Biglaw, Career Alternatives

Biglaw Associate Who Moonlights As Opera Singer To Perform At Carnegie Hall

Wow! If you'd like to support a Biglaw attorney who managed to dream the impossible dream, tickets are available here.

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Marie-Joe Abi-Nassif (Photo via Facebook)

Marie-Joe Abi-Nassif (Photo via Facebook)

If you thought you were busy and overworked as a Biglaw associate, just imagine trying to balance your legal career with a professional singing career. That’s exactly what Marie-Joe Abi-Nassif, a second-year associate at Latham & Watkins, has to do every day.

While training at Julliard, Abi-Nassif started her career at the firm as a paralegal in the capital markets and M&A group. After working at the firm for two years, the accomplished opera singer enrolled in Columbia’s LL.M. program. Since graduating last year, she works as an M&A attorney at the firm by day, and by night — and in whatever spare time she can find when she’s not billing her life away — she practices her music.

Balancing music and law isn’t easy, but’s possible to hit high billables and high notes if you try hard enough. Abi-Nassif elaborated on that in an interview with the Am Law Daily: “When you work at a firm like Latham, you need to be responsive to the clients and the supervisors … but I try to manage my musical schedule according to my availability from a work perspective. Sometimes I have to cancel my trainings because I need to be at the office late, but this doesn’t prevent me from studying when I go home.”

For lawyers who once dreamed of becoming singers like Abi-Nassif and felt the need to put away their musical passions to practice law, perhaps it’s time to start honing your hobby again — it could make you a better lawyer. Here’s what Abi-Nassif had to say about that in an interview with Columbia Law School, her alma mater:

“It takes a lot of mental control to shift gears every day,” she says. However, Abi-Nassif finds her relationship with music informs her legal work. “I think my singing career gives me the ability to think outside the box as a lawyer,” she adds. “It also gives me the emotional intelligence to understand other people and adjust accordingly.”

Marie-Joe Abi-Nassif’s debut at the famed Carnegie Hall is tomorrow at 8 p.m., where the mezzo-soprano will perform songs and arias from works by Bellini, Rossini, Bizet, Fauré, to name a few. Many of her Latham colleagues, including the the managing partner of the New York office, will be seated in the front row for her performance.

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If you’d like to support a Biglaw attorney who managed to dream the impossible dream, tickets are available here, and range from $35 to $50. Bravissima, Marie-Joe!

Latham Associate Moonlights as Opera Singer [Am Law Daily]
Hitting the High Note [Columbia Law School]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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