I would have liked to see you be awarded a larger settlement too, and I'll reserve my comments about the ethics of lawyers who take cases on contingency fees. I think your lawyer was well compensated. At least the predator therapist was stopped from ever working again. I hope he operates the fry basket at a fast food joint now, or maybe works for the highway department cleaning up the roads. I wish you hadn't had to exercise your legal rights at all.

My advice for any negotiation is to have a plan or a proposal. To think about what you can afford if your incomes stays where it is and what you can afford if you get full time work. And then offer that to T and see what he says. To me, I'd be more willing to adjust my fees (and in my line of work, I often do) if the person does the work to make a suggestion and also has a rationale. Not saying this is what you are doing, but when someone just says the payment stream is ending and lands it in my lap without more, then I feel like I have to take the responsibility to initiate the negotiation. That feels like to me, "I can't pay, whatcha gonna do about it?" I'd rather the other party take the initiative to begin a discussion.