To leave law behind, you need to plan.  Plan, structure, blueprint, prepare.  Following your passion, doing what you love, leaping and the net will appear – all nice, and true and ideal and possible . . . with lots of planning.

When planning to leave the law, focus on four main questions:

1.    Why am I doing this? Again, let’s make sure you are being true to yourself and not fooling yourself and really exploring leaving law for the right reasons.  And not because you may find yourself in a bad patch or because it seems all of your friends have gone in-house lately or because you feel it’s no longer cool to be a lawyer.  The critical thinking must continue.

2.    Who am I doing this with? Talk to others.  To those that this decision would affect.  It’s your life and your passion and your goals of course, but they may be shared by others, or others may be affected by them.

3.    What resources am I doing this with? Besides health issues, there is no anxiety more difficult, gut wrenching or harder to take than that related to money . . . in particular your savings dwindling and possibly running out.  Avoid planning and forecasting your cash flow and reserves in your head or in pencil on a back of an envelope.  Take this seriously, real seriously.  Use Excel or some other financial program and spend the time to truly, seriously plan what you can and cannot afford to do.  It will take time, and be daunting, and possibly cause you to reconsider to leave law, but it’s invaluable, up-front homework.

4.    How long will I be doing this? I like to say “forever”.  Leaving law becomes a lifetime obsession, ambition and adventure.  To be less dramatic, at least plan for the long haul.  It may take you 12 to 18 months before you have even lined up the courage, resources and structure to actually leave.  And then once you leave, there are many other unknowns and variables.  While this may seem daunting, it is also beautiful:  You have a lot of time, you are not rushed, let the pieces fall into place.  Living by your passion and doing what you love as your goal may lead people to think you’re crazy or spontaneous, but what following your dream really means is following a well thought out, passion inspired, plan.

Once you realize that there is a discernible structure in leaving law, full of logical, oftentimes conditional elements, you can actually see, a bit ironically, that leaving the law is in perfect alignment with the legal education you have worked so hard to attain.

To leave law behind, you need to meet with people.  Other people are the best way to find out what we want to do with our life, and then help us find the resources to get there.

Of course this sounds obvious, but to leave law behind, we will need to branch out in ways we likely can’t conceive of now.  We need to be open and honest with our tight circle about our goals and needs and aspirations, so those that care about us can begin to brainstorm and network for us.  We need to plan to have coffees and “informational interviews” with at least 8 to 10 new professionals, lawyers, business people, sales people, engineering folks, local politicians and other contacts each month in order to build a valuable support web of like-minded people.  We need to be confident and not desperate to find a job.  We need to gather information and make an informed decision.  It will take a while (6, 9, 12, 18, 24 months) and won’t happen overnight . . but we have the time.  Build it organically and correctly and the opportunities will come into clear view.

Before we get into the details of how to execute on this plan, let’s remember the two prong goal:  These coffees allow us to (i) meet new people and learn about their experiences and gain as much info as possible whether leaving the law, and pursuing this person’s profession, is something we’d actually like to do, and (ii) gain leads:  more people with which to have these informational interviews, a wider network, more potential job offers and a greater chance of coming across a fantastic opportunity to leave the law behind for good.

HOW TO FIND PEOPLE WHO WILL LET YOU BUY THEM COFFEE

First off, we need to find people to meet with us.  Begin with our current network:  Talk with friends, family and others.  Of course, this will likely take some courage, as it may take admitting to some that your current role as a lawyer is not making you happy, but feel free to phrase it as you are “exploring other opportunities to use my legal expertise” or “looking to segue into another professional role” or (as was the case with me) “looking to leave the reactive space of practicing the law for something more proactive” (like business development, operations or banking) “where I can use my legal degree in other ways”.  We need to practice these words in the mirror so they become our own . . . and, of course, so we sincerely believe them.

In addition, we can’t just wait for our friends and colleagues to bring ideas to us.  We need to see who they know through LinkedIn and ask if we can contact them (of course we need to ask for permission).  If we’re interested in exploring what Business Development is like at a tech firm, and our friend is connected with a biz dev guy at Twitter, let’s see if a connection can be made.

THE EMAIL SCRIPT

Feel free to use and modify the following script when reaching out to people for an informational interview.

Possible subject line:

John Doe suggested I contact you – (warm lead)

or

Attorney interested in SUCH-AND-SUCH role looking to (briefly) speak with you about your career and experience – (colder lead)

The Email body:

Hi NAME

Thank you very much and I look forward to meeting you.
YOUR NAME

The goal here is to (i) use the name of a colleague, if possible, to “open the door” and have your email actually read and responded to, (ii) flatter the recipient (who doesn’t want to talk about themselves for 20 minutes!?) and (iii) propose a specific time to meet, so you don’t go back and forth trying to manage your schedules.

Of course, some of these will not work out, but some will.

WHAT TO SAY AT THE COFFEE

Once you do get a bite and sit down for coffee with this person, you want to focus on 9 things:

(i)     Profusely thanking them for meeting with you (“I really appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to meet with me.”)

(ii)    Buying them their coffee (if you don’t meet at their office).

(iii)    Being sensitive to their time (“Tell me again, how much time do you have?  I want to be sensitive to your schedule.”)

(iv)    Giving them some brief background on who you are (“As some background, I am an attorney focused on AREA, but I’m exploring new and creative ways to use my degree.  What you do is something that is of real interest to me, and JOHN DOE thought we should meet so I could learn more about what you do and see if it is a fit with my skill set and focus.”)

(v)    Asking them about themselves (“Can you give me some background about yourself, and how you got to where you are now?”)

(vi)    Asking them about their day to day.  (“What’s a normal day like for you?”)

(vii)    Asking them how you might be able to do what they do (“Can you see a lawyer like me doing something similar to what you do?  Where might I be a fit?  What gaps might I have?”)

(viii)    Asking them if they enjoy their job and . . . not to pry, why or why not?

(ix)    Ending by thanking them profusely and, most importantly, seeing if they can introduce you to others they know (“Well, thank you very much for your time, I want to let you get back to your office.  Before you go, is there anyone else you have in mind that might be good for me to speak with?”)

The goals of these 9 steps are to (i) make a new contact who likes you, (ii) gain a good understanding of what this person does (and whether, in reality, you think you could and want to do it for a living and (iii) get leads for more information interviews and build contacts.

AFTER THE COFFEE

Email that day and say thanks again.  Possibly follow up with a handwritten note.  Email them in a few weeks if they haven’t suggested anyone else for you to speak with.  Keep them updated every six months or so on what you end up doing.

Repeat.

Once we have determined that leaving the law is for us (click here for the first step), the greatest danger is sabotaging our enthusiasm before we can even begin to leave.  As we pump ourselves up about the potential for new opportunities and satisfaction and happiness and money in our future, we can often get bogged down in thinking about the past . . . in particular, in thinking about our investment in law school and our long standing identity as a lawyer.

Let’s first begin with law school.  We went there.  We studied.  We got through it (somehow).  We spent a lot of time and effort and money to gain that JD.  Throw in the Barbri courses and the anxiety over the bar exam and now our yearly bar dues and it’s easy to see that we have invested a lot.  Makes us think . . . I’d hate for all of that to go to waste.  Makes us think . . . Well . . . maybe we should just stick with this law thing after all.

Next, our identity as a lawyer.  Being a lawyer still carries a certain status.  We’re respected, intelligent professionals.  And many of us have internalized this higher societal standing, we’ve made it part of who we are.  We think that if we can’t call ourselves a lawyer, we’ll be an empty shell.  We won’t know how to describe ourselves.  We won’t any long be better than the rest of the general public.

With this in mind, we need to realize that this stage can often be a threshold moment in leaving the law behind.  Many turn back at this point.  Many lose their momentum.  Many take the safe route.  Many turn to continuing what they already know.  They back down in large part because it takes courage to repurpose the investment made in law school.  It takes an audacity to search for a new identity, one that combines stature and money along with happiness and satisfaction.

The trick here is to be honest with yourself, through three simple steps:

First, write down all of the reasons that drove you to attend law school.
Next, write down all the ways that your self-worth is currently boosted by your remaining a lawyer.
Then critically look at what you have written and determine if these justify the satisfaction (or lack thereof) you continue to gain from practicing the law.

If not, then continue to pursue leaving it.

The first step in leaving the law behind is to determine whether we really want to leave the law behind.  Sounds obvious, but the main gist here is that we often think we want to leave the law, feel unhappy practicing the law, feel we need to make a clean break.  And we think all of this without critically thinking about all of this.

Just like many of us who went to law school on a whim, or because it seemed natural, or because that is just what we did, or without thinking much of it, many of us consider leaving the law without critically thinking about whether that is the right idea.  We are unhappy or unsatisfied or beaten down or low on self-worth.  So our natural instinct is to want to move onto something new, whatever it is, just something new.

Initially when leaving the law, we need to determine if we should (i) leave the law altogether or (ii) just practice the law in a different way.  This is the first fork in the road we face.

So if we truly do want to leave law altogether, we need a plan.  We need to ensure we have enough money to live on if we do leave our job, we need to begin networking and having coffees with anyone (anyone!) who is remotely doing or connected to areas we find interesting, and we need to begin fleshing out what businesses and ventures and projects we can put into place.  Since this all can take many months, and likely years, to get going, we likely will want to keep our current job in the short term until we have a structure of a plan we like and enough resources at our disposal to tide us over for a while.  Yup, leaving the law behind is like taking on a second job.  No way around that.

Alternatively, if we want to stay in the law, we need to critically examine what it is about our current job that is unsatisfying, and be honest with ourselves about what any new role will bring us.  We need to keep our current job, network and have coffees and speak to as many people as we can in these roles and contact a legal recruiter to pick their brain.

And yes, we can pursue both initially.  But either way, leaving law behind takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time.

That’s the easy part.  The hard part is having the courage to just show up and take that first baby step.

It takes too long.  We think, or we know, that it will just take longer than we are prepared to endure for us to leave the law behind and find an exciting job, create a new venture, or pursue small baby steps on the side that lead to more happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment and money.

We want our happiness, and our passion, and our new skill set now (or close to now) because we aren’t happy with what we are currently doing.  But the thought of branching out into the unknown, into the less secure without a definite timetable is scarier for many of us than just to keep doing what we’re doing.

Yes, leaving the law will take a long time.  The same, if not longer, than it took us to get where we are now.  There really is no way around that.  But the secret is not to feel like we are branching out into the unknown or the less secure.  The secret is to have a plan.  A plan we’ll begin sketching out in the next post.

When considering to leave law behind, we’re going to try a lot of new things.  Once we build up the courage, we’re going to try and set up informational meetings, we will interview for other, exciting job opportunities, we’ll potentially partner with other solos to create our own firm.  There are a lot of new things we will try.

And there is a lot of rejection we will face.  Some people won’t want us.  They won’t want to accept us into their club, they won’t want us to be their partners, they won’t want us to participate in the profits, they will turn down our book idea, they will not visit our new website, they won’t refer work to us, they won’t think our new consulting firm will add value.  They will reject us.

And it hurts.  It can be crushing.  And unfortunately, there is no way to avoid it.

But fortunately, there is no way to avoid it.  Rejection is an essential piece to our success.  It protects us from areas we shouldn’t pursue, reveals to us other paths, highlights what we could have done better to prepare and shows us what other opportunities are out there we may not have known about.

Let’s look forward to being rejected.  Once we get through the pain, we can see the promise.

It’s Wednesday.  We’ve made it.  Remember that anxiety and nervousness we may have felt on Sunday evening about what we had to do, what we had to face, what we had to get through on Monday and Tuesday?  It’s Wednesday and we’re still around, so we must have done something right.  And likely what caused those big fears in our gut on Sunday (and Monday) turned out to not be that bad.  In fact the meeting or phone call or document or presentation or news we feared probably turned out okay (or even fairly well) or taught us something important or made us better or just wasn’t a big deal.

In order to leave law behind it’s very important to realize what strengths, skills and experiences we possess today.  Not what we had in the past (that we can learn from) or what we want in the future (that we can create).  We are often so concerned with what we have not accomplished so far or what we need to get done next, that we do not see that many of our previous wishes and goals have already been granted and achieved.

Consumption of information can be fun, educational and motivating.  We read blogs like this one, view videos, listen to music.  This passes the time, provides entertainment, stems boredom and enhances ourselves.

One thing consumption is not . . . is creative.  Creation occurs when we put our mind to work to produce something, to produce something for ourselves to reflect on . . . or for others to consume (and possibly buy or share or promote).  As such, a major tenet of leaving law behind is to consistently promote our own creation.  In other words, we can’t leave law behind, fully or partially, without create something else to focus on, something else to market, something else to monetize.

What you create is up to you – new ideas, brainstorming sessions, now job possibilities, unique career paths, hobbies, random thoughts, actual pieces of writing, business plans, forecasts, side businesses, new ventures.  This creation comes about through many forms of activities, and many are simple and almost without cost – staring out the window, going for a walk, talking with a friend, uninterrupted, sincere thinking, consistent jotting down of ideas, planned productive story/blog writing.

There is one cost:  In order to create, we need to take a break from consuming.  We need to put down the e-reader, take out our earphones, turn off the show, stop the game, shut down the device.

To leave law behind, we need to shift from primarily consuming others creativity to having others consume our own.

This coming Monday, February 6^th at 6pm Pacific at the Book Passage at San Francisco’s Ferry Building, please join me as I interview Deborah Schneider, Esq., co-author of Should You Really Be A Lawyer? The Guide to Smart Career Choices Before, During and After Law School (click here to buy the book on Amazon).

If you are, or know of, a prospective law student, a current law student or a lawyer who’s wondering (a) if they should become, or remain, a lawyer and (b) what they should do with their life, this event shouldn’t be missed.

We’ll discuss how aspiring and practicing lawyers can learn to make better career choices that will lead them to work they love, and answer your most vexing career questions.  Whether you’re thinking about law school, currently in law school or practicing law, this program will help bring clarity to any current career confusion.

Once again, the event is scheduled for Monday February 6 at 6pm at the Book Passage at the San Francisco Ferry Building, where Market Street meets the Embarcadero (map).

Buy the book:  http://amzn.to/zaUGCk

Learn more:  www.shouldyoureally.com

Leave Law Behind is back, after a bit of an extended holiday.  When we last spoke in the Fall, we heard a lot about “giving thanks”.  Blogs, books, social networks, the media – there were reminders, advice and lists of how to be more thankful, more appreciated, more self-aware of what we have.  This of course is appropriate for Thanksgiving time.

And this is appropriate throughout the rest of the year.  Throughout the rest of our day-to-day lives.  And it’s essential if you want to leave law behind.

Now, let’s be real – it can be difficult to be thankful and full of appreciation.  Even in our relatively privileged lives, the forces around us are replete with examples of what we don’t have yet, of what we are not yet, of what we have yet to accomplish.  This makes it very easy to focus on the gaps we have:  It’s easy to dwell on the fact that we haven’t yet made equity partner . . . and not beam with pride that we are a long way from that nervous, law school graduate we once were years ago.

And giving thanks is not just a fluffy, good energy mantra that is nice to practice and write about.  It is also an essential tool for leaving law behind.  When we think of what we have, what we have completed already, it makes us feel more confident, more secure, more empowered.  It shows us what we’ve achieved so far, which can be a good indicator of what we can (exponentially) accomplish in the future.  Giving thanks gives us clarity.  It helps us determine the next babystep we want to take, we can take, we should take, that is most appropriate for us, and most in alignment with our unique genius.