Our last poll--If you could do it all over again, would you go to law school, knowing what you know now?--produced disheartening results. At first, I was sort of pleased that the majority voted in the positive (62%), especially knowing that people with an ax to grind or a gripe to share are more apt to contribute in an anonymous forum. But, then I stood back and thought, that is over one third of people who bothered to vote (37%); they would rather not be doing what they are doing now.
The unfortunate poll result begs the question: what would you rather be doing?
TFP (task force on professionalism) blog - observations on the legal profession
2 comments:
I do want to quit some days. I took on substantial debt to become a lawyer and hope to have my student loans paid off by the time I retire. It's so frustrating some days. Since I began practicing, I have been working at least four hours per day longer than friends who have much higher-paying jobs, and I work weekends while they play. If I didn't truly love the subject matter, the ability to help others and the opportunity to use skills I have been acquiring my entire life, the sacrifices would not be worth it. Each time I doubt whether I made the right choice, I remember how I got here and feel tremendous gratitude for the power to practice the way I want because I have built a solo practice that allows me to. I remind myself that I chose this path because the contributions I can make are more important to me than the money. I just pray that this will continue to be sufficient to keep a (modest) roof over my head, (healthy) food on the table and (non-designer) clothes on my back. I still have 22 years to pay on my student loans!
Nothing else to do but practice law. Like complaining about the weather, lots of people talk about it but there's nothing one can do about it.
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