You are really, really sick of law. In fact, you want out. At a minimum, you need to get out of your current job, or you might die. That much is not in dispute.
But you still have the loans. Therefore common sense says you should “give law one more try.”
As H. L. Mencken once observed:“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
You sense this quotation might apply to your current situation, because it seems clear and simple you should go find another job in biglaw, at least for a year. Here are some screamingly clear and simple reasons why:
- You need money to pay off loans – one more shot at biglaw money.
- It’s not life or death – you can always quit the new job if it doesn’t work out.
- According to the headhunters who call you twice a day, there are loads of “lifestyle” shops that would love to snap you up from your hotshot firm, despite the fact that you loath that place with every cell in your body.
The list of “cons” includes:
- imagining starting a law job at another firm makes you physically ill;
- the thought of interviewing at a law firm makes you physically ill; and
- the thought of walking into another law firm makes you physically ill.
A lot of lawyers find themselves in this situation, stuck (in the metaphorical sense) between a rock (school loans) and a hard place (the thought of continuing to practice law.)
However, the final decision tends to be along the lines of – well, no harm in going for an interview. Which is why you’ll probably wind up going in for that interview.
“So, should I go on this interview?” One client asked me recently. I knew he was talking about that interview.
Congratulations, you’ve “gained admission” to a lower-tier law school! You might be wondering what the actual experience is going to be like. Well, if you’re one of those lucky souls who’s had the unique pleasure of matriculating at Trump University, you’re at a big advantage, because lower-tier law schools and Trump University are a whole lot alike. Let’s count the ways:
Readers of my blog express surprise when they discover that all my clients aren’t lawyers – indeed, a small but sizable percentage of my clientele consists of ordinary civilians, non-combatants, plain folk who have nothing whatsoever to do with law. But the people surprised by this situation are mostly biglaw lawyers – and what really surprises them is not that I work with non-lawyers, but that I work with non-lawyers employed in biglaw – secretaries, law librarians, human resources folks, paralegals and so on. In other words, what surprises them is that I work with those people, those other people.
My client – a second year corporate associate working in a foreign office – compared remaining at her biglaw firm to eating cockroaches.
Someone posted the following astonishing comment in response to one of my columns a few months back:
The People's Therapist 