Cried for first time at work Forum

[kd5]

I've cried at my BigLaw job three times since I started two months ago. However, the crying doesn't happen at work UNLESS someone is nice to me in the moment or immediate aftermath of something stressful. So I basically just pray that no one expresses sympathy or concern, stands up for me, or otherwise tries to comfort me, because unless that happens, I'm fine!

Thank god they give first year associates offices with doors.

[ft8fc]

For those who have not cried recently, one option you have is to watch the following new movie:

Big Hero 6

ALL the audience sitting with me tonight cried, young or old, male or female, native or foreign.

Warning to ladies: your make-up will be ruined in the end. Bring some tissues with you.

[Anonymous User]

[removed]

[Manhattan]

I'm a female biglaw lit associate (soon to be senior associate) and former PD. I have never cried in biglaw and, with the benefit of my PD experience, frankly have a perspective where I might not ever end up crying because the stakes feel so manageable in biglaw. You've got serious money on the line, demanding clients, demanding partners, egos, aggression, screamers, long hours, limited sleep, poor work-life balance. Stressful, sure. But frankly, when you've worked capital cases it puts the biglaw stress in perspective. I did cry when I did capital work with its exposure to unrelenting tragedy. Your cases have murder, rape, and assault issues, and exposure to all of the trauma that victims and their families experienced; your clients have their own horrific tales of abuse, trauma, and even torture that they experienced from a young age; you deal with the stress and anger of people who were victims of severe crimes and people under sentences of death, all while severely overworked and severely undercompensated, all while powerless to actually FIX any of the unfixable wrongs of capital cases to which you're constantly exposed. I don't know how you do it and not cry. I definitely knew male capital defenders and prosecutors who cried, too.

Coming off that work...it's just easy not to get fazed by BigLaw. All-nighter in cushy office on non-emotionally toxic legal problem while being well-paid, with a firm-sponsored ride afterwards and with free dinner delivered? No big deal. Partner yelling because the bill is ten hours too high? I can handle it; no one got stabbed. Client calls Friday at 5 and needs something turned around by Saturday evening, wrecking the Saturday full-day outing I had planned? Irritating, sure, but the client isn't threatening to (literally) kill me, is generally a rational actor with whom I can have reasonable conversations about their case, and is paying me fairly for my time.

So yeah, I don't cry, but not because (as someone implied upthread of those who don't cry in BigLaw) I don't have a soul. I just know what it is to do soul-searing and tear-inducing work, and coming off that, BigLaw feels like a massive emotional reprieve.

That's because you have yet to realize that corporations are actually people too. Once you realize that there is no difference between a couple getting a divorce and a joint venture going awry, or a person getting assaulted and a company undergoing a leveraged buyout, you will start crying as a corporate lawyer too.

[180kickflip]

I'm a female biglaw lit associate (soon to be senior associate) and former PD. I have never cried in biglaw and, with the benefit of my PD experience, frankly have a perspective where I might not ever end up crying because the stakes feel so manageable in biglaw. You've got serious money on the line, demanding clients, demanding partners, egos, aggression, screamers, long hours, limited sleep, poor work-life balance. Stressful, sure. But frankly, when you've worked capital cases it puts the biglaw stress in perspective. I did cry when I did capital work with its exposure to unrelenting tragedy. Your cases have murder, rape, and assault issues, and exposure to all of the trauma that victims and their families experienced; your clients have their own horrific tales of abuse, trauma, and even torture that they experienced from a young age; you deal with the stress and anger of people who were victims of severe crimes and people under sentences of death, all while severely overworked and severely undercompensated, all while powerless to actually FIX any of the unfixable wrongs of capital cases to which you're constantly exposed. I don't know how you do it and not cry. I definitely knew male capital defenders and prosecutors who cried, too.

Coming off that work...it's just easy not to get fazed by BigLaw. All-nighter in cushy office on non-emotionally toxic legal problem while being well-paid, with a firm-sponsored ride afterwards and with free dinner delivered? No big deal. Partner yelling because the bill is ten hours too high? I can handle it; no one got stabbed. Client calls Friday at 5 and needs something turned around by Saturday evening, wrecking the Saturday full-day outing I had planned? Irritating, sure, but the client isn't threatening to (literally) kill me, is generally a rational actor with whom I can have reasonable conversations about their case, and is paying me fairly for my time.

So yeah, I don't cry, but not because (as someone implied upthread of those who don't cry in BigLaw) I don't have a soul. I just know what it is to do soul-searing and tear-inducing work, and coming off that, BigLaw feels like a massive emotional reprieve.

That's because you have yet to realize that corporations are actually people too. Once you realize that there is no difference between a couple getting a divorce and a joint venture going awry, or a person getting assaulted and a company undergoing a leveraged buyout, you will start crying as a corporate lawyer too.

Are you really saying that ventures going awry and leveraged buyouts have the same impact on people as murders, rapes, and life sentences? People post some off the wall stuff on here sometimes, but that's just crazy. I don't think you would say anything anywhere close to that if you actually knew someone who was murdered, raped, or was in prison over 10 years. Companies can die and come back. People can't.

[TTTooKewl]

I'm a female biglaw lit associate (soon to be senior associate) and former PD. I have never cried in biglaw and, with the benefit of my PD experience, frankly have a perspective where I might not ever end up crying because the stakes feel so manageable in biglaw. You've got serious money on the line, demanding clients, demanding partners, egos, aggression, screamers, long hours, limited sleep, poor work-life balance. Stressful, sure. But frankly, when you've worked capital cases it puts the biglaw stress in perspective. I did cry when I did capital work with its exposure to unrelenting tragedy. Your cases have murder, rape, and assault issues, and exposure to all of the trauma that victims and their families experienced; your clients have their own horrific tales of abuse, trauma, and even torture that they experienced from a young age; you deal with the stress and anger of people who were victims of severe crimes and people under sentences of death, all while severely overworked and severely undercompensated, all while powerless to actually FIX any of the unfixable wrongs of capital cases to which you're constantly exposed. I don't know how you do it and not cry. I definitely knew male capital defenders and prosecutors who cried, too.

Coming off that work...it's just easy not to get fazed by BigLaw. All-nighter in cushy office on non-emotionally toxic legal problem while being well-paid, with a firm-sponsored ride afterwards and with free dinner delivered? No big deal. Partner yelling because the bill is ten hours too high? I can handle it; no one got stabbed. Client calls Friday at 5 and needs something turned around by Saturday evening, wrecking the Saturday full-day outing I had planned? Irritating, sure, but the client isn't threatening to (literally) kill me, is generally a rational actor with whom I can have reasonable conversations about their case, and is paying me fairly for my time.

So yeah, I don't cry, but not because (as someone implied upthread of those who don't cry in BigLaw) I don't have a soul. I just know what it is to do soul-searing and tear-inducing work, and coming off that, BigLaw feels like a massive emotional reprieve.

That's because you have yet to realize that corporations are actually people too. Once you realize that there is no difference between a couple getting a divorce and a joint venture going awry, or a person getting assaulted and a company undergoing a leveraged buyout, you will start crying as a corporate lawyer too.

Are you really saying that ventures going awry and leveraged buyouts have the same impact on people as murders, rapes, and life sentences? People post some off the wall stuff on here sometimes, but that's just crazy. I don't think you would say anything anywhere close to that if you actually knew someone who was murdered, raped, or was in prison over 10 years. Companies can die and come back. People can't.

*Whoosh*

[Dany]

I'm a female biglaw lit associate (soon to be senior associate) and former PD. I have never cried in biglaw and, with the benefit of my PD experience, frankly have a perspective where I might not ever end up crying because the stakes feel so manageable in biglaw. You've got serious money on the line, demanding clients, demanding partners, egos, aggression, screamers, long hours, limited sleep, poor work-life balance. Stressful, sure. But frankly, when you've worked capital cases it puts the biglaw stress in perspective. I did cry when I did capital work with its exposure to unrelenting tragedy. Your cases have murder, rape, and assault issues, and exposure to all of the trauma that victims and their families experienced; your clients have their own horrific tales of abuse, trauma, and even torture that they experienced from a young age; you deal with the stress and anger of people who were victims of severe crimes and people under sentences of death, all while severely overworked and severely undercompensated, all while powerless to actually FIX any of the unfixable wrongs of capital cases to which you're constantly exposed. I don't know how you do it and not cry. I definitely knew male capital defenders and prosecutors who cried, too.

Coming off that work...it's just easy not to get fazed by BigLaw. All-nighter in cushy office on non-emotionally toxic legal problem while being well-paid, with a firm-sponsored ride afterwards and with free dinner delivered? No big deal. Partner yelling because the bill is ten hours too high? I can handle it; no one got stabbed. Client calls Friday at 5 and needs something turned around by Saturday evening, wrecking the Saturday full-day outing I had planned? Irritating, sure, but the client isn't threatening to (literally) kill me, is generally a rational actor with whom I can have reasonable conversations about their case, and is paying me fairly for my time.

So yeah, I don't cry, but not because (as someone implied upthread of those who don't cry in BigLaw) I don't have a soul. I just know what it is to do soul-searing and tear-inducing work, and coming off that, BigLaw feels like a massive emotional reprieve.

That's because you have yet to realize that corporations are actually people too. Once you realize that there is no difference between a couple getting a divorce and a joint venture going awry, or a person getting assaulted and a company undergoing a leveraged buyout, you will start crying as a corporate lawyer too.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a female biglaw lit associate (soon to be senior associate) and former PD. I have never cried in biglaw and, with the benefit of my PD experience, frankly have a perspective where I might not ever end up crying because the stakes feel so manageable in biglaw. You've got serious money on the line, demanding clients, demanding partners, egos, aggression, screamers, long hours, limited sleep, poor work-life balance. Stressful, sure. But frankly, when you've worked capital cases it puts the biglaw stress in perspective. I did cry when I did capital work with its exposure to unrelenting tragedy. Your cases have murder, rape, and assault issues, and exposure to all of the trauma that victims and their families experienced; your clients have their own horrific tales of abuse, trauma, and even torture that they experienced from a young age; you deal with the stress and anger of people who were victims of severe crimes and people under sentences of death, all while severely overworked and severely undercompensated, all while powerless to actually FIX any of the unfixable wrongs of capital cases to which you're constantly exposed. I don't know how you do it and not cry. I definitely knew male capital defenders and prosecutors who cried, too.

Coming off that work...it's just easy not to get fazed by BigLaw. All-nighter in cushy office on non-emotionally toxic legal problem while being well-paid, with a firm-sponsored ride afterwards and with free dinner delivered? No big deal. Partner yelling because the bill is ten hours too high? I can handle it; no one got stabbed. Client calls Friday at 5 and needs something turned around by Saturday evening, wrecking the Saturday full-day outing I had planned? Irritating, sure, but the client isn't threatening to (literally) kill me, is generally a rational actor with whom I can have reasonable conversations about their case, and is paying me fairly for my time.

So yeah, I don't cry, but not because (as someone implied upthread of those who don't cry in BigLaw) I don't have a soul. I just know what it is to do soul-searing and tear-inducing work, and coming off that, BigLaw feels like a massive emotional reprieve.

Eh, 95% of my felony defendants are terrible people. I represent them consistent with my ethical duties and to the best of my abilities, but I don't lose sleep over it when they get locked up.

Maybe once a month or two I have a client who is sympathetic, but most of the sympathetic clients are also guilty, so it's not exactly tear-jerking. It would seem, for lack of a better word, naive to cry about their cases. Then again, I'm not female.

[Anonymous User]

.

[Manhattan]

Female ex-capital defender here. First off, you don't identify yourself as working on homicide cases. Quite frankly, other felonies - no matter how serious the harm, and many are quite grave - are simply qualitatively different than murder and don't evoke the same depth of emotion. So I'd first say that it's naive to generalize experience working on non-homicide cases to the homicide context.

Second, whether or not you have homicide experience, you totally misread my post - and with sexist undertones, at that. I did not say I was crying because I thought that all of my clients were amazing and wonderfully sympathetic and I lost sleep at night because they were locked up. If you are an attorney who works on capital cases, and who cries from time to time to release emotion, the crying could have been prompted by a range of emotions, such as the emotions you feel when:
- Being physically threatened (or worse) by clients for whom you have been working your hardest
- Seeing young children wrestle with their parents (usually fathers) being on death row and their fears that their parent may be executed
- Speaking with guards haunted by their participation in prior executions
- Watching a client be executed or supporting colleagues who have watched a client die right in front of them
- Listening to victims' family members speak of the ongoing pain that their loved one's loss has caused (just because you do defense work does not mean you stop being human/being affected by hearing this)
- Confronting the often extremely graphic physical evidence related to the victim's pain and suffering before death (ditto)
- Interviewing non-capital prior victims of your client (e.g., victims of rapes or serious assaults) and hearing the trauma they underwent
- Learning of the severe abuse that your client and his siblings suffered as young, innocent children (whether or not the adult client is sympathetic, at some young enough age he was, and capital mitigation cases require you to trace all the way back to birth (and before)); often you learn of this in part through his siblings, and watch them relive their trauma

And so on. If you have any experience with these kinds of realities of capital defense work, your post certainly does not suggest it.

Wait... just to confirm, which of the things in your list are you suggesting that a normal person would cry over?

[fats provolone]

if you fuck up your client's deal in capital markets, you'll never hear the end of it.

if you fuck up your client's case in capital defense, you'll never hear from them again.

[Anonymous User]

.

[Manhattan]

Wait... just to confirm, which of the things in your list are you suggesting that a normal person would cry over?

Based on your previous post about corporations, you seem to be trolling on this topic. But to the extent you're serious: there is no "normal" in the world of capital defense. The whole thing is through the looking glass, and everyone's emotions routinely run high. "Normal people" do not have conversations about what a victim's stomach contents at an autopsy indicate about time of death, fly across the country to knock on the door cold of a longlost relative of their client who last saw him when he was six (or a juror, or a victim's family member who might be willing to paint the victim's interactions with the defendant in a defense-friendly light), discuss lividity and rigor mortis timeframes over lunch, or attend executions, so what "normal people" would or would not cry about is really irrelevant in a capital context.

I take offense at that notion. Corporate lawyers have to examine the remains of dead or dying companies just like capital defenders have to deal with the autopsies of their clients' victims. If you think death is something peculiar to capital defenders, you might be surprised to know that we all die a little more each day.

[BVest]

Question for men: can you cry? I don't think I've cried in at least 5 years, even when things get really bad. Maybe something is wrong with me.

Yes, but not for school or for work -- friends died, dog died, child hospitalized, and sappy movies (feature film or viral video). I've felt like crying for work though (last I can remember was situation that considering dropping a (non-law) client in prior career that made up 25% of my business; oh, and I almost cried once after I made my secretary cry once).

Have you tried the various "guaranteed to make you cry"/"cry challenge" playlists on youtube?

[BeenDidThat]

Wait... just to confirm, which of the things in your list are you suggesting that a normal person would cry over?

Based on your previous post about corporations, you seem to be trolling on this topic. But to the extent you're serious: there is no "normal" in the world of capital defense. The whole thing is through the looking glass, and everyone's emotions routinely run high. "Normal people" do not have conversations about what a victim's stomach contents at an autopsy indicate about time of death, fly across the country to knock on the door cold of a longlost relative of their client who last saw him when he was six (or a juror, or a victim's family member who might be willing to paint the victim's interactions with the defendant in a defense-friendly light), discuss lividity and rigor mortis timeframes over lunch, or attend executions, so what "normal people" would or would not cry about is really irrelevant in a capital context.

I take offense at that notion. Corporate lawyers have to examine the remains of dead or dying companies just like capital defenders have to deal with the autopsies of their clients' victims. If you think death is something peculiar to capital defenders, you might be surprised to know that we all die a little more each day.

Yuppppp; definitely trolling. Not a bad troll either.

[Anonymous User]

Female ex-capital defender here. First off, you don't identify yourself as working on homicide cases. Quite frankly, other felonies - no matter how serious the harm, and many are quite grave - are simply qualitatively different than murder and don't evoke the same depth of emotion. So I'd first say that it's naive to generalize experience working on non-homicide cases to the homicide context.

Second, whether or not you have homicide experience, you totally misread my post - and with sexist undertones, at that. I did not say I was crying because I thought that all of my clients were amazing and wonderfully sympathetic and I lost sleep at night because they were locked up. If you are an attorney who works on capital cases, and who cries from time to time to release emotion, the crying could have been prompted by a range of emotions, such as the emotions you feel when:
- Being physically threatened (or worse) by clients for whom you have been working your hardest
- Seeing young children wrestle with their parents (usually fathers) being on death row and their fears that their parent may be executed
- Speaking with guards haunted by their participation in prior executions
- Watching a client be executed or supporting colleagues who have watched a client die right in front of them
- Listening to victims' family members speak of the ongoing pain that their loved one's loss has caused (just because you do defense work does not mean you stop being human/being affected by hearing this)
- Confronting the often extremely graphic physical evidence related to the victim's pain and suffering before death (ditto)
- Interviewing non-capital prior victims of your client (e.g., victims of rapes or serious assaults) and hearing the trauma they underwent
- Learning of the severe abuse that your client and his siblings suffered as young, innocent children (whether or not the adult client is sympathetic, at some young enough age he was, and capital mitigation cases require you to trace all the way back to birth (and before)); often you learn of this in part through his siblings, and watch them relive their trauma

And so on. If you have any experience with these kinds of realities of capital defense work, your post certainly does not suggest it.

Other anon. Murder and capital cases may be different, but the same could be said of sexual abuse and child abuse.

I've had nasty cases, yes, including one on the national news involving the kidnapping and murder of my client's child. This type of thing, to varying degrees of heinousness, happens all the time in every state in the country. It doesn't make me a sociopath that I accept that reality and don't cry every time I see, hear, or talk to someone with a sad story.

There is a thing called "compassion fatigue." I acknowledge that it's a real thing, as I did have one thing that had a significant effect on me: prosecuting federal child porn cases, which I think is more difficult than murder or capital cases despite your obstinate protestations. Anyway, you sound like one of the people that is particularly susceptible to compassion fatigue. That's fine, but you should get help on that front instead of nonsensically lashing out at other attorneys who disagree with you.

As to this crap about YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND IF YOU DON'T DO CAPITAL CASES: please. I'm a combat vet; don't give me that shit. A lot of us saw and experienced much, much worse shit than you and handled it far better than you're handling your experiences. That's why I find your posts intolerable -- well, that and the condescending, special snowflake tone.

And if you must know, the answer is no, I don't do capital cases. My state doesn't have the death penalty, and I rarely take federal cases. But I'm fairly certain, based on past experience, that I wouldn't lose sleep over them. On the other hand, I do recognize that we're all different. What I'm saying is that you're not going to get any sympathy from me, but you should see a professional if this shit is bothering you, and give up the high horse routine about how tough your job is and about how you wouldn't understand, guise.

[Poopface]

Ain't no cryin in biglaw.

Disagree. Every female big lawyer I know with a soul has cried. Multiple times.

ditto. every female associate i know at my firm has cried at least once.

fuckin women...so damn emotional

[fats provolone]

Female ex-capital defender here. First off, you don't identify yourself as working on homicide cases. Quite frankly, other felonies - no matter how serious the harm, and many are quite grave - are simply qualitatively different than murder and don't evoke the same depth of emotion. So I'd first say that it's naive to generalize experience working on non-homicide cases to the homicide context.

Second, whether or not you have homicide experience, you totally misread my post - and with sexist undertones, at that. I did not say I was crying because I thought that all of my clients were amazing and wonderfully sympathetic and I lost sleep at night because they were locked up. If you are an attorney who works on capital cases, and who cries from time to time to release emotion, the crying could have been prompted by a range of emotions, such as the emotions you feel when:
- Being physically threatened (or worse) by clients for whom you have been working your hardest
- Seeing young children wrestle with their parents (usually fathers) being on death row and their fears that their parent may be executed
- Speaking with guards haunted by their participation in prior executions
- Watching a client be executed or supporting colleagues who have watched a client die right in front of them
- Listening to victims' family members speak of the ongoing pain that their loved one's loss has caused (just because you do defense work does not mean you stop being human/being affected by hearing this)
- Confronting the often extremely graphic physical evidence related to the victim's pain and suffering before death (ditto)
- Interviewing non-capital prior victims of your client (e.g., victims of rapes or serious assaults) and hearing the trauma they underwent
- Learning of the severe abuse that your client and his siblings suffered as young, innocent children (whether or not the adult client is sympathetic, at some young enough age he was, and capital mitigation cases require you to trace all the way back to birth (and before)); often you learn of this in part through his siblings, and watch them relive their trauma

And so on. If you have any experience with these kinds of realities of capital defense work, your post certainly does not suggest it.

Other anon. Murder and capital cases may be different, but the same could be said of sexual abuse and child abuse.

I've had nasty cases, yes, including one on the national news involving the kidnapping and murder of my client's child. This type of thing, to varying degrees of heinousness, happens all the time in every state in the country. It doesn't make me a sociopath that I accept that reality and don't cry every time I see, hear, or talk to someone with a sad story.

There is a thing called "compassion fatigue." I acknowledge that it's a real thing, as I did have one thing that had a significant effect on me: prosecuting federal child porn cases, which I think is more difficult than murder or capital cases despite your obstinate protestations. Anyway, you sound like one of the people that is particularly susceptible to compassion fatigue. That's fine, but you should get help on that front instead of nonsensically lashing out at other attorneys who disagree with you.

As to this crap about YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND IF YOU DON'T DO CAPITAL CASES: please. I'm a combat vet; don't give me that shit. A lot of us saw and experienced much, much worse shit than you and handled it far better than you're handling your experiences. That's why I find your posts intolerable -- well, that and the condescending, special snowflake tone.

And if you must know, the answer is no, I don't do capital cases. My state doesn't have the death penalty, and I rarely take federal cases. But I'm fairly certain, based on past experience, that I wouldn't lose sleep over them. On the other hand, I do recognize that we're all different. What I'm saying is that you're not going to get any sympathy from me, but you should see a professional if this shit is bothering you, and give up the high horse routine about how tough your job is and about how you wouldn't understand, guise.

Female ex-Al Qaeda recruiter here. First off, you don't identify yourself as working in terrorism. Quite frankly, other war crimes - no matter how serious the harm, and many are quite grave - are simply qualitatively different than terrorism and don't evoke the same depth of emotion. So I'd first say that it's naive to generalize experience working on non-terrorism warring to the terrorist context.

Second, whether or not you have terrorism experience, you totally misread my post - and with sexist undertones, at that. I did not say I was crying because I thought that all of my recruits were amazing and wonderfully sympathetic and I lost sleep at night because they were blown up. If you are a soldier who works on terrorist bombing, and who cries from time to time to release emotion, the crying could have been prompted by a range of emotions, such as the emotions you feel when:
- The eight year old you just strapped twenty pounds of PET to asks why his superhero vest is so heavy
- Strapping some poor Syrian dude to the bottom of a sheep and sending him across the border to "fight the holy war"
- The sleeper cell you placed in the white house fails to detonate his suicide vest in a bunker with the president
- A fleet of flying death robots has standing orders to kill you, and, just to be safe, anyone who looks like they might know you
- You practiced sewing for years and every masterpiece suicide vest you create just gets incinerated
- You can't even go to the market to get groceries any more because you can't remember where you put the IEDs
- You have to clean your hijab every time you cry because the inside of the face-covering hood you're required to wear 24/7 gets salty

And so on. If you have any experience with these kinds of realities of terrorist work, your post certainly does not suggest it.

[Anonymous User]

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[fats provolone]

i'm torn because crying public defender anon seems really insufferable but angry veteran anon originally posted about shooting dudes in the face and not giving a fuck before editing it out so i feel like he's kind of a pussy. also veterans in general are just the worst. but it is veterans day so i will give him the benefit of the doubt.

[GOATlawman]

i'm torn because crying public defender anon seems really insufferable but angry veteran anon originally posted about shooting dudes in the face and not giving a fuck before editing it out so i feel like he's kind of a pussy. also veterans in general are just the worst. but it is veterans day so i will give him the benefit of the doubt.

180

[SemperLegal]

I, for one, welcome our new nautical avian overlord.

[Anonymous User]

So you haven't worked on capital cases, but you are prepared to rank cases with which you have no experience against other types of felonies in emotional difficulty, while calling other people naive for describing the realities of the work they have actually done. Got it.

Yes, I am prepared to say that working a capital case (as in a case where your client receives the death penalty; I HAVE worked murders and kidnappings) is no more emotionally draining than (1) watching videos of little kids getting raped and (2) shooting a guy in the face with a machine gun. I say that despite the fact that, as you gleefully point out, I have never worked a capital case. Your indignation at that sums up why multiple people in this thread find your posts insufferable.

[Anonymous User]

[removed]

[Anonymous User]

I'm not indignant about your not having worked capital cases. I'm indignant about the fact that you are making all sorts of judgments about what kinds of emotional reactions are reasonable to have when working capital cases, when you have never worked a capital case. But if you indeed "don't give a f*ck" about shooting people in the face, then I agree with you that you are unlikely to have a strong emotional reaction to the many tragedies inherent in capital cases.

"Objection, your honor, that fats provolone stuff is inadmissible hearsay."

What I said is not exactly what Fats said, but based on my experiences along with at least a moderate level of emotional maturity, I'd be exceedingly unlikely to suffer a strong emotional reaction to the *cue sad music* "many tragedies inherent in capital cases."

I've also never worked in traffic court, but I'm going to wager that it's not as emotionally draining as combat. To argue I am not qualified to make that judgment because I haven't served in traffic court is to, well, sound as ridiculous as you're sounding right now.

To attempt to make this thread at least a tiny bit relevant to the two or three people still trying to read it: at least when you whine about your job to other people, they are all like OH MY GOD THAT SOUNDS SO TERRIBLE, which is obviously what you're after. When someone in biglaw complains about his job, people are like, "Don't you get paid a ton of money? Besides, it can't be that bad, it's not like you're in combat defending CAPITAL CASES." But really, I'd rather watch felons get punished all day and work < 50 hours a week than work in biglaw.

Most importantly, I want to take today to thank you for your service on the front lines of felony criminal defense, homegirl. You should get a free shitty dinner at Applebees or something.