Lawyer career

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I know there are some posters on here that are in the legal field but I just dont know who. I was wondering what is a lawyer career like.. (high pay, long hours, etc...?)

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I am 29 and am an associate attorney in Seattle. I am a civil trial lawyer defending professionals and small-med. sized companies who are sued in a variety of actions (personal injury, product liability, breach of contract, medical malpractice, etc.). JHines summed things up pretty well in his posts above.

In my experience as an urban associate attorney, the work can be extremely stressful and can expose you to the darker sides of humanity. People can be very nasty when they've been hurt or when they get sued. As a trial lawyer, it's been disappointing to watch "good people" try to use the legal system to make a point, or worse, try to get revenge or hurt someone else. It's also taxing on the soul to clean up other people's messes day after day.

You must be able to manage a large workload, memorize details about many cases at a time, prioritize well, write well, be willing to spend most of your time in front of a computer, and, at all times, think critically. As you mature as an attorney, it also helps if you can learn strategic negotiation and debate. Prepping for trial is an incredibly time-consuming and stressful process, but I do enjoy actually going to trial. When you are arguing in front of a jury and see the lightbulbs go off as you make your point, the pride starts to kick in a bit. Winning a trial makes you feel good for a day, until the next case lands on your desk and you have to begin the process all over again.

I work with interesting people and I have a lot of mental variety in my work every day. I make a decent salary right now, but I work in a smaller "boutique" firm (11 lawyers) where I've traded a larger salary for other perks (I can walk to work, don't have to wear a suit, very cool neighborhood, young group of attorneys, tons of free food, Mariners season tickets, they let me leave early to go flying). Overall, the work is a mixed bag, but the lifestyle is well above average. However, since I was not quite so lucky as to have received a full ride thru college, I do have substantial school loans to pay off, as many lawyers do.

I still think about tossing it all aside and taking up flying as a profession. There are several reasons and I'd be glad to go into detail in a PM.

As for the "evil lawyers" accusations, well... I have seen some opportunistic attorneys and have had to deal with a few jerks now and then. However, as has been pointed out above, many people hate lawyers until they need one. When I do my job well, someone who is staring at a potential $2 million judgment (which could lead to bankruptcy and other problems down the road) will come out of court paying nothing (their insurance usually pays my bill). On the other side, a good lawyer can expose wrongdoing and obtain compensation for truly horrible acts (illegal toxic dumping causing childhood leukemia, to cite a famous example). On balance, lawyers do much more good than bad. As for the bad, very often it's their clients who are the true bastards.

Hope this all helps.
 
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In a nutshell....They are like leaches, the produce little yet benefit by creating a system which requires their services.

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Hey, wait a minute now. There are some lawyers that are ambulance chasers and those folks give the profession a really bad name.

But you have to remember that there are attorneys that bust their butts to put criminals in jail; who go after folks like the guys who ran companies into the ground with civil lawsuits (gotta love Mrs. Ken Lay whining about she had to sell one of their six houses to pay for lawyer bills, didn't you); represent people against the IRS; and a dozen other things that are useful.

Just think of the lawyers who file lawsuits against McDonald's because a client spilled coffee in her lap as the equivalent of the jokers from America West who decided to go flying while hammered.
 
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