Legal Question in Business Law in Minnesota

Re: Pro's and Con's of being a Lawyer

The first caution I might mention is one that I am sure you are aware of: this is a very overcrowded field. To survive you may have to struggle fang and claw. I would suggest that you find a field that actually needs more people. Law isn't it.

Having said that, and assuming that like me and all the rest of us fools, you still want to be a lawyer, I'll continue. I have to start by saying that I have usually found the practice of law to be deeply satisfying. If I had not, I would not still be doing it after 28 years. Most folks I know, however, have not found it to be so. Those I went to lawschool with have mostly moved on to other things. As one who continues to be a practicing lawyer, I am a minority. The reasons why most have quit are as follows:

Whatever problems you have now, becoming a lawyer won't help with them - I guarantee they will become worse. If you are greedy or petty, you will become more so. If you are impatient, that will get magnified. If you are short tempered, your temper will get shorter. If you have trouble finding time for a vacation, that problem will become much worse. If you have little time for your family, you will have less. If you have few friends, you will have fewer.

Some personality traits which are considered positive could turn out to have a negative side. If you like to help people, that could suddenly become a vice. You may find yourself trying to help those who refuse to help themselves, and by doing so, you make their situation worse not better. You will be approached by needy and manipulative people claiming that their problems are caused by someone or something else - they consider themseves victims of one thing or another. The legal system encourages us to buy into that model and try to fix the situation. You will be disappointed to find that your client, having been fixed, will go out and get into the same situation all over again - maybe worse next time. In truth they are victims of nothing but their own poor choices.

I have found that in order to be able to sleep at night, I have had to narrow tremendously what I am willing to take on and who I am willing to work with. There are a thousand red flags I now see that at first (before I practiced law for 28 years) were invisible. I now have a relatively peaceful life, but the first 20+ years included substantial quantities of chaos and turmoil.

Good luck.