Is it time for a career in law for you?

Unlike my friends in Europe, who have to decide what career they want to have at the beginning of their school journey and such, we are lucky here in the United States. We can make life and career changes in the blink of an eye. They live in a much more regulated structure.

I was not happy with my career, so I went back to law school. It was a bit risky as I was going to have to run up some pretty big student loan debt in the process, but I thought it was worth it. Frankly, he wasn’t sure he was cut out for that and was worried about failing. I know quite a few lawyers and they all warned me, but in the end I showed them to them.

The first year of law school was incredibly difficult. The teachers wanted to bring the students to class and humiliate them as they are trying to eliminate the weak. You also need to learn to read in a completely different way and also to think in a logical way that is unique to the law. It is not what I would anticipate.

The hardest thing about getting to where I currently am as a practicing attorney was actually the bar exam. After three years in law school, I probably thought I’d be ready for that exam, but frankly, I wasn’t. The whole experience is completely exhausting and will require all the energy and knowledge you can muster. Also, the test is just weird. You go through law school taking writing tests all the time, with the correct answer almost always in shades of gray, and then you get to the bar exam and a full day of the test is multiple choice questions.

After that, I became really lucky. I started from the beginning as a solo practicing attorney, which I don’t recommend to people. But in my case, some of my friends recommended a couple of good cases to me and I was lucky enough to get my practice going pretty quickly. Even then, it was a three-year job to get to the point where I was actually making a reasonable amount of money. Personally, I believe that joining a firm, large or small, and learning from other attorneys is the best way to go.

However, what I do believe is that more people should consider this for a career change in midlife. It was the best decision I made in my life.