| Topic Name: |
Some practical advice please |
| Message Name: |
thanks Gurdonark |
| Date Posted: |
01/09/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I started to write my whole bio, Ollie, but decided that
I can sum it up pretty simply:
I went to law school at a third tier state U. and have spent 17 years in midsize boutiques and small firms.
I thought law school was an absolute blast. I honestly loved every minute of it.
It was hard work, but very interesting.
I thought that the first six years of law practice were very stressful, and that
long hours were required but necessary to learn the trade.
By year seven, one comes to learn that one will never know as much as one wishes one knew, accepts one's limitations, and relaxes and begins to enjoy it. Law practice has always been pretty fun, but the early days were quite demanding.
The money has always ranged from merely good to outright great. I'll never get rich in law, but I have a large home in a nice suburb, time for my wife, cars that are paid for, and a pleasant pension. In short, I live the all-American upper middle class lifestyle.
I had very high grades in law school, but when I look back at all the alums of my school, virtually everyone who wanted to ended up with a good career in law. A good number did other things--a film producer, a person who preferred to be a paralegal,
a real estate person or two.
But by and large, my law school class does not bear out the prophecies of the message board doom and gloomers. A few people did not do well in law, as in most professions, but most did fine.
Here's the thing, though--I think that my law school class produced a good number of comfortable, professional class lawyers, judges and the like. But it did not produce many rich, rich people, nor
many who are captains of the legal profession. But almost everybody made a decent living, and that, frankly, has been fine by me.
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| Message: |
As always, I appreciate your insight and your honesty.
I have been on a mission, for the past year or so, to find my so-called vocation. My life's work. I live a comfortable lifestyle and have found reasonable success in my 3 years out of college, but I have always felt as though something was lacking. I have spent far too much of my time while at work, wishing I was doing anything but what I was doing and have had way too much time to dream about that perfect career.
Well, I know nothing is perfect, but if I can get to where I am happy doing something while realizing success at it - thats good enough for me.
I don't know that I will ever be rich - I don't know that I even want to be. My ambition lies not in reaching a certain salary level, but rather, in leading a balanced life where I can feel good about what I do, be good at what I do, and enjoy what I am doing, while I am doing it. Simply put, I may not want to wake up every morning gunning for the office, but I don't want to live for the weekend and I don't want to loathe myself for selling out.
and so (sorry for the long-windedness), I have come to seriously think about law. I like to think of myself as a reader, a writer, and a half-baked philosopher. An engineer, doctor, or captain of industry I am not.
I know that things will be demanding, especially in those first few years, but i am still young and single and, to be honest, I have had things too easy in life... I want to prove to myself that I can hack it. I also have the feeling that my ambitions will grow as I get older (i am still in that "finding myself" stage) and I think law will provide good opportunities for my ambition's growth.
So, thank you for the encouragement. Every day, it feels more and more like the right thing to do every day. I guess I was looking for someone to say - yeah, you sound like you'll like it. or no, you're just like I was, and i hate it, and here's why.
In the end, I will trust my gut, but I appreciate your wisdom.
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