Description
How Can Litigators Alleviate Anxiety And Depression
[00:00:00] I clerked for two years and have been with my V-whatever-firm for two years. I'm not "self-harm" or "addict" miserable, but I have developed anxiety, depression since joining private practice and the job is not even that bad comparatively. So, I'm clearly not a fit for this kind of lifestyle. I'd like to try the in-house thing before leaving the profession together alumni from my school that have spoken with generally seem happy with that.
I'm assuming the answer is probably a hard "no",, but I'm absolutely despairing at the prospect of having to continue firm work for at least three more years before I'm competitive. Any insight into the issue or other advice for this predicament?
Okay. You can go in-house at any time. You are fine to go in-house. You can start applying to in-house jobs now, especially if you're at a very good firm and you have two years clerkship experience. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, the anxiety and depression is normal for litigators because you have deadlines and there are mistakes that can be made and your clients are mad, judges are mad, and so forth.
So, most litigators have anxiety and depression. You can deal with that in a lot of different ways. Exercises, meditation, but you're unhappy [00:01:00] and you don't like the firm you're at.
One suggestion would be a smaller firm. Most people that go to work in smaller firms as litigators are in smaller markets tend to be happier, but if you want to go and see, you can go in-house right away. There's nothing stopping you from going in-house. You can start going in house at any level. Typically, just apply to a lot of different places.
You may not want to work in the largest company. You may want to work in a smaller one, but it doesn't really matter. I have an in-house litigator right now who I think had a couple of years of experience when she was hired. You can do it right away. There's nothing stopping you.
Typically, it's going to be easier working in smaller markets or with startups or, entrepreneurs and things but I don't think you, you really have much to worry about.
One thing I would say is, you're talking about how you spoken to some alums and so forth, and they're happy with the choice. So that's a good way to get in-house jobs, is, to network that way as well. Talk to different alums and other people that you know, that are in-house and ask. Just keep your ear to the ground and you'll find something but apply to a lot of places.
That would be one [00:02:00] of the things that I'd recommend.
