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California definitely has too many lawyers.
If you practice in an area of law where you do a lot of appearances, (court, arbitrations, depositions, office appointments, meetings) you spend hours a week in your car, especially on L.A. freeways. That can cause stress.
Depending on what type of law you practice, it can be very high stress. Not only is there stress from the judges, clients, and the other side, but one's own staff can bring about severe paranoia from their repeated screw ups behind one's back.
Again, depending on what type of law you practice, it can seem like an endless treadmill, with no sense of accomplishment or finality, but instead feeling year-after-year that one is always in the middle of the same damned case.
I have never had a problem finding work, and I believe there is work out there, but sometimes the partners in the firm that hired me have been rather unpleasant to work with. Billable hours and keeping the clients happy so that they keep sending cases are the two most important factors in firms, in my opinion.
I have known several attorneys who have become very wealthy (annual mid six figures and some much higher) by opening their own offices, building up the practices, and then hiring associates to do part of the work. These attorneys, however, all had failed or failing marriages, children who barely knew them, almost no vacation time, and health problems. The law is a jealous mistress, as they say. At one point I tried opening my own office but shut it down after a little more than 2 years; I couldn't afford the heavy advertising and, although I was able to slowly build my client base, it wasn't enough to keep up with the high and ever-increasing costs of running an office. Every time the client base significantly increases, the staff and the overhead increases. An attorney running his/her own office must also be a good businessman or woman and must also expect to spend an ever-increasing amount of time with business matters instead of practicing law.
My own personal feeling is that most of the law, at least the reality of daily practice that goes on in the average law office, is not a very creative environment in which to apply one's mind. The law can be very, very repetitive in its day-to-day practice. Highly detail-oriented work to the degree that preparation of a successful case requires can get old after 20 years. My advice to anyone who loves the subtleties and intricacies of the law would be to try to land a full-time teaching job at a law school. I think the law as discussed in school is quite beautiful and inspiring. Law Professors who spend their time teaching and writing papers on the law for law journals and perhaps taking on select cases for their intellectual amusement are deriving the greatest enjoyment, I feel. However, the down-and-dirty grind that goes on in most law offices, where a lot of game-playing and compromise occurs, is not the fulfillment of the dreams one has going into law school. At least not according to my experience.
In the end, however, I'm not blaming the reality of law practice or society for my discontent and I'm not suggesting that my experience will also be yours. I never truly "loved" the law, but loved the idea of being a lawyer. I think those are two very different things and a factor that one must contemplate when thinking about entering the field. The status of being an attorney, having the so-called "ticket" on the wall does confer a type of title of nobility or rank, which can be seductive to those seeking to enter the profession. Some males wish to become attorneys, frankly speaking, to be able to get more chicks, as there is a perception, true or false, that law and the power to maneuver within it is attractive to women. Some women, I think, want to become attorneys because it gives them a sense of power, title and equal footing in a hitherto male-dominated world. At least, the latter two may be subconscious factors in the choice of a career as a lawyer. I think that if you love the work to which you choose to dedicate your life, however, you will find success and fulfilment in doing it no matter what. There are many attorneys and too few jobs. But the good ones are always in high demand. I would suggest that you try working in a law office and getting to know lawyers and especially THE DAILY PRACTICE OF LAW and then decide. It's not necessarily what you see on Law and Order. If that's what you like, take up screenwriting instead. But if you decide that the law is for you, then by all means get into law school and dedicate your life and soul to it because I'm sure you will find monetary and spiritual reward if you truly love it.
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