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What can you do with your Law Degree?

Presented by the Lawyers Assistance Program

Facilitated by Robert Bircher

What can you do with your Law degree?

• Purpose of this course:

• To provide a context or framework for your career transition and to inspire you to act on it

• To connect and interact with other Lawyers

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What can you do with your law degree?

• Powerpoint Notes

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Introduction

• 30 seconds of fame• Let us know your name• Tell us something about why you

are here

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How to be a Participant

• Participate fully-don’t hold back• Be honest with yourself• Drop your “image”• Be “Present”-your body is

obviously here-are you?• Be here now, thoughts of past and

future will take you away• Ask questions-put out your own

experiences

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How to be a Participant-2

• Turn off cell phones/beepers• Give this day to yourself• Do not help anyone outside this

room today-I dare you!• Have lots of FUN!

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Lawyers Assistance Program

• Provides confidential support counselling,referrals and peer interventions for members of the legal community

• Help for chemical dependencies, stress, depression, personal problems

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Lawyers Assistance Program-2

• If you need help• Someone you know needs help• As a volunteer• Come to our programs

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Morning Modules

• Why do you want to make a change?

• After the fact career planning strategies that work

• My dream of Law Vs. Reality• How to get off your “but” and get

on with it• SkillScan assessment-what I want

to be when/if I grow up

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What can you do with a Law Degree?

• Changing your relationship with the Law to be more consistent with who you are now

• For some this means only tweaking

• For others this means a radical change

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My Story

• Big firm to little firm• Barrister to Solicitor• Took a year off in Asia• Went back to University• Lawyer/Student• Lawyer/Teacher• Mediator/Teacher• Counselor

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How did I wind up as a lawyer?

• What was your image of what law would be like?

• Did you plan it/fall into it?• Did you give any thought to the

psycho-social consequences of being a Lawyer?

• When/Why did you decide to apply to Law School?

• Think/Pair/ Share

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Expectations of being a Lawyer

• Intellectual Challenge• Helping others• Change the world• High Income• Status/Respect• Recognition• Autonomy• Versatility

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Reality of being a Lawyer

• Tedium/Boring work• Clients receive more trauma than

benefit• Money trumps social justice• Actual income of Lawyers is

mediocre• Lawyers are increasingly

unpopular• Positive feedback is rare• You are only as good as last

months billing

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Roots of dissatisfaction in legal careers

• Focus on what’s not working• Life that is work focused not life

focused• Boundary problems-around

money or around what the client wants

• Culture of Burnout• Warp speed practice• Increasing competition

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My top 3 reasons for change

• Why would I want to change my career?

• What’s wrong with me being a Lawyer?

• What can I get from another career that I can’t get from Law?

• Is Law the best place for me?• Think/Pair/Share

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How do I make the change?

• There are 4 stages to a job change• 1.Self assessment: What do I

really want? What is most important to me? What do I really value?

• Psychometric tests, career counselors are useful here

• Important to distinguish between Ideal self and Actual self

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4 steps to change

• 2.Resarch-Job assessment-defining the specifics of the environment and type of work you want

• As opposed to having the marketplace define the options for you

• Your background alone will not get you a job

• What do you have a deep personal connection to?

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4 steps to change

• Informational Interviews are critical here-Talk to somebody who is already doing your dream job-otherwise you may be dealing with your own fantasy about what that job is like

• 3.Creating Opportunities-getting your resumes and cover letters ready, networking, job searching on the internet etc.

• 4.Surrounding yourself with support

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Ineffective Career Strategies

• Hoping opportunities will fall in your lap

• Intellectualizing-but never acting on it

• Getting another degree-when it is unnecessary

• Waiting until you burnout• Wanting to change without

actually changing anything

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Disempowering Beliefs

• Your own career mindset is important

• Does your self talk have empowering or disempowering beliefs?

• Empowering belief-any belief that results in action

• Disempowering belief-any belief that keeps you stuck

• Top 5 beliefs exercise

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Top 5 beliefs exercise

DisempoweringBeliefs12345

• Empowering Beliefs

• 1• 2• 3• 4• 5

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SkillScan Psychometric Test

• Find the 6 ivory cards• Put competent and minimal or no

ability in front of you• Competent-having used the skill

in some basic way• Minimal or no ability-lacking the

skill even in a basic way• Put the minimal or no ability to

one side

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Skillscan-2

• Lay out the remaining ivory cards in 4 columns

• Major role-love doing-very high priority

• Secondary role-like to do Minor role-OK to do will tolerate

• Unwilling to use-don’t want to do• Sort as to color• Record results in the personal skill

profile

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Intuition Exercise

Groups of 3Read your Skill Scan

SummaryListeners-Use your intuition

What do you see this person doing?

Informational Interviews

• Talking to people who are already doing what you want to do

• Avoids guessing what a new job would be like

• Are my assumptions about this job valid?

• How did they get their job• What’s a typical day like?• Salary range

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Informational Interviews-2

• What is the demand for the service like?• What training do you need?• How do hear about new openings?• What is most interesting about this job?• What would you change about your job?• What is the toughest part of your job?• What one piece of advice would you give

about someone entering this field?• These and other questions are on the

Informational Interview form

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Lunch Assignment

• Pick someone you don’t know-who has done or is doing a job you might like

• Go to lunch together• Do an informational interview• Use the form provided

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Afternoon Modules

• Transition experience• Effective use of time in job

searching• Resistance to change• Practical tips especially for

lawyers

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The Transition Experience

• “Change is avalanching upon our heads and most people are grotesquely unprepared for it” A. Toffler Future Shock

• We tend to view change as some kind of aberration; whereas it is a natural and normal phenomenon

• Life as a wave, sometimes we are going up, sometimes down, sometimes at the top ,sometimes at the bottom.

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Transition

• Psychological reorientation to changes in life

• Why concern ourselves about the psychology, why not just get on with finding a new job?

• In my own experience and my experience with other Lawyers the principle problem is in the psychology of change-not that Lawyers don’t know how to look for a job-in fact that is the easy part.

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Transition-2

• Misunderstanding resistance to change or being unfamiliar with transition leaves clues

• Procrastination • Confusion• Editing yourself out by not

applying at all• Hoping something will come

along-someday• False arrogance-I can get a new

job in a jiffy

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Transitions-3

• False humility-I am only trained to be a Lawyer-I cant do anything else.

• Self sabotage- not applying, not looking, not following through.

• Lack of focus or lack of confidence or lack of commitment

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Bridges Model

• Transition occurs in 3 stages comprised of an Ending, a Neutral zone, and a New Beginning

• From the book Transitions: Making sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges

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Endings

Disengagement-separation from the old role or setting

Disidentification-Not sure of who you are anymore

Disenchantment-one’s world no longer fits that old or prior reality

Disorientation-feeling lost and confused, empty

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Neutral Zone

• Gap between who you used to be and who you are going to be

• Symbolically a desert, a time of inner reorientation

• In Traditional societies this was handled well-People were taught to chant and fast, and remove themselves from Society-A Walkabout

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Neutral Zone-2

• Our culture does not honor such experience

• Requires surrender and giving in to the emptiness, not trying to escape it

• It is a time of anxiety and we may feel detached or isolated

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How To Handle The Neutral Zone

• Create alone time• Journal-include hunches and

intuition• Write your own job

autobiography-What was your favorite job?

• Go on a “walkabout” a quiet week away

• Ask what excites me?

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New Beginning

• Attraction to an idea, an impression, an opportunity, a dream, an image

• Self doubt is common here• A process of reintegration, a

rebirth into a new reality• If you allow it to occur, it will

result in new energy and motivation

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Transition Tips

• Take your time• Make temporary or short term

arrangements• Expect fear, uncertainty,

confusion and doubt-it is usually not a ‘pretty’ process

• Support system is crucial here

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Natural resistance to change

• Make no mistake:getting out of Law is as difficult as getting in

• The only people who appreciate change are babies with dirty diapers

• Frogs dropped into hot water will immediately jump out

• Frogs put in cold water that is gradually heated will remain until death

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Resistance to change-2

• Just do it-Just doesn’t happen!• Lawyers tend to want

predictability-not possible in career change

• Transitions are a psychological process

• Expect some confusion,doubt,tension,and fragmentation

• Indecision is a decision-to stay where you are

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Resistance to change-3

• Avoiding change has a high cost• Waiting for “something to come

up” is just procrastination-nothing ever comes up

• What works is being proactive• Career satisfaction must be a high

priority-evidenced by how much time you put into it

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Change Features

• We prefer the security of a known misery to the misery of the unknown or unfamiliar

• Average person changes jobs every three years and careers every ten

• Are you overdue for a change?• Some people are motivated by a

sudden insight or unpredictable event• Some people “tunnel out” -Great

Escape style

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Change Features-2

• Fear of humiliation, failure,discomfort or pain keep us stuck

• Change is rarely linear or predictable

• Stress and dissatisfaction is the universe giving you a message

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What can I do with a Law degree?

• A lot!• The real question is What are you

willing to do now?• Lawyers tend to grossly

underestimate their ability to do other work

• Lawyers are almost pathological in their

narrow focus about what they can do

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What can I do with law degree-2

• Law degree is a valuable credential

• Your work experience is also valuable

• Law degree says you are Competent,Intelligent & Responsible

• You can set & attain goals• You can commit and are

motivated• These are the transferable

skills most wanted!47

Lawyer Specific Problems

• Poor view of your worth• Underestimate your own abilities• Tunnel vision as to what you can

do• Irrational and obsessive

commitment to a poor choice “It took so much to get here I am not really willing to change-even if it kills me”

• Letting go of status,prestige or power

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Lawyer Specific Problems-2

• We are trained to focus on what’s wrong with any given situation

• We tend to be self critical and negative

• We lose sight of our own worth and competence

• We tend to be judgmental and competitive

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Effective job search strategies

• 1-Asses yourself• 2-Assess the market• 3-Allocate your time• -70% Warm contact• -15% Published Ads• -15% Headhunter• 4-Do Informational

Interviews

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Effective job search strategies

• Put most effort into networking• Don’t restrict focus to published

ads/headhunters• ZSA.ca-Headhunt.com• Career counselors are a good idea• Follow the cheese!• Reconsider your self imposed

limitations-Geography/Money/Status

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Dream Job Exercise

• Imagine the perfect job for you• Don’t be “practical” Go for it!• Don’t think about it• Imagine it pays what you need• Group exercise-share your dream

with others

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