I’ve been a public interest attorney for 20 years and still enjoy it. Clearly a lot depends on what your reason for going to law school was and what you end up doing. It’s been a perfect fit for me.

I've worked at all sorts of places:

Biglaw sucked and is not worth in the long run but I'm happy I had a good income in my 20s and good start.

Boutique law firm was more tolerable but the salary drop was bigger than the hours drop.

Government was great work experience but I had to constantly cover for organizational dysfunction and was underpaid relative to value I was providing.

Corporate in-house has been the best. Fair compensation, reasonable hours, professional colleagues.

In retrospect I could have gotten to a similar place with way less heartache by getting an MBA but its worked out and after all was said and done I got and have a really great job so I won't complain.

$$? Just a thought...

Anonymous wrote:I'm a government attorney. I love my job. I basically try to solve problems all day and have a good work/life balance.

Me, too! DH and I are both 15/10 feds and make almost 350,000 a year after bonus, which is plenty for our very nice lifestyle. We each get more than five weeks of vacation a year plus federal holidays. And we both really enjoy the work that we do. I am not a litigator and my job is definitely less stressful, but DH works in a pretty prestigious section and gets to work on pretty high profile stuff, so it’s all a bit of a balance.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been a lawyer for 18 years, and I mostly like it. I was in private practice, then a federal prosecutor, now in-house. I like problem solving. I like the rigor of making and responding to logical arguments. But I’ve been lucky that I’ve never been stuck doing doc review for very long or reviewing contracts or any of the legal jobs that I think I would hate. I agree that I wouldn’t encourage it as a profession in which any random person is likely to end up happy because I think the interesting and fulfilling jobs are harder and harder to get.

Same. I've always been in government (state and federal) and have found my job to be fulfilling and not soul crushing.

No, we don't live in a mansion or drive new cars, but we have what we want, and overall my life is good.

Anonymous wrote:My step son (17) is obviously born to be a lawyer. Everything he says and does is so exacting, careful, triple checked... nothing we say goes unchallenged. Justice is so important to him. And he will win an argument even if it means staying up too late and belaboring a point way too long. No doubt he will one day be a judge as well, though probably not a politician.

Prediction: He will go into law, and hate his life. Among the worst advice a parent can impart upon their kid is the old "you like to argue, you should be a lawyer" routine.

I haven't read the replies, but I love being a lawyer. I've been practicing for 13 years, with a mix of biglaw and a federal agency, and I'm currently a counsel in a biglaw firm. I like reading, writing, and solving problems for a living, my colleagues and most of my clients are lovely and supportive, and I'm well paid. I work late basically every night, but I also spend mornings and evenings with my kids. I don't enjoy every day or every task, but overall I am very happy with my choice of career.

I say this as someone whose dh has been in. It law for 8 years. It’s the worst. I will never let my kids go into law.

You don't get to choose what your kids do for a living. What a toxic, controlling dynamic.

I am a lawyer for the Government, and my job primarily involves serving as agency counsel supporting DOJ in litigation. I don't love it, but also don't mind it. It pays fairly well for the amount of hours, and aspects of the case can be interesting. At this point in my life, I don't want a job that will drain all of my time and energy, since I have two young kids. It works for me.

I'm fine with my career as a lawyer! I've never had a job that requires me to regularly work over 40-45hrs/week. I generally enjoy all aspects of legal practice that I have been exposed to - investigations, litigation, regulatory work, administrative law. It probably helps that I graduated from an Ivy with law review on my resume and very little debt. That allowed me to sort of have a pick of my jobs. Massive debt would really be a limiting factor.

My step son (17) is obviously born to be a lawyer. Everything he says and does is so exacting, careful, triple checked... nothing we say goes unchallenged. Justice is so important to him. And he will win an argument even if it means staying up too late and belaboring a point way too long. No doubt he will one day be a judge as well, though probably not a politician.

Anonymous wrote:lol this is so DCUM. Whenever the topics is lawyers, the answer comes around to “hey it’s acrually pretty good!” But when the topic is educators and teachers working crazy hours lesson planning, suddenly it’s a pile on

This thread is supposed to be about lawyer. But you're right, nobody's got it harder than poor teachers...

I am from the Midwest. I don't know any lawyers who hate their lives and careers the way lawyers in D.C. do. Maybe it's because you have crushing law school debt. Maybe it's because you're used and abused by Big Law and tossed out on your ears. Maybe it's because they're aren't business HQ here besides government contractors.