People hate lawyers because they represent the interests of people and corporations without really caring who they are, what they did, what harm they caused, or, how culpable they are. Those aren't my reasons because that's what we lawyers do.
Full Answer
I entered law school at an inauspicious time – right after the bottom fell through the legal industry. Our dean, rather than give us rosy predictions of the riches we would soon accumulate, acknowledged what a difficult and uncertain time we were in. His commencement speech could be summed up as “good luck.”
Then, I was put on a case, which was new and interesting at first, but quickly, turned toxic. I hated my boss, and so did everyone else. Five associates left our team in two years. Eventually, I was the only associate left. And I was doing the work of everyone who left.
In April of 2018, a year before I quit, I had called my parents to let them know I was quitting. That was the first time I thought of spontaneously quitting. Instead, my parents urged me to stay until I had a new job. And here in February of 2019, I still didn’t know where to go or what to do.
In January, I was excited to hear about two of my friends getting engaged. One was getting married in March, the other in July. One asked me to be her maid of honor, but my work calendar was nonstop trials.
I honestly thought that those that needed to work a “meaningful” job were naive or rich. But when you’re working 70+ hours a week, you start to think about what you’re giving up. You start to think of your legacy and the endpoint of all your struggles. Are you trading your life for something meaningful?
In general, I don’t care about 95% of people’s opinions of me. But there were two groups whose opinion on my quitting gave me pause – my parents and coworkers.
A month before I quit, my mother called to tell me my brother was “in trouble.” I expected her to tell me that my brother had ended up on the wrong side of the mob. Instead, the “terrible” news was just that my brother might need to find a new job. My brother is a defense contractor so job hunting is typical.
The legal industry is a tough one, there's no doubt about that. Many of our colleagues work long hours and hold themselves to a near-impossible standard of performance. Burn-out is rampant.
Legal training is useful in a wider variety of fields than they tell us in law school. There are entire blogs dedicated to ex-lawyers. Our skills as researchers, writers, public speakers, and critical thinkers are valuable in many places outside a law firm.
It certainly doesn't help that the legal field has a history of viewing overwhelming stress as a rite of passage. Maybe you've noticed this where you work. Attorneys are encouraged to keep their nose to the grindstone 'til the job is done, no matter what.
I'm top 3% at Princeton Law School. I had 50 screeners, but I only received 39 call backs... All of my call backs were yesterday, but I still haven't heard anything back yet. Starting to panic because all 39 of the faceless, generic law firms I did a call back with are my DREAM firm.
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This Is Some Nonsense: Twitter won't verify Justice Alan Page. Follow The Money: Until the cows come home? That's mixing references I guess, but there are questions about fees in the Devin Nunes case. Fair? Who Said Anything About Fair?: Folks don't see law firm work expectations as all that reasonable.
Many lawyers live lives of constant conflict, since their opponents are just as interested in winning their cases as they are. Some people (like me) love this, but others find this life to be incredibly stressful.
A lawyer’s responsibility is to take on other people’s problems and find solutions. It’s a challenging and intellectual pursuit, but it’s also a stressful one. Some clients are difficult to deal with on a personal basis. Some clients have (grossly) unrealistic expectations of what can be done within the law.
1. The work. Most attorneys work about six days a week, generally fifty plus hours per week, and the norm now is to be available anywhere at any time. It is not uncommon during extreme times (trial, an important deal closing, etc.) for those hours to increase substantially and days off to become elusive. I’ve had stretches in my career ...
The nature of the attorney-client relationship. A lawyer’s responsibility is to take on other people’s problems and find solutions. It’s a challenging and intellectual pursuit, but it’s also a stressful one. Some clients are difficult to deal with on a personal basis.
Most legal work is reading, researching, drafting documents, reviewing other documents, and occasional communication with one’s opponent. For some lawyers, that’s all the work they do, but in any event, the ratio of work to “action” is very high. 5. For many lawyers, the money isn’t great.
Men of reddit, what is a great sex tip you have to share with other men of reddit?
What single human has done the most damage to the progression of humanity in the history of mankind?