There is No Work/Life Balance for Big Firm Associates: From the Horse's Mouth

A female partner, Kathleen Wu, from Andrews & Kurth gives a reality check to lemmings: "Get real," she says regarding women's ability to find a healthy work/life balance while working in Big Law. Nice to hear it from someone who is considered a success in the Legal Industry. If you're not willing to listen to scam bloggers, because you think we're failures, whiners or whatever else, you should listen to her. She must know what she is talking about.

Recent grads shouldn’t get their hearts set on “having it all.” The practice of law is demanding — exceedingly so. It is next to impossible to balance a full-time legal career with marriage, children and regular trips to the gym. It’s no coincidence that the two women most recently nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court — now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor and nominee/U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan — are unmarried and childless.

I've said this once, and I'll say it a hundred times, even the ideal life for an attorney is far from ideal. Instead of making dinner for your husband, you order dinner on your client's tab and bring him the leftovers. That is not the way that most women want to live.

If I could say it any better, I would. But she summarizes it so well. I know that it's hard for lemmings to believe the scam bloggers when we might be the exception to the rule. But we're right about what all attorneys know to be true, being an attorney is not all it's cracked up to be.

Yes, you may be one of the "lucky" ones, make law review and get the premier job at the premier firm. But will that make you happy? Probably not.

Ms. Wu challenges to assumptions that most lemmings make when they go to law school:

So why do we move this to the category of “very very good advice?” Because, in our minds, for too long a notion has been perpetuated that with a law degree comes happiness. That notion rests on two faulty premises, one of which has been discussed much in recent years, the other less so.

The first assumption is that a law degree is a ticket to a well-paying job. As we and countless other blogs have chronicled in recent years, that’s just not true. Even when the job market was humming right along, back in 2005-2007, many students from schools outside the top-tier struggled to get jobs.

The second assumption — which Wu addresses — is that once the good job comes along, happiness will follow. But that’s simply not true. Even the best and the brightest — those who sailed through the top schools — often find themselves crushed by the obligations of the legal profession: the drudgery, the long hours, the tedious travel to uninspiring destinations. It may be true that you can squeeze in a successful legal career, a marriage and kids, and a hyper-efficient daily exercise routine. But chances are, there might not be time to learn Italian, write the Great American Novel, run your local community garden.

So, let's summarize. You either land the dream job and have no life OR you land the shit job and have no money. Why does anyone want to join the legal field? Yes there are exceptions to my general rule, but they are few and far between. Of course, if you go to law school on a full scholarship, the chances of you finding a low paying--but enjoyable--job as a lawyer are drastically increased. But most people go to law school of Aunt Sallie's dime. So, please heed Ms. Wu's warning, if you don't think mine is worth listening to.

"Extraordinary Opportunity" for Paralegal/JD in Northern Virginia

For $11-13 an hour you can work from dawn until dusk with a 30 minute lunch break at a law office located in Falls Church, VA, one of the richest cities in the country. Notice how the ad makes no difference between a paralegal right out of college and a law graduate. Either way you're just a low wage administrative assistant who must also juggle being a lawyer and interacting with clients.


I live in Podunk where the cost of living is significantly less than in NOVA/DC and the housekeepers here get paid more than what a lot of the firms in major cities are offering these days. Also be sure to check out toiletlaw's latest post for another extraordinary opportunity to work for $12 an hour in New Jersey.

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Very skilled experienced Paralegal or JD needed for very busy criminal and civil practice.
Extraordinary opportunity with opportunity for growth.

Must have experience having worked in other law firms.
Be professional and articulate as this position involves client interaction.
Must be ON TIME, organized and able to multi-task.
Hours are from 8AM to 6:00PM daily with a 30 minute lunch break.

Involves:
client intakes
scheduling apts.
creating files
filing away files
organizing office
maintaining calenders
calling clients
typing letters, pleadings and correspondence daily. Must be a fast typist.
Answering phones/taking messages
interacting with the Court
periodic filings with the court

Requirements:
Fast Paced environment - must be able to juggle many different tasks.
MUST NOT HAVE A CRIMINAL RECORD OF ANY KIND - a complete background check will take place
ONLY APPLICANTS THAT PROVIDE their resumes will get a response.
This position is for immediate placement, please be ready to start promptly.
Only applicants with salary expectations will receive interview opportunity.


Thank you.

• Location: Falls Church
• Compensation: $11 to $13/hour or based on experience

The Overqualified, Under Experienced Graduate and Debunking More Education Myths

Recent graduates of various degrees and backgrounds have discovered that "too much" formal education and not enough work experience places them in the difficult position of being "overqualified" for entry level work but not qualified enough for mid-level jobs. I've seen both new graduates as well as those laid-off with fewer than 2 years of work experience faced with this predicament. Seeing that more people are returning to school to wait out the Great Recession (that will unlikely end any time soon), I predict that this particular demographic will continue to grow over the next decade. Disinformation spread by graduate schools looking to make billions from the recession and high unemployment rate have successfully convinced thousands that one can never have too many degrees. The reality of six figure loan payments during a time when employers are slashing wages or only offering low-wage and unpaid internships rarely gets mentioned during orientation.

I've only come across one retired academic at a job seminar sponsored by my alma mater dissuade the audience from going back to school. The hundreds who packed the auditorium ranging in age from 23 to their mid-50s seemed to appreciate his candor and honesty. "The last thing you want to do right now is take on more debt or extend your stay in college or graduate school," he said as he went on to discuss examples of students who actually failed class on purpose so they could stay in college for an additional semester rather than face unemployment. "You don't want to come out of school in a few years with the same amount of work experience you have now just with more debt and a degree that is useless. Employers these days don't want to pay someone more money simply because they have an advanced degree." And yet, thousands more each year are fooled into believing the exact opposite.


I won't spend a lot of time discussing the problems having a JD poses on law graduates looking to start a career in a different field. Most of us who have attempted to branch out into other careers have found how much of a hindrance that "versatile" JD has had on our job search. I mentioned in my first post to read Esq. Never about the challenges entry level candidates with a JD face right now. I still recommend trying to branch out sooner rather than later if you no longer want to practice law or can't find a lucrative legal job because of your grades or law school ranking. Chasing after the $160k biglaw dream (or nightmare?) when you neither have the grades nor T14 cred is a lost cause imo, especially in this economy when even top law school grads and experienced attorneys like Angel are having problems finding jobs in the legal market.

Articles like the one Angel posted from the National Law Journal is BS for the most part, similar to the type of PR stuff found in those glossy diversity (chuckle) and lifestyle pamphlets given to law students during interview week. Those who have made it to the top through nepotism, backstabbing co-workers, or representing the most heinous of corporations, insurance companies, and criminals like to perpetuate story lines as unbelievable as the ones found on television shows like The Deep End and The Good Wife. As much as I love The Good Wife and Julianna Margulies' intelligent and admirable character Alicia Florrick (who just happens to always represent innocent clients or take on pro bono cases for her high-profile Chicago law firm Stern, Lockhart & Gardner), the glamorization of an otherwise depressing and elitist profession has helped the ABA and law schools rake in the dough while ignoring the more common realities of the legal profession including depression, desperation, corruption, high unemployment, and suicide. The majority of the lawyers I know who were laid off from both biglaw and mid-sized law firms felt almost relieved to leave the toxic and unfriendly work environment. I won't even go into my own short-lived experience at a firm - all I'll say is that the experience was overwhelmingly negative. Other than the paycheck most people find little fulfillment from working at these sweatshops, so don't envy us or feel bad if you never had the chance to experience it first hand.

Just a typical day in the life of a first year associate, right??

For those of us who would rather put our unrealistic dreams of becoming a real life Alicia Florrick behind us, convincing employers that the writing and analytical skills developed in law school makes you the best candidate for a non-legal job can be as nerve-wracking as a first year law exam. Getting your foot in the door of these non-legal jobs is a challenge in and of itself. Sometimes it means working from the bottom despite all of the money and time you invested into earning your law degree. One option is to take an unpaid/low wage internship. As an observant friend noted, unpaid and low wage internships are another way of weeding out people who come from poorer families as the employer assumes that young graduates who accept these internships will receive financial assistance from their parents. I know a lot of you, including myself, can't afford loan payments and an apartment in NYC on a $10/hour internship. Unfortunately, an internship is often the only way a young graduate or entry level candidate can get a leg up on other applicants once a full-time job becomes available within the company. I know one person who managed to get a full-time (non-legal) job after a summer internship last year and another law graduate who has put their pride aside to work their way up from intern to administrative assistant with a company. Yes, it sucks. But if you don't have the connections to get a full-time job, an internship might be the only viable option available at the moment.

The downside to this is that even internships today are extremely competitive and it doesn't always guarantee a job in this economy. I also know people working from one internship to the next with no job security or health benefits. It is unbelievable to some that someone with a graduate or professional degree has to accept an unpaid internship, but this is the nature of our new economy. Keep an open mind and if you can afford to, take an unpaid or low-wage internship in an industry that you want to transition into from the law and use your free time to find your niche and apply to full-time jobs in that field. At least the internship will make it easier for you to create a new resume that will make you more employable outside of becoming a paralegal with a JD or doing legal temp work.

As always, anyone with better advice is welcome to post their ideas. I will also begin to delete comments that I deem to be off topic or offensive.