To follow on from the comments we have had recently regarding thinking whether commercial law is truly for them, it took me 9 years to work out working in law firms wasn’t for me.
Unlike many of you, I fell into it by chance where my first job was at a city law firm. I then got trapped into it, because put frankly, legal graduate recruitment tends to pay at the higher end of the scale. I left twice and yet was lured back in by good pay. Both times I was uneasy about going back, but I felt like I couldn’t give up a pay rise and a good opportunity. I let my “I always work hard and like to” attitude and “I can do this to prove myself” cloud my ability to think about whether they were really the right opportunities for me.
And I also got caught up in the prestige, not just of law but being at “leading firms” at the top of their game. I wanted to work with the best in my field in a way to prove myself and my abilities - which is a really unhealthy attitude to take to be frank with you.
Of the nearly seven years spent in law firms as an employee, I can honestly say I only enjoyed 18 months of them. And that was ultimately down to the people I worked with at that time who made all the hard work and stress worthwhile. As soon as those people left, I was unhappy
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but looking back, I shouldn’t have stuck with law. I have subsequently found working with other sectors far more interesting, and yet they also provides the elements I was always so keen to be around and that I thought law could only provide (I never want to be the smartest person in the room for instance, in fact I’d prefer to be one of the least smart).
I also realised that I was never really designed to succeed in law firms. My personality traits don’t tend to work as well in them, which ultimately led to me suppressing my character, which in turn led me to be unhappy. I have the attributes to succeed in them (which I did) but my attitudes and approaches didn’t work as well, which in turn led me to second guessing myself far too often. Although that is sometimes a good thing, it became a huge issue for me when I knew I wanted to do something the right/best way but wasn’t allowed to.
I know I am not looking at this from being a lawyer, but there are a lot of parallels with my experience and those I see in candidates when I speak with them or when I read their applications.
Yes, this career will be the right one for many people. But it won’t be for many who currently think it is too. I’d really encourage people think think carefully about what it is that is truly motivating them before committing to any career, but given with law you have to play the long game, you definitely have to think about it even more carefully.