Are any lawyers happy at work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After practicing law for 10+ years, I did a top 10 MBA. I noticed that, while all my law colleagues complained about their careers, all my MBA colleagues bragged about theirs. But wait, the MBA folks made less money, worked just as many hours, and had equally prickly colleagues and bosses. I came to conclude that law attracts overthinking pessimists (right?), while business schools attract loudmouth braggards/salesmen. Law is not worse than finance/consulting/tech, it's just that lawyers tend to be Debbie Downers.

MBA students have work experience. Most law school students don't. If you've already worked, you know that all work has aspects that suck. Too many lawyers don't have that perspective.

[Anonymous]

Another happy federal lawyer. My co-workers are nice. I believe in my agency’s mission and am actually able to help people. The work is interesting and challenging, but not too stressful. We’re 100% telework. At the end of the workday, I’m 100% off the clock. Over 15 years in, so plenty of leave. Great benefits. Great job security. And at the end of the line, a pension in addition to Thrift. which is almost unheard of in 2024. I’m not getting rich, but I’m being fairly paid and we are fine financially in a 2 professional household. And will be even better in 2 years when the youngest kid is out of college.

I was in private practice before becoming a Fed and was miserable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another happy federal lawyer. My co-workers are nice. I believe in my agency’s mission and am actually able to help people. The work is interesting and challenging, but not too stressful. We’re 100% telework. At the end of the workday, I’m 100% off the clock. Over 15 years in, so plenty of leave. Great benefits. Great job security. And at the end of the line, a pension in addition to Thrift. which is almost unheard of in 2024. I’m not getting rich, but I’m being fairly paid and we are fine financially in a 2 professional household. And will be even better in 2 years when the youngest kid is out of college.

I was in private practice before becoming a Fed and was miserable.

This is me and DH. 2 GS 15 lawyers who both love our jobs. DH works a bit more than I do (not remotely a 9-5) and I’ve got a great, flexible, mostly remote schedule that allows me to be the primary parent (I don’t litigate or travel). We are 15+ years in and, if we stay in govt, will be eligible to retire with full benefits at 57 and 58, the same year our youngest graduates from college (I’ll probably retire, DH probably won’t). We are lucky that grandparents have earmarked funds for college so we didn’t have to worry about that, but otherwise we won’t be rich, but will be able to retire comfortably with a nice pension and decent retirement savings.

[Anonymous]

I came to hate big law and the challenges of billable hours, being at the clients beck and call, plus I was a mother of three. But, I had a very niche specialty in the PE M&A world so I set up my own one person practice only working with the firms I really liked and who really liked me. I have an office and a paralegal/assistant and I only work 30-35 hours a week and I rarely travel. My clients respect the life I want to lead and they get very good work for well below big law prices. Yet, I make partner level income and enjoy my life. Finally, I’ve been able to take an equity stake in a few deals rather than cash and that has really paid off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a happy lawyer. I practiced at a firm for 8 years and have been in-house for 7.

I was miserable toward the end of my time at the firm and the first 4 years in-house were rough too. As I got more seniority in-house, I was better able to control my workflow and schedule. I’m now involved with higher level strategy and even more complex legal issues and this has been the sweet spot for me.

I also did a lot of work to understand my own unhappiness and work stress and learned to set boundaries that worked for me.

I think a lot of this comes down to personality though. I inherently like legal work and problem solving in intense situations and was bored out of my mind in slower jobs. If I’m being honest, I’m also really motivated by money (took me a long time to admit that to myself! But then I realized that I could let myself be happy about that part of my job too.

I’m in my mid40s and strongly believe that everyone has to find their own path, so if law isn’t working for your spouse, sounds like it’s time to try something new.

You are right about needing the right personality, but it isn’t necessarily this one. There are a few types that work.

I am very happy in my job, and an one of the top attorneys in the US in my niche practice.

I am a sunny optimist, but also collaborative, a team player, and analytic. My work is mostly consulting on cases around the US, and I genuinely love helping people solve their problems. It makes my day when I can make someone’s anxiety go away, or come up with an innovative solution that works for everyone. And I am really creative, so really, really good at what I do.

Setting my own schedule helps too. If it’s nice outside, I can go ride my horse and nobody cares.

It took me many years to get here, but to be honest I was happy in biglaw as well. Yes, there were office politics so I just made sure I stayed on the right side of the powerful people.

I generally am just more content than most people and can put the bad stuff out of my mind. I am also very good at staying neutral and out of the fray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BigFed lawyers tend to be the happiest in their jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most fed lawyers love it.

Yep.

Feds and IT folks are the only people I know who are happy year in year out with their jobs.

That is over for IT folks, it’s grim out there.

[Anonymous]

Anyone work in nonprofit law? No money, but is there job satisfaction in helping impoverished people?

[Anonymous]

I can only say this. I was an attorney in Biglaw. I didn't make a FT salary bc I was part-time, raising three sons. I now only have one son at home and I moved on from BigLaw and am fairly happy. I write for a legal research product, making very low 6 figures. A former colleague reached out to ask if I was interested in a position at her law firm. Easy answer was HELL NO.

Love the law. Hate the politics and anxiety of always having to be "on," even though I was part-time. And scrambling to meet hours. Admittedly I hated networking, which turns out to be a major part of your job once you've been around for a while.

I occasionally envy the salary I used to make, bur frankly I'm happier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone work in nonprofit law? No money, but is there job satisfaction in helping impoverished people?

My legal aid and public defender friends are the most angry and bitter about their subpar working conditions. Lots of secondary trauma, inadequate administrative support, crushing caseloads which means they're always feeling behind and underperforming, major financial stress of living in more expensive cities with low salaries (especially those that are single). Maybe generic public interest advocacy jobs are more satisfying, but direct representation of individuals sucks in the long term. My friends were largely over it by year 7 and looking to leave. Nearly everyone was out by year 10.

[Anonymous]

1. Lawyers are one of the professions that have a front-row seat to how self-destructing and immoral people can be in certain scenarios; this is true in civil and criminal, across the income/"sophistication" scale, and is seen in clients, colleagues, opposing counsel, and others. Over a career, this can be soul crushing.

2. The largest cohort of attorneys are litigators, which involves a seemingly endless series of conflicts over issues that are substantively small and big but which are all dealt with as if a matter of life-or death. The stress that this causes can be life crushing.

3. Most attorneys have minimal say in the direction of their career. Your firm gives you a steady diet of work in field A because you accepted an assignment on Friday afteroon three years ago; next thing you know, its nearly all you do even if it does nothing for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Lawyers are one of the professions that have a front-row seat to how self-destructing and immoral people can be in certain scenarios; this is true in civil and criminal, across the income/"sophistication" scale, and is seen in clients, colleagues, opposing counsel, and others. Over a career, this can be soul crushing.

2. The largest cohort of attorneys are litigators, which involves a seemingly endless series of conflicts over issues that are substantively small and big but which are all dealt with as if a matter of life-or death. The stress that this causes can be life crushing.

3. Most attorneys have minimal say in the direction of their career. Your firm gives you a steady diet of work in field A because you accepted an assignment on Friday afteroon three years ago; next thing you know, its nearly all you do even if it does nothing for you.

That said, I'm a very happy attorney, both previosly in Big Law and currently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Lawyers are one of the professions that have a front-row seat to how self-destructing and immoral people can be in certain scenarios; this is true in civil and criminal, across the income/"sophistication" scale, and is seen in clients, colleagues, opposing counsel, and others. Over a career, this can be soul crushing.

2. The largest cohort of attorneys are litigators, which involves a seemingly endless series of conflicts over issues that are substantively small and big but which are all dealt with as if a matter of life-or death. The stress that this causes can be life crushing.

3. Most attorneys have minimal say in the direction of their career. Your firm gives you a steady diet of work in field A because you accepted an assignment on Friday afteroon three years ago; next thing you know, its nearly all you do even if it does nothing for you.

^^^

Spot on.

What I didn't realize before I went into BigLaw litigation.

Also why I quit after 5 years and transitioned to starting small businesses.

[Anonymous]

What is Big Law in NYC like? Just curious because a classmate friend ended up becoming partner and I wonder if it changed him...

[Anonymous]

What stands out to me is that your husband is using his job as an excuse to be a grumpy ass around the house.