Legal Career -- Its Contours

The legal profession occupies a unique and enviable place in the American social order. Ever since our colonial forbearers booted out the British, and de Tocqueville proclaimed lawyers as the new American aristocracy, lawyers have enjoyed a certain mystique in this country.
 

It is not that attorneys did not exist before the American Revolution, or that they have not exerted influence in other societies. And it is not simply that the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the American Revolution were in large measure the product of legal thinking. The truth is that a nation built upon the rule of law places lawyers at the focal point of many transactions that govern the daily lives of its people. For over 200 years lawyers have carried this mantle.


The popular television series L.A. Law epitomizes the current public fascination with lawyers just as Perry Mason did a generation before. Even before television, legal profession was seen as the avenue to prestige and security for countless aspiring immigrants, generations of aspiring politicians, and innumerable blue bloods following in the footsteps of their fathers. The bottom line is that lawyers possess tremendous prestige, if not always respect, in this country. Lawyers are well off economically; they do not make as much money as doctors, but they do not starve either. A family lawyer, the late George Red of Houston, said to, "You'll never get rich practicing law. You can make a comfortable living, but the only rich lawyers were born that way or went into business with their clients."

People go to law school for a number of reasons other than money and status. Many students choose law in order to influence the outcome of events or to persuade others. Many come to law school because of the intellectual challenge or because they are attracted by the problem-solving aspect of legal studies.

Although it is probably futile to generalize about the psychological attributes of law students and lawyers as a group, all of us have chosen law. We contemplate a career in law. We take the LSAT. We endure three or four years of law school. We survive a grueling bar examination. And we embark upon a career with great hopes for the future. Most of us find jobs as lawyers, and many of those who do not were pursuing alternative careers from the beginning, By all accounts, we lawyers have it all. Perhaps no other field offers a comparable combination of monetary rewards, prestige, and potential satisfaction as does the law. Certainly, no other career offers as wide an array of options.

Why, then, are we not happy? Despite the advantages of being a lawyer, a number of studies confirm that there is a high level of dissatisfaction within the legal profession. This troubling conclusion was reached in surveys produced by the ABA Young Lawyer's Division in 1979, 1985, and 1990, and by the Maryland State Bar Association in 1988.

We are haunted to this day by the suicides of two classmates, Boyd and Louise. Boyd was a brilliant law review editor, a pleasant personality and a dedicated lawyer. Although he could have practiced anywhere, he chose a career in public interest law representing migrant workers in South Texas.

Boyd came by to University of Texas once to talk about changing jobs. He was frustrated and discouraged by the work, but determined to move on. About two weeks later, it was reported that he had taken a different way out.

Louise was strikingly beautiful, articulate, and talented. She came from money and dressed immaculately. She married well and seemed to be happy. In her professional life, Louise prospered so well in her law firm that she was appointed to a judgeship. But somehow, all this was not enough. Before she reached the age of 30, Louise took her own life.

Recounting of these stories is not to depress you, but rather to share with you the perplexity. How could these two people with so Choosing a Career vs. Finding a Job much going for them decide that life did not offer enough to merit going on? And, while Boyd and Louise may be extreme examples, why are there so many lawyers who are unhappy with their lives? The key question for law students contemplating the future should not be "How do I find a job?" but "How can I find satisfaction in a legal career?" Many lawyers do find happiness in their careers. They use the law as a vehicle to develop and sustain the lifestyle they have chosen. Most lawyers would not give up their jobs to go work on the assembly line.

Thus, the central questions for anyone entering the legal profession should be, "How do I locate the road to happiness?" and "How can I avoid treading the road that leads to dissatisfaction?" It means you should know more than simply how to get a job. You should know how to find satisfaction in this career you have chosen.

Look at the terms job and career. A job is the sale of your skills, time, and energy to someone for a fee. Even if you are self- employed, you sell your skills to yourself. A job is work for pay, and work is not always fun. A job implies that it is something you do out of necessity, for reasons like keeping food on the table and a roof overhead.

A career, however, is an identity-a series of jobs connected by a common theme. With a job, you can leave it behind when the five o'clock whistle blows. With a career, you maintain the identity whether you are on the job or not.

When someone asks a corporate lawyer who works for an auto company what she does, her answer is not "I work for Chrysler." She says, "Fm a lawyer." Artistic types have probably mastered this better than anyone. If you ask the waiter in a restaurant down in Greenwich Village what he does, he will tell you "I'm an actor." If you ask the clerk in the antique bookstore what she does, she will answer, "I'm a writer."

Law school does an excellent job of imparting an identity as a lawyer. No matter what you do after you graduate, you will always be a lawyer. You can never go back to being a non lawyer, the pejorative term we use to describe all those who are not members of our elite club.

Taking this thought a step further, there are many careers within the legal profession. That is, there are countless alternative identities as lawyers.

Increasingly, lawyers are not just the generic brand, but some subspecies of the more general identity. Part of the process of finding happiness is discovering the unique identity within the legal profession that is particularly yours.

Richard Bolles, in his book The Three Boxes of Life suggests that our lives are made up of three "boxes"- working, playing, and learning. At different times in our lives, we spend more time in one of the boxes than the others. While we are in school, we are in the learning box. At our jobs, we are working. When we retire, we devote ourselves to play. Bolles suggests that for our lives to be most satisfying, they should always incorporate elements of all these boxes.

You should strive to meld work and play. Find jobs where work is play. Get paid to have fun. If Michael Jordan can do it, so can you. Too often, we are either unable or unwilling to free ourselves to enjoy what we do. Or we are so driven that we do not allow ourselves to find an ounce of pleasure in our work.

Wake up, people! Life is too short to spend it being miserable. And the answer is not to assume a Panglossian view of the world, refusing to accept reality. Life is full of pain, disappointment, drudgery, and frustration. Happiness is not as much constant bliss as it is success in overcoming adversity.

It is hard to imagine any type of training that offers the individual a range of career choices greater than legal education does. That very availability of choice dictates the importance for each law student to develop at least a broad outline of the goals he or she hopes to achieve, both professionally and personally.

This article will aid you in making your decision by providing information that is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. It will refer you to reliable sources for checking information and updating your career plans. And since the value of mentors in career education cannot be overestimated, the experiences and perceptions of practicing lawyers are offered to help you develop a career plan. But career planning is not something that can be accomplished in a single session. It is an ongoing process that permits you to evaluate opportunities as they arise, reflect on changes in your personal situation affecting your career, and assess new trends within the profession that impact on your practice.

Your initial career plan should start from where you are this minute and project what you perceive to be reasonable goals for yourself for the next five to ten years. Keep in mind, however, that an average professional life spans forty years. Because changes are inevitable, concentration on the shorter distances is a more practical approach.

Think of your career plan as a road map to be used on a trip. You have plotted your general destination, but along the way you may receive word of worthwhile side trips, problem road conditions, detours, or new highways. Just as trusty road map enables you to make changes with a minimum of inconvenience, your career plan should do the same for your professional life.