CostanzaWallet said:
MW03 said:
What kind of litigation are you in?
I had a very hard time finding a job out of law school (went to Tech, finished at top of class but couldn't find a job for the life of me for some reason). I still didn't have a job after I took the bar, but I had a friend at an insurance defense firm in Austin that reached out to me. Insurance defense was about the last thing I thought I wanted to do, but I also didn't want to be one those post-law school saps that moves back in with their parents so I took the job.
I figured out after about 6 months that I didn't have the stomach for it and became really jaded on the legal profession due to the waste and inefficiency I saw. Plaintiff's firms just file as many cases as possible, and those insurance defense firms just bill as much as possible. The partners don't have an earthly clue what is going on in the cases, so I taught myself everything. (I actually had a buddy start at a pretty well respected insurance defense firm in Dallas be told on his first day of work as a lawyer that he should be in the office for 8 hours a day but bill 10 to 10.5 during that time. So much for the noble profession BS they harp on in law school.)
I thought I would like it better if I got to a different firm, so I got a job with a construction litigation firm in Dallas. It has been a lot better than my last job and the partners are much more engaged. Even so, it is still fundamentally the same thing over and over again. We represent sureties so the cycle goes like this: construction project goes bad, owners or subs make claims on performance or payment bond, we fight about/ pay those claims for a few years and rack up loss and attorneys' fees, then we turn around and sue the bond principal under their indemnity agreement. I sit at my desk every day and crank out the same type documents over and over. I have handled 1 substantive hearing in 4 years (and I get very good feedback and they tell me I perform like a much older lawyer, meaning that I feel I'm doing everything I can do to be entrusted with more). I have taken one deposition in 4 years.
I just can't see myself becoming a partner at this firm and still be looking at the exact same stuff in 20-25 years.
Sorry for the long rant. I really do work hard and do my best to be a great employee, but I'm just ready to find something else.
It sounds like you know yourself pretty well, which is an excellent start. You're also young enough not to be pigeon-holed to the point where "starting over" in a new area of the law would set you back that much in terms of salary. It's an easier decision 2 years in, less so 4 years in but still relatively easy, and near impossible 10+ years in.
I want to encourage you to follow your gut, but with a couple of important caveats.
First, be mindful of your finances and your obligations. As Seneca wrote 2000 years ago, "If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable." Looking for work you're passionate about it a worthy pursuit, but it has to be tempered by what you owe others. And I'm not just talking about money lenders. I'm also talking about your parents and your partner, and of course any dependents you might have. By the way, your face time with those people is valuable as well, and evaluating what you gain there compared to being in your office chair is also part of the tempering process.
Second, I'd offer that while you can find passion in your work, that is an exception to the rule from my experiences. Lawyers, by nature, are driven, Type A people. Litigators especially so. We're also used to being tested and excelling at those tests. At some point, the testing stops and the work begins, and I think everyone fears waking up and being 50 and unhappy. We all glorify what we do a little too much. We go to school prepared to be excellent, then have altruistic dreams of changing the world or putting away drug lords or whatever. Then, that first student loan payment comes due. Next thing you know, a number of years have gone by and you're miles away from where you thought you would be. Everything feels rote. Everything feels routine. But to a certain extent, that is the professional life, whether it's a general practitioner treating the same cold symptoms every October or the general contractor watching concrete poured at the same mini-mall he's built 100 times. That's why we all have an obligation to ourselves to make our lives mean more than our paychecks. Whether that's Church or friends or kids or hobbies or volunteering or whatever. You have to be vigilant to look for passion outside work at least as much - if not more so - than you do at work.
However...
Life is too short to be miserable 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Like I said above before I started rambling, you sound like a person who knows themselves pretty well, and that's invaluable. Your instincts, if measured and evaluated the right way, are as valuable as any advice anyone can give you.
So I'm going to go back to Seneca for my last thought on the matter: "True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man; to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient."
End diatribe.
). 2) hang a shingle; 3) leave law practice entirely to something else. 
