Emily Hayes she knew what she was signing up for when she became a lawyer.
Long working hours, difficult clients and billing pressure are synonymous with business. Still, for Hayes, the intellectual challenge and opportunity to help people made those sacrifices worthwhile.
What she didn’t foresee was how soon combustion or how much her work will overshadow other parts of her life.
Hayes, 32, graduated from Stanford Law School in 2019. She spent the next two years working at a large international law firm in Redwood Shores, California, followed by a position as a federal district court clerk in Portland, Oregon.
In October 2021, she joined O’Melveny & Myers, a large law firm in Los Angeles, as an associate.
After years of moving between jobs and cities, Hayes was optimistic about this new chapter in her career.
Her colleagues supported her, the tasks were interesting, and the pay was generous. By the time she turned 30, Hayes was making over $300,000 a year.
Yet beneath the surface, the grind was taking its toll.
Her “breaking point” came in April 2023. Hayes found herself working overtime on a Saturday morning to prepare for arbitration, just hours after leaving the office at 11pm the night before. She was preparing for the big trial, but her stress and exhaustion had been building up for months.
That morning, as she stared at her computer screen, she broke down. She recalls, “I started sobbing” because someone close to her was going through a difficult time, and she felt sorry for being in the office instead of supporting them at home.
“It felt like I had to choose between showing up for my job the way I was expected to and showing up for the people I loved the way I wanted to,” she says. CNBC Make It. – I panicked because of the tension between the two of them.
Hayes adds: “Working in a law firm can make your life so unpredictable. You can never count on having an evening off or checking out before 10pm. I think you really have to love the work you do to make it work – without your time feeling worth it .”
At that moment, Hayes made a silent promise to herself — that she would find a new job within a year.
Transition from law to technique
That spring, Hayes began turning to former colleagues and colleagues for advice. Through these conversations, she learned about a growing career within the legal sector: product consulting.
Product consultant roles, particularly popular in Silicon Valley, involve working in-house at technology companies to provide legal and regulatory guidance for products and services.
Unlike traditional law firm roles, product counsel positions often blend legal expertise with business strategy. “You’re a little less involved in the law and a lot more involved in business strategy, which I’ve always been very interested in,” explains Hayes.
In October, a Stanford colleague mentioned that a tech company she worked for in San Francisco was hiring product consultants.
The job came with two trade-offs: Hayes would have to move to San Francisco, and the base salary was about $220,000 in addition to an annual bonus, starting in her first year, up to 15% of her total salary, depending on her performance and other company indicators.
That represented a significant cut in her law firm’s salary — about $150,000 less than her current earnings of $370,000 (comprised of a $295,000 base salary and a $75,000 bonus) and $200,000 less than the $435,000 she would make next year as the fifth year to be associated with an increase in salaries and bonuses.
However, the role promised a more balanced lifestyle: a consistent 40-hour work week, the flexibility to work from home two days a week, and the opportunity to consult on cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
After careful consideration, Hayes made up his mind lower salary it was a small price to pay for her well-being and a fresh start in an exciting new field.
She applied for the position in October 2023, received an offer in December and started her new job in January 2024.
Her colleagues at O’Melveny & Myers were “really nice and supportive” of her decision, Hayes says. To facilitate a smooth transition, she created a detailed inventory of her current cases and a proposed succession plan for her departure from the company.
Living with a reduced budget
Adjusting to a six-figure pay cut was “a lot harder” than Hayes expected.
With her previous income, Hayes says she could “spend without much thought or stress,” whether she’s ordering takeout a few times a week or making significant payments on her student loans without worrying about having enough money left over for rent.
Now, earning about $150,000 less than she did a year ago, Hayes says she’s had to pay more attention to her monthly spending and savings, while also staying accountable to her budget.
Last year, she started making TikToks to document her budgeting efforts and gather advice from other professionals in similar situations.
“I’m really happy that I’m still making enough to live comfortably,” says Hayes, who adds that her living expenses are a bit higher after moving from LA to San Francisco. “The biggest change with this pay cut, anything, has just been changing the way I think about money – I’ve realized that I have to think about my purchases even when they don’t seem extravagant.”
‘Having that freedom and that balance was priceless’
Now, as her first anniversary at the tech company (which she chose not to name) approaches, Hayes says she’s “really happy.”
For Hayes, taking a $150,000 pay cut wasn’t a sacrifice; it was an investment in her health, her relationships, and her future. In the first five years of her legal career, she often struggled with lack of sleep and stress
“I couldn’t turn off my thoughts,” she says. “I had trouble sleeping at night and got constant pain in my jaw – but from the moment I quit my old job, all those symptoms disappeared… it’s crazy.”
The hardest part of her new gig, she says, was figuring out how to spend her suddenly free evenings and weekends.
“I spend more time with friends on weekends, I go to pilates, I pick up new hobbies, I bought a sewing machine,” she says. “Having that freedom and that balance was priceless.”
