Hellobee Boards

Yep! I worked in real estate law and all of our attorneys were happy! LOVED working for my old job!

One of our friends is a lawyer in a small firm in Florida, and he's not only happy, but he has great hours and gets home in time for dinner each night! When we heard that, we were like, what?!?!

Do you mean happy in general or happy with their career?

I'm a lawyer (litigator) and I'm a pretty happy person. I work for a medium sized firm that is very family friendly and while sometimes my hours stink, I have a pretty good work life balance.

@mrbee: he's a litigator.

talking to him really made me wish I had considered law school!

My father in law is a criminal defense lawyer and is very happy

I am a happy lawyer! (government attorney)

My husband is a soon-to-be happy lawyer. (Leaving big firm for government work)

I am excited about the extra time DH will have to be home, but I do worry about how the big pay cut will factor in to our overall happiness...

But I am super-optimistic!!!!!! Wish us luck!

I agree with @WinnieBee - I am a litigator and work for a medium size firm that is very family-friendly, and although I still bill a lot of hours, for the most part, I am able to maintain a fairly healthy work-life balance. I will say, however, that the billable hour system is an animal unlike any other(!), and that unless and until you have billed time (with a large annual requirement), there is no way to explain the pressure and stress that comes from working under that system . . . being present just doesn't cut it.

Early in my career, I worked with attorneys who were very unhappy and made the environment toxic. Those were some tough years for me professionally.

@MsLipGloss: DITTO to previously working in a toxic environment. I was not very happy then. Interesting! Hope you are feeling well!!

@WinnieBee: That is interesting! I think it's a huge part of why I appreciate my firm (and the partners I work for) so much now. If things had not changed for me, I would seriously have considered an alternative career post-baby.

I am feeling pretty good - thanks. Hope your beautiful boy is growing like a weed!

I focus mostly in copyrights and trademarks, so while I am an "IP lawyer," I don't make the big bucks that patent attorneys do. I do really love the subject matter of my work, but I wouldn't say I am happy with my current job. Work has been really slow at my firm for the last three years, so it's hard to make my hours and I don't feel as professionally satisfied when I'm not working that much. I guess I'd rather have the stress of too much work than to have the stress of not having a job (or job security). I think I'd be happier at a different firm and a lot happier working as in-house counsel, but I haven't had any luck changing jobs (though I have been trying for well more than a year now). Having said all that, I find myself day-dreaming a lot about leaving law altogether and being a printer or a graphic designer or something.

My husband is a prosecutor and loves his job. He loves that he has a real sense of purpose and that he spends so much time in court. He is in trial nearly back-to-back all the time, and while that kind of workload gives me the hives just to think about, he really enjoys it.

Obviously, many of our friends are attorneys also. Of the ones that got BigLaw jobs upon graduation, five years out, only one remained at that job, out of 11. The others got burned out and went in-house, went to smaller firms, or left practicing law completely. In-house lawyers seem to love their jobs the most.

Hellobee, do you need an in-house lawyer with experience with copyright, trademark, social media and internet issues? ;-D

Our across the street neighbor works at a big firm here and he LOVES his job. He's probably the first lawyer that I've met who can't imagine doing anything else. He was a debate person in college, and I take that as a good prognostic indicator for his happiness in the job!

I work in a big law firm in nyc. My one boss is a huge bankruptcy lawyer and I can never gauge whether or not he's happy. He's definitely happy with his career, but he's the silent type so who knows. My other boss is a partner in trust and estates and he is the most pleasant happiest man. He really enjoys his life and is always talking about his house In the country. I think its what you make of it really. On one hand I'm like how can you not be happy with all the money you have!! And I get that money doesn't buy happiness but it'd sure take away some of my stress.

DH is a happy lawyer! He does social security disability and veteran's benefits cases. He works for a small firm and has a lot of flexibility and balance and no billable hours, and he gets a lot of job satisfaction from helping people who are struggling get the benefits they deserve. It doesn't hurt that he made partner there last summer!

I would argue that one reason lawyers may not be happy is that if you have a lot of student loans, it can be really easy to feel trapped in a job that you hate but you have to stay at in order to pay off the loans. Also, the legal market where I am currently sucks and a lot of attorney friends I know have had a hard time finding stable jobs/careers (so then you're at a job you don't like and barely making enough to cover paying off your loans).

I'm pretty happy in my job, but I don't work at a firm - I'm in house at a start up company.

Also, @mrbee, personally I would never recommend going to law school if you don't want to practice unless you can pay for it without taking out any loans (and also can cover 3 years of not working).

ETA: I just re-read this, and I really didn't mean for this to come across as harsh in anyway - just that I wish someone had told me what the reality of loans would mean after I graduated from law school. And we have double that amount since my husband's an attorney also...

I'm a tax paralegal for a mid-sized Canadian corporate law firm and I can tell you that if all the lawyers I've ever worked for/with (including Wills and Estates, Real Estate and Family lawyers) are any indication then no, none of them are ever happy people.

In corporate law especially (and in really dry areas like tax) I think it's that "grass is always greener" mentality they seem to always have and a lot of them firm jump because of it. Lawyers are in my opinion the most obviously unhappy people when they are unhappy.

One of my senior partners spends his days playing mah-jong online and having naps with his office door open, he just does not care anymore and is counting the days until retirement. The head of our department is always sending out CV's to other firms because he can't seem to figure out it isn't every firm he's ever been to that's making him miserable- it's tax law (and potentially his four ex-wives...).

ETA: I noticed after I posted a lot of the lawyer bees are citing a lack of work as being the issue for a lot of lawyers. Is it safe to assume this is an American Bee problem? My firm has had no problems with hiring bunches of lawyers and bunches of them jumping ship to other firms/companies. Really not an issue for corporate lawyers here in Canada IMO.

I'm a litigator in a mid-size firm in NYC and I'm happy. I enjoy my job because it's challenging but also because I'm treated well. I work a fair number of hours but pretty flexible. I also work from home sometimes. I think it makes a big difference if the people you work with aren't monsters.