January 22,
2008
Are you dissatisfied in
your present position?
You have
options!!!
I can help
you.
For twenty five years I
have provided guidance and advice to law students and lawyers exploring their
options within and outside the law.
When I am asked who a
typical client is, I say that the plurality of my clients have been out of law
school from 8-12 years. Their primary area of practice is commercial
litigation in a large law firm. Most have moved at least once with the
assistance of recruiters.
For those lawyers
who wrongly believe that they are trapped forever in the world of large
law firms and have no options, please read Options Other Than Large Law
Firms.
A second category of
clients are those who went to law school not interested in practicing law but
rather “to keep their options open” and ended up believing that their only
option was practicing law.
A third category of
clients are those who went to law school planning to pursue a public interest
career but ended up believing that their only option was to practice corporate
law supplementing it with “pro bono” work.
A fourth category of
clients are lawyers who, for a variety of reasons, no longer have a choice of
remaining in their present law firms.
A fifth category of
clients are those who have an entrepreneurial creative spirit which they
believe has been squashed by the needs and requirements of law firm practice.
A sixth category of
clients are “senior” lawyers considering leaving the law firm practice they
have been associated with for sometimes many years
What follows are two recent articles about
the dissatisfaction of lawyers in the US and the UK:
“Why are Lawyers miserable: Want a
List?” by Sathnam Sanghera appeared in the TIMESONLINE July
9, 2007?
“You see, as with
everything else,
America
has been doing lawyer dissatisfaction bigger and better than us (
UK
) for decades. Polls have at
various times established that not just a quarter, but up to 40 per cent of US
lawyers want to leave their profession”.” The list of reasons for lawyer
unhappiness includes; the dehumanizing house, the yawning gap between their
intelligence and the mind-numbing nature of their work, the yawning gap
between the ideals of those entering the profession and the reality, the
cumulatively lowering nature of the work, the vortex of hatred that envelops
them entirely, and the self-inflicted nature of their
suffering.
Another article was
in the January 6, 2008, edition of the New York Times by Alex Williams entitled
“The Falling-Down
Professions”
“The pay is still
good …Still, something is missing, say many doctors, lawyers and career
experts: the old sense of purpose, of respect, of living at the center of
American society and embodying its definition of ‘success’”. … Ms. Kersh
recalled a two-week stretch in which she and a team of associates were holed
up in a conference room with 50 boxes of documents. Every day, for 12 hours, they fastened Post-it
notes to legal briefs. ‘You look around at the other associates, trying to
remind ourselves, why did we go to law school?’”
I have been aware of this incredibly high level of
dissatisfaction of lawyers since 1984. As I
wrote in page 1 of my book, Lawful Pursuit, published by the
ABA in 1995,
“The feeling
of dissatisfaction is quite prevaltent among lawyers, not just those who come
to us for career guidance. A recent ABA Young Lawyer’s Division survey found that
66% of all lawyers would change jobs within two years if they had a
“reasonable alternative option. …. A California survey (1992) found that 70% of
the lawyers responding said that if they had the opportunity to start a new
career they would take it and 73% said they would not suggest law as a career
to their children.” Page 1, Lawful Pursuit, ABA , 1995.
The situation has not
improved over the last 25 years.
My goal is to help my clients develop as professionals
and find positions consistent with their personal values and professional
goals. I can work with you as you try to find the career
satisfaction you deserve.
"Your professional
life holds the possibility of autonomy, satisfaction, integrity, self-respect,
and, most meaningful of all, the prospect of sleeping well after a long day on
the job and waking up looking forward to going to work. And all you have to do
is take control." - Ronald W. Fox, Lawful Pursuit, 1995
I invite you to write me or give me a call so
I can provide you with information about my services and respond to your
specific questions about what I do and how I work. Here is some adivce about
contracting with career planners and my fee
structure.
Ron
Fox
Ronald W. Fox,
Esquire
Center for Professional Development in
the Law
admin@ronaldwfox.com
(781)
639-2322
