Hi all -- was just curious if anyone has any thoughts on staying at one office work-wise, but moving out of the state where that office is situated altogether? My office is in NYC but my firm has offices in Boston close to where I grew up.
I know firms are going to try to bring us back some days/week, but every month that I send $3000-3500 off in living costs just to be in NYC for an uncertain return date is really killing me since I'm so deep in student debt. I'm happy to wait for my lease to run out in NYC so we can maybe get some more certainty, but definitely want to get out of the CT-NJ-NYS tax and living cost vacuum before 2023. There's a 5% flat income tax in Massachusetts and I know that MA lets you deduct the % (or part of the %) you pay in NY as a telecommuter from their income taxes (but that could be wrong feel free to correct me). Plus, costs of living are also like 30% lower. For $3,000 in NYC I share an apartment with a roommate (the whole apartment is $6,000 and that was considered a deal during the covid era), but I could rent like 1300 square feet of prime Boston real estate (not that I want to pay that much, just a comparison for scale) for around $3000 total. Also, just personally, I prefer the MA state government to the NY state government (tired of walking around Brooklyn and just seeing loose trash everywhere on the street after trash day, etc. for like 10-15% in income tax).
Has anyone had any luck with moving states but staying on as an associate out of the office that you have your bar admission in? Do you have to tell your firm that you're moving for tax or other reasons? Can you just...move and see how long it takes them to notice? Has anyone tried it? I'm a pretty recent lateral to this firm and really like my job but just...like I said, can't stomach the costs for the uncertainty of return to office since we may be some combination of RTO and WFH for the next few years anyway due to covid/flu seasons. Happy to take the train in some days/week to meet the hybrid work expectations if they're ever clarified as well, but don't even see that being necessary since the team I work with mostly works out of the FL office anyway.
Thanks! hope you're all doing well & staying safe out there.
Moving Out of State from Big Law Office? Forum
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