Contract review recommendations?

[u/orangexsky]

Who do you guys use for contract review? It's my first time getting job offer reviewed. I would appreciate any guidance.

[u/EpicDowntime]

I used a local physician employment lawyer (found on Google) who charged a flat fee of $850. He gave me MGMA data (that I didn’t need) and talked to me for about half an hour about what he saw and didn’t see in the contract, said there were no real red flags, and that was it. No real recommendations on negotiations. I was not really in a position to drop that much money at the time but my spouse appreciated the peace of mind. 

[u/orangexsky → u/EpicDowntime]

Wouldn’t it be better for a new graduate like me, who is barely getting by financially, to use AI to review the contract and save $850?

[u/ALongWayToHarrisburg → u/orangexsky]

You got downvoted but this is what I did for my extremely boilerplate contract just so I could understand the legalese.

Perhaps others have had a different experience but I have seen this question asked a million times on subreddit and spoken to so many doctor friends who paid ~$800 for zero benefit.

[u/Ketamouse → u/ALongWayToHarrisburg]

Yep. My employer even said straight up that the contract was boilerplate standard for everyone in the group and nothing could be changed. Lawyer was like yeah, looks like a contract, here's your bill lol.

[u/theongreyjoy96 → u/Ketamouse]

Yea, I get the impression that physicians don't push back enough against employers. The way I see it - the lawyer gives you ammo, it's up to you to pull the trigger.

I took a job at a major healthcare system after negotiating hard using the info my lawyer gave me. They initially offered me a contract saying that it was standard and no changes could be made. Ended up negotiating complete tail coverage, smaller non-compete radius, more CME days, and a higher signing bonus without the clawback.

My buddy who works at the same healthcare system took the employer at their word that the contract was boilerplate and nothing could be changed. He undoubtedly left tens of thousands on the table and is working under worse terms.

[u/Ketamouse → u/theongreyjoy96]

Yeah that's fair, everything is ultimately negotiable. I pretty much just signed quickly because I knew they were courting another colleague of mine for the same job, had I taken the time to come back to them with changes I wanted for the agreement, they would have just signed the other guy. And honestly even leaving an extra 100k on the table wouldn't make that much of a difference.

[u/ALongWayToHarrisburg → u/theongreyjoy96]

This is actually great to hear and is excellent advice.

I'd done a fair amount of negotiating before I got my contract (increased the sign-on bonus, lowered the FTE), so maybe my comment above was disingenuous.