Hello everyone. I’m 9 years out of law school.
I currently work remotely in a HCOL (CA). I don’t have billables and get 10 days of vacation/ sick days a year. My base salary is $130,000/year. Total comp was $165k last year, including bonuses. Low stress (generally) and work anywhere between 35-40 hours a week. 10 days of vacation. When I began, it was a Non-lit role but that has been changing recently and now I have more lit cases than I have had in the past 2 years. It doesn’t feel like I’m making any more money. The fee structures here recently changed, and it is not clear I will be making as much this year. My boss is great here.
I recently received two offers.
Offer 1) $200,000/ year litigation role. 1850 billable hours. fully remote. 13 vacation days and 9 sick days. Have to make up the hours. Heavy litigation practice and I will occasionally have to drive down to the courthouse about 1-1.5 hour away, depending on traffic. I’m not particularly interested in the area of the law. They also said insurance will probably cut about 10% of our billables so I’ll probably have to bill closer to 2035. I’ll get a pay bump 6 months in.
Offer 2) $185,000/ year litigation role. 1980 billable requirement. Fully remote. This place claims they do not cut hours at all, so I’m thinking I’ll probably work about the same as Offer 1. Area of law I would probably enjoy. 10 vacation days. have to make up the hours.
I’ve been agonizing over this for a couple of days now. is it even worth it to move ?
EDIT: I know I’ll be working more, so is the base pay bump worth it ?