Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Rock Star

Meet a lawyer/rock star -- and no, not a "rock star" of bankruptcy or ERISA law, but a real live rock star....

A fair number of lawyers or law school graduates work in creative fields. Over the years, “recovering lawyers” have worked as writers, actors, and even painters (such as Henri Matisse and Wassily Kandinsky).

But you won’t find many lawyers who are rock stars — and I’m not talking about tax or securities law “rock stars,” but actual, literal rock stars. The free-association creativity needed to make music goes against the inside-the-box thinking prized in the legal profession. Music also involves math, and we all know that lawyers — even lawyers for the IRS — are “not good at math.”

There are, however, exceptions to every rule. A few folks with legal training have entered the music world — including Julio Iglesias, Rubén Blades, and today’s “stealth lawyer,” an attorney turned rock star….

Meet Shonali Bhowmik, an indie rock musician. She leads the band Tigers and Monkeys and just released a solo album entitled “100 Oaks Revival.” She discusses her migration into music, and her more recent move into the comedy world, with Spencer Mazyck of Bloomberg Law:

It’s hard to believe she went to law school twenty years ago (and didn’t even go straight through); Bhowmik looks young enough to be a law student. It’s nice to hear that her law school community was so supportive of her musical ambitions. And it’s also encouraging to learn that she can make a living from her music and no longer has to work as a contract attorney to pay the bills.

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To many a frustrated lawyer, Shonali Bhowmik is living the dream. Congratulations to Bhowmik on all her success so far, and good luck to her on achieving her goal of making music into her twilight years.

Stealth Lawyer: Shonali Bhowmik, Indie Rock Musician [Bloomberg Law via YouTube]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of career alternatives for attorneys

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