By Joel Chouinard, ChFC®
June 23th, 2025
Are you a Big Law attorney staring down another 80-hour week, dreaming of a life beyond billable hours? My wife, Courtney, was right there with you—until she wasn’t.
The thoughts of leaving Big Law started creeping in at the beginning of her 6th year at the firm, right around the time we had our second child. At the time, we were wondering, “How are we going to make this work?” Over the next couple of years, we came to the realization that it simply wasn’t going to work for us.
As a financial planner, I put pen to paper (figuratively speaking, as it’s more keyboard to spreadsheet in my case) and started building a plan for her transition. It wasn’t until Courtney saw that we would be okay financially that she finally decided to pull the trigger. To be honest, I’m not sure if she would have ever left had we not been more financially secure.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the exact three financial steps that gave her the confidence to leave Big Law on her own terms. And the best part? It’s more achievable than you think.
Step 1: We Educated Ourselves on the New In-House Opportunity
When you're comparing Big Law vs in-house counsel salary, it’s easy to focus solely on base compensation. But it’s only part of the picture.
When Courtney started talking to in-house recruiters, we didn’t stop at the surface. We dug deeper:
- Bonus history: What is the company’s history of paying its bonus? If a company advertises a $50,000 bonus but only pays out 50% on average, you’d likely only get $25,000.
- Equity compensation: If RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) are on the table, you need to evaluate the company’s historical stock performance. This could become a significant wealth-building opportunity.
- Benefits: Does the company provide a 401(k) match? Does it contribute to your HSA on your behalf? Are health insurance premiums heavily subsidized? All of this can add up to tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Once we had the full picture, we determined the true net salary (after taxes and deductions) using a tax calculator. This helped us compare her current law firm paycheck with what she’d actually be bringing home in-house.
Step 2: We Got Clear on Our Spending
I’ll be honest—I'm not a big fan of budgeting. But this was one of those times where it really mattered.
We needed to answer two big questions:
- Could we cover our necessities on an in-house salary without completely altering our lifestyle?
- Could we still save 20% of that income?
We downloaded a budgeting app (such as Monarch Money or YNAB) and reviewed our spending. Here’s what we did:
- Sorted through and cleaned up any miscategorized transactions in the app for the past three months. There is no need to go beyond three months, as it provides a good enough estimate of your monthly spending.
- Calculated our average monthly spending by category (total spend for that category in the three months/3).
- Created our budget based on our average monthly spending. Note, there is no need to be perfect here. If it’s 80% accurate, that’s good enough. The table below (or your budgeting app) should give you a high-level overview.
Here's a link to download the budget spreadsheet.
This exercise helped us identify areas where we could cut back on spending. For us, it was premium coffee, grocery delivery, and unused subscriptions—stuff that didn’t really add to our quality of life. Small cuts, sure, but they added up.
Here's a link to a previous blog I wrote on how to create a budget.
Step 3: We Built a Transition Fund
When Courtney was in Big Law, we had a nice cushion of money left over every month. We didn’t really have to think twice when big expenses came up. Once she went in-house, that cushion disappeared. But life still happened. Our kids didn’t get any less sick, house repairs didn’t suddenly disappear, and we still wanted to enjoy ourselves and travel to see our families.
So, where was this money going to come from? For us, it was through a transition fund—a separate pot of money we used for non-monthly, non-routine expenses. Anytime something came up, we reimbursed ourselves from this fund. It gave us the peace of mind that we wouldn’t have to completely alter our lifestyle or risk racking up credit card debt.
So, how much should you set aside? Well, that depends:
- Do you have kids?
- Do you travel a lot?
- How flexible is your lifestyle?
Depending on the answer to those questions, your transition fund may need to be bigger or smaller. For us, we aimed to have roughly a year’s worth of non-monthly expenses.
If you’re planning to leave Big Law, a great way to fund this account is with your last Big Law bonus. Then, each time you get a bonus from your in-house job, replenish the fund.
Final Thoughts
Courtney’s story proves that leaving Big Law doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your financial future—or your identity as a high achiever. It’s about making intentional decisions with your money so that your career can support your life, not the other way around. If you're feeling burned out, underwhelmed by the work, or simply ready for a new chapter, just know this: a more balanced and fulfilling life is possible. You don’t have to white-knuckle your way through another year just to see if it gets better.
Need Help Making a Plan?
If you’re considering a similar move but don’t want to make this big decision alone, I’d be happy to help. Schedule a free introductory call today.
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