Don’t Force the Square Peg in the Round Hole

-- By AngeloAngelino - 25 Apr 2018

Where Do I Fit as a Lawyer?

Sports?

For the past 5 years, I have tailored my professional and academic experiences to best position myself within the sports industry. Although my eventual goal was to become involved in the field of sports and development, I was told by the people that I thought I should be looking up to that I would be best served to first learn how the business side of the industry functions. As a result, I switched my major from International History to Global Business and I pursued marketing internships with professional sports teams and consulting internships with sports agencies. Although I was uninspired by each opportunity and the value of it as a potential full-time job, I told myself that each was a necessary learning experience to get closer to that job with FIFA. I tried to fit myself into the suit of the lawyer I thought would grant me the best opportunity to reach my goal.

Probably Not…

Why did I love the idea of sports? I love the opportunities that the industry of sport creates for our society. Not just for the select number of athletes that are able to make millions playing the game they are passionate about, but for the billions of people around the world, either as athletes or fans, that use sport as an inspiration in their own lives.

I wanted to be a part of that transfer of passion and realization of success.

But realistically, as a lawyer in sports, I would only be tangentially involved with that side of the industry. It wasn’t until I wrote my last blog post that I realized that maybe I don’t want to be that lawyer. I don’t want to spend the next 30 years of my life trying to out-maneuver players’ unions to avoid liability for the injuries the players may have suffered over the course of their careers or convince city councilors to contribute public money for 50% of a multi-billion-dollar stadium.

Over the past 6 weeks, I’ve come to realize that I shouldn’t have to bend myself to fit into this crooked industry in pursuit of a job that is fundamentally inconsistent with the goals I used to associate with it.

Startup Law?

The first time I doubted working in sports was when I considered working for a startup. Like many other ideas, I figured I would forget about it in a few days. Weeks later, working for a startup is still the only thing I can think about. Unlike my desire to work in sports which was more driven by the potential effect of my actions, my desire to work with startups lies in the content and nature of the actual position I would have. It is not so much to do with the startup itself, but more with what the startup represents. Instead of having to tailor myself to the industry, my recent mindset, that has led me to think about startups, has been to focus on what type of lawyer I want to be by understanding how I am and what I value.

The Importance of Passion and Working with Others

More than anything else, passion drives who I am and who I want to be. Moving forward, I need to be passionate about what I am doing and not just the company logo at the top of the page and what it could represent. Passion also directs who I choose to surround myself with. From a professional perspective, I hope to work with others who are particularly passionate about something of their own. As their counsel, or at least as someone with a legal background, I am excited at the prospect of working with these individuals, hearing their visions, and best helping them grow their company in the way that they see fit. What I thought was the reason I wanted to work in the sports industry is now the perfect reason for me to pursue a career in startups. I am not buying into the brand, but into the individual people and their passions. My mother is an artist who specializes in “the use of color” (- my mom), her dad was a tailor, her mom was a fashion designer, and my paternal grandfather was a carpenter; as such, I have been exposed to and have come to value different ideals of creative expression. Not to limit myself just to startups, I hope to surround myself by innovative, dynamic, and progressive individuals.

I think that one of my greatest strengths is in understanding how others work and how they act. Although I am grateful for this opportunity to be surrounded by types of personalities that I have never experienced before, (not to be too dramatic) Columbia Law School has an environment that is toxic for social development. My first semester here contributed very little to my conception of the law and, if anything, was detrimental to my understanding of lawyering. For many, their only “passion” is to get good grades or to work for the best firm. However, this semester, the combination of surrounding myself by people who make me excited about being a lawyer, avoiding people who need to suck you into the drama of the grading curve, and Law and Contemporary Society has surely contributed to this realization that I feel silly to not have had earlier.

Although I am sure I had a good reason to come to law school, I don’t know how I decided without truly understanding how I wanted to lawyer. Now, whether it be with startups or starting my own practice to work with different artists, I know how I want to be the lawyer that surrounds myself with people of passion.