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Dear Judged
To decide

I am a fourth-year associate practicing corporate law.  Lately, I am not enjoying the kind of cases I’m dealing with.  I have started feeling that I’m not fit for this practice area.  I am very keen on switching over to entertainment law.  Is it too late or do you think I can still make my mark?!



Baffled
posted 2007-04-20 07:31:28


Dear Broomiebroom,

You can achieve anything to which you dedicate yourself.
You can accomplish anything for which you have a true passion.  You can make your mark anywhere if you really put your mind to it.

Unfortunately for you, “I have started feeling that I’m not fit for this practice area.  I am very keen on switching over to entertainment law…” does not sound like true dedication to being a successful entertainment lawyer and making it your life’s work.  Michael Jordan didn’t wake up one day and say: “I have started feeling that I’m not fit for my current job.  I am very keen on switching over to become a basketball player.”  Eminem didn’t wake up one day and say: “I have started feeling that I’m not fit for suburban Detroit life.  I am very keen on switching over to representing the average ghetto kid through my mad rap skillz, yo.”  They knew what they really wanted to do, and that’s what they pursued. You’ll only really “make your mark” (as you put it) in something about which you are passionate.

This partly explains why you’re not enjoying your current job.  Like most people, you are probably not passionate about Sarbanes-Oxley or Regulation D.  (I’m just guessing here.  Only people with the last name Sonsini are passionate about Regulation D.  I presume you’re not in this category of people.)

Anyway, entertainment law is not all it’s cracked up to be.  You think it’s all glitz and glamour, but you probably wouldn’t really enjoy drafting a licensing agreement for Tom Cruise’s next movie—not any more than you would enjoy drafting a licensing agreement for anything else.  It’s not like you’ll be hanging with TomKat on the weekends or anything.

That said, entertainment law (in it’s various forms) does offer more potential for interesting work then your standard corporate practice.  Congratulations!!! You are the ONE MILLIONTH attorney who has realized this!  Every single one of your attorney friends has the same perception about entertainment law being a desirable practice area.  Most thought about getting into it at some point during their legal education.

Now that you know a bit about your competition for success in the entertainment law field, consider the fact that you are a few years behind.  And consider the fact that, if there’s one thing that is almost as important to success in this field as dedication, it’s having connections.  Even in the rest of the legal community, you know the rule: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.  Multiply that ten for working in “the industry.”

So let’s see: you’re thinking of entering (1) a super-competitive field, a field which is (2) even more dependent upon connections than the rest of the legal industry, and (3) you’re thinking of doing so about four years later than everyone else, and (4) you’re still kind of wishy-washy about whether you want to do it in the first place?  I gotta say, I don’t rate your chances of “making a mark” very highly.

However, I would strongly advise you to keep looking.  Don’t stay in your current job if you’re not fit for it.  Think about what you really want to do.  Maybe it’s an in-house job.  Maybe it’s using your legal background in some non-legal work about which you are passionate.  Or maybe you really are passionate about some other practice area closely related to your current field.  I don’t know what type of corporate work you’re currently doing, but it could just be that a switch from transactional work to litigation (or vice versa) is all you need.  Again, it will never be easy to switch practice areas once you’ve started to establish yourself in one, but you stand a better chance of success if you think about what you really want to do and then pursue it.


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Dear Your Honor,
Dear Judge,

Do you ever experience any physical danger in the courtroom?  You do deal with all those criminals, right? 

Sincerly,

Concerned Bailiff's Mommy



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