In response to my most recent column in the ABA Journal addressing reengineering the law profession — including reforms to law school curricula, bar exam content, the benefits of mandatory apprenticships and improved mentoring — I have received e-mails from readers all over the country. Some of those e-mails are from young lawyers thanking me for writing the piece and also telling me their unfortunate stories. It always pains me to read how isolated and alone young lawyers feel and how disappointed they are as members of a profession that seems not to care about their career development or work satisfaction.
Here are some of those stories.
I heard from a young female lawyer, who has practiced less than a year and is thinking about leaving the profession. She was especially concerned about the workload and the lack of mentoring and career development at her law firm. My response to her was to remind her that the law is a tough profession and that the first years of practice are especially challenging. I suggested to her that it is not prudent to leave a profession after such a short time in practice. It is not good for a resume, and it does not say much for her perseverance. Although I agreed with her that effective mentoring should be forthcoming from firm leadership, I suggested to her that she needs to be proactive. She needs to actively seek out mentors in the firm and to join local bar associations where mentorship is typically addressed and provided.
I also heard from a male lawyer who, after nine years in a law firm, is considering leaving the profession because of unfulfilled expectations. He wrote that he feels like he is still functioning as a clerk and does not receive much respect or interest in his career path. For him, my response was not the same. After nine years, he is likely to know better than anyone else that he needs something different and must make a change. My hope is that he has made enough money in those nine years to buy down any student loans he may have from law school and to accrue enough savings to give himself a cushion. If that is the case, he will be in a much better position to consider alternatives to private law practice. Leaving the profession altogether may be an overreaction, and my suggestion was that he look for a career path that includes alternative legal work spaces or that uses his legal skills in a different setting. I also suggested that he consult with a life coach who specializes in working with lawyers. Those consultants are available in most large legal markets and also can be found on the Internet.
And I heard from seasoned lawyers, who were very complimentary about the column. One of them, a foreign-educated lawyer, had fulfilled the requirements of a mandatory apprenticeship program in her country and found it to be invaluable. Others opined that the reforms I suggest in the column, although laudatory, will never happen. To that I responded that those reforms will never happen if people like me stop advocating for them and stop getting information about reform initiatives into the public forum for discussion.
You can take that to mean that I will not stop trying to make things better for young lawyers. You have my word.