I Left the Law Forum

[Anonymous User]

Today I did what I didn't think I'd ever do, and gave my 2 weeks notice to my comfortable firm job.

I'm returning back to my previous career. I joined law school on what I see now was a questionable decision for intellectual fulfillment, a decent paycheck and a steady job.

Despite how often I thought it was for me, I had good days and many tolerable days, I knew looking 10 years into the future I would just end up being yet another person who came onto these boards to groan about how much they hate their job.

I didn't love my old career with a fiery passion, but I could never see myself hating it and I wasn't taking a huge pay cut even if noticeable.

Its tough for me to essentially throw away my years of training in school and work, maybe I come back maybe I don't, but I felt it was unquestionably the best decision for me. I know many of my colleagues who kill it at their jobs and find happiness. I just couldn't. I'm also aware not everyone is 'happy' at their job, sometimes its just work. But at my previous job I wouldn't be dreadful.

I wanted to thank a lot of the regular posters here, for the dozens of pages of advice I've read over the years. Yall made my time in the law bearable just to know there were others out there thinking the same things.

[nick417]

I congratulate you on getting out of a job/profession you dislike. Our lives are too short to spend large portions doing something we hate.

You don't have to answer this.... instead, people thinking about law school really need to decide/know that this profession is right for them. I am not saying you didn't know this, but it sounds like you didn't realize what you were getting into. My firm has lost multiple first-year associates this year; the reason kind of mirrors yours reasons. Thus pre-law folks really should ponder their decision to go to law school.

[encore1101]

I congratulate you on getting out of a job/profession you dislike. Our lives are too short to spend large portions doing something we hate.

You don't have to answer this.... instead, people thinking about law school really need to decide/know that this profession is right for them. I am not saying you didn't know this, but it sounds like you didn't realize what you were getting into. My firm has lost multiple first-year associates this year; the reason kind of mirrors yours reasons. Thus pre-law folks really should ponder their decision to go to law school.

Unfortunately, it's hard to get a good grasp of what being a lawyer is like (especially when being a lawyer can differ greatly depending on what kind of law you practice) before going to law school.

[nick417]

I congratulate you on getting out of a job/profession you dislike. Our lives are too short to spend large portions doing something we hate.

You don't have to answer this.... instead, people thinking about law school really need to decide/know that this profession is right for them. I am not saying you didn't know this, but it sounds like you didn't realize what you were getting into. My firm has lost multiple first-year associates this year; the reason kind of mirrors yours reasons. Thus pre-law folks really should ponder their decision to go to law school.

Unfortunately, it's hard to get a good grasp of what being a lawyer is like (especially when being a lawyer can differ greatly depending on what kind of law you practice) before going to law school.

Excellent point.

I spent time as a paralegal before law school and kind saw what litigators actually do (and the horrors of discovery and tedious research and other mind-numbing tasks that get to be done). That experience helped me and I was able to predict how being an attorney is like. And now as an attorney, it is kind of how I expected.

Besides being a paralegal, not sure there is really another way to fully grasp what being a lawyer is like.

[los blancos]

Mind telling us what you're going back to, OP?

[stego]

Mind telling us what you're going back to, OP?

[A. Nony Mouse]

Mind telling us what you're going back to, OP?

You're still a 0L, stego.

[Br3v]

Mind telling us what you're going back to, OP?

[Lesion of Doom]

Props to you, OP. Best wishes.

I burned down my prior career to attend law school as well, but for me there's no going back.