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AFancyShingle 7 - 10 Apr 2012 - Main.CourtneyDoak
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| | One of the main reasons I was interested in taking this class is to learn more about unconventional legal careers. I don't think of myself as being a very entrepreneurial person, so I've found myself listening to some of what Eben says about working for yourself and doing good while doing well with skepticism. The path he describes sounds great, but I don't see myself who has what it takes to strike out on my own (I imagine other people feel the same way--after all, at least some of us are in law school because we are risk averse). That's why I found this article to be so interesting. The article is fairly light about Casey Greenfield's actual legal qualifications. She went to Yale Law School and worked as an associate for a short time at Gibson Dunn. She also took some time off to work (though it's unclear how relevant her work experience was to her legal career). The article also doesn't tell us too much about the personal traits she has that might make her an exceptional lawyer. The article does emphasize how pretty, privileged, charming and tenacious (at least regarding her own high profile custody battle) she is. I came away from this article with complicated feelings. On the one hand, Casey Greenfield has managed to strike out on the path Eben has been describing to us. She has done so at a fairly young age and without spending a lot of time doing work that she was not interested in. On the other hand, by giving us so little information about her actual legal career and qualifications, the article makes it seem like she has been able to do this because she is very privileged and because she had an out-of-wedlock baby and a high profile child support/custody battle with a famous, married legal commentator. I'd be interested in getting a more nuanced and informative perspective on Casey Greenfield's career and I'll be interested to see where she and her firm are in 20 years. | | |
--Main.JessicaWirth-5 Apr 2012 | |
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> | I am completely in alignment with all of the above commentary and have found this thread enlightening. Thus far, this class has been revelatory for me in that it has helped me to re-shape the contours of my legal career goal into something that entails leveraging my license to have a career that allows me to do good while doing well. However, while venturing out and starting a practice sounds like the way to arrive at that intersection of doing good and doing well, I've been struggling with moving beyond that idea to anything tangible or implementable.
Like everyone identified above, one obstacle fundamental to starting and running your own practice is the risk inherent in entrepreneurship, at least for those of us who are risk-averse, which I am. I too like paths and plans and 'career tracks' and I like the security that comes with thinking that I'm following such a path or plan or track.
But in addition to the obstacle of my risk aversion, I have really been struggling with how to take steps toward attempting to run my own practice. Sure, venturing out and running a practice sounds great, but I honestly have very little idea of what that entails. I found reading the young independent lawyer's blog posted above to be instructive with regard to how a recent law school graduate, by definition lacking in experience, goes about soliciting clients. The blog, and commentary from the posts above, have illuminated some practical ways to try to strike out on your own. Specifically, piecing together suggestions put forth in this thread - pursuing something about which you are personally passionate, taking Jane's point and finding a partner with the business acumen to make entrepreneurship seem a little less scary, and following the model this young lawyer describes and using networking to build a client base until your track record can do that for you - lays a rudimentary foundation of how to take real steps toward running an independent legal practice.
Taking a step back, I think this discussion resonated with me not only because it shed light on the "how" of potentially getting to the path Eben describes, but also because it helped me understand why I have spent so little time contemplating specific steps that must be undertaken to get myself on that path. I guess it's easier for me to maintain vague aspirations of a socially beneficial and materially rewarding career than to seriously contemplate how to transform those aspirations into reality, which seems scarier and more difficult. I'm hoping that recognition of this fear is the first step to actively overcoming it and moving from undefined goals to creative reflection on how to get there.
--Main.CourtneyDoak-10 Apr 2012 |
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