Meet a lawyer who turned a pandemic-era freelance gig into his full-time work, travels the world, and has already made more than $100,000 this year

• Derrick Morgan Jr. turned his freelance work while working at a law firm into a full-time gig.
• He made about $127,000 in sales last year through his freelancing on Fiverr — with at least $140,000 in sales so far this year.
• He loves having “location independence” as a freelancer, where he can work from different countries.

Derrick Morgan Jr. will soon be starting a backpacking trip across Europe, which includes seeing the World Athletics Championships in Hungary. And even while he’s touring countries like Croatia, Monaco, Italy, and Iceland, he will still be able to work.

That’s because he’s a freelance trademark attorney.

“The ability to set my own schedule is great,” Morgan told Insider. “I’m going to Europe next month, and I am working through it, but I don’t have to, if I didn’t want to.”

He said he’s already been to almost a dozen countries this year.

“I have the ability to have location independence, which is huge for me,” he said. “Back in the day — two, three years ago, I would’ve taken an office job happily. But now, since I’ve had this taste of freelancing and what I can do with it, I just could never see myself going into an office.”

Morgan lands freelance work through the freelance-site Fiverr, where his starting price for different trademark services vary. At first, he thought this work would help him pay small bills while he stayed at his then-full-time job at a law firm, but he was able to earn a lot quickly and eventually switched to freelancing full-time.

Morgan had made about $127,000 in sales last year on Fiverr and has already made over $140,000 this year, according to documents verified by Insider. He thinks having more experience helped him bring in more in sales, as he’s a top seller on Fiverr with hundreds of five-star reviews. Additionally, he has his own full-service law firm, but didn’t disclose how much money he makes from this to Insider.

Morgan credits some of the demand for his services as a trademark attorney to the pandemic’s impact on the workforce — as some people decided to create their own businesses, such as those impacted by pandemic layoffs. He’s happy he gets to help small businesses “get protection for their brands,” something he said he has a passion for.

Although Morgan had been on Fiverr since 2019, he said he wasn’t really using it. He actually got started in trademark-attorney work during the pandemic while working for a law firm. His cousin asked for his help in filing a trademark, as he had expertise in intellectual property from his studies in law school.

“I had always had the knowledge and the skillset, but I wasn’t really putting it to use,” he said.

After helping his cousin, he said that he thought, “I could probably offer these services elsewhere because it doesn’t really interfere with the firm, with the work that I was doing at my law firm.”

After checking with his boss, he then spent time working for both the law firm he was working for — where his focus was sports law and litigation but also did civil rights work — and doing side work as a trademark attorney.

“Eventually it just became too much to have two full-time jobs essentially,” he said. “I was working nonstop, and then also I was out earning my law firm pay.”

Morgan likes being a digital nomad working from different places

Morgan was already able to travel while he was employed by the law firm.

“I would take three international trips a year just because I had the flexibility with my law firm,” he said. “But I wanted to kind of keep doing that more and more.”

Freelance work allowed him to continue traveling. He tends to split his time between Mexico City and Chicago but also travels elsewhere. While he enjoys location flexibility, he says he usually works from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. but “that’s more so by choice” given clients being in different time zones.

“Our days are starting at different times and to be able to provide them what’s the most efficient service, I will work later than I than I would at my 9-to-5,” he said.

He also works a few hours on the weekends. But his schedule can also be flexible.

“Earlier this year when I was in Asia, I wasn’t really working in the morning because the time zone was so different,” he said. “So I was in the morning in Asia, people are asleep in the US, which is where most of my clients are. I had the mornings open, I’d go surfing, I’d go paddle boarding.”

Morgan said when he travels, he’s usually heading to a Selina location or a coworking hostel. He said it can be harder for him to meet people at a hotel and instead easier at coworking spaces. Additionally, he was a Work from Anywhere contest winner from a partnership between Fiverr and Selina. As a contest winner, that included “$2,000 in cash voucher for travel expenses from Fiverr, as well as 250,000 Selina tokens (equivalent to approximately $2,000 USD worth of overnight stays and other services at Selina locations ) to redeem in Selina accommodations, wellness activities, and hot-desk access,” per a press release.

Morgan suggests others who want to make a similar career change to try freelancing while holding a full-time position

For those who want to make freelancing their full-time job, Morgan advises trying it out while employed full-time.

“I think it’s better to kind of start it while you have that full-time stability,” he said.

“And then once you see that it’s sustainable, kind of like how I did — not to say I’m the blueprint, but it really worked for me — once you have that assurance that it’s sustainable, however long that takes, then you can take that leap more comfortably,” he continued.

Did you make a career switch during the pandemic or are you a digital nomad who gets to travel while working? Reach out to this reporter at mhoff@insider.com to share your story.