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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oh, OP. I was you. I was young. A pretty young thing with an eye toward taking the legal profession on. So, I can give you a happily ever after. But it was the product of my absolute grit and determination not to end up professional road kill.

I went to a top law school and did well. (OP, don't go unless you get into a top school and even then bust your ass because your performance is the biggest indicator of whether you are going to wash out. Particularly for women. We don't get the boys club benefits so we have to be twice as good.)  But even then, you go into biglaw, OP and the race just keeps going.

I was that woman who got the lukewarm review (where I was told I was an idiot and never would accomplish anything of merit) and somehow landed a federal clerkship in what felt like minutes before the ax came for me. I am that woman who somehow parlayed that federal clerkship into an AUSA position (in flyover country but seriously who cares. I loved every second of my AUSA life). I was that woman who went through the revolving door and spent a bit of time as a biglaw partner before realizing that the game was as awful as I remembered as a much younger woman. I am that woman who had a (3rd) baby and decided to chuck it and am happily working in house.

I have spent more than 15 years running from patch to patch, job to job. I am always job hunting. I will always be job hunting until I retire. It is exhausting but I enjoy practicing law and have found ways to stay one step ahead of an industry hell bent on destroying my humanity. I am a white collar migrant worker. I have worked on both coasts. In major and tiny cities. And I will go anywhere if the deal is right and it keeps me afloat. I will survive. And I will do it with integrity.

I’m a kind person. I’m a good mom and wife. I volunteer and teach ESL on Sundays morning (because I don’t do church). I have a nice home and am eeking out an existence. I love my job. Absolutely love the day to day of being an attorney. But the industry? It’s hard. Really hard. And you have to be tough and you have to have no scruples because no one cares one whit about ruining your life if it would get them an inch closer to whatever they define as success. Law is a ruthless profession and I say that as someone who ostensibly “won” out.

I think the thing that people don’t realize is that we are out there. The survivors. But you have to be insanely tough to join us.[/quote]

Haven't you posted this EXACT post on here a few times before?  I've definitely read this before![/quote]

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