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AFancyShingle 9 - 16 Apr 2012 - Main.ElizabethSullivan
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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. | | | 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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> | I'm sure that many of you also received the e-mail, but in case that isn't true and some of you are interested, LexisNexis is hosting a webinar with a panel of lawyers who have either started their own practices or joined small law firms. I don't know if it will be helpful, but it might be. Here's the relevant info:
"On Monday, April 23rd, LexisNexis will host a panel of attorneys who have successfully gone the solo or small firm route:
Christopher Anderson started as a New York City assistance district attorney and is now a managing partner for an eight-attorney firm in Athens, GA.
Johnathan Stone is a recent graduate who started a solo practice in Austin, TX after law school.
Richard Vanderslice began his career as a large law associate, and then left to be the managing partner of Richard L. Vanderslice PC in Philadelphia, PA.
Register for the April 23rd webcast, and see what it takes to start your own practice from attorneys who have done it. You'll also receive 200 LexisNexis Reward points for attending the webcast and completing the survey at the end."
-- ElizabethSullivan - 16 Apr 2012 |
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