Career Satisfaction: Assessing the Options

For many lawyers, finding satisfaction in the law is a matter of taking their careers in different nontraditional directions.

By Hindi Greenberg

etworking and informational interviewing for a job may not be as exciting as an evening at the theater, but an experienced business lawyer was so effective doing the former, that she now gets paid to spend time attending the latter as publications director for a major performing arts theater.

Many lawyers envy her transition into a creative and nonconfrontational field, doing work she loves. This is because the legal community is finally acknowledging an issue that many lawyers have known for some time - that we do not all want to be like Perry Mason. Although there are many lawyers quite satisfied with their choice of profession, not all law school graduates want to appear in court, work for a big firm, handle large or complex cases, spend the majority of their waking hours in their offices, or even earn top dollar. Instead, many want the opportunity to explore and pursue alternative options, both in and outside of the law; they want to further examine quality of life and work style issues. They want to have work that they love, or at least work that they feel good about.

Previously it was presumed that a law graduate would go to work as an associate for a firm, work hard for five to seven years, make partner, then ease up a bit and enjoy the fruits of past labor and continued good work. That presumption has died with the downsizing, restructuring, and merging of law firms. Not only are many law students and licensed practitioners unable to find jobs, but associates and partners wait for the knock on their office door announcing their forced departure. And perhaps most troubling, many practitioners fortunate enough to have stable employment seem less happy than ever.

Although the maxim "no job is perfect, that's why you get paid" may be even more appropriate today, growing numbers of lawyers are questioning their career choice. There have always been many individuals dissatisfied with their work; however, in earlier decades, people repressed discontent because loyalty and continuity were prized. Today, job-hopping and lateral transfers are the norm, and many law firms now have no more loyalty to their employees than their employees have to them.

Evaluate What Change is Needed

The options available after years of dedicated practice at a firm also are changing. For example, firms are inventing new categories for associates - such as permanent associate, of counsel, or special counsel - who will not be offered a piece of the partnership pie. For some associates, these are promising developments, alleviating the stress caused by partnership track competition and rainmaking requirements. But for others, it is an insult to their efforts and the countless hours billed for the firm at the expense of their private lives.

There are almost one million licensed attorneys in the United States, and that number is growing. In California alone there are more than 165,000 attorneys. In Wisconsin there are now more than 19,700 licensed lawyers. And there are increasing numbers of associates, with decreasing possibilities for partnership. Reflective of lawyer discontent among this mass are several polls that indicated 50 to 70 percent of the respondents either would leave law if given the opportunity, or were at least somewhat dissatisfied with their legal career.

In the 1998 State Bar of Wisconsin Member Survey, roughly 25 percent of all respondents said they were considering leaving the legal profession within the next five years. While many of those planning to leave the law were retiring, others were abandoning law practice for other reasons. Of respondents who gave reasons for wanting to leave law behind, most said they were frustrated and disillusioned. (The survey results are published in the October 1998 Wisconsin Lawyer.)

Dissatisfied practitioners often find that they must change their work or environment or risk firing, malpractice, ulcers, or worse. Many of them initially believe that they need to quit the practice of law. However, simply obtaining information on how to stay in law and develop career satisfaction, with only minor adjustments to a current working situation, may suffice to remedy the frustrations. Adjustments could include a move to an office with a different culture, a different area of law, or a different type of client.

Individuals who have worked at only one or two law offices often are surprised at the varied dynamics of other offices. In many work situations it can be the interoffice relations that make work enjoyable or contribute to its aggravations. Look around and talk to attorneys in other offices about their office culture and relationships to discover if maybe you need to move because you are working in an especially difficult office.

If it isn't a change of colleagues that is needed, some lawyers find that a move to a different type of practice, one that removes some of the stress factors, is enough. For example, if discomfort is caused by the confrontation necessary in a litigation practice, consider switching to a more transactional practice. Or, as one of my counseling clients discovered, all that was necessary for him to avoid the anxiety created by contentiousness and confrontation was to develop an appellate practice at his firm.

Attorneys who love the law in its theoretical rather than its practical application often can find contentment working in research and writing positions with the courts, legal book publishers, research services, or even in a law firm's appellate department.

If a minimum change is not enough, many lawyers find that a move to a job that continues to use their legal practice skills, but in a less consuming or traditional manner, alleviates their discontent. For example, lawyers are moving into corporations to work as in-house counsel, using their legal skills as part of a team to further the business of their employers. Similarly, lawyering in a nonprofit organization, one that promotes values and issues prized by the lawyer, can reinvigorate interest. And sometimes there are opportunities within the parameters of these jobs to exercise other skills, such as legislative analysis and drafting, planning policy, or lobbying. Lawyers also are teaching legal subjects in law, business, real estate, paralegal, and court reporting schools. Additionally, a large contingent of practitioners works within bar associations, universities, and colleges, handling the legal business of these entities. And, of course, legions of lawyers work within almost every department of the local, state, and federal governments.

Consider Alternative Work Schedules

In lieu of changing jobs altogether, some practitioners are staying put in their practice areas, but are seeking alternative work schedules to allow time for cultivating expertise in a developing or specialized area of law, for starting a business, for transferring into another field, for leisure interests, or for raising a family.

As these phenomena grow, the demand to accommodate less than full-time lawyering and alternative work arrangements will escalate. Although the legal marketplace is increasingly focusing on the bottom line, requiring ever-expanding work hours from practitioners, more lawyers are examining their life priorities and deciding that excessive work, without time to enjoy the fruits of their labor, is no longer acceptable. To remain competitive, get the legal work done, and attract the best lawyers, firms will be forced to accept part-time workers, hire independent contractors, and make accommodations for individual choices. This bodes well for those who desire quality time in and out of the law office.

For those looking to combine their legal background with a different quality of life, the part-time and contract practice of law have become hot topics both for individual lawyers and for law firms. With the downsizing of some firms and influx of work in others, there is a growing demand for both contract lawyers, who work on a temporary, hourly basis, and part-time lawyers, who work as permanent employees on a reduced work schedule. Many lawyers exploring the possibility of working reduced schedules desire to continue to use their legal skills, but in a less intensive, all-consuming style. (See the April 1999 Wisconsin Lawyer for an in-depth article on contract lawyering.)

Lawyers also are exploring alternative work arrangements such as telecommuting - where the lawyer works with a phone and computer from home or another location, hooked up to the law office by modem and fax, and job sharing - where two lawyers each work a reduced schedule, either sharing cases or maintaining their own caseload, and share office space and support staff. In the latter work arrangement, the two attorneys often prorate benefits so that the firm is only paying benefits - health insurance, vacation, and sick leave - as if for one full-time lawyer.

Slowly, firms are revamping their attitudes and policies about less than full-time lawyers. No longer are these lawyers thought to be less worthy. In fact a good part-time or contract lawyer often is envied for her ability to organize and handle complicated legal matters in a shorter time frame, thereby creating the benefit of financial economy for the firm as well as more free time for the lawyer. Contract lawyers often market themselves to a potential hiring firm on their ability to pick up a file, review only the important information, handle the matter efficiently, and produce a finished product for the firm, all without the need to pay for anything except the time the contract lawyer spent on the specified project.

Many lawyers who contact me do not simply want to reduce their work hours; they want to change their work focus and stop practicing law entirely. If these former practitioners enjoy working with lawyers, they can explore the growing industries that serve law firms or produce products for use by lawyers, or even set up their own businesses providing consultations to other lawyers in areas of self-developed expertise. Businesses that provide services and products to lawyers are expanding rapidly - computer consulting, legal product development and design, law book sales, practice management, office design, and legal software development, to name just a few. Look at the display ads in various legal publications to get an idea about the varied businesses that cater to law firms, many of which hire former lawyers to serve those firms.

In my experience, most lawyers who initially express a desire to leave the practice of law remain in law or a law-related field. I am not aware of any documented study on where lawyers go who change jobs or careers, but the responses from my clients indicate that less than 20 percent divorce themselves completely from law. Even those who do totally leave the law continue to draw on the skills they developed in law practice, because those skills are broad-based and valuable for life and work.

No matter what your career path, you may be surprised how beneficial your former legal training has been in the development of useful, transferable skills that are much in demand in the workplace. Legal education and work provide excellent training in analytical thinking, communication, writing, and persuasiveness - skills that can be used in many endeavors.

The former lawyer who now has a job as publications director at the performing arts theater parlayed her legal training and practice abilities in writing, editing, interviewing, organizing information, researching, and giving attention to detail into a half-time job as a publications consultant with the theater group. She eventually moved into a full-time position as the publications director, with responsibilities for reading upcoming plays, writing about them for the program books, interviewing the actors and directors, and attending the plays.

Another lawyer used the persuasion, organizational, and communication skills she developed in law practice to move into the fundraising arena with a law school alumni office, a medical center, and a nonprofit organization as its public relations and development director, and then became a consultant on fundraising and grant writing.

The skills developed as a trial lawyer can be parlayed into related fields. Litigators, tired of the confrontation and posturing necessary when advocating on a client's behalf, are investigating mediation or the developing field of ombudsman as alternatives to the traditional advocacy practice. As mediators, former advocates may continue to engage in client contact, counseling, and analytical thinking, but are freed from the pressure to prevail.

Moving even further from traditional legal training, but using the same client contact and counseling skills, an increasing number of lawyers have decided to return to school to train to become psychologists or therapists.

While large numbers of lawyers who actually switch careers move into related fields such as politics, real estate, banking, finance, or the communications fields, or become managers or administrators in business, other former lawyers travel even farther afield. Lawyers who no longer are practicing law range from a humor consultant, to a retail storeowner turned real estate developer, to a land use planner turned psychologist. There are former lawyers who are art professors, journalists, humane society presidents, career counselors, gardeners, chefs, screenwriters, stock brokers, and literary agents. Many lawyers say that, although they no longer practice law, their legal training was extremely helpful to their transition and gives them credibility they wouldn't otherwise have.

Lawyers contemplating change are in good company. Consider the following one-time attorneys: Mahatma Ghandi (Inner Temple-London, 1891); Sir Thomas Moore (Lincoln's Inn-London, 1501); Peter Tchaikovsky (School of Jurisprudence-St. Petersburg, 1859); Studs Terkel (Univ. of Chicago, 1934); Fidel Castro (Univ. of Havana, 1950); Jules Verne (1848); and Howard Cosell (NYU, 1940).

Perhaps less well-known, but just as successful, are the two lawyer-founders of the restaurant chain, California Pizza Kitchen; the founders of the self-help legal book publisher, Nolo Press; and Mortimer Zucherman, a real estate tycoon and the owner of the magazine U.S. News & World Report.

Ensure an Effective Job or Career Change

To increase your chances of creating a more satisfying work life, spend time identifying your preferred skills, values, and interests. For most individuals, this requires time spent with a good career counselor, or at the very least, time spent alone in honest and in-depth self-assessment. With knowledge of the skills and interests you possess and desire to use, and the values that motivate you, you can more easily focus on those jobs or fields that will permit the full use of your skills, integration of values important to you, and satisfaction of your interests.

Hindi Greenberg was a business litigator for 10 years before she founded Lawyers in Transition in San Francisco in 1985. She speaks to and consults nationally with individual lawyers, law firms, bar associations, and law schools on career satisfaction and options. Her book, The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook, was published recently by Avon Books.

After self-assessment, the next step is researching the options that arouse your interest, fit your self-assessment profile, and encompass other mandatory criteria, such as location, status, and salary. Be open to various options - they may be within, related to, or outside of law. Jobs can be identified by reading articles about people, talking to others and asking them what they do for a living, and reading the employment want ads in both legal and lay publications.

Once you identify several interesting options, you should obtain information about your new industry or field via trade associations and newsletters. Consult the Encyclopedia of Associations, published by Gale Research Inc. and located at most public libraries, for the names of relevant associations and their locations, focus, and publications.

If you are still considering law options, bar associations have sections in an assortment of practice areas and interests. For example, the State Bar of Wisconsin has sections on alternative dispute resolution, public interest law, and tax, among others. (For more information on sections, please see the 1999 Wisconsin Lawyer Directory.) Professional publications, including those produced by bar association sections, provide insights into new practice areas or new fields and also may have job listings. Attending specialty association (for example, the Lawyer-Pilot Association or the Computer Law Association) or bar section meetings and conventions creates excellent opportunities to meet people who work in one of your targeted fields and can provide a reality check for you.

It is very important to pursue the contacts and information gleaned at these meetings and from the publications. These contacts are much more likely to result in concrete job leads and personalized attention than would sending an unsolicited resume, especially for a lawyer who is dramatically changing legal focus or careers. Contrary to the fantasies of some lawyers who believe they have already paid their dues and are now entitled to an expeditious job or career change, a potential employer does not often come knocking on one's door. The reality is that a job changer, and especially a career changer, may have to start on a bottom or low rung and work upwards while learning the new steps on the ladder.

While there are many other methods for obtaining career information and contacts, the above are good ways to get started. Job change, and career change even more so, takes focus, energy, and time. The choices are limited only by your preference, imagination, and ambition.

Career reevaluation and change is distressful and discomforting, and can cause great insecurity, but can have extremely positive results. As a former lawyer-turned-nonprofit administrator emphatically told a career counseling audience, "I have misgivings sometimes when I look at my paycheck, but never when I look at my life."

Wisconsin Lawyer