At top-tier level of legal practice, nobody talks about the stress enough. Few hours of sleep, practically no free weekends, working late nights almost every single day, not enough time for healthy relationships even.
There’s not enough time for proper romantic relationships. If I go to a cinema or a bar, I could be constrained to leave early and get back to work. You can’t spontaneously make long appointments. Every plan can be cancelled. If you abandon work, it bites you later.
Everything is timed. You have to be available always. Millions-of-dollar transactions depend on you. It literally eats into your mind. How many things can you concentrate on at a time? All it takes is one call or email and everything else drops in priority.
Every time, people tell me, “well, if it matters to you, you’ll make time”. I cannot begin to tell you how unfair that statement is to me. Do you know how many things and people matter to me? If I get two free hours in a day, do you know how many people need a part of it?
Do you know how many times I download movies on Netflix and they expire because there’s no time to watch them? Every single hour I give to myself or to anyone, counts. It’s either the little I have or I borrowed it and I have to pay for it with late nights.
I envy people who can sleep the whole weekend. Or come back from work by 5PM and it’s till the next day. Lol. It’s really cool. If you love lots and lots of time and attention, it’s unfortunate to want it from any young lawyer operating at top-tier level.
I understand the privileges I also have and I’m grateful always. It’s just that nobody talks about it enough, how consuming this is. You can’t expect to live long or not have health complications working like this. That will happen only because God loves you.
To not run away from legal practice at top level, it takes more than just the money. It’s either you literally have no choices (which is rare) or you actually love legal practice, passionately. Because truth be told, nobody can pay for the level of stress.
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