Ever since I quit my law job three years ago, I have noticed
a disturbing trend. People seem to have
more respect for unemployed JD’s who are looking for attorney gigs than for
gainfully employed JD’s who work in non-legal positions. I’m not sure why. Growing up, I got the impression that becoming
a “productive member of society” included bringing home a paycheck and paying
taxes.
These days, though, people are
preoccupied with labels and appearances.
A few weeks ago, I was at a birthday dinner for an older lawyer. He got a little tipsy and asked me, “Do you ever
wonder what a brilliant attorney you might be today if you just stuck with it?” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the
more appropriate question was how much happier I’d be today had I quit sooner,
or never went to law school to begin with.
The point is, this man didn’t care what I was doing with my life; he was
only concerned with what I wasn’t
doing – practicing law. He couldn’t get
over the fact that I gave up the "prestigious" title of Attorney. In his mind, the title should be worth it, no
matter how much I hated practicing law with every fiber of my being. (His line of thinking betrays a deeper insecurity of many
attorneys: Why don’t you want to be like
me?)
