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My LM is so keen on small small things, not related to coding but documentation and all. Atleast once in a week I'm committing mistakes on small documentation points n he is stressing on same. Are there any chances that my probation will not be extended or is it a clue for me from my LM. He is Looping his LM and asking questions/clarifications.
Should I ask him directly or can be ignored or need to try outside. Please suggest Barclays
Any upcoming law conferences/events?
Rising Star
Rising Star
How's the job market now? Any better???
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Oil and gas attorneys what do you do?
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My vote it is to switch and find out if you’re interested in the new area. I got lucky and found finance to be somewhat interesting. The biggest draw for me though was liking the people I work with. I have a good mentor, the partner on our deals is hilarious. Try to keep looking around until you like your people because it makes work so much more tolerable.
It was dumb luck for me. I like having a cause that I can believe in. ln law school I thought that I wanted to do labor union work. Couldn’t find any of those gigs coming out of law school, and started out doing employment and PI with a solo. When he ran out of money and laid me off, I happened to hear about a gig doing insurance coverage and bad faith cases for policyholders. I figured that I’d always hated insurance companies, so that could be interesting and fun. That was 20 years ago this month and I wouldn’t want to do anything else.
Also, OP, this profession is way too demanding to do a practice area that you don’t like. If you did not like tax, don’t go back to it. Do something that you are interested in and think that you could like, with people you want to work with. If you don’t like it, do something else. You will suffer. We all do. But you do not have to condemn yourself to a life of misery.
I feel like I found what I liked through a summer clerkship between 2L and 3L at a smallish firm that let me try out everything. Not sure how I would have known where I wanted to land but for that.
Yup. Spent years in very boring practice but less stress. Pivoting back now and best I've ever felt. This is a long career. Might feel hard now but long term it's worth it
I followed my interests. Suggest you do the same: what area of law gets you excited or inspires you to want to learn more? If it’s tax, set aside that prior experience and give it another shot …. or consider something tax-adjacent like employee benefits (a specialty that really needs lawyers right now). Also consider how you would or wouldn’t want to spend your day. Did you like digging into a statute, understanding the ins and outs of and ultimately mastering a regulation? Maybe stick with tax or something else very rules-based. Do you prefer debate/argument and publicly speaking? Maybe try litigation? Do you love formal document drafting? That could be executed comp or M&A or commercial transactions…? I tend to think if the work really interests you, and you’re good with the day-to-day experience doing that job, then you will be successful. If you can’t tolerate the day-to-day practice or the content bores you to tears (even if it’s incredibly lucrative), then steer far clear of that space. Inevitably, you’ll reach your limit, make mistakes and need to move on. Try to really listen to yourself.
Hope this is helpful. You will figure it out - I have faith in you!
All the best!
I really fell into it. My preceptor (Shows how old I am) told me that when I would end up practicing iin whatever area my first few clients were. I had a partner in a small 20 man firm who wanted to be the Attorney General for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania. While he was out politicking for that he basically dumped his land use practice on me. He ended up being the president judge of the eastern district of Pennsylvania and I ended up having a great Zoning and land use practice
I started out as a general litigator—taking depos, doing all kinds of discovery, motions, running cases—you name it. And hated it. A boss I hated gave me an appeal to do he thought was beneath him. Took it, briefed & argued it, and won. Then moved to a firm that did both and just asked to do more appellate. That was 25 years ago. Haven’t taken a deposition or run a case since the early 2000s.
Chief
Oh heavens no.
Had a goal to go in house and picked a BL practice area to match. Worked out and I like what I do.
I fell into my practice area completely by accident. I was hired into the m&a group at a firm as a 3L. By the time I started, m&a was super slow. I got “temporarily” moved to the commercial real estate group. Still doing commercial real estate 8 years later.
Grew up loving technology, building computers, playing video games, becoming a certified computer technician, etc. Followed that passion into college and did computer engineering. Hated coding, but switched into a technical communication major and loved that. Technical writing was an amazing foundation for law school. Happened to meet folks in a technology transactions group at a firm law student recruiting event and the rest was history. Couldn’t imagine doing anything else.