Ask Me Anything: Lawyer Career Transition
How do I find the time to make a career change?
The new year is here. Elena Deutsch, founder of WILL – Women Interested in Leaving (big) Law, and Casey Berman, founder of Leave Law Behind, are doing something new and exciting with Above the Law. They will write a regular AMA column, where you’ll be able to ask the career coaches who specialize in helping lawyers with ANYTHING to help you clarify and take action towards a new role or alternative career.
Today, we address the question: How do I find the time to make a career change? How is it possible to make a career change when I am billing 60, 70, 80 hours a week, with barely enough time to eat, sleep, work out and see my family?
Below are our responses. At the end of the conversation, we invite you to pick ONE thing to put into action. Are you willing to do that?
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Elena Deutsch: As Einstein said, “Time is relative.” If you’ve lived through COVID, then you know that time is stretchy. For many of us, 2020 felt like more than a year. I want to invite you to put this to work for you.
Before you start your day, instead of reaching for your phone and responding to work emails, I want you to say, “I create time for me.” Make a commitment to put yourself first. Then, do something for you. It could be meditating, breathing deeply, or drinking a glass of water. ANYTHING that puts you first.
By doing this, you are reclaiming time and setting yourself as the priority in your day. Then you can approach work tasks with less anxiety, and more focus and calm. How much better would that feel? Might you be more productive, thereby feeling more spacious, as if you are creating time?
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Casey Berman: Time is a factor I hear a lot from clients who want to leave law. It might also be something else…they want to lose weight, stop smoking, become smarter. I also hear, “Once I accomplish X, make more money, get this done, then I can do Y.”
There’s a lot of merit to it, because you don’t want to overwhelm yourself, and you do need to sleep, eat, and zone out. So I’m not saying to take up 24 hours of the day doing something. But it’s really how you look at time. There’s a quote attributed to Mark Twain that goes, “If it’s your job in the morning to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” Essentially, do your BIGGEST task first thing in the morning.
If you want to leave the law, when it comes to time, do those tasks first. Don’t delay it. Elena, this is what you were talking about – put yourself first. You may be thinking, “I’ll get the small things done first so then I can focus on the big thing.” Unfortunately, you usually don’t accomplish what you want, because another work email comes in, and you’re not even able to get to the big things.
The first thing that I want to say is, look at how you’re thinking about time, and what you need to get done. If focusing on leaving law feels like a chore or a hassle, observe that.
Most people avoid tasks when they are scared and don’t feel they know how to do it or where to begin.
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I’ve seen clients in the Leave Law Behind course, and I know Elena sees it in WILL…when they have a process, they can really start building momentum. It’s amazing what happens when you have guidance.
Just yesterday, an attorney from New York who is in her 50s and has done everything scary that we attorneys have done, admitted that she was deathly afraid of reaching out to someone for an informational interview. She let me know that she did it, and it wasn’t bad! She ate the big frog!
The person she spoke with was great, and offered to connect her with other people. After you get the information and support to begin, and actually take action, then you are in motion. Before you know it, you get to a point where you say, “I can’t believe I didn’t carve out the time to do this earlier.”
Elena Deutsch: Yes! I want to speak more to creating the time, because that’s really where people struggle. They want to do it, even if they’re scared. There’s a book I recommend to WILL members, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, which is all about setting aside the first six to sixty minutes of your day for you. Because if you wait to do YOUR priorities until later, it almost never happens. Other people’s priorities become yours, and then you never move the needle on what’s most important to you.
Casey Berman: Couldn’t agree more!
Elena Deutsch: Now I want you just to imagine it’s a year from now. It’s the beginning of 2022, and you have not created the time to leave (big/the) law if that’s a burning priority. How will you feel then?
For many, COVID in 2020 has taught us that life is unpredictable and short. Many people have gotten clarity that they no longer want to spend their precious time here on earth doing work that is NOT a right fit for them.
Now, think about how you will feel if you devote 10-15 minutes a day to figuring out your next career move. Read a book, reach out to someone on LinkedIn, listen to an inspirational podcast, do some work your coach gave you, whatever it is. But every day, before you check your work email or do anything else, what if you did something to move this needle forward? How will you feel at the end of 2021?
I’ll share a story of a WILL member. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, and through the WILL process, she discovered she definitely wanted to leave her firm and didn’t want to practice law anymore. She clarified that she wanted to go back to school for mechanical engineering and become a strategist for Formula One Racing! Who even knew such a thing existed? She did! In December 2020, she left her firm. She’s been accepted to the top grad school program of her choice in England!
Casey Berman: Love it.
Elena Deutsch: She was able to do this because she invested in herself, yes with money, but most importantly, with her time and energy.
Casey Berman: Yeah, that’s fantastic.
Elena Deutsch: And you can too.
Casey Berman: I would end by saying that things usually don’t take as long as we think they will. For example, there was something I needed to do at the DMV. I procrastinated and thought it would take forever, and lo and behold, the DMV has this online thing and it took me six minutes!
You can save yourself time right there. Instead of perseverating about how long it’s going to take to draft that email to reach out for an informational interview, know this: it really doesn’t take that long. The sooner you do it and get relief, the sooner you can do things to help you relax. Maybe there’s some Netflix or a family dinner.
Elena Deutsch: Yes! Casey, let’s also name the big, bad social media elephant in the room. Let’s all fess up that we probably spend way more time scrolling than we’d like. True?
Casey Berman: So true.
Elena Deutsch: Recently I installed “Downtime” on my phone. So my apps go to sleep at 10 pm. Of course, I do some overriding of them. But it’s remarkable – my time usage has just gone down by 63%.
Casey Berman: That’s great.
Elena Deutsch: So if you say you don’t have time, collect the evidence of how long you’re scrolling on Instagram or Facebook. The other “time-suck” from social media is how it amplifies the comparison monster in our heads. It feeds the “not good enough” noise, and that in no way helps.
Casey Berman: Exactly. Alright, that brings us to a close for this AMA – Career Coaches for Lawyers Who Want More. To wrap up, here are some top actions. Pick one to implement so you can CREATE the time to leave big/the law.
- Decide to create time for YOU first thing in the morning. Do something that focuses, replenishes, and feels good to you.
- Eat the big frog first. Do the task you’ve been putting off or think is a big lift.
- Know that things don’t take as long as we think they will. Decide to do something and see how long it takes.
- Invest your time and energy in what’s most important to moving YOUR dreams and goals forward. Put your time and energy ahead of other people’s priorities.
- Track your social media time. Use “Downtime” or other apps to automate limits on social media and your device.
To send Casey and Elena your questions, submit them here: AskCaseyAndElena@gmail.com
Listen in as Casey and Elena discuss how to leave (big) law and more on the Love or Leave the Law Podcast.
Learn more about Leave Law Behind here.
Learn more about WILL – Women Interested in Leaving (big) Law here.
Elena F. Deutsch, MPH is the CEO of WILL – Women Interested in Leaving (big) Law. She helps attorneys who feel stuck and unhappy, clarify what else they can do, experience relief and act on their dreams. Since founding WILL in 2017, it has been her joy to help women (and a few men) transform their careers and lives. Her work has been featured in Above the Law, Bloomberg Big Law Business, The American Lawyer and more. You can find her on LinkedIn or at www.womeninterestedinleavinglaw.com.
Casey Berman (University of California, Hastings College of the Law ’99), is the founder of Leave Law Behind, a career coaching program that helps unhappy attorneys leave their legal practice for their dream, “alternative” career. Casey focused primarily on software licensing for five years before leaving the law behind in 2004. Since then, his career has helped him develop a wide range of skills, as Management Consultant, VP Operations, Chief Communications Officer and Investment Banker. Casey just wrote an in-depth article to help you land your dream “alternative” career out of the law, click here to read more.
