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[MikeR]

Do you enjoy being an attorney?

I’ve been reading a lot of web forums and there seems to be a lot of negativity in regards to attending law school and practicing law.  I see many people talking about how they’ve made a huge mistake and they hate law school, or they hate being an attorney.  Some people say the job market is completely saturated and that when you do find a job you’ve basically traded you life for a salary.  How realistic are some of these claims?  Overall would you say most attorneys are satisfied with their career or do they despise it?  I would be lying if I said that all this rhetoric didn’t scare me a little.  Will it be possible to find a job in this field that provides a balance between salary and quality of life?  I have no dreams of making vast sums of money.  I just want to make enough to pay off my loan and provide a comfortable living for my family while at the same time having an enjoyable and fulfilling career.  

[ueoa]

In the end no one wins and you will see the race was with your self.

[melwrc]

Law school is annoying.  I know very few people that actually enjoyed it.  Only you can decide if it's worth it for you.
There are a number of inhouse counsel jobs in patent law that provide good money for reasonable hours.  If you enjoy prosecution, there are many small firms that provide a good living and quality of life if you want to keep your hours down.

[SciGuy]

When I was thinking about whether to pursue a career as an attorney, I met with about 15 former scientists who became attorneys.  I think this was the best way to get an idea of the career path and to assess whether people are happy with what the are doing.  The only caveat is that you have to keep in mind that these are the people who "made it."  They aren't the ones who bailed out b/c the transition from science to law didn't fit them or simply found that they hated law.  I guess the bottom line is that, like any career, you don't really know until you've been doing it for a few years.  Do as much research as you can before entering the field and, if you can, get in at a firm to test the waters before making the investment that is law school.  If you like it, go for it.  If you find yourself miserable later, then you have a couple of nice degrees that you can fall back on or apply to a different field such as business, politics, or whatever.  In science, the longer you work at it the more focused you get and the fewer opportunities you have.  The opposite is true in law -it opens many doors for you to choose from.  This is my perspective, but please keep in mind that I'm not a patent attorney...only training to be.  Good luck!

[Eliz]

I second what SciGuy said--try to meet with as many patent attorneys and agents as possible and see if they seem happy.  This is also what I did when I was trying to decide whether to make the switch.  In general, it seemed like they were a fairly happy group.  (I also wound up making some contacts that were very useful to me in my 1L summer job search).  

To say that law school is "annoying" is a bit of an understatement.  1L year is pretty bad, IMO.  But supposedly things are supposed to be better next year, and people say that 3L is not bad at all.  

Eliz

[Isaac]

I really enjoyed law school as did many of my classmates.  I don't remember 1L year being particularly unenjoyable.   Of course, some of classmates felt differently.

Maybe that means my statements that I enjoy being a patent attorney ought to be taken with a grain of salt...

[zizhijiang]

I am an attorney in China. When I was young,my dream is to be an attorney. I find to be an attorney need interst, courage. I like the job.