Why I became an attorney
I wish I had a great story. I don’t. Becoming a lawyer wasn’t my childhood dream. In fact, I’m not one of those lucky people who always knew what they wanted to be when they grow up. I just had this vague idea that I would go out into the world and be some sort of a difference maker. Or, as my seventh grade English teacher, Mr Kimball, would have said, a “mover and shaker” of the world.
When I was getting to the end of my undergraduate education (in Economics), I still had no concrete idea on what I wanted to do. So I just applied for jobs that maybe sounded interesting. I got an interview with Lands End (which I was excited about) and some health care equipment review place (similar to JD Power). I think I had some other basic screening interviews over the phone but those were the two that I specifically remember.
To make a short story shorter, I didn’t get any of the jobs I applied to. So I didn’t know what to do.
While this was going on, my mom said she would pay for me to take the LSAT, so I said, “Sure.” I took it and did well enough.
Really, I ended up applying to law school because I didn’t know what else to do. Going to law school put off finding a real job for another three years and it sounded like I was doing something smart in the meantime. “Plus,” I said to myself, “a JD is a very versatile degree; I can still do whatever I want after.”
It didn’t become any more clear during law school. So I ended up just taking the first law firm job I could get…which is what my school career counsel told me to do. And that’s only because it was during the 2008 recession and they needed to place people wherever they could. “If you have a job opportunity, just take it,” was the advice I received.
I’ve now been a practicing attorney for over a decade. I started at my dad’s boutique firm (yay nepotism!). A few years later, I opened my own practice in Southeast Idaho focusing on consumer rights. I did that for five years. From there, I spent time with a non-profit pursuing housing rights issues. I then went in-house with a large publicly traded corporation. So I’ve experienced a fairly wide range of law jobs.
Things I like about being an attorney
I like being an attorney for a few reasons. First, it puts food on the table and keeps a roof over our heads. We live in a nice area with nice neighbors. The schools are good. I really have nothing to complain about. My problems are very much first-world problems.
Second, being a lawyer is interesting. Taking on legal cases is like solving a big, complicated puzzles. It feels good when you are able to gather all the pieces to create a picture that people understand.
Third… okay, it is really just those two things.
Things I dislike about being an attorney
First and foremost, I don’t like the stress that comes with the territory. To carry on with the puzzle analogy, it’s like putting together a puzzle when you don’t know exactly what the end result will look like. You have an idea on what the picture should be, but you need to find the pieces and then fit them into a picture that makes sense to the art gallery. Meanwhile, someone else is trying to slap your pieces away and telling the gallery that your picture is crap.
Second, I do not particularly love leaving decisions up to the court. Sometimes the judge just doesn’t like or agree with the picture you’ve painted, even if you did a great job. It’s a hard pill to swallow–especially if you care about your work. And especially if the judge is wrong, which happens to be every time the judge disagrees with me.
Third, in addition to the stress, it can be emotionally taxing to take on another person’s problems. The legal system is so complicated that non-lawyers really have no chance in the courtroom. If you help someone who truly needs representation, you are looking at a year or more of dealing with this person’s problems. If you are not able to approach the work dispassionately, which I was not able to do, you become emotionally invested in the outcome. So, emotionally speaking, the problem in some ways becomes your problem.
Fourth, the money. I was not and have not been able to unlock the door to vast piles of wealth like I thought I would. This runs contrary to what I said in the prior section because being an attorney has provided me with an income I should not complain about. But I thought I would be wealthier.
Some of this is probably my fault. Every time we have a jump in income, we also seem to have a jump in expenses or some other fire that can only be extinguished with money. The first few years it was an economic crash that presented substantial financial strain. After that, it was paying off student loan debt. Once we did that, it was a medical emergency that wasn’t covered by insurance. Then it was a failed real estate move. Another year it was paying to resolve a business dispute. Then it was just bad luck investing in a business growth venture.
This year, 2023, it has been a debacle of car problems. I started the year with four vehicles. I purchased an EV that got in a wreck 6 days later. I was upside down on the loan. Then every other car had substantial mechanical issues. Our family van had three big repairs. We spent a year’s worth of tuition on car repairs.
At 40 years old, I’m not retiring any time soon. Thinking about paying for college, weddings, and all the other things you have to cover is a place my brain doesn’t even want to go to.
So while I shouldn’t complaint about money because I’m objectively very blessed, I thought I would be in a better spot than I am.
Overall assessment
Being an attorney has been decent. I wonder what would have happened had I taken more time to explore interests prior to going to law school. When I look back, I definitely could have been more aggressive in looking for job opportunities. But I can’t go back in time to see how that would have turned out. If you have that ability, please reach out to me.
I don’t tell my kids not to go to law school, but I also don’t tell them that they should. Instead, I tell them that I will support them as much as I can (even as a cheerleader) as they seek out their own path.
If that doesn’t work out for them, there’s always law school.
