SDMB Attorneys -- do you like your job?

In My Humble Opinion
21

[Quote]

One of my beefs with law schools is that they seem to reflexively assume that the only model is private practice, and everything else is sort of “other.” That in turn means that students tend to come out of law school with the same assumption and head for the big firms without stopping to ask hard questions about whether that fits their life style and career goals. (I’ve heard of big firm that are quite frank at the interviews: if you work there, priorities are: client; firm; family.)

[quote]

You’ve nailed the career services problem on the head: schools need to produce results in order to draw in more students, and “results” are viewed in terms of who gets the big firm jobs. (It probably also has something to do with alumni donations: you’re not going to be getting huge checks from solo practitioners who write wills for their grandparents.)

The other thing you’ll get shoved into…and this is particularly true if you’re on law review or have very good grades…is the judicial clerkship hunt. Clerkships are considered the Holy Grail for law graduates, because 1) firms love 'em (many of them boost your pay based on it), 2) it makes your school look better, and 3) it’s pretty much the only way you can get a teaching position. The problem you’ll face is an extremely competitive market, and you need basically every resource available to get one. Me, I spent maybe $2,000 in photocopying, printing, and postage fees in search of one. Thus far, out of several hundred judges I’ve applied to, I’ve gotten 2 interviews and zero offers.

…which is not to say that you shouldn’t apply for them, it’s just that you’ll be in for severe disappointment in the process.

22

Currently, I hate my job. I’m a litigator, doing medical malpractice defense in Detroit. I used to be a public defender in NH, and liked that job better, but needed to leave for personal and professional reasons. I think Jodi nailed it- the big firm life either works for you, or doesn’t. There’s not any middle ground in there, and it turns out that it doesn’t work for me. I’m looking for criminal defense firms in the Detroit area now, and other opportunities.

YMMV.

23

Right now, I’m not too happy with it. I’ve been waiting for the county to pay me for nine misdemeanor appointment cases. They only make out checks once a month. Today I got paid for two of them. Two out of nine. And I was counting on a decent check this time, too…

24

Like my job? No, not really, but sometimes, it’s OK. It pays the bills.

Hate my job? Eh. I guess sometimes.

Here’s the rub. All it does is pay the bills, but the biggest bill of them all is the student loans that allowed me to get the job in the first place.

It’s not fun. It’s not glamorous. It’s hard. It’s mundane. Billable hours suck suck suck. It seems billing requirements are unreasonably high everywhere. Your schedule can change at a moment’s notice. Partners bark at you for nitpicky little stylistic bullshit. Things that seem like they should have a simple legal solution never do.

I’m a business litigator. Five years out. They say at about the fifth year, things start to “click” in a good way. I’m waiting for the click. Sure, I can do a lot more now than I could do in my first year, but there’s still a ton of law that I have never seen.

Long, hard, stressful (yet simultaneously boring), unpredictable hours. One reason I wanted to practice law was my misconception that it wasn’t like that.

I have since come to realize that the job is like that by its very nature. If the cases were simple and the law was clear, there would be no lawyers.

The fifth year is just more difficult than the first year in different ways. In the first year, you don’t know shit. By the fifth year, you know how to do just enough to get you in trouble. You learn the mechanics of it, but it’s easy to overlook something you’ve never seen or thought of before, and that can kill you.

Did I mention the billable hours? They suck. Having an off-day? Getting caught up in administrative crap for the firm that has to get done but you can’t bill a client for it? Tough shit. Now, you have to work late or work the weekend to make up the lost time.

You may have worked a full day, and everything you did was for the benefit of your employer, but if you can’t bill it, you’re screwed. So, you either make up the time, or you get a little visit from the partner, who, by the way, bills less than you, coming to pay you a visit demanding an explanation why you failed to hit your target.

…and about the cover sheets on the the TPS Reports…

You think you want to switch practice areas, but, guess what? You can’t because you don’t have time to learn any law you can’t bill to a client.

You think you want to leave the law? Guess what? You’ve got too much student loan debt to afford a pay cut. GOTCHA!

Unless you have something SPECIFIC you want to do in law, or unless you get a law school scholarship, save your money, your time, and your sanity, and pick something else.

1000