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You could finish up your degree and go into teaching. I know a lawyer that stopped practicing after a couple years because she hated it. Went into teaching high school. With a JD she automatically started at the top of the pay scale and makes as much as experienced state government attorneys (she teaching English too). Not glamorous, but she is happy, gets out at 3pm, and gets summers and all holidays off. I would probably have different advice if you (a) had not already completed your first year, or (b) didn’t have a full scholarship.
Also, not all law jobs are soul sucking. I did civil rights work this summer with some incredibly talented attorneys who are happy, married, kids, go home at 5pm most days, etc.
Also, find better mentors at school. I feel like many of my professors are more than happy to give uplifting advice. But some are either hard asses or just bad (awkward) at giving advice. Try reaching out to someone else.
Try yoga or some other physical activity.
you’re probably pot committed at this point. i didnt read the whole post, but with loan repayment options where they are, it’s best to finish out the degree and try to find your niche in govt or a JD advantage role.
despite what this board thinks, there are plenty of JD advantage jobs available.
Getting the popcorn ready.
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Not all lawyer jobs are like this. I work 9-5, own a house, see my family every evening and weekends. Once I leave the office, I mentally leave the office. Find a nice government job.
sounds like you’re just having a bad day, but it also sounds you have a penchant for the melodramatic.
True, TLS skews depressed because (1) it’s population is disproportionately high of BL juniors with massive debt; (2) it’s the internet where many of us come find a mental release that we might not have otherwise in real life (like this thread); and (3) misery loves company.
However, you’re also an adult and almost halfway through with law school. You know what jobs are out there and roughly how much stress each entails. You’re also ostensibly an adult and know how much stress you can handle. There’s really nothing significantly unique in law that other high-stress careers don’t also have to deal with. Doctors have to face death on a daily basis. If you think you’re selling your soul in biglaw, go talk to an ibanker. And if you think it’s a rat race in law school, you should check out how much of a bitchfest a PhD program is, and beyond when you’re trying to secure tenure.
Sorry but them’s the facts.
It’s kind of funny you use the doctor example because I spoke with an attorney last year who wished she had become a doctor because the stress is “in the moment” and not perpetual like it feels for lawyers, her words not mine. Melodramatic? Maybe sometimes, although I quibble with the idea of calling a person melodramatic because they strongly dislike law school since many people like that exist, but my point about high rates of suicide, depression, and alcoholism are not simply my opinions or dramatics; those are facts. Look at any study that seeks to find the “happiest” profession and the most miserable. It also isn’t my opinion that many lawyers lack a work-life balance of any sort. There are some that do, but plenty I have talked to (even non-BL) tell me how there are “days, weeks, months, even years” where they don’t sleep much because of important cases, a trial, etc.
I disagree that there is nothing unique to the stress of lawyers that one will not find elsewhere, which is why I suspect lawyers are often so miserable, but to each his own.
Thank you all for the responses. Government work looks more and more appealing. I do still wish I had gone into teaching, but I guess it isn’t too late if I did change my mind.
LOL at me thinking TLSers would lend support to a post like this.
Why are you surprised? After all, we’re part of this horrible profession that is conspiring to make you miserable.
I am just not sure why people can’t talk about real problems in the profession without getting so defensive. I never said anything about “conspiring.” I do think there are problems that should be solved. I never said “All you TLSers are the reason law school sucks!”
Relax–I was just joking.
And do you really not see the truth in pancake3’s suggestion that you have a penchant for the melodramatic? In all seriousness, I can see why the professor responded to you as he did.
Jokes don’t transfer particularly well over the Internet on a website where people are known for jerky comments. Everyone can be dramatic, but I usually don’t attribute the fact that I have depression and anxiety to the fact that I’m dramatic.
maybe you don’t have a penchant for the melodramatic but you do seem to have a penchant to hear what you want to hear.
Fair enough.
Lol
Lol at lawyers who think their job is objectively the shittiest of all the 6 fig+ jobs and know exactly what it’s like to do other jobs. The stress is pretty fucking perpetual when you work biglaw hours, except instead of some merger deal, you have human lives in your hands and one mistake can kill somebody, and you’re working with idiosyncratic human bodies which are 987876x more complex than some loan amendment that you can copy paste.
Eh, different types of stress affect different people differently.
Welcome to the club.