Thursday, April 19, 2007

Like a bad song...

I have very mixed feelings about the fact that there are 36 days until results come out. I think it's still too far away to care all that much about, on the other hand, I'm starting to get sick of the occasional flashes of dread whenever something bar related pops into my head. It's been kind of like getting a bad song stuck in my head, it eventually goes away but its definitely something I can do with out.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

What if...

Reader Curious asked a good question in the comments section, one that I’ve given considerable thought to:

Have you thought about what you will do if you obtain a non-legal job in these next couple of months and then find that you have indeed passed the bar? Will you still leave your current position?
I'm in a similar position, and I'm debating how to move forward. Although I dislike the practice of law, I would feel bad choosing to leave my firm after having been supported by them during my re-taking of the bar.

First, I can only say that it depends on the type of non-law job I manage to find. I’m fairly deep in the interview process for a couple of non-law jobs (don’t want to jinx anything by naming the industries I’ve been targeting at the moment – am willing to go into more specifics via email). If all goes according to plan the issue of whether or not I pass or fail will be immaterial. I’m targeting industries where my legal education is of some value, but by not essential.

I don’t necessarily share Curious’ entirely warranted concern about feeling bad about leaving a firm after being supported by them during bar largely because the only support my firm gave me during my second attempt was to provide assurances that they would hold open my crappy clerkship and hire me as an associate should I pass this time around. Had they paid for my time off or for a bar review course, I might feel a little more loyalty, but in the dog-eat-dog world that is life I really have to keep my interests at the forefront and not worry too much about whether or not I’m going to burn any bridges on my way to getting the fuck out of law.

Finally, as a practical matter even if I wanted to go back into law right away after hypothetically making the jump and then finding out in May that I did in fact pass the bar I don’t think I’d be able to do anything about it given the absolutely horrendously over-saturated entry level legal market here in the bay area. Although I have a ton of legal experience I have no illusions what will happen if I ditch my current firm. I know, aside from issues related to the dearth of jobs, that I would have considerable difficulty finding another law job on account of failing the bar and exposing myself to questions about why I left my current firm after working there for nearly two years. However, I really feel that if I leave my fate to chance and wait to see whether or not I passed, I may very well find myself in a situation where I will be left scrambling to find a new job without a license. I guess I would rather run the risk of jumping out of the law then risk failing and essentially having to leave the law anyway.

In the end, I guess that if I pass after finding a non-law job I know I'll feel really good about passing, but doubt that I'll want to jump back into the law as a result. I've really come to the conclusion that I find the law tedious and boring and would probably rather do just about anything else then devote the rest of my life to the eternal joys that are discovery requests and cataloging the procedural requirements for quieting title to an outhouse, or some shit like that.


Back from the abyss (sort of)

Haven't posted for a while due to a combination of work, the ongoing job search, and various other time constraints. It finally seems that my schedule is about to clear up somewhat and I'll be able to resume my semi-regular posting schedule.