Would You Turn Down $200K to Take a $35K Job? | Patrick Hagen

Most lawyers chase prestige. Patrick Hagen chased freedom—and found it in a $35K clerkship, a debt-free JD, and a few well-timed LinkedIn posts.

Patrick is a business litigator, a father of four, and the kind of lawyer who built his brand not through networking dinners or late-night emails—but by hitting publish on LinkedIn at 5AM.

In this episode, he joins Brian to share how walking away from a $75K salary to attend law school debt-free gave him the freedom to clerk for peanuts, build autonomy in Big Law, and design a career that fits around his family—not the other way around.

They get into:

• Why most lawyers are missing a massive opportunity on LinkedIn
• The hidden power of legal writing as a personal brand
• How law students should think about opportunity cost and clerkships
• What work-life balance actually looks like inside a 1,000-lawyer firm

This conversation is proof that you can play the game—but you don’t have to lose yourself in the process.

Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hagenlaw/
 

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

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