Defending My Law Firm Job

The other day, I was sitting with a few friends of mine. One is a 3L in law school, currently working at the public defender’s office, but the others are not in the legal profession. We were joking around about what it would be like to defend criminals, and as that discussion came to a close, one of the girls said to me, so, still planning on going into corporate law? I told her that, yes, I had a law firm job lined up. Another girl immediately began going on about how miserable her friend who currently works at a firm is, how this friend is constantly working and stressed out, how all she does all day is “contracts.” Eventually, this friend told me, her law firm friend would go into pro bono.

As most people in law school will tell you, this isn’t a particularly unique discussion, especially among women. It seems like every discussion about law firms ends up focusing on the hours, the misery, and, of course, the exit strategy. Already on this blog, women are talking about the “work life balance sales pitch,” and how women leave law firms “because they can.” I think a great dialogue is being fostered, and, like everyone else, I believe that law firms need to change the way they do business if they want to keep young associates around, male or female.