ambivalent imbroglio: MeFi's Advice to the Unhappy Young Attorney (and a note on Blawg Wisdom)

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January 19, 2006

MeFi's Advice to the Unhappy Young Attorney (and a note on Blawg Wisdom)

I've been an attorney for 4 years now, 28 years old, bored to death and uninsprired at my current job and completely clueless about my future.

The question goes on to give more background and context, then concludes with:

This is not the work I want to be doing. I am bored to tears daily and am frustrated. I don't even know if I should continue to be an attorney but then, what else would I be doing with my life? I think I'm fairly intelligent, a hard worker and a very quick learner. I'm not interested in litigation but I am interested in the transactional aspect of the law. I think I may enjoy serving as a general counsel for a company but they say those jobs are hard to come by. I have been looking for positions in the Jacksonville area but have not come across anything yet. I guess my question is, how do I know I'm in the right field? What should be my next step? I feel like I have no direction in my life. At this point, I am completely unsatisfied with my career right now. Any advice/insight/criticism is welcome. Thanks.

Hmm. Lots of responses, although no silver bullets. I just thought some of you might find it interesting. Or not.

This would be perfect for Blawg Wisdom, but if you haven't noticed, I haven't really been keeping up with that. I apologize to the handful of you who have submitted Requests for Wisdom in the past couple of months. I'm not ignoring you, but, well... I guess the thrill has kind of gone out of the project. It hasn't become as useful or as active as I'd hoped, which might be because there's really not much of a need for the service it provides.

So what do you think? Should we put Blawg Wisdom out of its misery, just leave it as is for the sake of posterity, or attempt to hand over site management to some young whippersnapper with the time, energy, and inclination to keep it up?

Posted January 19, 2006 10:13 PM | advice law general

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Comments

Re: Blawgwisdom.

If you want to forward me some of the requests I'll take care of 'em. It's tough to care about 1L's at this point when all I'm really worried about is making sure I get the bar app done on time but I'm also getting that "I don't ever want to leave school" feeling right now so I might be of help.

Posted by: Steve at January 20, 2006 01:30 AM

Give it to a whippersnapper.

I thought it was one of the few places in the blogosphere where people could get balanced advice, and not so much, "Well I did it THIS way, which is naturally the only way to do it and you'd be a fool not to follow my lead," which is what you find in most other places, I think.

Posted by: Cathy at January 20, 2006 08:24 AM

And what would really be cool, speaking of the bar, if somewhere there could be some aggregated (oops, nearly wrote "aggravated"...) instructions for how to apply to the bar in each whiny state with its own way of doing it. It's turning into a pain in the ass to figure out.

Posted by: Cathy at January 20, 2006 08:56 AM

I agree - pass the torch or make it into a collaborative project. Perhaps you can get Fav.Dicta on board with Evan Schaeffer and do a kind of wisdom/roundup place.

The reason I began blogging was in large part because I appreciated the advice you provided on the difficult choice to turn to law school out of a humanities program. It was so useful to me just to know that someone else had followed a similiar path. I think BlawgWisdom is providing the same kind of very useful and community building service.

BlawgWisdom is a *good* thing - but you don't have to be a slave to it. As you enter into the profession proper, your concerns and focus will change to reflect your new surroundings (and rightly so). But you can leave a legacy which you may (who knows) return to one day in a more active role.

Best,

Scoplaw

Posted by: Scoplaw at January 20, 2006 10:46 AM

i agree with passing it on.

it's still useful to current and prospective students. i'd contribute advice if i remembered to check it more often.

as our generation of blawgers graduates and moves on with our lives, it's getting to the point where we need to start thinking about the different ramifications of blogging as an employee as opposed to blogging as a student (as well as passing the bar, paying loans back (eek!), etc.) i doubt i'll continue my personal blog, but i might still feel like giving advice.

Posted by: monica at January 20, 2006 08:24 PM

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It looks like the consennsus here is to try to keep it going. Kristine has actually been posting a bit so perhaps I'll ask if she wants to be more serious about it. Other than that, any volunteers or suggestions for the appropriate whippersnapper?

Cathy: I think BarBri provides a sort of clearinghouse of bar exam info. I wrote about it here. That might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's a start.

Posted by: ambimb at January 21, 2006 11:23 AM

Sorry to be late to the game here; yes, I'm willing to try and do a bit more. Email me.

Posted by: kristine at January 21, 2006 01:08 PM