You question if being a lawyer is worth it, after every embattled child custody case or lost jury trial, and when you realize that the day-to-day practice of law is not like "LA Law " or even "Ally McBeal." You meet with clients in small, smoky offices rather than in palatial, marble-accented conference rooms. Clients are offered water in plastic bottles, not Perrier in crystal glasses. There are not roundtable discussions where the firm discusses each case and develops a master plan.

Once it sinks in that you have not entered the glamorous, lucrative, profession that's portrayed on television, you must still fight public perception. The indoctrination against lawyers begins early. When my daughter was in the second-grade I met her for lunch at her school. When I told her fellow second-graders that I was a lawyer, they actually booed me. Astounded, I asked them why. They didn't know.

Clients' believe that you only handle one case at a time, and it is theirs. The general public believes that lawyers are civil servants paid by some governmental agency that strategically places attorneys throughout the state to wait for telephone calls seeking "legal advice." When informed that they must pay for advice, they demand their constitutional right to a free consult. You must explain that there is no governmental subsidy for an initial client conference. Finally, there is always the ever popular misconception that because you are a lawyer, you are rich.

If you are in it for the money, it's not worth it.
If you seek respect from others, it's not worth it.
If you require praise for a job well-done, it's not worth it.

However,

If you feel pride in writing a well-reasoned appellate brief; and
If it makes your day to pose for a photograph with beaming parents and their new child after a successful adoption case; and
If you take satisfaction in upholding the values of the legal profession;

then you have found an occupation that makes it all worthwhile.

Learn more about this author, Lesa Bonnett.
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