I promised a bit more on being a lawyer, and folks, I’m here to please. I am purposefully cagey about my job for all the reasons you can think of and more, but there are definitely general things I can share about being a lawyer in a firm that would give you a flavor without betraying any of the million confidences with which I am daily entrusted. (Most of the things I must keep confidential are manifestly boring and you would not care to know them anyhow, although occasionally I get a really crazy factual scenario when a person has done something totally nuts at work, and those are the gossipy things I wish I could share!)
The Good. I do not report to a desk and sit there all day. Well, at least not every day. Now there are those weeks when it’s a typical officey type of job, and I have the swivel chair spread, hunched over spine, and typist’s carpal tunnel to prove it. However, I also have weeks where I’m at a client site one day interviewing fact witnesses or getting affidavits signed and notarized, I’m in court the next morning arguing a motion, and then spend the afternoon getting prepped to be at another lawyer’s office mediating a claim the next day. There are also trips to conferences for marketing and continuing education, attendance at local business events, luncheons and brunches and cocktails and coffee hours and all manner of public socializing. I have to conduct site investigations, defend clients from surprise government audits of their property, auction foreclosed-upon property, visit key locations in a case and take pictures, and go teach classes to clients’ employees on how not to get sued at work. (Pro Tip – don’t be a jerk, treat and pay people well, engage them in something bigger than themselves, and you’re 9/10ths of the way there.) I love all the running around and variety. I love that if the kids have a classroom Halloween party, I can duck out, attend, and duck back in, and I don’t have to ask permission or explain. We are supposed to be in and out of here constantly, and only a crazy person wouldn’t take advantage of that autonomy to occasionally go do some needed personal errand in the middle of the day without making a big deal about it, especially given how much “overtime” we work.
The Bad. There is, of course, the workplace political stuff, which is somewhat exacerbated by the fact that many lawyers are Type A/highly aggressive/highly confident people and probably escalate confrontations more than is absolutely necessary. And the typical law firm design forces the members to compete with one another. It can get a little “Survivor” sometimes, with alliances and betrayals and all of that – you must choose your partner mentor wisely, for if the one you choose falls out of favor, so goeth your favor as well. And the more hours each individual person works, the more the firm makes, so firms tend to understaff lawyers and there is a ton of pressure on all of these competitive people to work all the time and out-bill each other so they can be The Best, which leads to lots of unhealthy behaviors (taking Adderall or stronger drugs to stay up all night, drinking too much when the pressure gets intense, broken family relationships, other self destructive and addictive behaviors, not to mention out and out sabotage). And there is a lot of adversarial work built into the very nature of the job, which can be stressful. To put it mildly. Plus everybody in the world who is not a lawyer makes nasty jokes to your face when they hear what you do, which does start to wear down your positivity after a while. Plus we have to track every 6 minutes of our day, which is a challenge.
That Said . . . if you recognize how the thing is structured, you can typically manage your own career in a way that mitigates some of the bad stuff and highlights the good stuff. Depending on the size of the firm you will have anywhere from a handful to dozens to hundreds of partners to get work from, and you can carefully cultivate relationships with the ones you like and limit your interactions with the ones you don’t, which is not true in a job that has a more traditional hierarchy and just one or two bosses. And all of that bad stuff is also not limited to law firms – you can get some of that in any job, and most other jobs don’t also have the accompanying autonomy and variety which makes it all bearable. Also, it’s nice to know how the law works. After my few years of practice, I can read contracts now and for the most part understand what they’re driving at. I understand tort law, insurance, statutes, federalism, mortgages and loans and credit cards, and a bunch of other things that are helpful to get you by in adult life.
So. Lawyerin’. There you have it.