Objection!

Over the past few months, my friend John has expressed an increasing amount of dissatisfaction with his chosen profession.  This week, I sat him down and grilled him on how he came to be the incredible lawyer he is today, how he feels about his decision to become a lawyer, and what he might have done differently.  I think you will be surprised with what he had to say…

What do you do?

I am an attorney at a large corporate law firm in a metropolitan area in the Northeast.

What factors went into your decision to be a lawyer?

My original plan had been to work in Hollywood.  While in college I had internships on two major network shows where I assisted in production.  The summer before my senior year of college I knew I had three options upon graduation: (1) obtain a production assistant job in television or film; (2) start in the agency training program of a talent agency (read: mailroom); or (3) enter law school.

Two of the options involved receiving around $400/week in compensation and becoming acclimated into the language of Starbucks, while the other involved continuing my education because as my mother says in her nagging yenta voice, “It is much harder to get schooling when you are older than now.”  Furthermore, many of the executives that I met possessed law degress and my mentors encouraged me to pursue schooling as well.  I should also add that my parents are successful and well educated as my father is a surgeon and my mother is a dentist.  Suffice it to say, I picked the last option and would embark on a career as an (drumroll please)…entertainment lawyer.

Ugh…Not so good.  My reasoning was quite faulty.  It is not to say that no one can become an entertainment lawyer, it is just that the bars to entry are really quite high.  I have great credentials such as a masters from one of the most prestigious universities in England, a law degree from a top 20 law school (or at least so ranked by the infallable US News and World Report), and the coveted 6 figure firm job.  The problem is that to get one of these positions I needed to have otherworldly credentials to even have a remote chance (ie 5% and/or Harvard Law Review).  The entertainment law firms these days don’t want newbie lawyers because of the high demand for them.  Therefore, they generally take only practicing attorneys (and of those, the one’s with the super-impressive credentials).  As a result, what was once thought to be a 3 year odyssey to Hollywood never materialized as I was lucky enough to get this legal job.

If you could make that decision differently, would you?

Absolutely.  I would have gone directly into the mailroom.  I would have just sucked it up for a few years and answered the phones, learned yiddish, covered scripts, and correctly order a Venti Carmel Macchioto (sp?).  If need be I would have asked my parents for financial help.

What would you tell your 19-21 year old self?

Don’t go to law school.  It is not safe.  The law is not fun.  Just suck it up and do what you want to do.  The supposed prestige and additional education is a misnomer.  You cannot “do whatever you want” with this degree and it is not a good degree to have (unless you want to be a lawyer).  I would ask my 19-21 year old self, do you want to be a lawyer.  I imagine my 19-21 self would answer like my 24 year old self (who was a 1L) saying he did not have any interest in a traditional legal career and being a regular attorney.  That was a fatal mistake; unfortunately, by my 1L year it was too late.