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alt.legal: Are You A Happy Attorney? Are There Happy Attorneys?

Okay, so most American attorneys are unhappy -- what can you do about it?

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A successful litigator told me recently that he represents several premier clients, he makes an excellent salary in excess of most Biglaw associates, he keeps pretty steady hours, and he is soon to be put up for partnership.  Upon reflection, though, he realized he doesn’t like the adversarial nature of litigation, especially with his opposing counsel, and thus, he was looking to make a career move out of it.

While that didn’t make total sense at first, I was not completely surprised. Most lawyers I know aren’t happy, and it’s almost a foregone conclusion. Sometimes we even make ourselves numb to the idea of happiness or unhappiness, unconsciously through depression or states of denial, or consciously through self-medication. Talking to someone ready to remedy his unhappiness was refreshing.

It also made me consider my own career trajectory, making this sort of a sequel to my previous post about the specter of returning to practice.

Here are some bullets, in case lawyer happiness is not something you’ve been closely studying:

  • Vault measures “Quality of Life” at law firms through a combination of dozen different areas: Overall Satisfaction (25%); Hours (10%); Compensation (10%); Business Outlook (10%); Substantive Work (10%); Associate/Partner Relations (5%); Leadership Transparency (5%); Formal Training (5%); Informal Training, Mentoring & Sponsorship (5%); Pro Bono (5%); Overall Diversity (5%); Career Outlook (5%). I don’t know about you, but these factors do not sound like a magic formula of happiness to me.
  • Earlier this year, and previously covered here, a research study (83 G. Wash. L. Rev. 554) revealed insights on attorney happiness by analyzing thousands of attorney responses to a nationwide survey. Without getting into too much detail, the researchers identified similar factors, along with a few others. My favorite is that the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption was unrelated to well-being, either positively or negatively. at 586. Sweet, let’s party!
  • Being a lawyer was at the top of a “best jobs” list. Oh wait, that’s in Canada. We all should have been Canadian.
  • In the United States, lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to suffer from depression than non-lawyers. Ah, that’s more like it.

Okay, so most American attorneys are unhappy. What can you do about it (other than maybe move to Canada)? Many of my colleagues on Above The Law have written about it, but let me summarize what I view as the actual options.

Fake It Till You Make It – Wait and See

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I don’t recommend this option, given the scary statistics around suicide rates, depression and the like. But it’s an option worth considering, especially if you are at a very junior level. For many law graduates in their mid to late 20s, working at a law firm is their first job, ever. Very few of us went through internships or clinics of serious consequence, and it’s fairly well-documented how legal education, with a few exceptions, really doesn’t prepare students for day-to-day practice.

I see too many first- and second-year associates jumping practice groups or jumping jobs or leaving the practice. That doesn’t make tons of sense; you’re almost too junior to know whether you’re in a really bad thing. At the same time, now that I am nearly ten years out of law school, many of my peers agree—the people who made partner are the people you expected to make partner. There are certain lawyers for whom their practice, even through all of the pain, is at the center of the calling in their lives. And if you know that’s not for you, why wait any longer?

No matter your seniority, sometimes you just know when something will not get better. You see the lives of the attorneys at the next level, and you foresee almost all pain with no reward. Consider this—if you accrue the résumé of a mid-level associate in your current career trajectory, will you be happier with your options that the résumé affords you? In that case, it may be worth buckling down and riding this out a little. Do you foresee nothing but regret? Then see option 3 below.

If you are torn as to whether you should stay or go, consider the Freakonomics school of decision-making, documented here. You will need: one coin.

Keep Swinging – Change Your Perspective

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I incorporate by reference the excellent posts of Jeena Cho, found on Above The Law. Her musings, and the musings of others like her, really are worth reading. Before you dismiss this as mumbo-jumbo, self-awareness is increasingly a high predictor of successful leaders. So take a second and try to understand yourself.

I can openly confess I didn’t have the best start to my practice at the firm. For some unknown reason, the firm had pretty high expectations for me, and I fell hard on a few of those early assignments. I invested effort and felt that I was smart enough for the work, but I got mixed results—sometimes a well-researched draft of a brief, but other times just a total mess. My supervising attorneys were confused.

I considered jumping ship pretty quickly, seeking a fresh start. Then, the recession hit, and like many others, I began to fear for my employment. In a moment of self-reflection, I thought about a story from Hank Aaron about how whenever he went through a slump or was having trouble, his motto was to “keep swinging.” My uneven start at the firm had frozen me at the plate, but there will be strikes thrown over the plate and you will never get a hit without taking a swing. I put it on a post-it note and stuck it on the wall of my office. It helped me turn around my approach to the firm and change my attitude about my job, and my last few years at the firm were far more productive and engaging than my first two.

Re-reading this story, it feels clumsy and far from sage, but you get the idea. Sometimes our happiness might just be a matter of perspective.

Get Out Of Dodge – Change Your Job

This takes three forms, really, and has been mostly well-covered by others:

  1. Do you want to do the same thing someplace better? That breeze you feel is the wind created by a thousand recruiters nodding vigorously, all around the nation. Dust off your résumé and explore your options.
  2. Do you want to try another context for practice (e.g., in-house, government, or solo practice)? Going in-house is the refuge for many a Biglaw attorney, and it’s well documented on this site (see, e.g., this). Expect a period of relief and get used to having your life back a little bit, but then a second period of adjustment to working in a company.
  3. Do you want to leave the practice? Do it! Quit your job!

“We’ve Got Great People”

It’s a mantra we hear expressed in so many ways about law firms, something to the tune of: “If I have to be up at 2 a.m. in a conference room working on a battery of briefs or a closing, I’d rather be doing it alongside the best people.”

Yesterday I did an informal Facebook survey, and strangely enough, that mantra was reflected in the responses I got, especially for attorneys happy with their jobs. Their happiness derives primarily from the people with whom they enjoy working. Sentiments were like “It is definitely people-driven. My happiness increases because I have a little more control over my professional life, as I have found a way to work with the good partners” or “I enjoy working for a family-owned company, I’ve prayed together with them, they’ve accommodated my family needs with flexible working schedules.”

Maybe that’s a larger truth of life. Maybe the activities that fill our days matter so much less than the people we are spending our time with. For some, this means locking down a 9 to 6 job so that they can spend as much time as possible with the people that really matter. For others, it may be the 2 a.m. conference room people.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Ed Sohn is a Global Director at Thomson Reuters’ award-winning legal outsourcing company, Pangea3, which employs approximately 1,000 full-time attorneys globally. After five and a half years as a Biglaw litigation associate, Ed spent over two years in New Delhi, India, managing hundreds of Indian attorneys and professionals in delivering high-value managed legal services. He now focuses on developing integrated technology and outsourced legal solutions. You can contact Ed about e-discovery, managed legal services, theology, chess, Star Trek The Next Generation, or the Chicago Bulls at edward.sohn@thomsonreuters.com.

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