Beyond Biglaw: Money Management for Lawyers Episode 2

One of my goals in working with my clients on their financial journey is to create a path in which they can more easily choose joy. Whether it's changing jobs, expanding a family, buying a house, or even relocating internationally, I help lawyers navigate significant life changes with financial confidence.

In this second episode of the Beyond Biglaw podcast, I dive more deeply into my own story and why I wanted to go to law school, why I chose Columbia, and the big life shift that led me to Biglaw.

I also talk about the next big shift that pushed me to leave my firm and what I did when I decided I no longer wanted to practice law – and would choose joy instead.

We go over the 5 Money Mistakes I see lawyers make, cuz I made them myself, and we talk about the transition work I do with my clients.

So what’s the first step I take when working with someone thinking of a transition?

You may be surprised to hear it’s not about the numbers : )

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The first step to figuring out your next move is knowing where you’re trying to end up.?

Now, you don’t have to have specific answers for everything, but you do need to spend some time envisioning what you want out of your career, your family, and your life, so we can strategize accordingly.

Many of my clients just know they want out of Biglaw (or law generally.) And that’s ok, we can start there.

But what are you looking for instead?

Do you want to do something more fulfilling (that perhaps comes with a pay cut)?

Do you want to work in a different, yet still lucrative, industry?

Do you want to take a sabbatical abroad?

Do you want more time at home with family?

Do you want to be able to travel for extended periods of time?

Do you want to live somewhere other than where you’re living now?

And, just as important as what you’d like is what you’re not willing to give up, your non-negotiables.

Do you want to own a home (or homes) one day?

Do you want to have children, or more children?

Do you want to pay for college for those children?

Do you want to support your parents through their retirement?

Do you want to live close to family and friends?

Do you want to take a luxurious vacation every year?

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These types of big life questions are exactly what I discuss with my clients when we first meet.

This information is vital to putting together the right kinds of strategies that will honor your priorities and optimize what you have going on.

There’s a million different ways you can plot out your next moves, but the goal is to aim for strategies that will get you closer to the things that are most important to you, and focus less on the things you don’t care that much about anyway.

It’s also important to get the dreaming part of your brain engaged.

Changing anything about how you handle your finances is hard.

You’ve probably been doing things a certain way for a long time and introducing new systems is always a challenge.

But if you can see where those systems will take you -- what you’ll get to enjoy in return -- then you’re much more likely to make it work.

This is some of the most powerful work you have to do.

You have to allow yourself to dream so you can do things you’ve never done before.

Take it from one of my clients (whose story you’ll hear in this episode) who came to me dead set on leaving the firm he had created…preferably for a less stressful law professorship or other position.

You’ll hear what he decided after we looked at the numbers AND weighed what was truly important to him.

It’s not a typical Biglaw exit story, that’s for sure!

SEE the episode on YouTube

LISTEN on your favorite podcast player

Special thanks to The Legal Podcast Network for producing Beyond Biglaw and all the other great legal content they're putting out there. You can check out other Legal Podcast Network episodes everywhere you listen.

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Jessica Medina is a former lawyer turned Accredited Financial Counselor on a mission to help attorneys create the financial freedom they need to do big things. She graduated from Columbia Law School in 2004 as a single mom of twins with over $200,000 in student loans and went straight to work at a Biglaw firm. After eight years she switched roles and became Senior Counsel at the Division of Enforcement at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.?

She left the government to work in an area of the financial industry outside of the securities world and now teaches other lawyers how to use their money to finance their dream lives.

She’s also the host of the monthly podcast Beyond Biglaw: Money Management for Lawyers.

If you enjoyed this article, make sure to join the community of lawyers looking for better personal finance advice at https://www.jessicamedinallc.com/email