Feeling Stuck, But Staying Strong
Law students and lawyers like timelines. The legal career, from law school to licensing to partnership, revolves around a set milestones with well-defined timeframes. From the moment you set your feet down on a law school campus, the clock starts ticking: three years to graduate, one year to article and write the bar, six to eight years to partnership. It can be exhausting, intimidating, and demoralizing.
This timeline seems so set-in-stone that any disruption—no matter how early or late in your career and no matter if for personal reasons or other uncontrollable circumstances—may feel like a complete career derailment. The proverbial ticking clock hangs over us like an omen.
Even in an era of cancellations and postponements, with the whole world stopped thanks to a global pandemic, law students feel the anxiety of career milestones being ripped out from under them and tossed far into the future. Whether you’ve had an NCA sitting cancelled, a bar exam postponed, your law school courses drastically restructured, or employment offers revoked, know that you aren’t alone in your frustration and disappointment.
While disruptions to your legal career may seem like a “small” issue in light of a global disaster, it’s still difficult to have the fruit of all your long hours in the library and financial commitment suddenly jeopardized. While many people tell you “we have bigger problems” or “this cancellation is valid in light of the situation” (which is certainly true) it’s still okay to feel frustration, disappointment, and rage. But, how do we keep a sense of perspective and overcome feeling “stuck” when our career timelines are disrupted? I have a few suggestion for you…
Listen to Your Body, Not the Internet
You’ve likely seen people on social media taking up new hobbies and encouraging everyone not to waste the extra time that this new slower pace of life affords. But this pressure to “do more” with your time may not be encouraging or appropriate for everyone — at least not right away.
The shift to working from home or remote classes can take some time to get used to; so can sitting at home 24/7. I personally found the first week-and-a-half of quarantine quite exhausting as I navigated worry while feeling guilty about not doing more. It’s okay if you need to take the first few weeks to process, adjust, and just take things slow. This time may also be the much-needed break you were never able to take with previous work/school commitments.
So, feel free to give yourself space without feeling guilty about not optimizing this time. But, do continually check in with yourself to make sure you are actually resting and not wallowing in anxiety and worry! Take time to reflect on your accomplishments and past resiliency; make sure you shut-off the stream of bad-news coming from the internet a little bit each day and take time to be grateful for the things you do have.
Maintain a Structure & Sense of Accomplishment
Whether you are treating quarantine as a rest or an opportunity to do more, maintaining structure and sense of accomplishment (no matter how small) is important. While staying up until 3am every night watching Netflix may seem like a great idea at first, you’ll likely end up feeling sorry for yourself quite quickly.
While your regular routine may not be do-able find ways to adjust it so that you maintain as much structure as possible. This might include online work-out classes, scheduled bed-times and wake-ups, etc. Maintaining a schedule—even an altered one—is good for your sense of purpose and accomplishment in an otherwise topsy-turvy world.
Another thing you may find helpful is creating a daily or weekly to-do list of the top things you’d like to accomplish. Avoid the temptation to load it up or create unrealistic expectations. I start each morning with a coffee and writing down two or three things that I know doing will give me a sense of achievement (writing this article was my one for today!).
Talk to Others
Keeping in touch with friends and family is important and will help you feel less alone. If you a law student worried about your career prospects, you’ll also find it helpful to talk to lawyers who have been in your position before. Seek out associates who graduated around the 2008 Financial Crisis and ask them for advice. Not only is this a great way to expand your network but you’ll likely find their words encouraging and helpful.
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Above all, know that you are not alone. Hundreds and thousands of lawyers and law students are also learning to adjust alongside you. We will get through this, and come out stronger on the other side!
-Tiffany
(Tiffany is an LLM candidate at NYU Law. and a regular blogger for NCA Tutor™.)