Pls Hndle Thx: Dream On

Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.

Dear ATL,

What is your take on young associates taking pseudo-legal positions for the time being?  I am strongly considering taking a job in DC (after all, it beat my current location, Chicago, in your brackets) with a federal agency.  The position technically doesn’t require a J.D., though it will increase the pay.  It is not ideal, but it is in my practice area.  Also, the pay would be more than I have ever made, and the benefits, oh the glorious federal benefits.

My dream job would be a mid-sized boutique law firm.  But (1) they generally aren’t hiring anyone right now, and (2) they specifically aren’t hiring me right now. Will no one want to touch me in a couple years because I will not have been in a firm and have been “inactive” for a couple years?

-Even Better Than the Real Thing

Dear Even Better Than the Real Thing,

Last week A few years ago, as I was rifling through my baby book looking to see if any of those damn $50 Israeli bonds had matured, I came across that classic nursery arts & crafts project, the “what I want to be when I grow up” booklet. It’s always hilarious to read things your young self once wrote, and I was curious to find out if early me could have possibly envisioned the wild success and embarrassing wealth that I currently enjoy as a weekly blogger for this site.  Apparently early me didn’t dare to dream that big, as I had only hoped to become a ballerina and a model.  The point of the story is that sometimes our early dreams are derailed, but they’re often replaced with a reality that is SO much better. You dream of a midsized firm, but I say, dream bigger: one day you could work at a 500+ attorney firm or, god willing, a mega firm….

In any event, it sounds like your options are either taking this interesting-sounding job and risking your dream or vigilantly guarding against “inactivity” by remaining unemployed and shrewdly saving yourself up for phantom firm jobs.  Both are compelling, but a non-lawyer job in kind of the same area of interest will forever tarnish your track record, whereas a magnificently unpolluted two-year unemployment gap on your resume shows law firms that you’re serious about waiting as long as it takes to get the right experience. No self-respecting midsized firm wants its attorneys to have any non-legal job experience — even in a recession — as a diverse employment background can lead to perspective, and, if left unchecked, to yoga.

Even Better Than the Real Thing, you have set your sights on a midsized dream. Let nothing, not even a federal agency seducing you with money and paid vacation, sway you from your chosen path.

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Your friend,

Marin

As always with Pls Hndle Thx, here’s Elie’s take:

I think people will understand that you had to find a way to put some money in your pocket during the recession. Despite what some people may feel, working for the federal government is not tantamount to being a baby assassin for a fascist regime. You’ve got to pay bills, don’t you?

All that said, working in a non-lawyer position for an extended amount of time can put you at a relative disadvantage against new, unblemished recent law graduates who might be competing for the job you want a year or two from now. Some firms prefer to pick their fruit directly off of the tree.

Have you done all that you can to secure a paid public interest job? You’d make a lot less money, but you’d be using your JD. If you are just looking for stop-gap resume filler, then getting lawyer experience is preferable to getting non-lawyer experience.

I’m assuming that is obvious to you. I’m assuming that the only reason you are thinking of taking a non-lawyer job in D.C. is that you simply can’t get a lawyer job anywhere you want to live, and/or you have minimum financial standards which your potential government salary fulfills. In essence, I think you’ve already made your choice, you just want somebody to tell you that it won’t ruin you down the road.

It probably won’t ruin you down the road.

So you gotta do what you gotta do. Government work will do in a pinch.

— Dude who is not irrationally afraid of government work.

Do you have a question for next week’s Pls Hndle Thx? Send it to advice@abovethelaw.com

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Earlier: Prior installments of pls hndle thx