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I am a career changer who was in Engineering for many years and then did law school at night. I have been doing in-house patent preparation/prosecution for 4 years and there was a staff reduction. After looking for about 3 months, I have been offered a "staff attorney" position at a law firm for lower salary but also lower hours (1650 vs 1850 for associate). It was stated that the idea is to ramp up by starting at this level (having never been in a law firm environment) and it can be revisited. Other than getting that in writing, does anyone have advice for considering this?

I recognize that I am over 50 and not necessarily looking to get into the rat race and will not likely be making partner or anything like that but am I setting myself up for failure? Also, I don't know how the practice area (patent prep, etc) adds to the consideration.

The firm is AmLaw 200 (just below 110), it's based in the Midwest but I am on the East coast (job is remote). Happy to provide any other data that may be considered relevant.

What is the offer in terms of compensation ?

Do you consider this level of compensation to be equivalent to failure ?

Staff attorney roles are typically dead-end jobs for them to funnel rote work to and I wouldn't count on any promises of consideration for promotion. But I do know of staff attorneys who have managed to transition into associate roles by lateraling. Personally, I'd rather be an associate at a small firm than a staff attorney at a big one.