Should I just give up on law? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm was let go from my first job out of law school in January. It was a very small law firm (2 partners, 2 attorneys) with alot of dysfunction. As far as I know I was let go because the partners decided to restructure and, although I was given a raise, bonus and positive performance review and promised that I would go with one partner, the first month that partner became 100% responsible for my salary he let me go. I was assured that it wasn't anything I did, just the restructuring, which didn't surprise me; billables were abysmal for both me and the more senior associate and we had to drop a client the week before due to a very large outstanding invoice. I was relieved to be out. But things got messy because they wanted me to tell people I had resigned and take on new projects during my last two weeks with the firm, although they refused to give me a severance package. When I told them I did not feel comfortable doing this, they refused to give me a recommendation.
Although I am happy to no longer be there, the last few months of job searching have been tough. I am in a smaller market, went to a T20 school in that market and graduated with pretty average grades. I went to a great undergrad and had great grades there and had pretty solid work experience for a few years before law school and during law school. But, even when I apply to places where I meet all the job description requirements and have connections with people making hiring decisions I don't get the job. The message I keep getting is that I am either overqualified (with one year of experience) or that people with 5+ years of specialized experience get selected. So it's been about 6 weeks of job searching with a handful of interviews and no results and I'm wondering at what point do I just give up? Making money has never been a big concern for me and I am happy to just get a simple public service job, but even that is proving difficult. I could start my own practice or do contract work today if I wanted to but I'd be pretty miserable with that and am not sure it would lead to the sorts of jobs (legal or otherwise) that would be any better.
How many months is too many to search? Does contracting work ever lead to real jobs? What can I do beyond searching all the job boards and asking people in my personal and professional networks to let me know of things? Is there even any point to it all or am I better off just switching careers entirely and getting into teaching or politics or starting my own small business? I am ready to give law another try, but I've already spent 9 years of education and employment for a legal job that made me miserable and left me with nothing. At what point am I just falling into the trap of sunk costs?

[zot1]

If you enjoyed working as an attorney, I would keep hustling to get job. Keep in mind that sometimes it takes several months before landing something.

If you didn't care for the work, move on.

[Anonymous User]

I am a law student with extensive work experience prior to law school. To me, 6 weeks of job searching and thinking about leaving the profession is a joke. It has been only 6 weeks!

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Yea, 6 weeks is not bad. It's more that most lawyers are so miserable and I have been searching, with various degrees of intensity, for more like 3-6 months (since I recognized things were not sustainable at my firm for awhile) with no results.

[smallfirmassociate]

Life isn't like the movies. Sometimes it takes more than two hours to resolve a problem. Just stick with the job application process for a several more months and see what happens. Just when you're really frustrated and convinced that you're damaged product is probably the time you'll find a job.

I applied for literally 70 - 100 jobs in one month when I graduated undergrad. Two months later I had two job interviews and one job offer. That's white-collar life in 2016.