For a lot of folks, practicing law is interesting, and you stop doing it when it sucks. You move on. For some, that’s immediately after law school. For others, it’s thirty years later. I only pity those who hate the law and still slog through it, day-in and day-out. For them, the game lost its interest long ago and the practice of law is more about moving people and paper along until retirement. Not any different than any other shitty job, but that’s why I got out. Not because of some contorted logic that I was supporting a coddling state-dependent system. I just thought BigLaw sucked.
But back to the personal. Law generally is interesting for any number of 2,000 ways: to jack up some big money fast (that’s the thought), to shag summer associates, to hang out with crunks and talk about italicized periods, or to mix with massive egos and powerful people.
Putting aside all the bitterness and bullshit swagger, though, I’m still a lawyer (just not in BigLaw) because it’s a little like Words with Friends, but on a personally profitable and worthwhile scale. I like messing with words and playing with language to make a difference for folks, whatever tiny difference that may be. I also like being an expert on something for six weeks or ten months, however long it takes, and then moving on to the next thing. I once knew the ins and outs of allowable driving hours for long-haul truckers. Or how you legally produce and apply recombinant bovine somatotropin for cows. I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for tomorrow, and that’s pretty cool.
You walked out, and that’s your choice and it sounds like you had your own good reasons. For anyone else sticking it out, let’s put the same question to them: why the hell are you still a lawyer? Maybe we’ll be surprised by the answers. Or they’ll take your logic downtown.
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