The BEST piece of advice I can give you is do not become a lawyer if you are the sort of person who frets about things. On the one hand you have to be slightly OCD but on the other hand you must not be the type who dwells on worries, or you will be consumed in a bad way. Most successful lawyers are stress junkies. They purposely work in a way that unnecessarily increases stress, like waiting until the last minute for very important tasks. You might think that is exciting when you are 18. In middle age, it is less so. There are things about law which can be uplifting, much of that is teamwork, which you can get in other scenarios. Also the drama of the court is great fun when you win. The flipside is that lawyer colleagues can be very political snakes in the grass and you cannot expect professional courtesy from anyone. It is strictly 'dog eats dog' (if that is the expression. Not my experience of dogs). You have to be fearless, with extraordinary self confidence for litigation. The most successful are not the most academically brightest, but those who tend to know enough to second guess themselves - although again that applies to many fields. For other legal fields, like estate planning, you can get satisfaction from helping others. But the same personality attributes apply. |
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