See What These Lawyers Did With Their 'Go Away Money'
Nicolle Neulist
Photo by Callie Lipkin
Gordon Chin’s wish to become a successful interior designer came true with the help of an audition video he sent to HGTV and a few design-challenged friends. But most of his fellow attorneys probably would say he had already arrived in life—he was on track to make partner at a national firm.
But in late 2008, the 36-year-old real estate attorney was let go from Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell in Washington, D.C., after billable work at the firm plummeted. While his tape did not convince the cable network to put him on the air, the footage was posted on the Internet, where friends saw it and “got the ball rolling,” Chin says.
“At least the severance package allowed me to kind of chart out the territory,” says Chin, who has dabbled in interior design for years but now is handling several major projects through his D.C.-based company GC Design. Chin accepted a confidentiality agreement that prevents him from disclosing the amount of his severance.
“There are a lot of attorneys that have other passions that they’d like to pursue,” he says, “but they’re reluctant to or they can’t or can’t take the risk. It’s a risk for a lot of people.”
Plenty of young attorneys have been shown the door at their firms recently. A few like Chin make opportunity lemonade out of the lemons life handed them. Those “de-jobbed” lawyers are using their “go away money” to chase dreams outside of law—way outside.
Continue reading and comment on “What I Did with My ‘Go Away Money” in this month’s ABA Journal online.
