I started a new job a few weeks ago. When it comes to my legal career, I did everything pretty much by the book. I went to a good law school, graduated near the top of my class, served as an editor on my school’s law review, snagged a biglaw summer associate position during OCI (on-campus interviews for you non-legal folks), and then began my career as a newly minted, biglaw associate at an Am Law 100 firm.
After three years in biglaw, I pivoted, landing a position as an attorney in a prestigious branch of state government. If you look at my resume, it looks like the resume of someone who’s going places in the law.
Taking this traditional path definitely helped me get to where I am today. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to pay off $87,000 worth of student loans just a few years out of school. And it was this drive to pay off my student loans that led me to find the personal finance community and start my own blog in the first place.
But after four years of practicing law, it became clear to me that a traditional legal path wasn’t for me. I just didn’t like being a lawyer enough to keep doing it.
At the beginning of this year, I started looking for new opportunities and began applying for what would be called non-traditional or alternative legal careers. Last month, I started a new job as a non-traditional attorney with a branch of my state bar association.
So far, things are going well. I’m home at a normal hour now. I don’t deal with clients or opposing counsel. And my stress levels and anxiety are way down. For the first time in a while now, I’m feeling okay about my professional life.
A Career Crisis
Like a lot of people, I went to law school for the wrong reason – I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and law school seemed like the perfect place to figure it out.
The experience of law school itself was right up my alley. I like thinking and talking about stuff and when you’re in law school, you get to do exactly that. Law students get to “ponder” the law, as I like to say.
Unfortunately, what law school doesn’t prepare you for is what the life of a practicing attorney is really like. When you’re a lawyer, you don’t get the luxury of pondering the law. Most of it is pretty regular stuff. A lot of it is tedious. And it’s always stressful (at least for me).
My initial thought was that it was the biglaw environment that was causing all of my stress and anxiety. Anyone who’s worked in biglaw knows that the emphasis in biglaw is hours. When you’re living life like that, constantly striving to hit your hours, it’s hard to feel really good about yourself. I came home late every night and never really felt at ease. Every time my email dinged on my phone, I would freak out. My mind was always racing. It was pretty clear that the biglaw environment wasn’t for me. I stuck it out only because I needed the paycheck in order to pay off my student loans.
In 2016, I paid off all of my student loans, and with those loans gone, I now had some options. Government work seemed like it would be a better fit for me. The hours looked like it’d be better. I’d be objectively the good guy for once (I was representing the people). And best of all, I wouldn’t have to bill hours.
When an opening came up in my state government, I decided to apply and managed to snag the job. At first, it seemed like the job was a better fit. But, as the months passed, the same stress and anxiety issues popped up. I found myself increasingly unhappy at work.
It turns out it wasn’t just the biglaw work environment that was the problem. It was the work that came with being a lawyer that was causing me all of this stress and anxiety. In my years of practicing law, it never occurred to me that maybe I just didn’t like being a lawyer.
Finding A New Job
You can tell when it’s time for you to figure out a different career path when you’re unable to enjoy your Sundays because of the stress of starting work on Monday. Just like when I was in biglaw, I never really felt all there when I was at home.
Around the new year, I began seriously entertaining the thought of leaving the law entirely or finding myself an alternative legal career. As luck would have it, I found a great gig at my local University in a non-traditional legal role. It seemed perfect for me. Even better, I knew a guy who worked there! I updated my resume, put together a cover letter, and got an interview a few weeks later. It was scheduled as a panel interview done over Skype. The whole panel and Skype thing made me a little nervous, but with my friend on the inside, I figured all I needed to do was nail the interview and I’d be a frontrunner.
The day of the interview came and…I bombed the interview. There were a number of reasons for it. I wasn’t prepared enough. The questions were more situational and hypo type questions, which tripped me up. And honestly, I just didn’t show what made me a good fit for the job. It’s a pretty crappy feeling when you’re desperate to leave a job and know you blew your chance to get out of there.
I continued to stick it out while I searched for new gigs. A couple applications to other non-traditional legal jobs went unanswered. Then, in June, I found a listing for the job with my state bar association that seemed perfect for me. I sent out my resume and cover letter, snagged an interview, and came extra prepared this time. After a few more rounds of interviews, I got the offer. The day after I received my offer, I put in my two weeks’ notice at my job.
And with that, I’d left the law…in a way.
Create Your Own Path
The amazing thing about paying off your student loans and not having a particularly lavish lifestyle is that it buys you a ton more freedom to do things outside of the traditional path. Most lawyers in my position might opt to stick it out, whether it’s because they need the money, want the prestige, are too fearful to take the leap, or just can’t think of anything else to do. As you can probably tell, my goal has always been to not be like most lawyers.
I won’t lie, I took yet another pay cut. Working for a state bar association isn’t a highly lucrative career. But when you live the way I do, you don’t need a ton of money to make it.
And the new job has given me something I never had before – time. For the first time in my life, I’m working a job with normal hours. I’ve been able to get home by 5 pm now. I don’t have to track my time or deal with opposing counsel. When I leave work, I don’t even think about it anymore. Now, I can work on the things I find more fun – my side hustles, this blog, and other things I’m scheming to do.
There’s a whole world out there of stuff you can do to make a living. Lawyers often have blinders on with the type of work they think they can do. For many, it’s start out as an associate, make partner, and work until you die. For others, it’s start out as an associate, then jump ship to in-house or government. If that’s what you like, then great!
But if you’re like a lot of lawyers I know that are dissatisfied with their careers, know that there are other paths out there. If you’re reading a blog like this, you probably already get that. It’s charting a different path that is the reason we do the things that we do.
For me, starting this new role has opened up my eyes to an entire world of non-practicing attorneys. Turns out there are a lot more ways than I thought to make it in the legal world.
I’m Still An Attorney
The only thing I’m struggling with now is how to answer the old question, “so what do you do?” It was easy before – I’d just say I’m an attorney. Right now, I’m not so sure what to say.
I’m still technically an attorney – I have a law license and my job title even says “attorney” in it – but I’m no longer a traditional practicing attorney.
But interestingly, I think that once you become a lawyer, you’ll always identify as a lawyer forever. I’ll still probably tell people I’m an attorney, even if I’m not an attorney in the traditional sense anymore. Regular people don’t even know what lawyers do anyway.
Starting this new role has been a huge change for me professionally. Where I once knew only the traditional litigation or transactional paths to law, I’m now surrounded by other like minded people who’ve also chosen alternative legal career paths. It’s eye opening to see how so many people have chosen to forge their legal careers in a different way.
So for all of those dissatisfied lawyers out there (or dissatisfied people), give yourself options. Pay off your debt, save money, live on less than you earn, and be humble. You’ll be surprised at what you can do when you don’t need all that much to live well.
I think things will work out for me as I chart my new career path. And if they don’t, well, I’ve still got options.
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Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $250 if you complete a direct deposit.
- DCU. Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $100 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a savings account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000.
- Novo Bank. Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. It’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $10 for opening an account.
- Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
I’m so happy to hear you found something that is a better fit! Low expenses give us SO many options. Not just for high savings rates, but to really customize a life that works best for us in each season of life. I’m super happy for you!
Thanks Ms. Montana! It’s definitely keeping expenses low that gives me the ability to make career pivots like this.
Congrats! One of the biggest benefits of pursuing financial independence is that you become less and less dependent on your salary. That gives you the lattitide to follow things that make you happy instead of money. Mrs CK took a six figure pay cut to go teach, but with our finances in order, we didn’t have to think twice about it. Now she doesn’t even have to work, but still does because she found something she loves doing 🙂
Good luck with the new gig!
That’s amazing that Ms. CK took that big of a pay cut. In the past two years, I’ve dropped over 60k myself, haha. But I don’t feel a pinch at all.
Thanks for sharing! I hear this can be pretty common in law careers where the satisfaction of the job isn’t as great after finishing law school. I know what you mean about the Sunday’s, not feeling good about Monday. That’s great that you are able to find some more work life balance now.
Thanks, GYM! Dissatisfaction with lawyering is pretty common. That’s why I’m glad I left myself with options.
Congrats on the new role! Having your financial affairs in order definitely allows you flexibility that living paycheck to paycheck does not. I’m a big fan of my current job: Challenging, relatively good pay, and hours that allow me to have a life outside of work
That’s great that you have good hours. In law, it’s just really hard to find a good work-life balance. It’s just the nature of the legal world – there’s a heavy emphasis on hours. The new gig so far is definitely feeling much better.
Bold move to take control of your life. This will also hopefully give you more time to manage your dreams outside of your profession and help out with the Mrs. too.
Unfortunately I don’t think that I’d be able to bail out of my profession after a few years. Would need to truly crank down my expenses to do so.
It is bold, but I think I’ll be better off for it! One thing that’s different with medical compared to law is that medical folks spend so many years actually practicing medicine. You’re doing clinic while in school, then all of the residency years you do. In the legal profession, there are just so many unhappy lawyers because, honestly, none of us know what being a lawyer will be like until we get that first job.
I totally feel you on the sunday thing – back when I worked at a law firm I used to spend all Sunday dreading work on Monday. it just wasn’t a good way to live. May I ask what you meant about a non-traditional legal role that you’re in?
When I moved to government I was also surprised at getting home before sundown! I suddenly had time on my hands. You will enjoy it!
I’m enjoying it so far. It’s giving me a ton more time to do stuff that I actually enjoy, even if the money isn’t as good. When you don’t need a lot of money to live, you give yourself a ton of options.
As for my new role, it’s a non-practicing attorney position with my state bar association. I don’t want to get too specific into the details on here, but if you’re interested, shoot me an email or hit me up on Lawyer Slack. I’m happy to share more info with you about my new role.
THIS. I took a pay cut for a more reasonable schedule and haven’t regretted it once. As you mentioned, once your debt is gone and you’ve figured out savings, the extra money becomes less important. One thing I’m noticing though is that my free time is now even more consumed by my side hustles so I’m a bit spent/tired. I need to figure out some sort of balance.
Having a regular, 9-5 work schedule is just amazing. I hear you about the hustling thing – I think we’re probably natural born hustlers, so it’s not like we spend our extra hours sitting around twiddling our thumbs. I’m getting tired too with everything, but I’m having fun doing it too. I think the balance will come eventually.
Congrats! I constantly think of taking an alternative path. It’s hard for sure to steer off the paved road onto the dirt road.
Thanks! Definitely hard to steer off the obvious paved road, but I’m thinking this will pay off in terms of giving me the energy to do the stuff I enjoy.
Two of my closest friends are lawyers and I’ve heard from them on a number of occasions how frustrating the field can be. One now does advocacy work now and probably puts in more hours, but it much happier with the work she’s doing.
The purpose of money is to make you feel good–and by that I mean provide what you value the most. For most people it’s security, for others it’s choices and for too many it’s status. I think those of us who think of money as the tool to have more choices get the most from it.
With lawyers, it’s all about status! There’s a ton in law about prestige – you need to go to a prestigious law school, get on law review (the most prestigious legal journal of a law school), get a prestigious clerkship, and then land a job at a prestigious law firm. Most people will never try anything else in the law because there’s a ton of value placed in prestige.
I didn’t share this with you on Wednesday but I’ve turned down two promotions in the last couple years for pretty much the same reasons you left the litigation life behind. The stress ain’t worth it. Great move, FP, and for what it’s worth you truly seemed a joy-filled person when we met up. (More time free for beers n’ apps!)
Thanks Cube! If I was still litigating, there’s no way I would have been able to meet you at 5:30PM like we did last time! I’d still be at work! Hope we can meet up again soon – was awesome to hang out with you and learn your story.
Congrats on the new job! Glad to hear you will have more freedom to do what you want and less stress. You made an international decision for your own situation that people in debt simply cannot do.
I laughed at your “receiving an email” gif because I can relate to the exact feeling. I started a job in April with higher pay (and higher responsibilities). Things are getting better but still have that stress/anxiety in the mornings and on Sunday nights before work. Hoping to get a place where I can significantly reduce my stress/anxiety. My longer term goal is to leave the 9 to 5 job life but a good first step would be to find a lower stress job (most likely lower paying too).
Any plans to leave the 9 to 5 eventually to run your blog/side hustle full time?
Thanks Gary! My dream would be to blog and Postmate all day long – but I think that’s going to be a long way from happening right now, haha.
I think I know how you feel. I went to law school and am a practicing attorney but I don’t do trial work, don’t deal with clients or opposing counsel. I don’t take any work home with me and have a 9-5 schedule. I mainly research and draft decisions for judges…much like a law clerk except I don’t work for a specific judge. I would definitely have much more stress if I did and my job fits me well, so I’m glad you found something you enjoy doing. What exactly will you be doing with the bar association?
I’m keeping the details of the gig slightly quiet right now just to avoid outing myself too much, but hit me up and I can give you details.
Also, you sound like you have the dream job. Is it a staff attorney gig for a court? Because I have so many people that would kill for that type of job.
I guess it’s a staff attorney position…they don’t call it that here though. Basically research and draft decisions for judges. I graduated from law school right around the recession but fortunately there was a fellowship program for the Courts (and I was working for the Courts during law school as I went to school part time). I was selected for the fellowship and continued working with the Courts. The program has since ended. Many attorneys probably preferred private practice because the money was better but after the recession, I do notice that many attorneys are trying to get these positions. Good luck with the new position.
You’ve got the sweetest gig. I know a ton of biglaw lawyers that would drop it all to get that job. It’s funny how our priorities change after a few years working – when we start out, it’s all about that prestige, then later, people just want some better work life balance.
I forgot to mention…I work in a state court…not federal. Definitely no biglaw lawyers trying to come here. You’re right about work life balance…it’s so important especially now with 2 kids.
Congratulations. I can’t think of a better trade off–money for time. 🙂 And hopefully, Sundays aren’t a day to dread anymore.
Sundays are feeling pretty okay right now!
Good for you for finding your own path.
Thanks Donna!
Great article! I’m very inspired by your story. It’s really tough to break out of the traditional mold, and even more brave to chart your own path! Glad you’re finding a better balance though, and thanks again for sharing your experience with others.
Thanks Ernest! Really appreciate the kind words!
Best of luck in the new venture! Glad to hear you’ve unloaded that stress and anxiety. That’s not a good way to live.
Cheers!
-PoF
Yeah, I’ve been feeling really terrific since starting this new gig! It’s definitely been a better fit for me. There’s a lot of paths in the law – way more than I thought anyway. Thanks PoF!
Thanks for sharing your story FP – a great read 🙂
Thanks Erik!
Congrats FP! I’ve taken a similar approach with my own career, so it’s refreshing to see someone else who shares my mindset. The norm is to always be striving for more, more money, more position, more prestige. Personally, the farther I travel down an opposite path, the better I feel about it. I look forward to hearing more about your journey. : )
Thanks MMM! There’s an idea that if you’re not constantly striving for more and more, you’re somehow a failure. At least in the law world for sure. It’s a pie eating contest, and the prize is more pie. Definitely not for me. I’m excited to see what the new pivot means for me!
Good cal and well done on making the right move for yourself. I felt the same way after leaving my engineering job/career. What to tell people?
Now, I tell them I’m a retired engineer since I will always be an engineer.
It’s hard to detach when you basically spent all this time identifying as that profession. Even if you’re not an engineer now, you’ll still always be an engineer.
Nursing parallels law in a sense that there are a lot of people in this field that feel stuck and can’t get out – some of them went into it for the wrong reasons.
I can understand that. You spend a ton of time working to get to a particular point, it’s sometimes hard to let go – you get wrapped up in the identity of it. Pretty much with any job, how can you know if it’s something you want to do until you actually go and do it? That’s why keeping that flexibility is so important.
Very nice site! Glad I found it. It’s great like you said to put yourself in a position where you can work a less stressful job even if it means less dollars coming in the door. My wife is a nurse and recently made a similar change from a stressful ICU to what I’m calling a cush non-stress “nursing” job – HA! It’s great though, she no longer works 12 hour shifts and has more time to be at home and with baby.
And thought you should know – we just started watching Suits – great show – but disappointed that it’s not realistic! 😀
Thanks for sharing Kevin! Why do you think there are so many unhappy lawyers and why do you think so many people continue to become lawyers and spend three years and big tuition if there are so many unhappy lawyers?
I remember about eight years ago reading a site called “leaving Law behind” or something And it seemed so miserable. If I was aware of how miserable being a lawyer is, Surely other people who want to become lawyers are as well?
If you could do it again, what career would you go for?
Lot to unpack here Sam but this is something I’ve thought of over the years. I think there are a couple reasons why there are so many unhappy lawyers:
1) Low barriers to entry. Law is basically the only professional career that has no pre-requisites, which means that anyone can basically be one. You could literally go and take the LSAT right now and be in a law school by next September.
You can’t say the same about any other professional school because you need the undergrad prereqs (medical, dental, pharmacy, etc). Someone who wants to go to med school has to actively make that decision early on in their undergrad career, which has a bit of a weeding out effect and maybe gets people who really want to do that path. No one is taking O-Chem for fun.
This has a pretty big effect just in how you mentally think about the career path. Talk to some lawyers and you’ll see that many of them sort of fell into law school by default. The same isn’t really true for medical fields since you can’t just go into it because you don’t know what else to do.
Take my wife, for example. She’s a dentist. But she majored in Violin Performance in undergrad. Still, she knew dental school was a possibility, and purposefully took all of the required science pre-reqs so she could apply to dental school. That’s just a complete mental shift compared to someone like me, who majored in History and Econ and then sort of fell into law school because I didn’t know what else to do.
2) No Residency or Practice Requirement. I think someone who goes into med or dental is going to enjoy it more or last longer because they spend much more time actually doing the work compared to a law student. Law school is nothing like actually practicing law (it’s all pondering the law, which is cool, but which you don’t get to do in practice). Neither are summer internships or summer associate positions – these are just nothing like the actual work of a lawyer and the pressure that comes with billing.
Contrast that to something like med school, where you actually start acting like a doctor in your 3rd year, not to mention 3 to 7 years of residency. By the time you’ve actually done the thing for that long, you’ll have an idea if it’s for you.
3) Having to bill hours. Probably doesn’t’ really have to be explained that much, but the pressure to bill is just soul crushing for a lot of people (myself for sure).
There are probably more reasons, but I think the first two are the biggies – low barriers to entry, which means many people end up in the field that probably shouldn’t be in it (me as an example), and no real idea of what being a lawyer is like until you get out there and do it.
As to why so many people do it, I think it again, comes down to low barriers to entry and the idea that it’s a good career path. For a lot of people (asian families for sure), there are basically only two jobs you can be – doctor or lawyer. These are jobs where the route to get to suceed in it seems clear, it’s go to a good law school, get good grades, do law review, get a big law job, go to work. (for med, its go to good med school, get a good residency, then go to work). Succeeding in something else – being a writer, a standup comic, an entrepreneur, etc, is sort of out there in the ether with no clear path to do that.
If I could go back in time, what would I do? In retrospect, probably either try my hand at something entrepreneurial, or I’d have taken science credits and gone to Optometry School or Pharmacy school. I don’t know why, but I like that sort of quasi-retail, professional job that seems to come wit optometry or pharmacy.
Kevin,
Thanks for this post. It resonated with me a lot. I’m an attorney at a San Fransisco biglaw firm and I feel a lot of the stress, anxiety, and uncertainty that you felt when you were working in biglaw. I just finished paying off my $207,000.00 in student loan debt and it feels great!
Keep up the good work.
-Greg
Thanks for stopping by Greg and awesome work crushing those student loans! I bet you feel so much better now – I know I did once that debt was gone. Just a whole lot less fear since I knew I could basically do anything and be totally fine. To do what you did, it definitely means you have learned how to live on less, so I bet you’re going to do amazing.
I’ve been a paralegal for 10 years and I’ll be taking the LSAT this summer. I have a pretty good idea of what lawyers do, having worked for them so long. I hope I’m making the right decision, but if I wait any longer I’ll be retirement age by the time I earn my JD. I’m already in my 30s and I kick myself for not having gone right after undergrad.
Trust me, taking the time to wait and know that’s what you want to do was the smart play. If I could go back, I would have waited longer instead of rushing into it. You have plenty of time.