Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators? Forum

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Inhousefuture

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Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by Inhousefuture » Fri Dec 17, 2021 12:11 pm

Hello,

Just wondering, as a 0L, I have seen many people write articles or speak on YouTube either about getting out of Law or how much they hate being a lawyer. I have noticed the following trend:

They are much less likely to be (although there are many cases) public defenders, prosecutors, Divorce Litigators, Personal Injury attorneys, Civil Rights discrimination warriors, etc. 3/4, they seem to be corporate transactional lawyers.

What is it about being a corporate transactional lawyer that makes such people want to ESCAPE law/Completely regret their decision to go to law school 4 times as much as say a criminal defense attorney or a John Edwards style tort King/Queen?

Thanks

The Lsat Airbender

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Re: Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Fri Dec 17, 2021 2:16 pm

The delta you're noticing has a lot more to do with biglaw vs. not-biglaw than litigation vs. transactional. Non-biglaw transactional (say, working for local government, or doing small-ball T&E work) is usually pretty chill.

Access

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Re: Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by Access » Fri Dec 17, 2021 2:32 pm

I wonder how much of this perception is because transactional people have the option to leave.

nixy

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Re: Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by nixy » Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:44 pm

The Lsat Airbender wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 2:16 pm
The delta you're noticing has a lot more to do with biglaw vs. not-biglaw than litigation vs. transactional.
I think this is the big factor. "Public defenders, prosecutors, Divorce Litigators, Personal Injury attorneys, Civil Rights discrimination warriors" by definition aren't working in biglaw. The lifestyle (or lack thereof) in biglaw is the killer, not just transactional work.

I do think there tend to be more "passion" jobs for litigators than transactional lawyers. There's plenty of work in some non-biglaw jobs - PDs in some jurisdictions are crazy overworked - but because those jobs tend to pay badly, people don't go into them unless they're already really committed to the cause. Some burn out and leave, but for some people, the cause is important enough to them that they stick with it. I think this is true for people like divorce lawyers, too (I could never do the job but it's important and if you're into it, you're going to love it).

I think it's harder to feel that kind of commitment/passion about helping huge companies merge or the like (though not impossible, and that reflects my own bias as much as anything else). A more similar transactional example to PDs/divorce lawyers might be doing wills/estates or tax stuff in a small firm, if you have a real dedication to helping average people deal with that kind of thing.

I'd also bet that more people who go into law because they don't know what else they want to do and it seems like a lucrative, respectable job end up in transactional, and they may never have had much of a great match with law to begin with. I'm sure plenty of the "I want to be a lawyer because I love arguing so much" debate team kind of people don't actually enjoy litigation once they get there and bail out of law, but I'd still bet (admittedly going only on my gut) that more transactional people were lukewarm about law as a subject (rather than as a professional option) before they started.

aether

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Re: Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by aether » Mon Jan 03, 2022 1:29 am

Another issue is the schedule. Litigators have a much more predictable schedule because their matters tend to move on the schedule of the courts, which are mostly predictable months in advance. Transactional attorneys have schedules that are more hectic. If the counterparty sends their draft of the M&A documents across on a Friday afternoon, your weekend is shot. That gets old quickly.

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Jchance

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Re: Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by Jchance » Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:35 am

nixy wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 4:44 pm

I do think there tend to be more "passion" jobs for litigators than transactional lawyers.
+1. Litigating is like practicing law, whereas transactional lawyers don't seem to be practicing law...

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Elston Gunn

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Re: Why is it that transactional lawyers have a greater desire to escape law compared to litigators?

Post by Elston Gunn » Mon Jan 03, 2022 1:06 pm

Trust me, plenty of litigators hate being lawyers too.

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