Beating (Or at Least Dodging) the Unnamed Force
Last week, in my first posting on Slaw, I wrote about what appears to be some sort of unnamed force that draws certain people into law school and then into law firms with little conscious agency on the part of the individual. Years after this process has pushed the lawyer onto a certain path, the lawyer will look up from his or her desk and wonder how they got there and why they are miserable in their chosen career.
I also suggested in my last posting that I have an answer to this problem. “Answer” may be too strong a word, but I have seen lawyers that have satisfaction in the profession and others who are miserable (and bail out shortly after becoming aware of their misery and their options).
The thing that distinguishes happy lawyers from unhappy lawyers, at the risk of a gross oversimplification, is that happy lawyers like what they are doing and did not get there by accident. The law is a wildly diverse profession. There’s something for everyone. But the key is to match what you like to do with what opportunities there are in the profession. It is very easy to try to emulate lawyers who appear to be happy, but what’s good for them may not be good for you. For example, I work with some very happy tax lawyers. They love what they do and who they do it with. But if I were to wake up and discover that I was a tax lawyer, I would head for the exit, pronto. It’s not for me. It doesn’t match the sort of work I like to do and the sorts of problems I like to solve. It’s perfect for the colleagues I’m thinking of, just not for me. That doesn’t mean that practicing tax law is not a good position to have. It’s the opposite, since tax law is a very lucrative career path, but it just isn’t for me and no amount of money will make it bearable.
The one thing that I’ve seen in common among those who I know are happy in the legal field is that they got where they are because they chose to. They were immune to the unnamed force, or at least knew how to swim against its currents. They thought about some pretty basic questions:
- What do I like to do?
- What sort of people do I like to work with?
- What rewards do I think I need?
- What do I do in my spare time and is there any way to integrate that into my practice?
- Am I introverted or extraverted?
- Can I sit at a desk for hours or do I need to be up and about a lot?
- Do I enjoy speaking in public?
- Do you enjoy heavy problem solving or would you prefer to apply established principles to relatively similar fact situation?
- What life experience do I have?
- Do I work for the weekend?
Asking these basic questions can suggest, in my view, the sorts of legal options to be considered. If you are a musician, love playing in a band and enjoy hanging around with musicians and creative types, you may be someone who should go into entertainment law. If the toughest decision you’ve ever made was between law school and accounting school, tax law may be where you should go. If what you like is making piles of money, and that’s more satisfying than anything else, you can probably suffer through doing work you don’t like as long as it’s very lucrative.
Students heading to law school should ask themselves these questions and others like them. It is difficult, at that early stage, to find out what areas in the profession may align with the answers but the have the luxury of time to investigate. Then they should head in that general direction. Unhappy lawyers should take a weekend off and think about these things. With the knowledge of the profession they’ve picked up along the way, they have an advantage in knowing what possibilities there are in the profession.
David, despite what appears to be good questions, I suggest that you read Gilbert our ability to correctly predict what we will like to do in the future.
Great post! I`ve seen far too many lawyers unhappy where they “end up”, I wondered often why they didn’t see all the options open to them. Guess law doesn’t attract enough risk-takers!
There is also the not-so-unnamed-force driving people into certain kinds of work against their nature: the force of student loans. I saw dozens of people in my class sign on with large corporate-commercial firms at graduation because they felt that the salaries offered by these firms were the only means to address their debt within a reasonable timeframe. Speaking with these people several years afterwards, many of them feel trapped inside these firms since they have begun developing skills and knowledge in unfulfilling practise areas, and fear that leaving the firm and changing focus will lessen their marketability and value.
Let me suggest a couple of other basic questions young lawyers or proto-lawers might ask themselves: How do I want to arrange my professional and family lives? When do I want to have children? Depending on the answers to these, some firms or practice situations will become more or less desirable.
David’s thoughts are equally relevant for practicing lawyers. For example, I was several years into my career before I managed to meld my interest in tech (and my undergrad comp sci)into the practice of law.
I wish I had explored my options more carefully during law school and while articling. I have just finished my first year at a large firm and I am miserable; I feel “trapped”, as an earlier poster said. The problem is, it is difficult to explore other opportunities while working and I’m not in a financial position to take time off to do that. I truly believe that I could enjoy being a lawyer, in the right type of practice, and hope I will find that some day. Thank you for the list of questions; I can start with my answers and now determined to make time to look at my options.
Your suggestions are classic ones that should be considered by anyone considering any career. As a former career coach, I encouraged students to do as much research as possible on potential careers, such as job shadowing, volunteering, and interviewing people in particular jobs. But there’s nothing like life experience to teach you what you might like to do.