Top 20 Reasons Why There Is No Better Profession Than Practicing Law

Description

20220713 - Top 20 Reasons Why There Is No Better Profession Than Practicing Law - Part 1
[00:00:00] All right. So we're getting started today's actually a fun webinar. It's about the reasons that practicing law is a very good profession. And I think that a lot of times people that even tune into these webinars have a lot of bad ideas about practicing law.
And I certainly did in the past, but the longer that I've. Been doing what I do. The more I actually see a lot of the benefits of practicing law and there are actually some pretty really good benefits of doing so. And and I think that I'm gonna hopefully get to those today.
But the big thing too, I would say is that when you're practicing law, I think you need to focus on really what the good parts of the, the job are. And every job of course has drawbacks and not very good things. And there's very few professions, I think that are as good or as good as practicing law once you understand.
All the benefits of doing so. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give this webinar. It's not the longest webinar ever. And then I'll take a quick break and for a few minutes and then and then I'll come back and I'll just answer questions about anything that [00:01:00] people have questions about. And and we have a lot of time today.
Hopefully you guys will have some questions. The thing to. About is with the practice in law. There's very few professions in terms of they offer the opportunity to make as much money have as much prestige have the, as much variety of work and have opportunities to get involved in things outside of the practice, a law very easily and things like politics public service.
And issues that are often of national international importance. And a lot of times when you read about the practice of law you read about things that are considered negative. So you read about hours and the stress of the job and those sorts of things. But in reality there there's a lot of very positive things about ING law.
In fact I think that, in terms of the professions that I've seen and and studied, I, I think that there's really in my opinion, no better path to security wealth and prestige than practicing law. And I think that when people have complaints about the practice of law, a lot of those complaints are about when you, when there's the economy's bad or, and.[00:02:00]
There's not enough jobs or when people are there's a lot of demands placed in UR in the very high end of the profession in large firms, many times. And then the other problem that I think a lot of people have, and this is something that, that I've dedicated in my career to help.
There's a lot of times people. May underemployed and not know how to find positions or not be getting positions and and feel that there's not a lot of opportunity when a lot of cases, they may not just be searching in the correct way. The in, in, in a bad economy only attorneys that come from the best schools and so forth, and the best grades are generally with the largest firms.
And but it's really no different than any other profession where. If you had an MBA or you were, other professions and you wanted to get the very best jobs out there, you would typically need to be have the best credential. I don't think that's very much different and for the most part attorneys that work at the largest law firms are often the ones that have the most resentments many cases because of the amount of work, but at the same time, [00:03:00] they're paid a lot.
It's generally, the thing gut. Canada is in most professions the highest paying jobs and almost all professions are generally very demanding. The practice law generally of course, has its ups and downs. But I think that if you dwell on the negatives and that's all then it's not a good profession for many people, but if you focus on can be a very positive fashion and most attorneys that do well are able to understand.
The fact that that there's positives and and I think that most, very successful attorneys are able to see the positive and attorneys, really by nature are able to find fall with everything. And just and that's the way it works.
Drop that late too. Yeah, thanks. With attorneys and so it's just something to think about. Most attorneys, when they go into the practice of law, they do. So because they're very ambitious and and then and then when you come out and you go to law school and so forth of college and go to school and things to law firms they're surrounded by people that are every bit as ambitious as you.
Attorneys often become cynical. When a world doesn't open up and things aren't as easy as they, they might have been formally. [00:04:00] And the other thing that tends to happen is say often we at cynical during recessions and then things are good. There's often, which is going on right now.
There's a big sense of entitlement. People are envious of other attorneys, they demand more money. And the cycle that you see where, people get envious and entitled and. And then when there's recessions and so forth, just keeps repeating and almost everybody goes through it. But the thing is about when people complain to me about being an attorney I do like to remind them of a lot of the positive things about practicing law.
Because I don't believe that there's really any other profession that offers as many benefits. And the first thing is if you do become an attorney, regardless of what your background is you, in most cases, you're gonna earn a lot more money than you might otherwise earn. Just see here, just workouts in the here.
Just about anyone out there can get into law school. It's it's not impossible to go to law school and pass the bar exam in most states. So almost everyone that wants to can do that. Just gimme one second. So that's something to think about.
And for the most part it's not that difficult to become an attorney in most states. It's [00:05:00] it's not easy. It takes several years of your time and you have to pass a bar exam and so forth, but most people are capable of doing it. Most people that become attorneys do not major in difficult math and science classes, like they'd have to, they became a doctor.
They don't need to understand math and spreadsheets and things. Like cons, bankers and MBAs. And it's just something that frankly, if you have decent verbal ability most people are capable of doing, and it's not an insult of the profession. It takes a lot of work in three years, but the fact is that almost anyone that wants to become attorney could do and. Frankly, almost anyone that wants to become an engineer cannot become an engineer. Almost anyone that wants to become a doctor or a scientist cannot become a doctor or scientist just because they don't have the abilities or skills. And it's something I think about most attorneys go to college and they study liberal arts related disciplines that don't necessarily lead to very abundant opportunities.
If you major in political science or anthropology or fashion design or art or music typically. You'll have options to do things, but you're [00:06:00] not gonna have the same options have if you were to major in engineering, architecture or something along that those lines I know people that, graduated from college and, studied computer science, which I think would be very difficult to do and have very good jobs right now.
Other people that, you know, and they've had haven't decades later. Chemical engineering and so forth. And the thing is law schools don't care. They're open to anyone. So you can literally go to art college. And as long as you can take the LSAT and do okay on it, you can become an attorney.
And most people, you can't do that in most other professions. And many people that go to law school really don't even know what they wanna do. If. Just go to college there's really not there, you could do a lot of things, but having a law degree really does give you a different advantage and you could take a degree that's essentially worthless in the market, and I'm not saying worthless in the sense that there's something wrong with getting a degree in political science or something.
But you can take you can end up getting a job where your starting salary might be well under the six figures or even more if you were in a PhD and then managed to get a, spent, tens spot at [00:07:00] a major American university for a decade or so. I mean that, it was interesting.
I was reading an article in the wall street journal, I think yesterday. They were talking about people graduating from various programs at NYU and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so, and then not being able to get jobs. If you go to law school at NYU, obviously you'll be able to get a very good job.
Many of the people that probably go to those graduate programs know probably have very similar skills to people that would become a lawyer. This is an older statistic, but out of 820 occupations listed by the bureau of labor statistics attorneys came out 21st behind medical professionals and chief executives, but, ahead of hundreds of other professionals and workers, including airline pilots, financial managers, geoscientists, and so forth in terms of.
Amount of money they make website a Glassdoor. This is an older statistic but you can see that the salary of attorneys is well into the six figures. And obviously that number is higher now. This is an older statistic many first year salaries are now above 200,000, which is crazy.
 That's a lot of money [00:08:00] regardless of how you earn it attorneys are in good livings and in general, they earn much more money. Than they would ever earn. With the sorts of undergraduate degrees, most of them haves. It's funny cuz every year I a lot of times an attorney will become an attorney and then they'll work for a couple years in a law firm and then they'll decide maybe I don't wanna practice law.
So they'll go to business school for two years. And then when they're in business school, they realize. They can't do as well. They're not doing as well in business schools. They did in law school and and they're not getting as good of grades. And so when they come out, they realize. The jobs are getting are nowhere near as good as the jobs they could get as attorneys.
And so they always go back almost a lot of them due to practicing law, which I think is very funny and then are the highest paid people in their graduating class of business school many times. I always think that's funny and it happens every year, cuz every year I work with people that are in business school that wanna go back to practicing law and they thought they.
Do that. And so it's, it just goes to show that just because you can go to law school doesn't mean you can go to business school, [00:09:00] but it also shows how highly paid the profession is. And these are people that are going to, very good business schools. So there's very, there's really no other way for anybody with a degree of questionable market value to get outta school and make a good limit so quickly.
I've seen people that major in art I've saw one woman major in fashion. And I've seen. Lots of acting majors people that go to forestry school major in fashion design, like I said earlier, anthropology, sociology, and other degrees that aren't really gonna translate into much to much money in the market, but they figure they go to.
Go to top 10 law schools and come out with great jobs. And so the thing to remember is you can make a lot of money, just, this is just working for other people. And if you ever decide you want to work on your own and start your own practice, you literally are getting a business license to do which is what a law degree is essentially once you pass the bar in different states. So that can be very helpful as well. And and so that's just something to think about. The other thing is that attorneys typically will command a lot of respect in society. So not only are you making more money than most people which is [00:10:00] for many young people is a very important thing.
But you also command a lot of respect in society. Attorneys can be very, looked up to and respected compared to other professions the most highly same people in most areas of the country are almost always attorneys. They're they are at least among the group.
Attorneys are judges, they're politicians. They're other professionals that have, an important role in running government agencies and are involved wherever they go. Almost on the hundred and 13th Congress, which obviously we're not now but 41% of the people were attorneys you know, over, almost 10% of chief executive officers in the, for 500 when the year this was written, the.
We're law degrees and, even in my community I've been asked to lead and sit on various community boards just because people found out I'm an attorney. Even though I'm not really practicing. But in, I get calls, the least once a week from, people calls or messages, probably not once a week, I would say about once a month now, but it used to be much more often asking me For legal advice about various issues, auto accidents speeding tickets, all sorts of stuff.
So the thing [00:11:00] is that, the, even though the profession does take a lot of negative or get a lot of negative feedback, Publicly the big thing is that, people do rely on attorneys to respect them and and and, or to protect them. And that's, a very important thing to, to remember.
And people respect attorneys and and I even, have attorneys representing me and I respect the work that they do. And I need them. Lawyers are really part of the fabric of society. They protect us, they protect businesses from people. They protect people from businesses.
They protect you from the government. There's so many positive things about their role in society. It's huge. And so it's not, there's no other profession that really offers that level of respect and they, they trade in truth, justice, Liberty fairness, making sure.
Are treated right. And lawyers are the one people in society that have the power to do this. And they influence a lot of areas could be it's a very, no. Despite what people think of it. And I think a lot of times people may go to law school and not, and lose sight of that or go to law school for those [00:12:00] reasons.
But that's really ultimately a lot of what it's about is the stuff that, helps people and helps society and is a check on too much power and a check on people taking advantage of other. And and so being an attorney really does, especially if you're practicing, does give you a role of, and respect in society.
And there's very few professions that offer this type of, level of respect in a pass of the middle and other classes as being an attorney you can come out of, the worst imaginable back. But once you become an attorney, people suddenly look up to you and realize you have the power to protect them.
So that's something just important to understand. And many times when you're working in a large corporate law firm, you may not realize that's what attorneys are doing, but you're really being trained to, to do that, to look at Minutian stuff that can help or, look at issues at a very deep level that could help other people there's a lot of areas where people, if they say they're an attorney, you don't really feel like they're.
Anything special. That could be in Washington, DC, where tons of people are attorneys. It could be in New [00:13:00] York where finance people have always been a lot, much more respected than attorneys or could be in Los Angeles where there's a lot of lawyers and people in the entertainment.
Kind of get more odd than attorneys, but, for the most part in the country people, respect attorneys and they do in these areas too, but there's just so many attorneys in these areas and and view them with a distinction even in areas where they're plentiful.
So it still means something to be an attorney in Washington or New York or Los Angeles or even San Francisco, but at the same time it's. It's you have to understand that it's respected all over the country and you may not feel that respect if you're in a big city, but it's there.
And there's really very few professions that offer that high level of respect. And I certainly am happy that I'm an attorney. When people ask me what I do, it's very difficult for me to say, but I do feel that I'm an attorney. Because this that's what my profession is, even though I'm helping attorneys get jobs in this business, but, and the other thing that's important that that I alluded to earlier is when you're an attorney, you have a license to start a business.
And that business is always in you're protected from competition. All [00:14:00] an attorney has to do is announce to the world that their attorneys and people will find them and pay them money. If you're an attorney, you literally can, set an office up out at your home, just take out an ad online or put up a website run out a small opera or operate a small business with a few other attorneys.
And all you need is a website, some marketing materials. And and you may have to knock on some doors, but. The law license allows you to have your own business. And not only that, but you have to be an attorney to be in this business. And it's a very fast, simple, and cheap business. And yet you're expected.
You can charge a lot of money. You can take contingency cases and charge by the, or you can take cases and charge by the hour. It's up to you. I know so many people that have. Started their own law practices and done incredibly well. As a matter of fact, most of the people I know that have started with their law practices have done much better than they ever would've staying in law firms.
But, once you get a degree you suddenly have a world of opportunities open to you and you can start your own business in different things. It's exciting. [00:15:00] There's literally nothing you, you can have a very successful career as an attorney. And and the thing about being an attorney is a bear to entry.
You can't simply announce that you're an attorney. Anybody can announce they're a sports agent or a, a film producer or anything or a business tycoon or, or. Property developer, but no one can be an attorney unless they're an attorney. And and that's very important.
And and it's other professions most professions. There's some professions obviously were S like being a doctor and so forth are necessary, but there's very few professions where No license is necessary. And and having a license means that the percentage of people that can compete with you in your business is limited.
And and you're gonna be protected from competition because the only way someone can compete against you is by having a lot of license in your state. And also, some competency in your area of law and ability to sell the service. And one of the things I find is very interesting is every year I.
Calls. I actually, I haven't, I don't think I got one this year, but maybe someone in our office yet. From attorneys that are in that need people to take over their practices. [00:16:00] And in many cases, these attorneys are in small towns around the country. Many times they may be the only attorney in their town or one of only a few attorneys in their town.
I've had calls from people that are, working, deserts somewhere and and way out in the middle of nowhere and, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and need someone to take over their practice. I've had. Attorneys call from big cities. I had one attorney.
This is like pretty recently, like maybe three or four years ago. He had this practice. And where he was making over a million dollars a year doing estate planning and he was getting so old, he needed someone to take over his practice and and and then he asked me to do it. And and obviously I didn't, but that's how plentiful these practices are.
There's so many. People that have businesses that they're willing to give you. It's crazy. And in this case, the guy wanted me to give him some money for his practice, but not very much. And there's just areas like this around the country. There's where you can set up a business and and you can have very little competition.
It's a great business. Practicing law, if you [00:17:00] know what you're doing and you're ambitious you can start a successful business and. And I say this again and again, just because I've seen so many attorneys do it and I'm in the I consider myself in the attorney satisfaction business, not I'm an attorney placement or recruiting business.
So obviously if I tell you to set up your own practice, I'm not placing you. But at the same time I believe that that can be a very good thing for attorneys and and many times you can government subsidies and and.
20220713 - Top 20 Reasons Why There Is No Better Profession Than Practicing Law - Part 2
[00:00:00] And also, some competency in your area of law and ability to sell the service. And one of the things I find is very interesting is every year I get calls, I actually, I haven't, I don't think I got one this year, but maybe someone in our office. From attorneys that are in that need people to take O over their practices.
And in many cases, these attorneys are in small towns around the country. Many times maybe the only attorney in their town or one of only a few attorneys in their town. I've had calls from people that are, working in, deserts somewhere and and way out in the middle of nowhere and, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and need someone to take over their practice.
I've had. Attorneys call from big cities. I had one attorney. This is like pretty recently, like maybe three or four years ago. He had this practice. And where he was making over a million dollars a year doing estate planning and he was getting so old, he needed someone to take over his practice and and and then he asked me to do it.
And and obviously I didn't, but that's how plentiful these practices are. There's so many. [00:01:00] People that have businesses that they're willing to give you. It's crazy. And in this case, the guy wanted me to give them some money for his practice, but not very much.
And there's just areas like this around the country. There's where you can set up a business and where, and you can have. Very little competition. a, It's a great business. Practicing law, if you know what you're doing and you're ambitious you can start a successful business.
And I say this again and again, just because I've seen so many attorneys do it and I'm in the I consider myself in the attorney satisfaction business, not in an attorney placement or recruiting business. So obviously if I tell you to set up your own practice, I'm not placing you, but at the same time I believe that that can be a very good thing for attorneys and many times you can government subsidies and and.
And the thing is that there's a New York times article that you can look up. And apparently only 2% of small practices are located rural areas, even though one fifth of the population lives in such areas. So if you're interested in working in small markets, you can set up a very successful practice there.
And there's places in the United States where people need to travel hundreds of miles to see an attorney and. And sought Dakota actually [00:02:00] offered people, the subsidy in other states the same thing. So I am telling you, and I want you to understand that when you get a business license of something, it's like having almost if you get a liquor license, that's considered a good thing in some states.
Because you're the only, there's not a lot that there's a limited number of them. And it's the same thing with a lot of. The next thing is that the when you do become an attorney, you have the opportunity to work lots of important clients and interesting people. When I was, when I started practicing law It was my first job, the first job I actually had, it was funny.
I was reading the paper, like the New York times on on Sunday. And then I went to work on a Monday and I was asked to take a case that on the paper that day and that following Sunday, I was asked to work on that case, which I thought was fun. And a few weeks after I started, I was sitting in the world headquarters of north of Grumman looking into some documents about a classified submarine that the company had built and sold this in south American government.
And then I wrote motions, for this over the next several months. And that was fun. I've been involved in that. So there's very few professions where you're gonna get exposed to things like that as quickly as you will when you're [00:03:00] practicing law. And I'm just thinking in my even when I was in my first summer, I worked in the just department on on something else.
It was classified, which was fun, it was that big of a deal. It was fun. So you know, your client could be the government, a major corporation or an important entrepreneur. You're gonna get the opportunity to work and advise with important people that are doing important things.
And you're helping really to shape national world events. It's not a lot of things, that, other things you could do with your undergraduate degree before you go into law school. You really do get involved in major things. And it can be an exciting thing, a way to, participate in global affairs and what's going on in the world.
And. And then, the issues that you're helping people with, if you're working with individuals can be equally industry interesting. I've had worked with very interesting people. You gain a lot of important insight into human behavior and may understand yourself better through clients.
Regardless of whether or not you're representing companies or individuals as a lawyer, you're gonna have the opportunity to interact with. A wide affirmative interesting and influential people. And not only, not, there's not a lot of [00:04:00] other professions that give you access to this.
And it's one of the many positives of legal professions. Just being able to be involved and important things is extremely interesting. And there's not. Anything else where you can do that? You get to be involved in helping people and companies and governments and stuff solve important problems.
The other thing is that. Once you're your return, you can easily transition among various things. You can work in different practice settings. So many attorneys, for example, may start out on the government. And then they'll go to work for law firms and then they'll go in house or start their own practices or work as law professors.
So there's all sorts of ways that you can use your degree. And there's many opportunities to do that. And. All sorts of settings, you can be part of. And it's astonishing. Kathleen Sullivan is one of the nation's top Appell litigators. She began her career as a constitutional law professor and then became the Dean of Stanford law school.
And today's partner Quinn, Manuel and still represents, big company. Her careers taken her all over and that's important and interesting. You can also make very significant changes in [00:05:00] society. You can represent the under privilege. You can free the wrongly convicted.
You can change laws, you can empower different groups of people or even influence the, how entire governments function. And so there's really no other profession where people can make such profound changes. You can. Learn that the law can be a powerful, tool to help shape society and to bring very positive changes to the world.
It's interesting. If you look at the the ADA's public interest page, you can see all these different projects in initiatives that charged areas of human rights and so forth which is interesting. A lawyer can get involved in a user degree to work on different parenting initiatives or help people in different you countries and so forth.
And which is very interesting as well. Kind human trafficking and all these different sorts of things which is very interesting. The other thing you can do is that, attorneys also get to work with smart people. So most attorneys are very intelligent and when you practice you get to work with and be around other very smart and interesting people working
with smart people keeps you challeng. I realize Think about things, smart people prefer to be other smart people. You have the ability to work with and be [00:06:00] around smart people throughout your career. And if you most of them will say that, law school that surrounded people and, after years of going.
People who are smarter than you, and who are constantly challenging you and keeping you on your feet. You become a accustomed kind of an intellectual rigor and become, frustrated when it's gone. And so I think, Mindy should do become much smarter practice, wanna go to law school and and as a practicing attorney, you don't really need to worry.
That you'll lack intellectual stimulation was gonna be around smart people and whether other attorneys, judges, or even clients. And I remember when. I was
had a building attorney, but I remember walking to the attorney's office and I saw all these people sitting around in the study. And to me it's was like, this looks so much fun studying and stuff. And I missed practicing. And and that's one of the things, looking around smart people and thinking about choosing sometimes some sorts of people and one of 'em are one of them.
And so you get to do that. And then, attorney, attorneys are naturally cerebral and they get to solve [00:07:00] problems. And the average, a lot of time, like the attorneys, I just mentioned thinking through issues and coming up with solutions and they enjoy this. And. And many, the work is quite academic.
I Most attorneys are academic anyway. Being in an outlet to think could be cerebral and, many attorneys go into politics or become CEOs because the process of thinking like a lawyer isn't much about learning hydrologically, about laws. About how to, logically think through issues of problems regardless it relates to and come up with solutions and and thinking is very useful in life and business.
And that's why the best are often consider counselors. The other thing and again this the thinking that a liar is pretty cool. You're actually taught, or you're actually paid to think. Because a very cool thing. I think that a lot of professions paid for results, but when you actually get paid to sit, so a few billing hours working at, attorneys can specialize their, so [00:08:00] most attorneys except for general practitioners end up specializing in course of work.
Whether it's corporate law litigation, patent law, environmental law, otherwise, and specialize
in, and that you can instead of primary law, you. That you do many people, wanna become trial wired, but you're have that option, but you expert in trial work if that's something you want but many times don't wanna, they just like writing and research.
And so you can still do that and you can be a partner in a huge firm just being , to think of Mature.
And then the other thing that I is actually one of the main, like about. So most attorneys have the ability to work most of their lives. Before I went to law school, I was an asphalt contractor and I actually really enjoyed asphalt contract. And I thought that it paid a lot. I saw the the future in it.
I enjoyed being outside. I thought just all these great things about it. And and I. All these people that I knew in college could become attorneys, but very few of them, at least where I went to school could ever be asphalt contractors, cuz it requires, [00:09:00] getting out there and having a personality and being able to get all these people to work for you.
And I don't know, it was just, there was a lot of fun things about it that I really enjoy. But I remember my father said to me at one point. You need to think about if you really want to be an asphalt contractor and be doing that when you're in your forties. And and he was right because if I was outdoors in my forties in the sun lifting heavy stuff breathing toxic fumes every day I undo would be dead by this point.
I I remember one time I. Or will
the, will you get, will the stuff give you cancer? And you said not right away, which I thought was funny. Actually, no, it's not funny. The more I think about where you said not right away, not for not everyone gets cancer or something like that. So it would, it's a very dangerous profession and and the people that were in their forties doing that kind of work, I look, but the thing is when you, and.
If you don't live until you're in your forties if you die, don't die by then you're probably not gonna look very good or be able to continue doing it. And the nice thing you never need to quit. I know so many attorneys every week, but [00:10:00] I know people that are mid nineties to work.
There's still practicing law. I know people that are in their, mid to late seventies. That have gotten jobs in major law firms with multimillion dollar paychecks and had lots of business. You can do all sorts of things. You can, when you're practicing law, because the work is sedentary, you can exercise every day if you want, but you can still, you can practice most of your life.
But some attorneys, really need to, They need to retire at some point and many do not, the point is that they really can practice their entire lives and and many do especially ones with their own practices. And that to me is one of the greatest lectures of being an attorney is that you don't ever need to quit.
Once you start, you can literally continue doing it. That may not be for everyone. I Not everybody wants to work forever, but if you enjoy it and you enjoy working with clients, you may want to continue doing it. The other thing is that, attorneys have the ability to continually improve at what they're doing and get better.
The longer you practice law, the more talented your. Gonna get. So you'll learn more about the law. You're gonna learn new angles. [00:11:00] They're going to continue to refine your craft and what you're doing. The ability to learn more and, get better and better. And always being able to prove is an exciting component of the profession.
In some professions, your skills are gonna decline after some time, but you, when you practice lawyers, Improve the more you work and learn and and that to me is very exciting. You know what, now 10 years from now, you're, you may know five times more and how to approach problems better.
And and, attorneys can, get better and better, at doing litigation until they become trial attorneys and then become real, better and better at trial attorneys. And practicing law is a career that can often span for decades and and and the longer you do it, the better you can get.
And and that to me is exciting so that, you should, it's not the kind of profession where, if you're a professional athlete where your skills are gonna go down over time, your skills really should go. Up over time. And and that's very exciting. The other thing that you need to really you know, and I talked about finance is the first one, cause that's so important, everyone, but if you're an attorney, you really do have a chance to get very rich.
Some attorneys become very well. We practicing law they can I've seen people,
I've seen [00:12:00] several people, I know made tens of millions of dollars. And, you can take on a huge company in class action. Now you can win a major verdict. You can make millions working in a large firm, take a piece of a company. I've seen countless attorneys earn massive amounts of money.
And, I'm aware of some attorneys that have actually some attorneys that have required. Hired retired was very wealthy in their late thirties. So these are just, some cases, some, but there's lots of people like this. Some people have earned, 300 there's Joe Jamal 345 million ency fees in one case.
But you can, you have the opportunity to earn quite a bit of money whether it's as a personal injury type attorney or whether it's just practicing law. Growing a law firm. Lots of in every major city, by the way, in personal injury, there's lots of personal injury firms
that there's there.
And it made mark just practice people that practice law and have their own law firms or big law firms or partners and big law firms can do very well. You can become very rich practicing law and there's very few professions that that offer that sort of ability.
If you're interested in that you can also become famous [00:13:00] a lot of, people famous. Our famous attorneys, whether it's Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, David boys, Deitz, Gian met Romney, Jerry Springer. There's lots of famous attorneys out there. Attorneys often end up becoming quite famous and for some reason they seem to have a special ability to do a lot degree gives people lawyer skills, which they can transfer to other lucrative and high end profile areas such as. Entertainment and journalism. Juda, shine, is now judge Judy. A sense she does very well in that job lots of people have become screenwriters.
I knew one that bought one of my house or one houses once. The guy that wrote it doesn't matter, but Philip Graham late publisher, the Washington post, Bob Woodruff all these people, I there's lots of people that have become famous journalists. There's lots of things that you can do with a law degree and lots of attorneys do become very well known doing other things.
Politics is something that's interesting to a lot of attorneys 25, 5 of the 44 presidents have been attorneys. It's more than any other president. And attorneys are very suited to politics. Your odds of transitioning to politics become very [00:14:00] good when you're attorney it.
It's something. I think that they're very good at in terms of arguing and just attracted to it. Cuz politics is a lot of it is law making. And then they're interested in that. You can bring a lot of flexibility to career as well. So you can work in a lot of different settings.
You can work.
Been doing that, or you can work manage settings and you also. With a lot of flexibility. You, as I said, you can telecommute or work remotely many attorneys do. And there's lots of different ways to do that. There's virtual law firms that allow you to uh, virtually and so forth as well.
And it's becoming more common obviously now. And then you can choose to go or if you have the ability to go, very far in your profession, if you want to, I've seen attorneys that started out in small firms and then for the hard, very hard work and other factors wind up in a large and they don't even have best qualifications and you can do that.
If you get business, you. Bigger the clients. It become, federal judges that, all sorts of people that have become partners in major firms that you never would've expected with with their ambition and heart. And if [00:15:00] you are committed practicing law, you can do very well.
And there's just lots of great things you can do get paid for writing, which I think is totally there's so many. And law firms. Sure. People don't wanna write. Often tremendous amount is part of the, and there's very few profess as much money writing whether doing appellate briefs and so forth, there are articles and cool.
They can good running outcomes of case and Just that can happen for writing. You come out of an undergraduate program with a degree or a master's degree, very few things that will allow you to, write and do as well and get paid as much for writing and and the writing you're doing persuasive and important.
So I think that's. And good writing the attorneys will use the work that they do as fodder for the writing fiction and so forth. And a lot of 'em very famous and you also get paid arguing. The many lawyers don't care what the top of the argument is.
They just, argue for these people, the laws. Gives them opportunity to [00:16:00] argue as part of their regular jobs, pretty much most branches of the law involve arguing you, you're arguing with with other, an opposing party or not every legal position most of them do.
And if you'd like to argue or, Argue with other people whether it's through documents or whatever then you can find fulfill. They
very good in sales often. Lawyers are great sales people. I've seen them do extremely well in sales jobs marketing jobs. They can do very well politics. Writing entrepreneurship and all sorts of things. So there's lots of positions for them there. They also tend to have very strong work ethics and ability to pay attention to detail.
They can be very useful. They can become journalists authors, artists, business people agents, and get into all sorts of other professions. And. They also have the chance to sell it to lots of different people. A lawyer needs to have sales ability. So if you like to sell and you, there's a part of you that likes to sell, then you're very well suited at practicing law because lawyers need to convince clients to use or services opposed as opposed to [00:17:00] those of a competitor.
They need to sell judges on their clients. They need to sell opposing council on their client's point of view and they need to sell. Others on their client side of the story interpretation of the law. If you enjoy selling there's really no profession where your salesmanship is going to be as highly valued as it's going to be in the practice of law.
And that, that can be very helpful. So these are just some of the reasons that I think being attorney's an awesome profession. I think that there's so many positives of the job and these are the positives that I, you know, some of the ones that.
Law degree. I do think it's a very positive position and I think that one of the mistakes that a lot of people make is they, and it happens probably with every profession out there, but a lot of times people will look at the negatives associated with profession. And and there's a lot of negatives in every profession, but for the most part, practicing law has a lot more positives and negative as, and.
It's a very good profession. If you throw yourself into it and really realize the, regardless of what you're seeking and there's different types of personalities out there. There's people that, are [00:18:00] seeking recognition, so you can go into politics or, Whatever there's people that are seeking money.
And you can figure out how to do that. There's people that are seeking stability. There's people that are seeking relationships with, their peers and good relationships. There's people that are, generally motivated by helping society and doing other things and all these things you can do practicing law.
You can, you really have the sky's the limit in terms of what you can do. And that's one of the things that makes it just amazing. And frankly, if your skill sets are suited to it then it's a very good profession. And the thing is there's you have to realize too, that there's different back.
Setting so many times an attorney may be in the government. I, my first job was in the government and I found it very boring. I didn't like working for the government when I worked for an exciting law firm. I liked it a lot. When I worked for an an unexciting law firm. I didn't like it, working for a public interest organization probably wouldn't be something I would be interested in, but there's all sorts of different types of.
Practice settings. You can find yourself in, you can find yourself in a [00:19:00] startup company. You can find yourself in all these different practice settings and the better the practice setting is for you. The better off you're gonna be, but you need to really look for the positives and the practice a lot.
Now this is also this presentation is based on an article. You can always kind of remind yourself. Of the things that I've talked about today, but one of the big suggestions that I would, that I make to people, a lot of people leave the practice to law. They get psyched out, they don't, or they they think it's a bad profession or they feel negative about it.
But a lot of times when you're feeling negative, you're not seeing the positives. And there, there really are many more positives to practice in law than there are negatives. And, I always try to compare it. Other things that I could have done. When I was younger, for example, I've thought about that wanted to be a doctor.
I don't know. I wanted to be a doctor, but, but then I look at doctors and they're working in emergency rooms and so forth. And I wouldn't enjoy all that blood or sickness. And I'm working under fluorescent lights and being under my feet all the time I'm wearing gowns and stuff.
I, that [00:20:00] wouldn't work for me, but for some people it may, that's one profession or, having your own business might be a nice profession, but at the same time, you don't get to be learn. And the types of skills you have and and then there's just all sorts of other options.
I know people that have left the practice, a law have become psychologists, we're talking to one individual all day about different individuals be something. So those are things that I've thought about. And and when I think about the practice, a law, I really see. So many more positives than the negatives and the ability to start a business where you don't have any competition.
And there's just so many positive things about it that you should remember. And and and there's really very few professions that offer what the practice law does.
One of the things I wanted to say to you guys too, is that it doesn't look like I have a lot of questions, but I wanna any questions you guys have, I'm happy to answer about. Your careers and things you think are important. Some of the things people tend to ask about are concerns that they may have ways to move up and the practice, the law just any issues that, you maybe have [00:21:00] you know Iowa uh, let me see I can answer these questions.
Okay. So the first one is, this is actually a pretty good question. Lemme just see here. Gimme one second here. It's hard to switch between these screens. I have multiple screens. Let's see here. Okay. How long does it take to move up on a law firm is not what I cause like an attorney wants to go from being a junior associate all the way to become a senior partner.
Would it be best if they pursued this in one law firm, their entire life, or should they jump ship and takes offers as they come? No. So you're better off. I always think even though I'm in the placement business, I. I tell people really to stay at your firm, as long as you can. There's really, the only reason you should ever leave a firm really is if you can go to a much better firm or if you can or if you're, you feel like you're limited in terms of your opportunities to your existing firm.
One of the things that a lot of people talk about is the concept of their brand, their current firm. And what is your brand like? Are you considered a good attorney? What is your brand like? What is your brand like? And so if your brand isn't considered good at your current [00:22:00] firm, Then many times it does make sense to potentially move, but if your brand is good, then there's no reason really for you to move.
I always recommend that, people if their brand is good at their current firm, then they can, then they should probably stay there. The other thing is, moving to a larger, moving to a larger or more prestigious firm. Firm is often a good idea. If if it's a, if it is a, if it is a really good opportunity,
And you can see yourself doing well there. And so tho those are things that are important, but typically when people do move firms, they move because there's something wrong with their brand at their current firm. So I know a lot of senior attorneys that will move very often because they just don't maintain their brand well at any firm that they go to, they do things wrong.
They may have problems with who knows with clients, with ours, with substances, all sorts of things. But many people will move to larger firms. You may come out and start a smaller in a smaller market and then and then wanna move to a larger market or start a smaller firm or wanna move to a larger firm.
[00:23:00] And these are all things that you can do and are very helpful actually if you're able to. To move to better firms. So I really recommend only moving if it's gonna be a better opportunity or a more prestigious firm, or if you, your brand, your current firm looks like it's held back to some extent.
I do think that the longer you stay the firm, typically the better offer you're gonna be. Staying at firms. Is actually a very good thing. So people that are able to commit one place and stay there, even if they could go to a little bit of better firm are often much better off staying where they're at.
Let's see here. What
are your thoughts of taking time off? Let's see, in terms of personal goals. So typically you don't wanna, this is sorry, the next question here. Typically, if you take time off for things other than personal goals, that's going to hurt you. So I do recommend not doing that. If you can stay with a law firm as long, or, stay practicing law you really shouldn't leave.
Personal goals. People do that all the time and think that they're gonna go back. There are some sayings there's sayings that, once a pilot stops flying and ever fly again know, takes [00:24:00] a break from the, from flying once an attorney stops practicing they really practice again and there is some truth to that.
So you really the more time you take off the worse, worse off you're gonna be. And you should try to have your personal goals as part of practicing law and you should do your best to of stay engaged. Okay.
Do attorneys have better work life balance than people at their? This is actually a good question. Give one second here. All
I'm having a hard time getting to the
the screen for some reason. Okay. The question is, do attorneys have a better worklife balance than people in other profession? Just trying to get this mouse? Sorry, humorous, but can't do it. That's not working. Could your a turn to a better work life balance than other people at their same income level or not as good of work life balance?
The thing about practicing law that you need to remember is that when you're practicing law, you're actually working. People that have pressing issues. So it's no different than being a doctor in the sense that, people may have emerg type things that need to be dealt with. So companies may need to go public, or then you may need to raise [00:25:00] funds other types of things may occur as well.
So what I is that, you're often gonna be much better off with in law than Taking time off. I'm sorry. I'm sorry with the work life balance. Sorry. I keep looking at the wrong screen there. You'll you'll much be much better off. With not taking time off people that take time off rarely go back and law firms also don't like that, but let me worklife balance, I'm sorry, I'm looking at the wrong thing here.
No the question I'm sorry, was about worklife balance and people having better work life balance and people. Level we're not as good of a life work type balance work life balance. And the answer to that question is people typically do not have as good of a work life balance as people in other professions because you're working for clients that have emergencies and so forth.
Sorry about that. That was like a blooper Let's see, what advice do you have for someone that wants to become an attorney, but is concerned about going into debt? The biggest thing is that typically attorneys can control the amount of debt that they would have. And they can do that many times by getting scholarships to schools.[00:26:00]
But the, in the amount of debt you have is really gonna be dependent on what type of school you go to. So there are. Very inexpensive schools and there's also much more expensive schools. And so going to inexpensive school the only reason you would wanna do that and take on a lot of debt would be, if you felt like you were gonna have very good job prospects coming out, but.
Then it might not be as good of an idea. That's something that I would always think about. If many times I remember when I was in college and people were getting into law school. So a lot of people didn't go to law school because they only got into law schools that work the top rank ones.
And so if you don't get into a top rank law school for many people and you're concerned about taking on all that debt. It may not make sense. Okay. Okay. This next degree can you have a consulting firm with a law degree? Yes. You can certainly have a consulting firm with a law degree.
You can do anything that you want with a law degree. And the benefit too is you can also charge for legal services as well. So anybody can have a consulting firm. Let's see here.
Okay. What qualities do people who enjoy success in the legal field [00:27:00] typically possess? So people that enjoy that, succeed in the legal field typically one of the biggest things that I would say is that they enjoy helping other people. So they're motivated by helping other people achieve their goals.
A good attorney is often going to have the ability to the interest in helping other people with their issues. Okay. Let's see here. So I got that one. What is the most difficult thing about finding a job in a big firm? The most difficult thing about finding a job in a large law firm is typically that large law firms are very demanding in terms of the qual, the number of people that they have to, that they're hiring qualifications because they pay a lot of money a lot of people and because they have a lot of prestig and so forth and work.
For our clients. A lot of people are often quite interested in working in the largest law firms. So because of that that is something that you know to be to, that makes it much more difficult. In order to get a job in a large law firm, you're often going to need to have those type of qualifications or [00:28:00] you'll need to have a certain type of skill.
The larger the law firm, typically the more the more practice areas they're involved in and the more things their attorneys do. So what that means essentially is the largest law firms will often have very niche, practice areas of people doing things. And and and that makes it much easier for people with those type of qualifications to get jobs.
So you need to be very specialized, many times to work in a large law firm. And then as you get more senior, you need to have a lot of business. Okay, this is a good question. This next one is what are some signs that you need to leave your current law firm? So typically the biggest sign is that you're not getting work.
So if you're getting not getting work in your law firm, then then that's a bad sign. If you're they will typically the largest and the best law firms will give you work. If you're doing a good job or if they have it. The other sign is many times is that partners with a lot of business are constantly leaving and there's less and less work.
That's one sign. The firm shrinking could be a sign, but it's not always a sign. And the [00:29:00] quality of your reviews is also something to think about. One of the things to understand about reviews is reviews of attorneys are typically not very. When the attorney's are young, meaning one, two years.
And then after, one and a half to two years, they typically will get better because the attorneys typically learn what they're doing. It will be more profitable to the firm. And then then they start getting a little weird around, year six, seven or eight as your billion rates go up.
So if you're.
That's probably a sign that you need to leave. If there's not a lot of opportunity in your firm, that's probably another sign. But not always depending on the firm you're with. And those are of some of the main things. Typically, if a law firm. Believe then they'll ask you then they'll say something to you.
And most law firms out there will not just push, fire people. They'll let them know, Okay, let's see here. What advice do you have from someone transitioning from computer engineering to the law? I finished my degree in about a year, but wanna start some thinking about positioning.
So someone that's transitioning from computer engineering to the law, typically that's a great [00:30:00] Background to have as an attorney because there's a lot of need for patent attorneys with backgrounds in computer science and engineering. My advice would be to if you positioning just to, get ready for law school, I would try to go to the best law school I could.
And then when I do go to law school, But I would, really concentrate on trying to be an IP related attorney. The O other thing I would recommend doing, if you can, right now, is anyone that has a certain kind of background sciences can always take a, can always take the patent bar.
So I'd also recommend doing that if that's possible. So take the patent bar. As quickly as you can. And and you can study for that and take classes. Now, if you are a registered patent agent, when you're in law school and you're already admitted at the patent bar, then law firms are gonna be very attracted to you because they'll be able to just throw you right into things.
And the benefit also of being, having a computer science background and being an attorney is that there's very few attorneys that come out of. They go to law school [00:31:00] with science and, and engineering backgrounds that are able to take the patent bar. So being a patent attorney could be very useful, or you could also go into patent litigation which isn't as active of practice here as it used to be.
But it's tough for being in this call today. Be doing next week as well. And I look forward to talking to everyone then.