10 Best and Worst Things About Law Practice

It’s fair to say I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my chosen career path. It’s not enough to simply say my career was “lawyer.” I’ll be the first to admit: I never really knew what lawyers in big firms actually did, nor did I know much about what government lawyers did. I only knew about solo and small firm lawyering—the kind where you were your own boss, running your own business.

You figured out how to get clients and cases. You figured out how to get the work done. You figured out how to get paid. And you figured out how to decide whether you were actually enjoying it.

Some might say it’s admirable to keep getting up after repeatedly being knocked down. But which boxer did you admire more—the one who kept going back for his next beating, or the one who got out while he could still walk and talk and became a gym teacher?

I can’t say that I hated everything about law practice, or that I hated every day of it. I prefer to believe that if that had been true, I’d have been brave enough to admit it and use my abilities for something else…..which is essentially what I’m doing now.

To put this in perspective, here’s a top ten list of the best and worst things about being a lawyer, looking back after 43 years.