What area of law are you going to practice in? I had 18 months as an associate, 6 years of self employment later and I’m over 300k annually as a solo without staff. (240k settled this week, so there’s a healthy 60k going into the pile in a few weeks when the check comes in).

My first 4 years solo was all CLE’s, asking other lawyers questions, and dwelling on cases to not mess them up. Never blew a SOL, but I do think if the market had been better that I wouldn’t have minded getting another 24-36 months in with a GOOD lawyer. You could work for someone just sending out demand letters but you won’t be learning how to be a good litigation attorney if you’re not the one doing the litigating.