Ask the lawyer who defends jail inmates

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Last night I attended the Christmas party of a firm for which I regularly do agency work. Their managing partner gave a brief summary of the previous year, and where the firm planned to go in the coming year. His exact words: “Let’s have some fun next year!”

I can assure you that his idea of fun is not to work brutal hours to the exclusion of all else. Nor is mine. Nor is that of most lawyers with whom I interact.

Many of the larger firms work their students and juniors until they drop. If you are not into that sort of treatment, then do not apply for a job at that sort of a firm. If you work in a smaller firm, particularly one outside of the big cities, you most likely will not face that sort of problem.

When you look around your law school and see students “working themselves into a frenzy”, remember that they are very much into being part of and perpetuating a macho culture in which each one tries for bragging rights about how many brutal hours one can put it. Once out of law school, they will continue to be that way, so yes, there certainly are firms where that sort of stupidity is the norm. Learn to spot it, and take another path.

Is it necessary to adopt that lifestyle to be a successful lawyer? No, it is not. Running one’s self at the verge of breakdown does not help one be a good lawyer; nor does losing one’s ground in one’s family and community, nor losing one’s personal development. You will need to produce high quality work. Screwing up your life so as to have higher billable hours will not help you produce high quality work.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the continuing professional development courses offered through the law society and our insurance provider:

Our insurance provider is concerned about lawyers screwing up on files because their life is out of balance, so if we take courses such as this, we get a discount on our insurance fees. It sounds to me that you have already learned something that is extremely important that many of your classmates have not yet learned: how to keep your life in balance.

It is very important that you pick your own path that works for you, rather than jump on whatever bandwagon happens to be passing by at the time. One of the nice things about law is that you can pick your own career path, so be sure that you in fact do pick your own career path, rather than just happen to fall into one that may not necessarily be any good for you. Don’t let other people pressure you into something that is not right for you. It is up to you to set your own goals, and when dealing with job pressures, to set your own boundaries, so as to keep all the various dimensions of optimal wellness in balance.

Bottom line? Be your own person, and have a blast!

62

Thank you! :slight_smile:

See, this is why I think I need any opportunity I can get–SDMB included–to talk to actual, living breathing people in the practice! I’d like to separate stereotype from reality, and it’s hard to do when people brag about how they’re going to cram until 4am, write the final at 9am, and then go get plastered at 1, and go window shopping at Harry Rosen on the way to the bar. They’re using ‘Type-A personality’ (whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean) to justify their ego trip, belligerence and self-mutilation.

Anyway, this thread is about Spoons, not me. Back to my public law final I go! :stuck_out_tongue:

63

I agree with Muffin on all counts. While I’m sure that there are lawyers who put in the 80-hour weeks, I cannot say definitely, as I don’t know any. My colleagues work hard when they are on the job, and like many jobs, extra hours are sometimes necessary; but everybody has time for family, hobbies, and so on. They’re active at their church, they’re involved in community organizations, they attend their kids’ school functions. I’m not a churchgoer, nor do I have kids, but even I have been known to take the occasional Thursday afternoon off for golf.

If I had any advice on law school, especially for a 1L, I’d say this: Don’t be intimidated by those who put in (or claim to put in) long hours in the library, reading every case cited in the ones you have been assigned. Quality is better than quantity in law school, IMHO, and an effective and careful reading of each case you have been assigned will take you farther at exam time than will nonstop reading just to say you spent hours reading. The cases you have been assigned each stand for a certain legal principle–from each case, take the principle and understand the reasoning that led to it; and be prepared to apply that principle at exam time.

Other tips:

– Join a study group, if you haven’t already. The brainstorming that occurs during your meetings will help you understand cases and principles that you’re perhaps not getting on your own. Besides, you’ll have a group of friends with whom you can get coffee or go for a beer later.

– Don’t neglect your physical health. I don’t mean to haunt the gym (unless that’s your thing), but make sure you get regular sleep, eat healthily, and so on. Don’t be like one of my classmates, who lived solely on energy drinks in order to study for 47 hours before a final. He meant to study for 48 hours, but on hour 48, he fell asleep on his desk and missed the final. :eek:

– Get away from the school from time to time, and spend time among people who don’t give two hoots about law school. This will put things into perspective: there are many, many people out there to whom there are much more important things than the Oakes Test or the NCROAMD defense, and these are the people you will be serving as a lawyer. You’ll also give yourself more of a break than you would in the student lounge or the campus pub. I tried to spend an evening or a weekend afternoon completely away from campus–maybe wander around a mall, or have a couple of beers somewhere while doing a crosswork puzzle–and I found that it worked wonders.

64

November 2012.