a deciding factor.

[nixy]

Also, small firms can operate pretty much how they like so “first year associate” might not have much meaning, but if you haven’t been practicing law at all, yes, you’d probably be a first year.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Most of us are trying to stop practicing law

[shock259]

I would just caution that many firms say they are 9-6, have no billable requirement, etc. But many people end up having to work more than that. Not saying that is necessarily the case here, but I would factor it into your decision that there's a chance you'd be working much harder at the new firm.

[dabigchina]

like everyone else says, it really depends on how you feel about being in a foreign country.

a comfortable living with great work life balance is something that I would personally kill for, though. I wouldn't trade that for anything, much for a legal job and a pay cut, but reasonable people can disagree.

[notinbiglaw]

Your job sounds pretty mobile honestly. If you could develop (inflate even) some particularly technical aspects of your job (like the docs you’re translating are legal in nature) I bet there are “consulting” gigs available that can assign you to different countries for 5-24 months periods and live on company dime.