"I have observed this conundrum play out with disturbing regularity at different stages of lawyers' careers. Newer lawyers often sacrificed much to earn top grades, high class rank, and prestigious positions on law review journals so that they could land a high-paying job with a large private law firm. After attaining their goal of a plum position, a sizeable number start looking for a different job within the first, second, or third year of practice because they find the work, the stress, and the lifestyle both ...
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"I have observed this conundrum play out with disturbing regularity at different stages of lawyers' careers. Newer lawyers often sacrificed much to earn top grades, high class rank, and prestigious positions on law review journals so that they could land a high-paying job with a large private law firm. After attaining their goal of a plum position, a sizeable number start looking for a different job within the first, second, or third year of practice because they find the work, the stress, and the lifestyle both unmanageable and unsustainable. Other attorneys sail through those first few years with seeming ease, but later run into serious headwinds in their later associate years as they are trying to develop their own practice, make partner, contribute pro bono and/or community service hours, often with young children at home. Sadly, many of these still early-career attorneys leave private practice for other legal jobs they hope will be less stressful, and some even give up on their dream of practicing law entirely. The reason is the same-they find the work, the stress, and the lifestyle unmanageable and unsustainable"--
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