Hellobee Boards

So...DH is an attorney and I'll share what would be his feedback:

If you practice law, what area are you in? White Collar Criminal Defense

Are you happy with your specialty? Do you wish you had focused on another area of law? Yes - no other specialty he would have chosen.

Do you enjoy being an attorney? No. Right now he is struggling with it being a very thankless job dealing with clients. His last two cases, he got the people significantly reduced sentences/punishments and they still were irate with him and downright rude (threatening to not pay). One guy was facing 20+ years and they got him 18 mos in a medical facility...all the guy can focus on is that he is still going to "prison" and losing his professional license. He really struggles with the lack of people owning their actions. He is only 5 years in - so I am thinking he still needs to develop the thick skin to handle these pieces of it.

I practice civil litigation.

I am happy with my speciality, although I think I may eventually do something more in the public interest. When I started I did more plaintiff's side work, now I do more defence. I like defence a lot better - plaintiffs are never happy no matter what you do.

I like being a lawyer, I always have. I have had bad jobs, but I still liked being a lawyer. Now I have a great job that is really flexible so I can take care of our littles the way I want to and still be working!

Double attorney family over here (yep we are super boring).

If you practice law, what area are you in?

I work as a legislative attorney writing bill language and working as legal counsel for the state legislature. My husband is a patent attorney and business law professor.

Are you happy with your specialty? Do you wish you had focused on another area of law?

Law is a second career for both DH and I. Because we did other things for several years before going to law school we picked our areas very carefully. I had a background in politics in Washington and DH was an engineer in the military so our areas of law had relevance to our legal careers. I specifically sought out my job because working for the state would give me a quality of life I never had working in politics full time but still use all my knowledge and skills. Aside from two or three busy periods a year I go home at 5pm, and I'm currently on a one year maternity leave (granted it's largely unpaid), and will be able to go back to work part time. I also get great benefits. The trade off is I make a fraction of what my other lawyer friends make but I knew that.

DH runs his own patent firm and he loves the autonomy of that and being able to work from home and be present for our son during during the day for much of the week. He also went into this specific area of the law to use his undergraduate degree and because he loves the law in general. He's a total law geek which also makes him perfect for teaching at the college level because he really likes being social and interacting and teaching complicated concepts..

Do you enjoy being an attorney?

I have a tough time with this question. I knew doing what I did before law school I wouldn't be able to have a normal family life. Work hours were 80-100 hours a week, totally unpredictable, events every night of the week, constant job changes, stress, and being at the beck and call of others day and night. Add that to the cost of living in Washington and how we would both have to work crazy hours I just didn't see how that would work. So I may be the only person who went to law school to work less and make less money but here I am. I don't enjoy the law like my husband but I am doing the only job I would realistically do as a career in law and I'm good at it. Also my loans are almost paid off but I felt less great about it when we started paying them off! And ditto to nutso clients but that's what being an attorney is - customer service. It's not a high power gig like people think - we serve our clients.

DH absolutely loves everything about what he does aside from dealing with a lot of crazy clients also, especially because he gets to do both practice and teach. He had massive loans coming out of law school but doesn't regret a penny of it. He loves having his own business and loves teaching business law - so much so he's getting his executive MBA now! I told him he's done after this degree!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

@My Only Sunshine: Ditto the billable hours comment. DH gripes about this all the time...he actually uses the same term "soul sucking"

I didnt even mention hos stressful his student loans are....but thats a whole different topic!

@gingerbebe: DH is an attorney, I am an auditor - we're like that couple people wont talk to at parties!

I'm not a lawyer but my entire team is. I work in intellectual property. I hate it! My coworkers all love it, though! It provides a good work life balance because we're at a large corporation that farms out the applications and such to firms

@gingerbebe: Oh man I hate when I get asked for random legal advice! I do medical malpractice defense litigation - I really probably can't answer your question about your aunt's will or your stepson's DUI or whatever.

@Mrs D: my husband is an attorney, and I used to work in tax policy, so we were that couple too. Now I SAH so they just talk to DH instead, haha.

I work for a nonprofit (legal aid). I do mostly health and benefits related work (Social Security, healthcare, unemployment, etc). Most of what I do is administrative-type law, not litigation. The salary sucks, but no billable hours, I get a good amount of vacation time, and they are definitely flexible if I need to leave early or whatever. And I work pretty much just 9 to 5, occasionally a Saturday if I am overwhelmed.

It is extremely client heavy work and my clients as a whole live in extreme poverty, many are sick, many have chronic mental illness and psychiatric issues. I don't do much litigation so I spend most of my days on the phone with my clients, meeting with them, etc. and it takes a lot of patience and empathy. The skills that I use every day are very different than what most lawyers do, I think. I spend a lot of time explaining extremely complex things (Medicaid, SS regs, etc) to clients who have comprehension barriers, language barriers, etc. and are often in very sad situations.

Overall, I like it because I think I'm good at it. I would be MISERABLE in private practice and have no desire to ever do that. That being said, it's extremely draining and I find myself tending toward burnout frequently just because of the high emotional toll it takes dealing with my clients. But I am also very passionate about poverty and political issues so I get a lot out of it.

It is also tough working in a resource-limited environment. We always have more clients than we can help, not enough lawyers, not enough support staff, technology that doesn't work half the time, not enough office space (and office space in bad shape) and the constant threat of Congress cutting our funding.

I can't imagine working in another legal specialty - if I did, it would probably be for in a governmental/nonprofit role. I have no desire to go into private practice and deal with that, it is not for me.

I don't regret becoming a lawyer, but if I had to go back and do it again I may have chosen something else. I think I could probably be equally happy and content doing something like teaching or social work.