Really? You're in High School and You Want to Be a Family Lawyer?

This fall a high school student came to shadow me for a day.  She said she wants to be a family lawyer.  When asked I encourage students not to go into a pre-law program (if they still exist) in case law school is not in their future and that they get a degree in an area of interest and where jobs are available.  I can only assume that a high school student wants to be a family lawyer just as others want to be social workers or probation officers:  they want to help people in need.

Shadowing a lawyer before going to law school is a good idea considering the high cost of law school and the dearth of jobs.  These are topics frequently discussed at www.abovethelaw.com.  Law schools have been sued for what amounts to consumer fraud, including inflating statistics about hiring rates for law school grads.  So on the off chance that a prospective law student interested in family law reads this post, here are some of the negatives about practicing family law:

1.  Long hours as an associate
2.  Stress and burnout in dealing with highly-dysfunctional people and high conflict families
3.  Client dissatisfaction, tending to increase as the process drags out and the fees increase and results are                   unsatisfactory
4.  Clients who have unreasonable expectations
5.  Clients who invade your privacy, calling you on weekends or after hours, or confronting you at the grocery store; worse yet, the opposing party harassing you.
6.  Clients who won't pay, particularly if you are a solo practitioner or your supervising attorney expects you to have reasonable accounts receivable
7.  Clients who report you to the Ethics Board when there was no ethical violation
8.  Clients who bolt to a new lawyer if you fail to return their call or email or text message within an hour or 2 (I once had a client who I knew from high school fire me because I went on a short vacation)
9.  Mean and sometimes unethical lawyers (like the one who stole the attorneys fees for my client that his client paid into his trust account)
10.  Dare I say it: judges with no family law experience
11.  Family law is very competitive:  many lawyers, with fewer people getting married

But, despite all of this, it can be very satisfying to do a good job for a client, obtain a favorable result, actually get paid in full (so no trip to conciliation court) AND the client sends you a thank-you card (a rarity).