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Laid off attorney
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Anonymous
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I used to work at a large law firm and was laid off a little over a year ago. Luckily, the timing coincided with the birth of my son so I wasn't super anxious about finding a job immediately. However, now I am getting really depressed about being at home. I just never envisioned myself as a SAHM and I miss the identity I had carved for myself outside of the home. I try to keep myself busy by taking classes with my son, playdates, etc. but the monotony and lack of any intellectual stimulation is just difficult to handle.
I've been networking and applying to every government posting but to no avail. I went to a top 10 law school and I guess I never imagined it would be this difficult to find something. Anyway, I know there is not much anyone can do but I would appreciate any words of wisdom. |
Anonymous
| how you paying the bills? |
Anonymous
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That sounds really hard. If money is not a a problem, I would recommend volunteering part time at a good non-profit legal organization and paying for child care to cover it. That will help with the intellectual stimulation and with ending the gap in your resume, which is a big deal to employers (including the feds). I've got a couple of laid off attorneys volunteering with me and I appreciate it (and they get to put "research fellow" on their resumes).
Volunteering has become somewhat necessary these days for new graduates and I think it is becoming so for everyone. Only firm I know that is hiring is Buckley Sandler, if you are into the firm thing again. Good luck. |
Anonymous
| OP here--Luckily, we are fortunate enough that my husband's income is sufficient to cover all our expenses and still save. However, in this economic climate I would feel a lot more comfortable in a two income household and aside from the financial incentives, I just have a desire to be back in the workplace. |
Anonymous
| I agree about volunteering and taking a pro bono case or two. There is a great need right now, as more people are struggling and funding for legal services is being cut. What areas of law are you interested in? This could be a way to branch out into something different and also update your resume to make for less of a gap. Are you a member of any local bar associations? |
Anonymous
| Someone posted something just like this a while back. You might search for that thread. |
Anonymous
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Hopefully you have maintained good relations with your former supervisors at the firm where you worked? I would consider reaching out to anyone you worked with and invite them for lunch (your treat) to keep the professional relationships strong, and keep you on their radar screens if they hear of openings. Many firms laid off lawyers, so there are a lot of people in your same boat. Even those who survived layoffs are not as busy as they'd like to be these days--depending on the practice area, of course. Some other thoughts: join or become more active in the ABA subsection for your practice area; attend networking opportunities, volunteer with related non-profits, become more active in your law school's alumni association. Any networking time or time you are in "job searching mode", be your most professional self--upbeat, creative, embodying a smart, talented go-getter. Although you sound like you are enjoying many aspects of staying home, these are not opportunities to regale with tales from mommy land but rather a chance to let folks see that you are still in professional mode. Good luck.
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Anonymous
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There is a great group in D.C. for sahm lawyers to take pro bono cases and to participate in trainings, etc. I also think it would be good for networking. Here's the link:
http://www.dcvlp.org |
Anonymous
| How senior are you? If you are less than 10 years out, possibly consider an in-house position. There are an increasing number of postings for these in the DC region, I have noticed from my own searching. The key is to not be too senior, though. Those jobs are far and few between because, it seems, everyone is hunkered down. |
Anonymous
| be thankful your husband has a good paying job and use this as your chance to get out of law. what a miserable field, especially these days. firms are heartless. more and more law schools every year. and with the big firms losing leverage, that means way less jobs. run and do not walk out of this profession. |
Anonymous
| What type of government job are you looking for? Make sure that you search for "counsel" as well as "attorney" in USA JOBS. Some attorney jobs do not state that they are attorney jobs but instead are classified as "counsel." |
Anonymous
The rest of your post makes me think that by "these days" you mean 1956. OP said that she wants to get back into law. Not something you would choose, but she didn't ask whether you thought she should be grateful to have a breadwinner. |
Anonymous
moron, you don't think anyone laid off who is married to someone with a good job these days should be very very thankful? I've seen tons of professionals lose their houses because they were laid off. Stop looking at everything through some weird feminist prism. My comment would apply equally to male or female. Law sucks. |
Anonymous
Why is the key not to be too senior? I work in-house and was hired when I was 14 years out. |
Anonymous
NP here in a similar situation. I had looked at this website before, but decided that the child care issue made it unworkable for me because it is all litigation-type work. That means that there will be court hearings/deadlines over which you have little or no control, and that you will need to find child care on an occasional basis during the day. Unless you have a babysitter/family member that can be available as necessary (and sometimes on very short notice given the uncertainties of litigation) I didn't know how this could work. If anyone has any thoughts on this otherwise I'd be very happy to hear them. If your kids are older and are in school/pre-school at regular times, then I think volunteering for this group would be a great idea. |