Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny199r
I'm a lawyer and don't really like it anymore. I used to, but now I'm a bit jaded by the fact that there's so many #######s in it and so much B.S. I've certainly lost any passion I had for it.
I'm actually jealous of my pal who works as a heavy duty equipment mechanic. Gets to be outside, B.S around with the boys, not always having to worrying about stupid complaints. I'm seriously considering going into the field (I'm in my early 30s with no kids, no debts and some money saved up)
How about everyone else?
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Another lawyer here. I graduated about 8 years ago.
IMO the biggest issue with the current practice of law is that the firm model is broken. Law firms simply cannot afford to function and pay their lawyers a fair wage. They've also increased the workload substantially as customers have become much tighter on what a billable hour looks like. So you've got a situation where young lawyers are doing more but less interesting work for far less pay. It also doesn't help that many of the "perks" like cocktail lunches have been stripped from the job.
I found at all the law firms I worked at, other lawyers looked at you as a competitor or cheap labour...or possibly someone they wanted to harass if you were a good looking young female. Lawyers, particularly those at larger firms, were not a good group of people to be around.
I also found many senior lawyers at bigger firms to be just straight out incompetent and offer little in the way of mentorship. They'd gotten to the position they were in by screwing other lawyers over or having family connections. In order to stay on long term at the large firms, you need to be a "rainmaker". The issue is how are you going to do that if your locked in your office 12 hours a day with little interaction with clients.
A few months ago I moved to a small firm, where I will be working on 100% commission. It's a big risk, but I'm also being given the opportunity to build my own practice. I get to chose which clients I take. I've taken a big pay cut this year, but if does work out, I'll be potentially making much more in the future.
It might be an option to look into before you consider abandoning law altogether.