I took part in a “spirited conversation” about working in the law last week on an ABA podcast.
You can listen to it here. I come into the conversation after about 9 minutes.
The official discussion topic was “work/life balance”…but given the current situation for most attorneys, I found myself “expanding” the topic a bit to deal with the reality of law firm hell.
Anyway – I hope you’ll give it a listen.
My thanks to the ABA Journal, and to our moderator, Stephanie Francis Ward, for setting up this podcast and inviting me to participate.
Here are the folks who were on the podcast.
Guests:
 Stephanie Kimbro |
Stephanie Kimbro, MA, JD, has operated a Web-based virtual law office in North Carolina since 2006 and delivers estate planning and small-business law to clients online. She is the recipient of the 2009 ABA Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering and the author of Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online, ABA/LPM publishing 2010. In addition to her law practice and writing, she is the proud and busy mother of two young children. |
 Will Meyerhofer |
Will Meyerhofer, JD, LMSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City. He holds degrees from Harvard, New York University School of Law and The Hunter College School of Social Work. Meyerhofer is a licensed and registered master of social work in New York state. His private practice website is A Quiet Room. He is the author of a blog, The People’s Therapist, reflecting a psychotherapist’s take on the world around us, and he writes a weekly column, “In-house Counseling” for the blog Above the Law. His new book, Life is a Brief Opportunity for Joy, will be available this month. |
 Jacquelyn Slotkin |
Jacquelyn Slotkin is professor of law and director of the LLM program for foreign lawyers at California Western School of Law. She is a former legal research and writing professor and the legal skills program director at California Western. Before returning to teaching 23 years ago, Slotkin spent five years in private practice. She has studied women since the 1970s beginning with her doctoral research on role conflict among college-educated women. Her first book, It’s Harder in Heels: Essays by Women Lawyers Achieving Work-Life Balance, written and edited with her lawyer-daughter, was published in late 2007. Their second book, Sharing the Pants: Essays on Work-Life Balance by Men Married to Lawyers was published in December 2009. |
 Joan C. Williams |
Joan C. Williams is a professor at University of California Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco. A large part of her research focuses on gender, class, and work-family issues. She’s also founding director of the Center for WorkLife Law and is the co-founder of the center’s Project for Attorney Retention. |
The People's Therapist 
It’s pretty funny to me that you did a podcast with Kimbro.
My wife (B.S. in marketing) keeps mentioning Kimbro as an example of how to advertise legal services and operate with extremely low overhead (being virtual).
Whatever she is doing with respect to advertising, it’s definitely getting people’s attention.
Listening to the podcast re-affirms my decision to chose my law school largely based on the low tuition (Paid less than $30k in total) at a top 50 school. I knew I wanted to be a Judge Advocate in the Air Force (which presents its own set of work/life balance issues…6 month deployments).
It is so true that having limited amounts of loans opens options. If I had even $150k in loans being a new JAG would have been a struggle financially.
You didn’t get many words in edgewise, but what you said was very perceptive. You referenced a specific blog post- I’d be curious to read it if you could post it. Thanks.
Here’s the post I referenced: https://thepeoplestherapist.com/2010/03/17/youre-in-trouble/
The reason I didn’t get to say much is that I was trying to lay low (my first podcast with a bunch of law professors) …Also because they cut the last ten minutes of the podcast, which is where I opened up and took on a lot of what the other panelists were saying. Oh, well. I guess I was a bit “too much” for the ABA.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for your response and all you do!
Also you are keenly accurate in your assessment of law firms including mine, where I am a patent agent (not a lawyer, zero debt, single renter). I decided it was smart to work for a firm first before taking the plunge to law school. I have decided to scrap that and am attempting to switch careers as a result of this work experience.
[…] January 12, 2011 by thepeoplestherapist I did a podcast a while back with the American Bar Association Journal. The topic was “work/life balance.” You can listen to it here. […]
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