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Okay, it's my 44th birthday, I've had a "liquid lunch" and I'm feeling introspective, so here goes:

0L, starting in the fall. Want to go IP, but I'm conflicted about biglaw. Won't have any debt to service, and frankly, the hours/lifestyle don't sound like things that would appeal to me. But, with a limited number of earning years left in me, I feel obligated to "get while the getting's good" if I can, and the IP exit options from biglaw sound better than what I could hope for right out of school.

So right now, my plan is to try for Dallas biglaw if I can get it, and then stick with it for as long as I can keep/stand the job before transitioning to something hopefully more humane. Is this TCR, even without debt? If it matters, I'l have about $50k/year coming in from another source as well.

The problem with not doing biglaw is, wtf else is there

DELG wrote:The problem with not doing biglaw is, wtf else is there

Yeah, that's pretty much the "long pole in the tent". If you told me I could graduate and walk into something making ~$110k, that would be great, but just LOL.

ScottRiqui wrote:

DELG wrote:The problem with not doing biglaw is, wtf else is there

Yeah, that's pretty much the "long pole in the tent". If you told me I could graduate and walk into something making ~$110k, that would be great, but just LOL.

You can, because in Dallas that's what a lot of the big firms pay.

And I'd be very cautious about assuming big firms will be willing to hire a 47 year old first year. Many won't even consider it. This is obviously age discrimination, but it's not exactly irrational:

frankly, the hours/lifestyle don't sound like things that would appeal to me

Paul Campos wrote:

ScottRiqui wrote:

DELG wrote:The problem with not doing biglaw is, wtf else is there

Yeah, that's pretty much the "long pole in the tent". If you told me I could graduate and walk into something making ~$110k, that would be great, but just LOL.

You can, because in Dallas that's what a lot of the big firms pay.

And I'd be very cautious about assuming big firms will be willing to hire a 47 year old first year. Many won't even consider it.

All the olds I know ended up in biglaw

Paul Campos wrote:

ScottRiqui wrote:

DELG wrote:The problem with not doing biglaw is, wtf else is there

Yeah, that's pretty much the "long pole in the tent". If you told me I could graduate and walk into something making ~$110k, that would be great, but just LOL.

You can, because in Dallas that's what a lot of the big firms pay.

And I'd be very cautious about assuming big firms will be willing to hire a 47 year old first year. Many won't even consider it.

I've thought about that, but there's nothing I do about my age at this point - I just have to hope that my past degrees and (hopefully) future law school performance, along with the interviews, will land me something. The average tenure for junior associates seems pretty short anyway; hopefully they won't care if I'm coming in at 47 and probably leaving at 50 vice coming in at 25 and leaving at 28.

If you are patent bar eligible, which it sounds like you are, there are several IP-only firms in Dallas that pay well (over $100K) and don't have the Biglaw lifestyle demands. A few of them come to SMU's OCI (I think that's where you decided on?). Even if they don't, you can pretty easily find them.

Dallas is also a weird legal market in general, in terms of pay. It's not quite the harsh "$160K or under $50K" that a lot of places are, there is a lot of in between.

kalvano wrote:If you are patent bar eligible, which it sounds like you are, there are several IP-only firms in Dallas that pay well (over $100K) and don't have the Biglaw lifestyle demands. A few of them come to SMU's OCI (I think that's where you decided on?). Even if they don't, you can pretty easily find them.

Dallas is also a weird legal market in general, in terms of pay. It's not quite the harsh "$160K or under $50K" that a lot of places are, there is a lot of in between.

Thanks, I'll try to find out more about them. I actually ended up accepting at UT, but I'm sure there's a lot of crossover between SMU and UT as far as firms coming to OCI. I'll be trying for some interviews via the Loyola PLIP as well.

ScottRiqui wrote:

kalvano wrote:If you are patent bar eligible, which it sounds like you are, there are several IP-only firms in Dallas that pay well (over $100K) and don't have the Biglaw lifestyle demands. A few of them come to SMU's OCI (I think that's where you decided on?). Even if they don't, you can pretty easily find them.

Dallas is also a weird legal market in general, in terms of pay. It's not quite the harsh "$160K or under $50K" that a lot of places are, there is a lot of in between.

Thanks, I'll try to find out more about them. I actually ended up accepting at UT, but I'm sure there's a lot of crossover between SMU and UT as far as firms coming to OCI. I'll be trying for some interviews via the Loyola PLIP as well.

You'll probably have a few more options from UT, then. Some firms off the top of my head are Carstens & Cahoon, Klemchuk Kubasta, Shore Chan DePumpo, and Buether Joe & Carpenter. Not all will be high-paying or great firms, but those I remember from SMU recruiting. I'm sure there are several more that I don't know about, with EDTX and NDTX both having a lot of IP-related filings.