Third, you are trapped in law. In 2016, with very few exceptions, once you go to law school you're never going to get a good non-law managerial or business position in any company ever again (unless you found a company). It doesn't matter if you majored in math. It doesn't matter if you spent 3 years at McKinsey before law school. You're fighting the view that corporate lawyers have no ability to deal with numbers, think strategically or do anything aside from being a scribe. Many times, that's not even unfair (see above, you are a scribe). Very few people overcome that prejudice, and nobody overcomes it to get a business job they couldn't have had out of undergrad. So if you're the lucky 2% that can make that move, you're taking a massive seniority cut and pay cut. The days of of the JD opening doors have been over for 30 years. 30+ years ago, the MBA wasn't the credential it is now (a good example is that anyone at SLS was automatically accepted into GSB without applying), and lawyers regularly became business people. Now there's a generation of MBAs running around, and you're not getting hired over any of them. I absolutely cannot stress enough how niche you become after just one day as a corporate lawyer. This is by far the worst thing.
Moreover -- you're trapped in a specialization within law that likely wasn't your first choice. Without outing my firm, most top firms these days are specializing their associates much, much earlier, as clients won't pay for worthless/generalist junior skill sets. Even a decade ago, you would get a few years to find your way to a specialty, and get to pick it. Now you're assigned one on day one in many firms. And within a year at the vast majority. Places do a good job at trying to match you, but if there's demand in capital markets, and you don't want to be a capital markets lawyer, tough. That's where they're putting you. And once you specialize, it's almost impossible to do something else, especially after a few years and you realize how much you hate it. You can go do the same specialty in house (maybe, in some specialties), or hang around until they kick you out, which they always do.
On that note: 100-200 people enter every year. 0-3 are made partner. It won't be you, unless you're both the best in your class and extremely lucky (someone needs to die or a big new client needs to come in, etc.). It's all for nothing. You become very good a very very niche job you can't do anywhere but in a law firm, and the only law firms that will have you will pay you progressively less for the same level of work.
Sixth, there's no stability, even for junior associates. It's been a long time since the 2008 crash. For those of you who don't remember, law firms fired (or rescinded offers) from thousand of law students and first/second year associates. Many of the junior associates who were fired never turned that around. I know a great/smart/hardworking guy, magna at Harvard, who was fired by Latham. He had to move to BFE to get any non-document-review job at all. It pays nothing and is a dead end. By the time the legal market recovered, the ship had sailed on his career and he was too senior to come in as a junior. Anecdotal, of course, but it happened a lot. We're poised for another crash in the next 0-3 years, and there's no taboo on law firms "right sizing" anymore.
You're reading this and thinking it won't be me. You think you'll do a few years and go after your true calling. You won't. Nobody does. People become broken (lost relationships with friends, family and spouses; alcoholism; depression -- law firms are very sad places), and flame out, generally into something as bad or worse. Print this off and stick it somewhere that you'll find it in five years. Or better yet, don't make the mistakes I did (and which I felt strongly enough to spend 30 minutes writing this at my desk here on a Sunday night).
I think its good to get this advice out in the ether so that less people go to law school thereby leading to a lower supply and higher demand for lawyers. Still, for my TLS people that have helped me so much throughout the whole process of applying to and securing my current job, I want to make it clear that
its not all bad, and in fact,
there is much good in the lawyer life.
Before law school I had a bs liberal arts degree and worked at a restaurant. I got admitted into a T-20 with some money (by utilizing the advice that I gained on this forum). My grades were not great, unfortunately, and I blew out on OCI. However, per the advice of the forum, I mass-mailed and mass-mailed and secured an SA at a small boutique transactional-nice practice firm. I'm still here. I make $100k (though, no bonus) and I work 9-7. My debt is manageable and I live in a nice apartment with my wife. My work is generally interesting and I meet smart business-oriented people and help them solve problems. I met my wife in law school - she was not able to get anything coming out of law school but networked and mass-mailed and recently, 1 year out, started out at $100k, 1800 billable hour req. She works in transactional and enjoys it. Yes, sometimes we sit infront of our computers in the evening and finish up some work or get back to clients, but end of the day - were sitting on our nice couch in our own nice place, pulling in $200k together (about $30k goes to debt servicing), and we are in our late twenties. Seriously, what more could I ask for from life? Especially coming out of the dead-end jobs that we both left to get here?
I think what made our job search effective was networking, cold-calling,hustling, following up, and e-mailing (all advice that I learned here). During 3L, I went to a networking event with my friend - he was outgoing and met many people - I was shy and spoke with just a few. The next day I told him that one of my connections from the other night replied to my e-mail saying that it was great to meet him, and offered to meet me for a coffee. He was taken aback because he never thought of sending follow-up e-mails... Ironically, my wife's firm says that they are drowning in work and are not able to find competent attorneys with 2-3 years experience. Why? Because nobody networks, and all of the resumes get stuck and filtered out at the HR department. If you look for work you must be humble, nice, and positive. Reading some responses here, I sense a lot of bitter people, and I fear that bitterness/condescending vibe sometimes leaks out in their interviews.
If you hate your job so much that you are contemplating suicide, WTF? If you make $160,000 plus a year, take a small break from paying back your loans and stash cash for 6 months to a year. After you have a nice fund, get fired and take your severence package - that is another 3 months of expenses for you right there. After that, the world is yours, here are some options (most people dont even have $5k in the bank saved for their emegency fund):
If you
hate being a lawyer, take a $10k coding/programming boot camp and start interning - its not difficult to get internships / contract work paying at least $45-50k a year, and that will grow fast if you are smart and savy in networking.
- Start a PI/crim defense firm - this work is easy and you can build a book of business within a year or two allowing you to make $60-100k+ a year.
- Go work at a coffee shop.
- Apply for a regular job.
In the case that you have mortgages and/or expenses that prevent you from leaving your $160k salary, then that is simply bad financial planning. Downsize your life. Read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide- ... 0470067365 If you have student loans, IBR while you start fresh.
Many people here are very very smart, but find very clever ways to make themselves miserable. There is a whole world out there and a life to live, you are in a unique position to save a lot of f-u money, really, its not that bad out there.
