What can you do with your Law Degree?

1. What can you do with your Law Degree? Presented by the Lawyers Assistance Program Facilitated by Robert Bircher

2. 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

3. What can you do with your law degree? • Powerpoint Notes

4. Introduction • 30 seconds of fame • Let us know your name • Tell us something about why you are here

5. 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

6. 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!

7. 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

8. Lawyers Assistance Program-2 • If you need help • Someone you know needs help • As a volunteer • Come to our programs

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Expectations of being a Lawyer • Intellectual Challenge • Helping others • Change the world • High Income • Status/Respect • Recognition • Autonomy • Versatility

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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?

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Top 5 beliefs exercise Disempowering Beliefs 1 2 3 4 5 • Empowering Beliefs • 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5

23. 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

24. 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

25. Intuition Exercise Groups of 3 Read your Skill Scan Summary Listeners-Use your intuition What do you see this person doing?

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. Afternoon Modules • Transition experience • Effective use of time in job searching • Resistance to change • Practical tips especially for lawyers

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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?

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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

47. 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!

48. 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

49. 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

50. 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