Attorney Career Growth: How to Take Control of Your Legal Career and Succeed on Your Own Terms

Introduction: Designing a Life That Fulfills You

Today's topic could make a very meaningful difference in the quality of your life going forward. People have actually reached out to me before and told me that listening to what I am talking about today has helped them a great deal, and people have actually made meaningful changes in their life and careers in response. This is about making sure you are designing a life that fulfills you and makes you happy, and a career that does that as well.

If practicing law does not make you happy, does not give you energy, and is not something you look forward to each day, there is a strong possibility you are in the wrong profession. Many people have this experience practicing law. I have seen numerous people die at very young ages, be stressed, be unhappy, and have substance abuse problems. Practicing law does not mean you have to practice in a law firm, but you need to try to practice in an environment that makes you happy, or perhaps do something else with your career. If you design a life that you like and that works for you, you are going to be much more successful.
 

The Window Washer's Secret to Living on His Own Terms

I have many examples of people who decided to live life on their own terms. I had an asphalt business in a suburb of Detroit where I put coatings on people's driveways. I was working in Gross Point, Michigan, and there was a guy with a giant estate and Ferraris. Every time I would go over there to do work for him, he would be wearing a bathrobe in the middle of the day, smoking a cigar.

I asked him what he did, and he told me he had a window-washing business. He had a group of guys he paid eight or $10 an hour. It would take them an hour to wash the windows, costing him $20, and he would charge $300 to $500. He was making $4,000 a day in response to spending $200 on equipment. He had an MBA from the University of Michigan and had been a banker, but he did not like it and wanted to do something else. He designed this life for himself where he had freedom from having to go into an office each day, having bosses, and being at risk of being fired.

Think about what it is like working in a law firm. Maybe you will get clients, maybe you will get fired if things slow down, and you will have bosses, stress, and hours. Is working in the career you are in on your own terms? Whatever is on your own terms should be something that makes you happy and makes you want to get up in the morning.
 

The Kauai Escape and Setting Your Priorities

Several years ago, I was on the island of Kauai at a small out-of-the-way restaurant. I noticed couples with young children who had New York accents. I asked them how long they had been living there, and the man told me he had previously been a teacher at a private school in New York City. He and his wife relocated to Kauai to start a new life, and he said this was the best decision he ever made because life was not as hectic and they were not as stressed. These people left stressful environments because they believed they had chosen a much better lifestyle.

I personally do not think I would be happy living on a small island, as it would require a slower pace of life, fewer people, and fewer restaurants. Every decision we make comes with trade-offs, and different people value different things. You need to design the life you want, considering your priorities and values. You should be doing a career that feeds you, meaning you feel like you get better from it.
 

Designing Your Lifestyle: Likes and Dislikes

I try to make a list of things I like at least once a year.

• I like sleeping eight hours a night.

• I like reading books and exercising because I feel better when I exercise.

• I like living at the beach and going out to dinner.

• I like feeling that I am doing something creative daily and getting along with the people I work with.

• I like working in a bright office where I can see the sun, and improving every week.

If you make a list of what you like and what you do not like, it will quickly give you a sense of what kind of person you are. You need to run your life around your likes and avoid your dislikes. If you do not do this, you are going to be resentful, angry, or depressed. A huge number, 30% or 40% of attorneys, are on some sort of antidepressant. If you put people in a situation where things make them happy, maybe they would not be depressed anymore or feel the need to use alcohol and drugs.
 

Avoiding the Trap of Living for Others

Are you living on other people's terms? Are you living by the terms your parents, other attorneys, or family think you should live by? When I left the practice of law, I thought I should live by the terms of others. I went to law school knowing nothing about it, just that my girlfriend at the time thought I should do it.

People often spend their lives dreaming about doing something different. One partner in a top 50 law firm only talked about starting a wine business. Another successful lawyer with a 30-person law firm only talked about wanting to open a Haagen-Dazs ice cream shop in Hawaii. If you are in a relationship or job you do not like, you can always find someone or somewhere else. There are over a hundred thousand law firms in the country.

When you design your own life, your outlook improves, your energy increases, you are less depressed, and your relationships are better. I met a guy who was a top student at the University of Virginia Law School and got an incredible job at a major law firm. Years later, he was working as a contract attorney, living in a cheap apartment, doing a career he did not like, and failing to stay employed despite his potential.

Many lives and careers are structured based on what others think. A woman moved from a major firm in New York City to Rochester, New York. She declined the best job offer in Rochester because she was worried about what her law school classmates and former colleagues would think. She quit the practice of law completely because she did not want to look bad in the eyes of someone else.
 

Taking Control of Your Life and Setting the Rules

If you do not choose the specific kind of life that you want, other people will choose what happens to you. If you go to a large law firm, you can do incredibly well, become a partner, and make millions of dollars. However, if you do not rise to the level you need to, someone else will choose if they keep you around. In-house attorneys often lose their jobs when a new CEO or General Counsel comes in and wants to build their own team.

Most people that become very successful in law firms are able to design that success; they think about it and write it down. The book "Think and Grow Rich" tells a story about a general who ordered his soldiers' ships to be burned upon reaching the shore so they had no choice but to win the battle. You want to have a life that reflects what you want to do, and you have to live on your own terms.

A lot of attorneys are unhappy because they are not designing the life that they want, resulting in not reaching their full potential. Attorneys getting divorced often happens because they come home stressed, tired, and work late. Sometimes attorneys become income partners, do not get enough business, lose their jobs, and everything collapses, leading to divorce.

Learning from other people is important. You go to good schools to be surrounded by motivated people who are hungry to succeed and want to go to the best law firms. You pick up things around you with the people you associate with, and those people help shape who you are. I knew a guy named Sam who became a partner at Quinn Emanuel by working over 3,000 hours a year. He became very unhealthy and stressed. He tried to transition to marketing or start his own firm, but it did not work out. He went back to the firm, had a heart attack, and died in his forties. Another attorney named Jeffrey pulled out of a great job in England over salary negotiations, stayed at his big firm, became very unhappy, and eventually collapsed and died. These professions can fail to nurture people, leading to serious consequences.
 

Questions and Answers

Taking Control of Your Legal Career

Question: How can I take control of my legal career instead of relying on my law firm's traditional promotion timeline?

I realized early on that to get ahead, I needed to work an incredible number of hours, but I would never get business, leaving the firm in control of my career. To take control without relying on the timeline, you have to be the best performer in your class. Law firms only make people partners if they feel like they have to. You can also move to another firm, another city, or start your own practice, such as a personal injury or family law firm.
 

Lifestyle and Geographic Preferences

Question: I have been in and out of Dallas and preferred living overseas in Mexico or New York City. Tomorrow I'm meeting with my boss. I'm wearing a t-shirt that says, "keep Dallas pretentious. Support your own materialism." My boss loves things. I love experience and traveling the world. Any thoughts?

Many people move to foreign countries like Portugal and love it. If that is what you want to do, that is amazing.

Severance and Unemployment Benefits

Question: How do severance packages and unemployment benefits work for attorneys after leaving a law firm?

In most states, you are entitled to unemployment insurance if you are laid off. If a law firm lets you go, they will often offer a severance package, typically ranging from one to a couple of months. Severance packages can often be negotiated, and firms will usually ask you to sign an agreement not to sue them in return for the severance.
 

Choosing the Best Legal Markets

Question: What are the best legal markets for attorneys to lateral into for stronger career growth?

It depends on what you want. Markets are broken down into major markets, middle markets, and small markets. Major markets (e.g., LA, Miami) enable high specialization (e.g., only private equity or M&A), serve major public companies, and offer the most money. Middle markets (e.g., Dallas, Cincinnati, Nashville) have less specialization, fewer major clients, and less money potential. Small markets (e.g., Grand Rapids, Lancaster) often have attorneys as generalists doing corporate, real estate, and personal injury, but people typically do not get as burned out. For maximum career growth and to remain highly marketable, it is best to become a specialist and get training in the largest law firms.
 

Working from Home as a Retired Attorney

Question: What advice do you have for a retired attorney who wants to supplement their income by working from home?

Contact different attorneys, preferably solos and very small firms, and ask if they have any hourly work you can do.
 

Standing Out as a Law Student

Question: How can law students stand out to law firms without relying solely on top grades or law review?

Be very proactive in getting people's attention, ask for informational interviews, and form personal relationships. I knew a guy from Rutgers who met a major law firm partner at a dog park every morning, which eventually led to him getting interviewed and hired.

Planning to Achieve Your Goals

Question: After you write out your likes, what planning do you do to achieve them?

You need to write down your goals. Most people do not have them, but a goal will direct you. Like flying an airplane, you make thousands of adjustments to get closer to your destination until you reach your goal.
 

Creating a Deal Sheet

Question: How do attorneys create a deal sheet or representative matters list?

You can read articles online about creating deal sheets for interviews. The best transactional attorneys take great pride in writing down the representative matters they have worked on and use them effectively to get positions.
 

Building Professional Independence

Question: What can law students do now to build professional independence?

It takes about five years of doing one practice area to become proficient in it. Work at the best law firm you can to get that training, which will give you the ability to bring in clients and be professionally independent.
 

Evaluating Workload and Expectations

Question: How can attorneys evaluate workload and billable hour expectations before accepting an offer?

Most law firms have explicit hourly expectations and billable hour requirements as part of an offer. Consider the concept of consequences. Just like the best doctors perform high-consequence surgeries, the best attorneys handle high-consequence matters, like major public company mergers. High-consequence work comes with the highest billable hour requirements, while low-consequence work typically requires fewer hours.
 

Preparing for a Successful Career Outside of Class

Question: What should law students be doing outside of class to prepare for a successful career?

You need to get law firm experience during your summers, as most firms hire people directly out of law school who have that prior experience.
 

Traits of Successful Attorneys

Question: What are the characteristics or soft skills of successful attorneys who control their career growth?

They set goals, know what they want, take action, and push themselves to do as well as possible. They become obsessed with their practice area, collecting articles and writing papers to become leading experts. Just as you would seek the most dedicated specialist for a severe medical issue, you should strive to be the most sophisticated and enthusiastic expert in your legal field.