Starting Over
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
mint
Why are you taking all of these bars and not practicing? What are you doing (other than making a gangsta chain)? I frequently daydream about not practicing but then I am picturing myself homeless and living under a bridge.
f.k.a.= Derniermot
Re: mint
Haha, good question. It's not for want of trying that I'm not practicing. I just tell myself I don't want to practice because I can't get a job practicing.
I married XH after graduating law school and we moved internationally for his job (he practices). I couldn't practice in the country where we lived so I did some in house research and writing for a legal database. When we moved back to NJ I was 2 years out with no experience.
I applied to about a million jobs in NYC but nothing came of it. I applied for doc review jobs too but projects just kept getting pushed back. I missed the July deadline so I signed up for the Feb NJ exam. In the meantime I applied for clerkships for Sept but didn't get one (I wanted to get into fam/mat law after my divorce but need a clerkship for that). Since I don't have any legal experience and I'm already almost 3 years out it's tough for me to break into the market. I went to school in MA so my contacts are limited here but it hasn't stopped me from trying or networking like a mofo.
Right now I'm doing recruiting so unfortunately I know that I'm not really marketable. Hopefully I will get into something (I have a venture on the horizon) where I can use my JD for legal aspects of a position. In the meantime legal recruiting isn't so bad.
Long story short, I gave up my career for my XH because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. Right now I'm kicking myself in the butt for it but trying to be positive about it.
Mint,
Apparently you and I need to be besties, because this story sounds incredibly similar to mine...
I'm not practicing, though, honestly, I don't know if I want to practice. Doing non-profit work (research, advocacy, organizing) is really where my hearts at. At, honestly, the knowledge I got in law school is really useful there. BUT, the non-profit world is scared-&#&#less by the law degree, and the legal world hates the fact that I've spent so much time in the non-profit world, so...
I spent a few years applying to a million jobs in NYC, as well, and - as you stated - nothing came of it. I did some legal temping with Bloomberg Law, but that project ended and I was in the market again.
I moved down to DC in the middle of the divorce, because, at least here, pretty much everyone has a law degree, so it's seen a *little* less negatively. And there ARE a few more positions down here, but it's still really REALLY tough. I'm out multiple times a week at networking events and spend countless hours applying to positions and emailing and calling network contacts, but nothings really panning out yet.
I finally broke down last week and signed up for the temp services here in DC, and actually heard multiple times last week, from multiple recruiters (part of what made my week so hell on earth-ish) that I'm not marketable at all. That I could have chosen a legal path, or a could have chosen a non-profit path, but having a JD and a license, with a lot of non-profit experience largely means I'm unemployable in this economy.
Awesome.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
Um, that's the project I was working on in Israel. We're for real twinsies. Except I hope my twin would never use the word twinsies
Glad I'm not the only non-practicing lawyer. Yesterday I had some jerkoff say to me, "You're not a real lawyer. What do you do? What do you even do?" (he was wasted) so I said, "A helluva lot more than you do" and almost throat punched him.
Note to stupid people: Don't piss off a non-practicing attorney with a chip on her shoulder and think she won't outsmart you in drunken conversation.
Note to self: Don't piss off people who've gone to jail for beating up cops!
Mint- I have a question for you. You said in your blog you live with your parents? How does that affect your dating life?
I'm currently trying to decide if I should suck it up and stay at my parents' until I have some debt paid off, or if it's worth it to get my own place and take a little longer to pay off the debt.
Well, it affects my dating life in that I keep sex toys in my car, which has proved to be a bad idea and ridiculously embarrassing.
Other than that, most guys are ok with the fact that I live here temporarily. I'm not big on inviting people over to my place anyway because I like to be able to leave on my own and not have to worry about someone encroaching on my space so I don't feel like I'd be having any dates come back even if I was on my own.
I am getting antsy about having my own space though (I'm lucky that I have the whole upstairs at my parents house) and I will be moving out soon ::fingers crossed that I can afford to sooner than later::
I moved home because I didn't have a job (XH didn't let me work) and didn't have two nickels to rub together when I left my marriage. He blew most of our joint money on his two mortgages for the house we didn't live in and his um, social activities that led to the demise of our marriage. I pretty much had no choice but to move home but I have a great relationship with my parents (it's OUR home, not just THEIRS) so I don't feel unwelcome or like I'm a burden. My mom keeps telling me she's glad I'm here so we could support each other through the divorce--my parents took it very hard. I'm very lucky.
It was an ironic "twinsies"!
And, yes, if I have one more non-lawyer tell me I'm not a real lawyer because I'm not practicing, I'm going to scream. If I'm not a real lawyer, then come someone please cancel all of this law school student debt for me? And maybe pay me back all that money I paid to take the bar and remain licensed? kthxbai
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
OMG yes! Seriously, I'm licensed to practice in 2 states and I passed both exams on the first try. Unless you're paying off my shitton of student loans and taking those CLE's STFU!