ABA Journal: Aiming for Big Law? You might not be happy once you get there

[Anne]

Read an interesting piece in the ABA Journal today:

Positive psychology expert and lawyer Dan Bowling has a hypothesis: Happiness among law students can’t be explained by who will graduate with a high-paying job or who will earn a degree without a mountain of debt.

Indeed, Bowling says, a lot of evidence suggests that the least happy lawyers are associates in big law firms making a lot of money, although there’s no “gold standard” study of the issue.

Bowling believes that the law students with the best sense of well-being understand their own personalities and character strengths and pursue careers that will tap those strengths.

You can find the whole article (along with a slew of comments) here: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/law_students_will_be_part_of_positive_psychology_study

[LSAT Eliminator]

Positive psychology expert and lawyer Dan Bowling has a hypothesis: Happiness among law students can’t be explained by who will graduate with a high-paying job or who will earn a degree without a mountain of debt.

Indeed, Bowling says, a lot of evidence suggests that the least happy lawyers are associates in big law firms making a lot of money, although there’s no “gold standard” study of the issue.

Bowling believes that the law students with the best sense of well-being understand their own personalities and character strengths and pursue careers that will tap those strengths.

Haha, I actually read the bold part above as: "...the least happy lawyers are assholes in big law firms..." Whoops! Although probably true...

[Anne]

Positive psychology expert and lawyer Dan Bowling has a hypothesis: Happiness among law students can’t be explained by who will graduate with a high-paying job or who will earn a degree without a mountain of debt.

Indeed, Bowling says, a lot of evidence suggests that the least happy lawyers are associates in big law firms making a lot of money, although there’s no “gold standard” study of the issue.

Bowling believes that the law students with the best sense of well-being understand their own personalities and character strengths and pursue careers that will tap those strengths.

Haha, I actually read the bold part above as: "...the least happy lawyers are assholes in big law firms..." Whoops! Although probably true...

LOL!!

[Jeffort]

Positive psychology expert and lawyer Dan Bowling has a hypothesis: Happiness among law students can’t be explained by who will graduate with a high-paying job or who will earn a degree without a mountain of debt.

Indeed, Bowling says, a lot of evidence suggests that the least happy lawyers are associates in big law firms making a lot of money, although there’s no “gold standard” study of the issue.

Bowling believes that the law students with the best sense of well-being understand their own personalities and character strengths and pursue careers that will tap those strengths.

Haha, I actually read the bold part above as: "...the least happy lawyers are assholes in big law firms..." Whoops! Although probably true...

   This gave me my first good laugh of the day!

[LSAT Eliminator]

Yeah, I aim to please

Although, admittedly, it was a total accident that turned out to be humorous in retrospect.

[lawdog]

Good info!  Dan Bowling is on to something.

Law schools tend to attract competitive types, and if those big name associate jobs are the ones everyone is gunning for, that trend can perpetuate itself, and smart people can end up fighting for something they might not really want.

This is purely anecdotal, but a lot of the people I knew from law school weren't super-happy at the huge firms. Some of the ones who stayed got less happy (and became bigger Associates).

[Anne]

Good info!  Dan Bowling is on to something.

Law schools tend to attract competitive types, and if those big name associate jobs are the ones everyone is gunning for, that trend can perpetuate itself, and smart people can end up fighting for something they might not really want.

This is purely anecdotal, but a lot of the people I knew from law school weren't super-happy at the huge firms. Some of the ones who stayed got less happy (and became bigger Associates).

Most of my college friends who went to law school and ended up in BigLaw hated it after a year or two. Most of them ended up going to smaller firms, two went into public service, one went in-house, and three left the profession altogether. It sounded brutal.