the Zealous

r/lawyertalk post 29.06.22 by reddituser atyl1144:

Does anyone regret going to law school?

I think I made a bad choice. I was one of those "I didn't become a doctor like my mom wanted so I guess I'll go to law school" types. Young and naive and too status conscious. I made it into a top law school, took the CA bar once, failed and never tried again cuz I wasn't inspired. I'm sooo not a good fit for law. I like careers with flexibility, movement, team work, creativity, playfulness. I was playful and goofy in law school and people thought I was a weirdo. I have a really hard time sitting for hours reading and writing. I fit in better with actors, but of course I can't make a decent living in acting (I've done student films and community theater). So I'm poor with a law degree now.

comment 29.06.22 by codker92:

Being a lawyer is badass.

The Lawyers’ Ways
by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

I've been list'nin' to them lawyers
In the court house up the street,
An' I've come to the conclusion
That I'm most completely beat.

Reflections on the billable hour, from Tim Harford in a piece entitled, The billable hour is a trap into which more and more of us are falling:

Twenty years ago, M Cathleen Kaveny, a professor of law and theology, began an article with the observation that “Many lawyers are very unhappy, particularly lawyers who work in big firms. They may be rich, and getting even richer, but they are also miserable, or so they say.” Was this sad state of affairs caused by long hours or stressful work? Perhaps.

But Kaveny identified a more specific culprit: the “billable hour” — or even more precisely, the billable six-minute increment. By accounting for every moment of their working lives, and defining each moment as either “billable” or, regrettably, “non-billable”, lawyers were being tugged inexorably towards an unhappy, unhealthy attitude to the way they spent their time. ….

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