Small Law Firms

More Reasons Why Former Lawyers Are Bitter About The Legal Profession

It sucks to learn that you're not very special in the profession of your choice.

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Sad lawyer is sad. Very, very sad. And bitter.

Last week, Jordan Rothman wrote a column about why former lawyers are sometimes bitter and why they generally have more animosity toward their former career than others have toward theirs. It drew a lot of responses on social media but their answers were the same ones I have heard over and over again. Some people hate the stressful, adversarial nature of the profession. For others, it is the unbearable student loan debt, the billable hour requirement or the monotonous work. A lot of these things people would have known had they did some research, talked to a few lawyers, or worked at a law firm for a while before going to law school.

If you do a Google search on the internet on this topic, you’ll find all kinds of answers based on personal experiences. But I found that most of them have similar themes.

They learned that they are not special. Most people entering law school have done extraordinary things in the past like getting good grades, testing well, and doing a bunch of extracurricular activities. Or they overcame extreme hardships. This may make them feel special to varying degrees. But in law school, most of your classmates have similar accomplishments. So your successes may not seem so special except to a small circle of people.

A lot of people in law school will get their first-ever C grade (or worse). Even though some schools are notorious for giving low grades for questionable reasons, it still stings because you are not going to be in the upper echelon in your class. At the elite law schools, this may not matter much since the students already “won” by getting in. But if you are attending a school where only a small percentage of graduates get the “good jobs,” you might be in for a rude awakening when you have to hustle just as much as the classmate who somehow graduated even though you only saw him twice during the school year.

Similarly, some people think that once they get pass the bar and become licensed, they will win every case they get. The problem is, they won’t. A judge or jury might not agree that your client was the victim of some massive government conspiracy but instead should not have run around the playground naked with a loaded pistol in his hand. While a lawyer can perform a miracle once in a while, a lot of times it’s about minimizing damage. Eventually a lawyer will be disillusioned because justice usually depends on the judge or jury who occasionally may not follow the rule of law but instead react to whatever the current outrage is.

Their career path did not go the way they wanted. Unfortunately, the entry-level legal job market is picky, even today. Not every law school graduate can find a job. And those who do find one picked it, perhaps, because they had no other choice or it was the least unbearable of the bunch. I see a lot of these mismatches. Those who wanted to do transactional work ended up being litigators. Those who wanted to do public service ended up in private practice. And those who wanted to do rock law ended up doing paper law or scissors law. And vice versa.

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While some will get their ideal job eventually, for others, their temporary, monotonous, “pay-my-dues” job became their permanent one. Employers will not consider them because they have become typecast to their undesired field.

And for those who did get the job they wanted after graduation, their career plateaued — and probably sooner than they expected. They won’t make equity partner or become the next chief legal officer of the company. Instead, they will be an average employee who has to meet annual performance reviews just to keep their job. Their job does not provide enough flexibility or benefits to make up for the miserable work.

They are joining the “I Hate Lawyers” bandwagon. And as for why former lawyers are more hateful toward their past career than people in other careers are toward theirs, there could be a number of reasons. Perhaps they have been subjected to more stressful situations than others. Or because of their large student loans and to get that promotion (or to avoid jeopardizing their careers), they had to keep quiet about all of the abuse they had to put up with from their bosses. The recent labor shortage news proves that there is only so much crap a low-paid employee will tolerate before quitting or worse.

But I think former lawyers are more vocal about their hate because it’s just socially acceptable to badmouth lawyers. They might get some “street cred” since they have inside knowledge of how bad the legal profession supposedly is. Perhaps they have seen how lawyers screw over their clients although those cases seem to be the result of individual greed rather than a systemic flaw that encourages such behavior. Or perhaps they want to warn the next generation of lost college graduates so they won’t make the same mistake they did.

I’ve also met some people who say that they are “recovering lawyers” which I find to be a weird attempt at self-deprecating humor. But I’ll laugh just to keep the conversation going and hopefully change the subject.

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Former lawyers are bitter because they did not leave their careers on a happy note and their bitterness is exacerbated because of the time and money they spent to get their law degree and license to practice. Some of these people should have known better before going to law school. Others made some bad decisions that plateaued or wrecked their career. Others were just victims of bad timing, like graduating during a recession. But they chose to take a different path hoping it will provide the sense of fulfillment that the legal profession could not.

Steven Chung is a tax attorney in Los Angeles, California. He helps people with basic tax planning and resolve tax disputes. He is also sympathetic to people with large student loans. He can be reached via email at sachimalbe@excite.com. Or you can connect with him on Twitter (@stevenchung) and connect with him on LinkedIn.

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