Law Practice
Jun. 18, 2002
Get a Life
The Closer - By Jeffrey Fillerup - Burned out? Thinking of leaving the legal profession? It may not be the work. It may be you and the lack of another meaningful pursuit besides your work.
A survey by the American Bar Association's young lawyers division in 1995 found that almost 80 percent of the respondents were not satisfied with the allocation of time between work and personal life. The lawyers surveyed identified a number of issues with their jobs, including balancing work and personal life, and job satisfaction generally. One respondent stated his main issue was, "How can I find a job and keep it while still being human?" Almost a third of the respondents said that they were strongly considering leaving their current job. Lawyer dissatisfaction and lawyer burnout is not a new phenomenon. It did not take a survey for lawyers to know about the problem long before 1995.
Many of my law school classmates who graduated in the class of 1982 left the practice of law altogether before 1995. If they hadn't left, then they had at least changed jobs or were considering leaving the practice or changing jobs. One, a transactional lawyer, left a law firm to do what his clients did - put together deals and make them profitable. For years he complained that he worked more than his clients and spent long hours doing the tedious work that his clients did not want to do.
He ended up becoming the chief executive officer of a company that was later acquired. When he was replaced by the acquiring company, he said, "I don't know what I'll do, but I won't go back to the firm."
Another classmate was a litigator at a medium-sized firm for a dozen years. He left when an in-house opportunity came up. A year later he told me, "I can't believe that I lasted all those years at the firm. I just didn't know how bad it was until I left and was no longer under that pressure to work constantly and bill." These anecdotes are common among my classmates.
Lawyer burnout is no less a problem today. In fact, it is likely more severe today than in the 1990s. A follow-up survey by the young lawyers division in 2000 produced results similar to the 1995 survey. Changes in the legal business in the past five years probably exacerbated the problem. During the late 1990s, associate salaries and billable hour requirements increased, and there was increasing pressure on lawyers at all levels to increase productivity and bill more hours.
Not surprisingly, after extraordinary increases in associate salaries in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many young lawyers complained that the increasing billable hour requirements that coincided with salary increases did not justify the new compensation levels.
Lawyer dissatisfaction is a problem from various perspectives. Society, law firms, law schools and the legal profession as a whole are adversely affected when educated and trained lawyers leave the profession. But the impact on lawyers is different. It affects lawyers' lives every day. Work is an exhausting, agonizing, interminable burden. I know this from personal experience.
When I clerked for a federal district judge in the early 1980s, it was the best job I've had as a lawyer. While there was consistent work and deadlines, the work was interesting and the hours were not excessive. The judge was hardworking, bright and devoted to ensuring a fair result to litigants. But it only lasted a year, and I was soon working long hours as an associate in the California office of a New York firm.
This was different. The hours were long week after week, month after month and year after year. In retrospect, I don't know how it happened. I don't recall a minimum hour requirement. In fact, partners told me that I was working too much.
Each day was the same. Wednesday was the same as Sunday. Early into work and late home. In the beginning, there were no adverse effects. In fact, I liked being busy. I enjoyed the travel, and the work was interesting and important. But those feelings changed after a few years. I had no time for friends. Even if I had gone out, I would have had nothing to talk about other than work. I didn't read newspapers or books. Then I became sick and stayed sick for weeks at a time, probably due to a combination of too many hours, too little exercise and stress. I recall having lunch with a friend, an associate with another firm who was also burned out, and I knew there was a problem when we couldn't talk about anything except work.
I knew that I couldn't continue at this pace, and I looked for a change. A friend suggested that I try one of the evening classes at a nearby velodrome, a bicycle track just five minutes from my office. A velodrome is a bike racing track, usually a 250-meter or 333-meter oval, with a concrete or wood surface and banking in the corners. I had never seen a velodrome in person, but I had seen track events on TV during the Olympics. I also didn't know why a class was necessary. You don't forget how to ride a bike.
But I was wrong. A track bike is a different animal. It has a fixed gear. You can't coast. If you stop pedaling on a track bike, the momentum will throw you over the handlebars. There also aren't any brakes. You slow down by moving up the banking of the track or by using back pressure on the pedals. One also must contend with the banking, which on some tracks is more than 40 degrees. It's an entirely different experience riding the banking of a 43-degree track at 40 mph than it is riding a mountain bike on a bike trail.
After six weeks of classes, I was able to start racing on the track in the novice category. I soon hired a coach and began to specialize in a particular track event - "the individual pursuit." The pursuit is an Olympic event that is always ridden on a velodrome. From a standing start, the rider accelerates as quickly as possible and then rides alone as fast as possible over the 3,000-meter distance. It takes about three and a half minutes, and the fastest time wins.
Even though it is a relatively short distance, it is one of the hardest events in cycling. In order to ride the distance as quickly as possible, the rider's heart rate spikes within the first 30 seconds as he or she accelerates, and he or she must then hold that speed over the next three minutes. Over the next few years, with my coach, I developed a training plan and started traveling to competitions throughout the country. Since 1992, I have competed at six National Track Championships and three World Track Championships.
This new type of exercise and new friends and travel had nothing to do with work or lawyering. The time and energy devoted to the training and racing did not adversely affect my work; in fact, my work improved. I became more efficient in the office, and I started to like my work more.
Lawyers who are burned out and are considering leaving the practice of law should take a serious look at their lives. If work is filling your life, it may not be the work. It may be you and the lack of another meaningful pursuit besides your work. After all, the saying doesn't go, "Get to work." It goes, "Get a life."
Jeffrey Fillerup is a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Luce Forward, Hamilton & Scripps. He is the 2001 UCI Masters World Track Champion and was a National Masters Track Champion in 1996 and 1997.
Contributing Writer
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