Is it possible to be both happy and successful in law?
Laura Milligan of Job Profiles thinks so. They wrote in last night and brought an article to our attention that provides tips and other resources that can help lawyers in their careers.
They suggest that lawyers join associations. For us it would be the Canadian Bar Association, as well as the provincial organization where you live. There are also practice focused groups like the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and the Canadian Defence Lawyers.
To keep abreast of changes in the field, they list a bunch of lawyer blogs. Of course the best way to do that is to write a blog yourself, which keeps you in the loop and adds your voice to the discussion.
Social media is also something they mention, citing Kevin O’Keefe’s article from earlier this year that says that Law Firms Should Learn to Love Social Media Sites.
Love is a strong word. I’ve got my hand it dozens of social media sites, but I only use a handful because the rest are too time consuming, redundant, and have limited scope. FriendFeed has become a very useful tool because it aggregates several social media sites for you.
The newest site I’m trying out is Martindale by Lexis-Nexis. Given it’s specific legal focus it might prove useful, but has limited functions to students, who can’t create public profiles or be listed in the search functions. Law students marketing themselves is still something new to the industry. Firms might be interested in getting listed on Lawyers.com’s new site, Canadian-Lawyers.
Continuing education is hardly a concern for law students. But I still attend a number of CE events to broaden my horizons, gain perspectives from practitioners rather than academics, and network with members of the bar.
Avoiding burnout and creating a work/life balance should start now, while we are in school. Unfortunately the most successful students are too often the ones with the least balance. And although it might be a calculated sacrifice at this point in their career, it’s not sustainable in the long-term.
Jobs, and the fear of not getting one, is probably the reason why law students burn themselves out. The number of positions out there should provide some assurances that there are positions for everyone. Last month we were contacted by Stephen Fine, who provides other options at www.AlternativeLawJob.com. We plan on doing an interview with him in the future to explore this further.
References, referrals, humour are also important to add to the mix, and Milligan provides a smattering of them. But they also provide resources for new lawyers and students, how to get out of debt, and how to fight discrimination.
Jordan Furlong has also written to us in the past, and pointed out resources for Canadian law students and lawyers in creating work/life balance.
But will all of this help make lawyers, as Hon. Patrick J. Schiltz said, “happy, healthy and ethical?”
You tell us.