Let's talk about work-life balance. There are tons of assumptions when it comes to a lawyer's life. People usually assume that we don't have much time, we don't get to see our family or friends, and in short, we don't have a work-life balance.
I am going to be blunt here and say that it isn't true at all. I have lots of family and some friends. I do get time to see them.
Honestly, I do not watch much television or read tons of fiction books, which some people love doing. But I do manage to run a fashion blog on Instagram alongside my job as a corporate lawyer. Everyone makes their sacrifices and decisions and mine is to invest in my passion. Clearly, it's a personal choice to invest my time in doing stuff that I like.
Another assumption about lawyers is that we are boring. People think that we are like the technological bot churning out 100 redline documents per day and that's about it. Honestly, I do not know if people joke about the law being boring or if they genuinely ask that.
Well, there are some tasks that are boring in the beginning as a newbie but it does add to your fundamental development as a lawyer. I mean when I started my practice, sometimes the partner would give me a document that was all prepared and I had nothing substantial to add. If you ask me about that job, then yeah it was inherently fairly boring but this is where the new lawyers make mistakes. If you fail at a boring task, what's gonna happen is that the person delegating the task is going to think that you were incapable of doing the boring job and hence you might end up being given probably an easier but a more boring job. Here, it's relevant to understand that these boring jobs would significantly decrease with time and as you climb the ladder the work is going to get more interesting.
All good lawyers are from NLUs. Well, you don't have to go to NLU to be a good lawyer. I have met some very very successful lawyers who have had the strangest paths, didn't even get the highest marks but have shown the passion and commitment to do a variety of things before entering the profession and that's what matters. Your consistency to do your job effectively every day. After all consistent people are the ones who make the difference.
P.S. Having people who think differently from one another is the most productive environment to be in.
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