What did you do if you transitioned out of being a lawyer?

[Anonymous]

I am a government lawyer and I have come to the realization over the past couple of years that I hate being a lawyer. People always talk about how they are "recovering lawyers" and are now doing something else but I wonder, what are they doing? How did they do something else? I've been a lawyer for 15 years. Yes, I've tried changing jobs and changing specialties and I just don't like practicing law.

Other wrinkle, I can't afford to take a pay cut, so go be a history teacher (which was someone's answer) is not really a choice.

[Anonymous]

Investigative work and regulatory compliance. Love it. We are at a firm with mostly recovering lawyers and prosecutors.

[Anonymous]

How did you get into this? Any tips?

[Anonymous]

What specifically do you hate about practicing law, and how old are you? Are you willing/able to go back to school? The not being able to take a pay cut really limits options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Investigative work and regulatory compliance. Love it. We are at a firm with mostly recovering lawyers and prosecutors.

As someone who imagines someday being a recovering prosecutor, I'm interested. Is this with a consulting firm? Or in-house compliance? Or something else entirely?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What specifically do you hate about practicing law, and how old are you? Are you willing/able to go back to school? The not being able to take a pay cut really limits options.

I don't make that much, I'm not a biglaw attorney, I make in the 120s. I hate the combative, argumentativeness of it. I hate being expected to clean up everyone else messes. I hate giving advice that no one follows and then they look to you to solve their problems. I also hate my boss, but thats another story. I'm in my 40s.

[Anonymous]

It's pretty hard to move into a completely new field without taking a pay cut, because you'll have to take several steps back as you retrain for something new. If you want to keep the salary, you pretty much need to stay in something that either is the law itself, or something directly related to the kind of law you've been practicing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What specifically do you hate about practicing law, and how old are you? Are you willing/able to go back to school? The not being able to take a pay cut really limits options.

I don't make that much, I'm not a biglaw attorney, I make in the 120s. I hate the combative, argumentativeness of it. I hate being expected to clean up everyone else messes. I hate giving advice that no one follows and then they look to you to solve their problems. I also hate my boss, but thats another story. I'm in my 40s.

I have a lot of sympathy that you hate your job - working is miserable when you don't like what you do and it can poison many different parts of your life, but you are completely out of touch with reality. $120K is a nice salary for a 40 hr per week job with good benefits.

My DH is in biglaw, so I understand your point of comparison, but take a moment and count your blessings - which include a very nice income and work-life balance.

[Anonymous]

If you have fancy degrees, maybe one of the large consulting firms? They hire JD's out of law school, but I don't know how they look upon older JD applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What specifically do you hate about practicing law, and how old are you? Are you willing/able to go back to school? The not being able to take a pay cut really limits options.

I don't make that much, I'm not a biglaw attorney, I make in the 120s. I hate the combative, argumentativeness of it. I hate being expected to clean up everyone else messes. I hate giving advice that no one follows and then they look to you to solve their problems. I also hate my boss, but thats another story. I'm in my 40s.

I have a lot of sympathy that you hate your job - working is miserable when you don't like what you do and it can poison many different parts of your life, but you are completely out of touch with reality. $120K is a nice salary for a 40 hr per week job with good benefits.

My DH is in biglaw, so I understand your point of comparison, but take a moment and count your blessings - which include a very nice income and work-life balance.

I meant I don't make that much compared to other attorneys.

[Anonymous]

have a lot of sympathy that you hate your job - working is miserable when you don't like what you do and it can poison many different parts of your life, but you are completely out of touch with reality. $120K is a nice salary for a 40 hr per week job with good benefits.

My DH is in biglaw, so I understand your point of comparison, but take a moment and count your blessings - which include a very nice income and work-life balance

I am not the OP, and I like being a lawyer, but the assumption that government lawyers work 40 hours per week is often not correct. I'm a litigating attorney (not DOJ) and have worked through my last two vacations, and many weekends and evenings as well. I like what I do, and would not change careers, but it isn't 40 hours per week.

[Anonymous]

There aren't really jobs out there that want someone with no experience in the field, an advanced degree in another area, and that pay $120k right off the bat.

The people I know who have left the field took a large pay cut from $120k, except a few who did startups. FOr that you need a marketable idea and capital, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

have a lot of sympathy that you hate your job - working is miserable when you don't like what you do and it can poison many different parts of your life, but you are completely out of touch with reality. $120K is a nice salary for a 40 hr per week job with good benefits.

My DH is in biglaw, so I understand your point of comparison, but take a moment and count your blessings - which include a very nice income and work-life balance

I am not the OP, and I like being a lawyer, but the assumption that government lawyers work 40 hours per week is often not correct. I'm a litigating attorney (not DOJ) and have worked through my last two vacations, and many weekends and evenings as well. I like what I do, and would not change careers, but it isn't 40 hours per week.

I am the OP and I work way more the 40 hours a week and my insurance is not good. I'm not a federal goverment lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Consider what it is about being a lawyer that you dislike first. For me it was client development and actually going to trial. I liked the research and investigative/discovery aspect of litigation. I now work in an inspector general's office. I also considered seeking jobs with the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office (working with one of the the analyst teams).

[Anonymous]

Are you a subject matter expert on any issue? Because there are tons of "recovering lawyers" at trade associations around town. But many/most of these folks have the policy/regulatory background from their law firms that get them the positions.