Sometimes Questions Are More Important Than Answers

With ever increasing frequency I find myself wondering: "why did I become a lawyer?" I never used to wonder when I was in law school (which I actually enjoyed). But upon entering the profession, the question began to make its appearance. Now, it's a rare week when I don't find myself questioning just how I got here.

The usual reasons never appealed to me. The two that everyone always uses are: (1) to save the world, or (2) to make a ton of money. In the famous words of Montgomery Burns (The Simpsons) "Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she’s losing. Well I say, hard cheese." I'm not saying that there isn't plenty to be fixed, or that law is not a great tool for making some of those fixes (though not always), but I personally never felt the call to sacrifice my life for the greater good. I can only imagine how horrible it must have been for those who went to law school wanting to save the world, only to discover that after three years and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, that they were completely ill-prepared and ill-equipped for the task.

The second reason is even easier to explain. I simply had no idea how much lawyers made when I went to law school. I knew that they were regarded as well off, and long with bankers and doctors were considered one of the more lucrative professions, but as I had no close family members or friends who were lawyers, I simply had no idea how much they made when I went to law school. More than that, perhaps unforgivably, I did very little research on the subject. I'm not sure if the mere plethora of information existed then as it does now (I doubt it), but I can't remember seeking it and definitely didn't find it. So, I was only faced with the reality of how much Biglaw paid around the end of my first semester of law school, when I went to one of the recruitment events and started doing my research. What I found astounded me. There was no way anyone should be making that much money coming out of any school. Well-educated people work all their lives without making that much, and they manage just fine. (Of course, most of Biglaw has decreased that number, but it's still obscene)

So why did I become a lawyer? Simple. I like arguing. I like convincing others that I'm right. I like having a clear winner and a clear loser. I like thinking on my feet. I like feeling like I have accomplished something. I like working with smart people. I like collaborating with others. These are all the things I believed the legal profession would offer. So far, I've mostly been wrong.