In addition, do not let the lure of a large salary cause you to make a career move that is inconsistent with your career goals. If you like the environment where you work, you may be in for a surprise when you move your desk to a larger and less personal workplace. It is alright to feel envy, but it is not fair to expect your firm to keep pace with a firm that is charging much higher billing rates and is, therefore, much more profitable. Salary is based on what the market as a whole will bear for associates. But salaries also need to have some rational relationship to the economics of the firm where you work.
Money has a way of distorting our judgment about what is really important.
Most of us became lawyers because, on some level, we wanted to earn a good living. But do not let the news of this past February make you lose your perspective. If you are earning a six-figure salary, you are still earning more than the vast majority of working adults in this country. If you received a 50-percent salary increase, but you were planning to leave because you wanted a better quality of life, then leave anyway. The things that made you unhappy won't get better with a larger pay check.