Why I Quit Practicing
Law—and Why I’ll Never Give Up My License
Nothing had equipped me for law school. Despite having
graduated with honor from college, I was totally unprepared for the sheer
volume of work and intense stress levels law school threw at me. By the end of first
semester I felt that my mind would not hold one single additional piece of
information. I had no idea how I would make it through another five semesters—I
only knew I had to. Not because I absolutely had to be a lawyer, but because
there was no way I could ever justify having put that much effort into
something only to throw it away.
Thirty years later, I still feel the same. Nonetheless, a few
years ago, I decided to close my practice and reclaim my artistic side, which
was all but lost when I gave up music for law school.
The decision to stop practicing law wasn’t easy. My law
practice, small though it was, represented a series of hard-won victories—and I
don’t mean the kind fought in a courtroom. My career started out slowly, derailed by a
devastating car wreck that almost killed me two weeks after the bar exam. Jobs
for recent graduates were scarce; jobs for a recent graduate in a wheelchair
who couldn’t work 40 hours a week, much less 70, even scarcer. I had to find my
own clients, one at a time.
Personal injury was a natural choice; I knew the plaintiff’s
side all too intimately. I helped injured people and I felt good about it. As I
healed, my practice grew. But over the years, civil law seemed to grow less
civil. I became disillusioned.
Then I began to write. Late at night, there were no anxious
clients or obnoxious insurance adjusters. The only sound was the quiet tapping
of keys as ideas flew from my fingers, sprouted wings and soared over the page.
It felt almost like falling in love—the breathless anticipation of not knowing
where the words would go, only that, once written, they took on a life of their
own. After a while, I had to admit it was what I needed to do for a living.
People don’t always understand what I do, so I describe it
this way: I’m a freelance writer and blogger for publications, corporations,
and professionals—anyone who needs writing help with online content, especially
lawyers. For fun, I also write songs and occasionally gig for tips, singing and
playing piano. It’s good to hear the muse again.
Though there were many things about practicing law that I
enjoyed, closing my law practice allowed me to find a part of myself that I had
lost. And as long as I pay my bar dues every year, I can still call myself a
lawyer. Being a lawyer is who I am, whether I practice law or not. I worked too
hard earning that title to ever give it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment