Comments on: Exiting the Legal Field Completely Isn’t For Me

By: TechGirl

TechGirl — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:15:58 +0000

From your description about the lack of stress, the extra time to pursue potential opportunities in your search, well, I think you are living in a different world from most contract attorneys. Too many contractors work long hours (60hours or more) and find it rough to even do things like pick up dry cleaning or cook a decent meal once a week. There are some contract opportunities that pay more and have fewer hours, but for the recent law school grad, it’s just not the case.

One of the things I’ve found most disheartening is that so many contractors have not done anything else since law school than document review, so they have a hard time even deciding where to start in a job search as far as interest. It has been my experience that it is much easier to avoid the “loser” branding in job interviews, when you can say that you have worked in a legal or law-related position even if it was for a short period of time. But, for a traditional legal job, there is definite stigma attached to being a contract attorney. There can be no denying of that.

It’s also been my experience that men have a much harder time of contracting than women in terms of self-definition, self-image. Women are much more likely to do what they have to do to get where they need to be and deal with the circumstance, where men can get severely depressed doing contract work for too long. The ones who seem to handle it the best are older men who are either in retirement earning extra income or not long from it and they know there is an end. One of the rewards I’ve received from contracting is advice from older men and women who know when you feel like you have reached your breaking point with the nonsense of contract work.

By: Joe Miller

Joe Miller — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:47:00 +0000

The law school experience is so debilitating and demoralizing that it is easy to feel like a “loser.” When you put that negative energy out there, it comes back a thousand fold. For example, someone who has never even heard of a contract attorney may read your post now, without having had any preconceived notions and, now, after reading it, they would have this idea of contract attorneys as losers.

And when you engage in negative self talk, telling yourself that you’re a loser, and listening to other contract attorneys calling themselves losers, you constantly reinforce the idea and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m not saying that it is not incredibly difficult to overcome the snobbery and homogeneity of the legal profession. But define yourself, don’t let anyone else define you. At the end of the day, it’s their loss. But you have to keep setting goals for yourself and not succumb to pessimism.

By: Vinny C.

Vinny C. — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:40:03 +0000

The thing about being a contract attorney is this: it’s a negative on your resume. While not all people will see it as a negative, enough people (hiring managers) will see that as a signal that you’re a “loser.” Of course, that’s unfortunate, but we live in the real world. To top it off, you’re really not supposed to leave that kind of work off your resume, because an omission can be seen as a lie. So yea, the word “loser” is branded right there, unremovable. The longer you stay in temp jobs, the more that label sticks to you.

Also, the hype about “one day, you’ll make it as a staff attorney” is a great overexagerration. I know some people make the jump from temp to staff attorney, but it’s not that many. Very few do. I even know staff attorneys, and they’ll say it’s not really true. The vast majority of temps will never cross that hurdle.

By: John Smith

John Smith — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:13:55 +0000

Being a contract attorney is not at all a bad gig. You get paid really well for work that is not that stressful. We should be grateful that we have this market to fall back on. The attorney that quit his job to become an electrician is a pretty extreme example, I don’t think many attorneys out there are like him, no matter how disaffected they might feel.

By: Joe Miller

Joe Miller — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:49:49 +0000

I think this is an excellent article and raises some issues that are too frequently glossed over by the doom and gloom mongers. Each of us has the power to set high goals for ourselves. I won’t achieve them all, but I’ll certainly achieve more than I will if I set the bar too low. Great post!