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The legal
profession is one that many parents still hope their children
will grow up to enter. Other professionals perceive the
practice of law as a prestigious and highly lucrative career
choice. In fact, attorneys often do command the respect of
their peers who pursue other careers, become major influences
in their communities, and over the course of their career will
out-earn other college graduates by more than three to one.
Yet according to many studies over the
last ten years, there are
sharply escalating numbers of
attorneys expressing dissatisfaction.
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Long work
hours and seven day weeks
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Repetitive
drudgery of motions and depositions
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Increasingly
acrimonious bureaucratic maneuverings
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Severe,
negative impacts on marriage, parenting and quality of life
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Lack of
growth potential or retirement security
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Missing a
sense of fulfillment from their work
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The stress of
creating business and manufacturing billable hours
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Pressure from
family, friends, and colleagues to stay put
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For these
and other reasons attorneys are annually one of the highest
percentages of RLS clients. Many seek to leverage their
past successes and achieve a significant advance, while even
more wish to transfer their skills and experience to a
different career track.
If you’ve
been thinking about leaving the law, you are not alone. Statistics indicate that prior to 1989 only 6% of practicing
attorneys ever left the law. Since then, studies show anywhere
from 40-70% want to work at something other than law. What
most lawyers don’t realize is how marketable they are outside
of the legal profession. Their education and experience gives
them: |
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Why do so many attorneys apparently fail
to act on their expressed desire to switch careers? As
recognized by a company of professional retention
consultants, “lawyers believe that being dissatisfied
with the practice is just the nature of being a lawyer
and that nothing can be done to change it. There is a
level of hopelessness expressed in any possibility of
meaningful change...”
What is
most daunting is not so much a matter of coming to terms
philosophically with leaving a particular niche in the
legal profession, but the actual process of finding
employment outside the legal field. |
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On paper, most attorneys are academic and
professional successes. In reality, many are scared to
death of failure. They suspect that they have made
an irrevocable choice when they committed to and paid
for law school. They think the investment in time and
money is too great to risk a career change.
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Leaving the law means facing an alien environment
difficult to understand and deal with. Attorneys
need someone able to spend time with them weighing
options, discussing alternatives, and reaching an
understanding of what is right specifically for
his or her circumstances.
Increasingly,
lawyers are seeking out professional services to
help them make the transition to a different legal
environment or to leave the law entirely.
Because every individual attorney’s perspective
and story is unique, a personalized service is a
necessity.
If it's time for you to seek career
counsel,
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©2004 R.L.Stevens &
Associates, Inc.
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