Author: TSA Press

Wondering how many lawyers actively practice in the United States? I happen to have the answer: 1,352,027. And I can also tell you that a quarter of those lawyers are in just two states, California and New York.

I have these facts at the ready thanks to the new ABA Profile of the Legal Profession, a 100-page compendium of statistics released Saturday during the ABA annual meeting in San Francisco.

The report provides insights on lawyer demographics, earnings, diversity, pro bono service, legal education, use of technology, well-being, and discipline. It pulls together data from sources within the ABA as well as from various outside sources, particularly the National Association for Law Placement.

“This report is an important reference for anyone who wants to understand where the legal profession came from and where it stands today,” ABA President Bob Carlson said.

Ironically, the one set of demographics I’d hoped to see in the report is not there. When I first heard the report would be coming, I had hoped it would provide information on breakdown of lawyers by firm size — how many solos, how many in small firms, etc. But the report has nothing on this.

That aside, there is plenty-enough to provide a wide-ranging overview of the legal profession. Here is some of what it reveals.

Demographics. During the 20th Century, the number of lawyers grew 793 percent, from 114,460 to over a million. Since 2010, the legal profession has grown nearly twice as fast as the nation’s population, at a rate of 12.4 percent compared to 6.3 percent for the general population. The largest increase ever in the number of lawyers happened in the 1970s, when the number of lawyers rose 76 percent, from 326,000 in 1970 to 574,000 in 1980. New York has the largest number of lawyers, 182,296, followed by California at 170,117. But the highest per-capita concentration of lawyers is in our nation’s capital, where there is one lawyer for every 13 residents.

Gender. While the number of female attorneys has grown over the last decade, male attorneys still outnumber female attorneys by 2-1 (64 percent male to 36 percent female). But compared to 50 years ago, we have made progress. From 1950 to 1970, only 3 percent of all lawyers were women. The percentage has edged up gradually since then — 8 percent in 1980, 20 percent in 1991, 27 percent in 2000, and 36 percent today. Today, one out of three law school deans is a woman, compared to 1-in-10 in 2000. Among law students, women outnumbered men for the first time in 2014 and the gap has continued to grow ever since, with women law students consistently outnumbering males. Across all sectors of the legal profession, women lawyers earn less than men.

Race and ethnicity. Only 15 percent of lawyers are racial or ethnic minorities — and that number has risen by only three percentage points in the last 10 years. Nearly all minorities are underrepresented in the legal profession compared with their representation in the U.S. population: 5 percent of lawyers are African American, while the U.S. population is 13.4 percent African American; 5 percent of lawyers are Hispanic, while the U.S. population is 18.1 percent Hispanic; and 2 percent of lawyers are Asian, while the U.S. population is 5.8 percent Asian. Only Native Americans, at 1 percent of lawyers, are represented at about the same proportion as their general population numbers. At law firms, the number of minority partners has increased only slightly over the last decade, from 6 percent in 2009 to 9 percent in 2018. At law schools, minority enrollment has gradually risen, from 25 percent of law students in 2011 to 31 percent in 2018.

Lawyers with disabilities. Roughly 0.5 percent of lawyers report have disabilities, a number that, while small, has doubled over the last decade. That is about the same number of law firm partners who report having disabilities.

LGBT lawyers. No reliable numbers exist on the total number of LGBT lawyers in all parts of the legal profession, the report says. However, the annual survey conducted by NALP put the percentage at 2.86 percent, up from 2.48 percent two years earlier. The NALP survey also found that the number of LGBT law firm partners had risen from 1.4 percent in 2009 to 2.11 percent today.

Earnings. The average lawyer earns a salary of $144,230. And while lawyer salaries continue to grow, they do so at less than the rate of inflation. The fastest growth ever in lawyer pay occurred from 1997-2002, when the average went from $72,840 to $105,890. The highest average salaries are in California and the lowest are in Puerto Rico, while the midpoint can be found in Salisbury, Md., where the average pay is $109,580.

Law schools. Law school applications are up in recent years. In 2018, 60,700 people applied to law school, of which 44,000 were accepted. The peak was 2004, when more than 100,000 people applied. When they graduate, nearly half of new lawyers take jobs at law firms, while 12 percent go to government jobs and 1 percent start solo practices. Law students graduated with average debt of $145,500, compared to $82,400 in 2000.

Pro bono. Fifty-two percent of lawyers provide free services for clients who cannot afford to hire an attorney. Of those, the average attorney provided 37 hours of pro bono time. Only 20 percent of lawyers meet the ABA’s aspirational goal of providing at least 50 hours a year of pro bono service.

Technology. One in four lawyers say their law firm has experienced a computer security breach, but only one in three law firms has cyber liability insurance. Viruses, spyware, and malware are fairly common, which 40 percent of lawyers saying their firm had been infected at some point. The most popular social networks among lawyers are LinkedIn (82 percent), Facebook (47 percent), Avvo (27 percent), Twitter (25 percent), Martindale (15 percent), and Google Plus (7 percent).

Lawyer well-being. Among lawyers, 21 percent are problem drinkers — a rate that is triple that of the general population and double that of other highly educated populations. Twenty-eight percent of lawyers struggle with depression and 19 percent have symptoms of anxiety.

The full report is available online at www.americanbar.org/profile.

Robert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).

I felt like a hillbilly, because I had this huge gap between my teeth. When I got to college, I realized it was a big part of who I was and, along with my red hair, really made me stand out.

— Madison Krause, a first-year student at New York Law School, telling the world about the gap between her two front teeth in an interview with The Daily Beast related to actress Dakota Johnson, who used to have a gap between her two front teeth as well. Krause’s mother said the space in her teeth would build “character,” and she works as a beauty and fashion influencer when she’s not busy studying law. You can check out her out on Instagram @GapToothGinger.

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Are you caught up on the wild scandal swirling around Harvard Law professor Bruce Hay? If you haven’t, I’ll give you a minute to catch up — I’ll wait. Anyway, Hay is currently suspended from teaching at Harvard after he got embroiled with two women, Maria-Pia Shuman and Mischa Haider. Hay claims he was picked up by Shuman and that relationship — while he was still married to Jennifer Zacks — led to a paternity kerfuffle, confrontations with Shuman and Haider that led to the police being called, and Hay even says Shuman and Haider orchestrated a complex scheme where they moved his family’s stuff out of their house, created fake lease documents, and moved into the house themselves.

Now New York Magazine has a follow-up to that story where they’ve identified six other men who had strange interactions with a Frenchwoman they believe was Shuman, that reveal a pattern. According to the article, Shuman made a habit of trying to come on to men around the Harvard Law campus using the same pickup line that got Hay:

On Friday, April 17, 2015, a third-year Harvard Law School student named Jordan, who asked that we not use his last name, was walking down Massachusetts Avenue near the law school’s Wasserstein Hall late in the afternoon. (Shuman’s apartment was across the street from HLS.) Jordan says he was bound for the T to Boston to meet up with friends and see comedian Hannibal Buress perform when Shuman’s delivery of the “attractive” line caught him off guard. He said, “Thank you, I have a girlfriend” — which was true — and continued walking, only to find that she was following him, wanting to continue the conversation. She said, “I’m attached, too. Here’s my number if you change your mind.” She said she was only going to be in town for a few weeks, if he wanted to get together — no strings attached. Jordan brushed her off with another polite thank-you and continued on, even as she asked if he had somewhere to be. He says he was surprised by her persistence and told her, “Yes, I do,” and headed for the train. When he got to Boston, he immediately called a friend about the encounter. The friend confirmed their conversation to me via email, recalling it because it was so strange and, in part, because she was French and the friend and Jordan have a passion for Richard Linklater’s films about an American man’s longtime love affair with a Frenchwoman.

Other men that spoke with New York describe similar pickup stories. One additional law student even described a similar paternity story where Shuman claimed he was the father of her son, the same as she did with Hay. Though it should be noted none of the other tales that were dug up are nearly as intricate as Hay’s.

There’s also some background provided by friends of Shuman that tries to shed some light on why she and Haider do what they are alleged to do:

In fact, the friend says, Shuman always had a serious boyfriend. But it wasn’t until she met Haider that she became obsessed with men. “She changed when they became friends. I noticed in the last couple of years of knowing her that there was a serious preoccupation with men. I don’t know why — she had nice boyfriends, long-term relationships, and she was now suddenly single and she was out there trying to meet up with a lot of guys, with a use-them-and-abuse-them kind of feel to it,” says the friend. “She had never been like that before. I assumed it was like she was young, free, and single. She and Mischa were both very obsessed, something about going out and picking up men and finding hot men and wanting to hook up with men. It was just off.” After reading the New York story, the friend was reminded of one of their last conversations. “I remember she said, ‘I love corrupting these really Waspy Bostonian guys.’ The impression I got was, if she picked up a guy, told him he was really hot, went back and slept with him and then discarded him, she felt like, ‘I’m in control, I’m so powerful, I used him, I tossed him aside.’ She liked the idea of corrupting what looked like these innocent, nice guys.”

Looks like Hay was perfectly positioned to get caught up in Shuman’s games.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

The laden Toyota Hiace minibuses and Isuzu pick-ups that depart from South Africa’s economic hub every day on journeys hundreds of miles north are a vital artery that helps to keep Zimbabwe’s broken economy alive.

As the shortage-plagued nation once ruled by Robert Mugabe has descended deeper into crisis this year, Zimbabwe’s border-crossing omalayitsha — which means transporters in the Ndebele language — have shuttled groceries, clothes and cash from Zimbabweans abroad to families facing inflation of 175 per cent at home. Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mr Mugabe as president in a 2017 coup, is attempting to shore up Zimbabwe’s fragile new local currency and rebuild empty state coffers. As he does so, remittances such as those brought into the country via this malayitsha bus system, are a crucial safety net.

They also show why, for countries such as Zimbabwe, remittances of food and goods — known as remittances in kind — can be just as important as wiring money home. There is even a malayitsha app. “There is no food that side — or there is, but it is too expensive,” said Florence Ncube, a 43-year-old cleaner in Johannesburg who sends food home to her family in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, which she left a decade ago. “It is better to buy groceries here” and send them home, she said. What are remittances? Money and goods sent by workers and other people living abroad to their families and friends at home. As global migration patterns have intensified over the last couple of decades, remittances have grown to become a significant contribution to some countries’ economies. Ms Ncube typifies Zimbabwe’s diaspora, which is millions strong after decades of turmoil. Most are based in South Africa, doing jobs such as domestic work, but Zimbabweans can be found around the world.

The expats have become a powerful economic force back home, sending remittances that last year were worth at least $1.9bn, or 9.6 per cent of the nation’s GDP, according to the World Bank. Economists estimate that a third of that total came from Zimbabweans in South Africa. Even then these figures are likely to understate flows, since the malayitsha system and other informal channels are difficult to track. A man waits with goods on the side of the road in Johannesburg for pickup by malayitsha, or transporters © AFP Mr Mnangagwa has pledged to make Zimbabwe “open for business” to foreign investors but many were scared off by last year’s botched election and repeated military crackdowns on dissent. As a result the ruling Zanu-PF, which was once hostile to those who voted against it with their feet, is now courting diaspora money.

In a speech in July Mr Mnangagwa asked “brothers and sisters in the diaspora to be good ambassadors of our beautiful country and invest back home”. When the economy does well, [people] are sending building materials. When it’s not doing well, it’s groceries Chipo Dendere, Wellesley College Yet the reality is that many diaspora remittances are like Ms Ncube’s — small amounts, often in kind, that are vital to the daily survival of family members. Among her biggest outgoings is the $35 she sends home to her son for school fees every term. “It’s not savings. It’s going towards school fees, groceries and fuel,” said Chipo Dendere, a Zimbabwean-born political scientist at Wellesley College who studies the links between remittances and Zimbabwe’s economy and politics. “When the economy does well, omalayitsha are sending building materials. When it’s not doing well, it’s groceries,” she said. This system also reflects the high transaction costs of sending money through the formal financial system. Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s most expensive place to remit money.

According to World Bank data, it cost $18 on average to remit $200 between African countries last year, $4 more than the global mean — and in southern Africa, it cost over $37 on average. Every 100 South African rand ($7) that Ms Ncube sends home to Zimbabwe costs about 20 rand on mobile-money remittance services, she says. Remitters such as Ms Ncube are wary of the new Zimbabwe dollar, which was launched in June when the government withdrew the legal-tender status of foreign money. The new rules made an exception for remittances, which can still be received in foreign currency.

But the money then has to be changed into the Zimbabwe dollar in order to be spent in shops, where prices have soared. There is a wide gap between the official and black-market rates for the new currency, and little trust in it. “That money doesn’t have any value.

You cannot buy anything with that money if they exchange it. Things are too expensive,” Ms Ncube said. There are longer-term pressures on the Zimbabwean remittance economy — including simply that the diaspora is ageing. Read more Best of Lunch with the FT 2018 ‘I’m not a crocodile’: Zimbabwe’s president has Lunch with the FT Professionals who left as the economy began its tailspin in the 2000s are now entering late middle age. Many in the US are obtaining citizenship. Some are choosing to be buried abroad. “People are settling in, or have reunited with nuclear families. There is less money to remit to extended family in Zimbabwe,” Ms Dendere said. Cash trails This FT series looks at how money sent by migrants links disparate countries in unexpected ways. Part one Remittances in kind Still to come . . . Part two The politics Part three Investment Part four Labour shortages Part five After remittances Part six Technology Part seven The global perspective Subscribers can receive alerts when new content is published in this series by following ‘global remittances’ with myFT.

She added that the newest wave of migrants became younger and more desperate as the economy worsened. Many Zimbabwean migrant workers in South Africa and other nearby nations now barely earn enough to survive, let alone to remit. It is stressful to be a distant breadwinner. Behind economic figures on remittances lies “the strain on relationships, the pressure on those sending” cash each month, Ms Dendere said. “Western Union babies” and “WhatsApp parents” have become part of Zimbabwean family life. “It is too difficult,” Ms Ncube said, emotion rising in her voice. “People are starving at home.”

Post published in: Business

You don’t have to have meticulously followed the storied history of Susman Godfrey to basically understand what the firm brings to the table. The high-end litigation boutique — that has probably outlived its “boutique” label now that it boasts over 100 attorneys — finds itself in the headlines often with its success defending clients in complex litigation and eye-popping verdicts secured on the plaintiff side. It’s a firm built on aggressively recruiting the top talent around and having the confidence to let the young attorneys actually practice.

And that commitment to building up young lawyers may have an unintended effect: producing a crop of talented political candidates taking aim at attorneys general offices around the country.

Last year, Justin Nelson ran for Attorney General of Texas, earning the Houston Chronicle’s endorsement as “the single best reason for a Texas Republican to cross over and vote for a Democratic candidate.” Beto says “ouch.” Like Beto, Nelson fell short against indicted incumbent Ken Paxton, 50.6 percent to 47 percent.

It turned out Nelson was just the start of a trend. Montana native Raph Graybill spent some time at Susman Godfrey on his way to serving as Chief Legal Counsel to Montana Governor and ludicrously non-Senatoroial candidate Steve Bullock. Graybill’s background fits the Susman Godfrey mold perfectly — Columbia undergrad, Yale Law, a Ninth Circuit clerkship, and a Rhodes scholarship along the way.

People who are confused about how Democrats win elections in Montana — which includes 90 percent of the commentators who pass for experts on such things — should pay attention to Graybill’s campaign. Through his position with Bullock, he’s already worked to foil Trump’s dark money efforts and halt a Republican effort to delay conservation easements — it’s not unfair to say that the Governor’s office has been doing the actual work of the Attorney General for the past few years. His campaign kickoff highlighted the role of a proper AG in sticking up for “real people” instead of the “highest bidder.” It’s a progressive message that resonates in a state with roots in ranching that keeps seeing shadowy outsiders coming in and gutting the land for fun and profit while depositing hefty checks with compliant politicians.

Meanwhile, a Susman partner in Seattle is also looking into an attorney general bid. Drew Hansen, who currently serves as a state representative in addition to his legal career, has said he might run for the job if current Washington AG Bob Ferguson decides not to seek re-election, which is part of the set of dominos involved in Jay Inslee’s ongoing quixotic run for president. Hansen is a Harvard undergrad who also went to Yale Law and clerked for the Second Circuit. He is, for good measure, also a Rhodes Scholar.

If you’re looking anywhere around the country for the next generation of attorneys general — or federal judges, for that matter — it may be time to focus on Susman Godfrey’s ranks.

Earlier: A Deep Dive Into The History Of One Of America’s Premier Law Firms

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

There’s really only two ways Jeffrey Epstein could have died last weekend.  Either he killed himself, or someone else killed him.  (I will not entertain the conspiracy theory that he’s still alive somewhere and some other corpse was placed in his cell.)

The most likely theory, in my opinion, is that he died by suicide. Why wouldn’t he?   If convicted of the charges against him, he’d be potentially facing life in prison.  His reputation was ruined; his life in shambles; his property subject to seizure and forfeiture.  Without warning he was pulled from jet-setting around the world, staying in penthouses and mansions, hobnobbing with the rich and famous when, on returning from Paris in his private jet, he was thrust into a parallel universe of prison — isolation, debasement, impersonalization, bad food, and bad roommates.  Welcome to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) — quite a change from what he’d been used to.

At first, he’d hoped he have a chance at bail.  But despite his lawyers’ pleas, suggesting he could post $77 million as well as underwrite the cost of having guards stationed at every floor of his Upper East Side mansion, the judge said no.  He’d be treated like every other defendant facing serious charges, forced to await his fate in prison.

As a lawyer who’s been to the MCC many times, it’s one of the worst jails I’ve ever seen.  Featureless, imperious, cold, no natural light even from the few windows stuck high in the walls.

And no matter how bad the general population part of the prison is, the Segregated Housing Unit (SHU) where Epstein was being housed is even worse.  Each cell is so small that from the room’s center outstretched hands can touch both sides.  Every item (sink, bed, chair) is affixed to the floor.  The window is high up and angled to see nothing. The other window, cut into the cell door, permits a slim view of the hallway.  The place was meant to keep prisoners from knowing each other. You could be next to your brother and not realize it.

Security there is so tight, it can take up to an hour or more to be admitted, and another hour to leave.  Every movement is monitored by security cameras.  Every action — the “feedings,” the meetings with attorneys — are recorded in a logbook.  Nobody comes or goes without being seen and signing his name.

Every time I went in, I’d be itching to leave within an hour. If you’ve got claustrophobia, it’s not the place for you.

Coming from a world of complete opulence, power, and independence, it’s no wonder the man would want to take his own life.  The enormity of his fall from grace, the charges he was facing, and the reality of where he’d be spending the next good chunk of his life could easily have gotten to him.

The question is, how did the guards let it happen?  When someone tries to take his own life, he’s usually placed on suicide watch.  Anything he has that could be honed into a weapon (like a loose utensil or paper clip), every item of clothing or bedding that could be twisted into a rope, is usually taken from him.  Guards peer into the cell every 15 minutes and are supposed to be aware of movements and sounds inside.

Epstein was reportedly on suicide watch after his first alleged suicide attempt, but somehow those protocols were lifted.  Usually that happens if the inmate or his lawyers request it and only if the change is approved by a mental health professional.  Epstein was no longer on suicide watch when he killed himself, but he was in the SHU, probably to protect him from other inmates.  Other prisoners could not come in contact with him, nor could he come in contact with them.

So, option two, someone else killed him.  There’s a lot of reasons people may have wanted him dead.  First, all the people he allegedly harmed through the charged criminal contact. Next, any of the other inmates.  There’s a hierarchy of people despised by prisoners and the alleged child rapists are at the bottom of the barrel.

Then, there are the many people who also took part in Epstein’s alleged procurement of underaged girls.  The talk of wild parties, the rich and famous who attended and did things they could not do elsewhere.  Were they afraid Epstein would trade information about them for a lesser sentence, or that the glare of an open trial would shine the spotlight on them, too?

While many people are probably breathing a sigh of relief now that Epstein’s case won’t see the light of day, I highly doubt that personnel at the MCC are clever enough, or venal enough, to mastermind a scheme to get Epstein killed without the whole world finding out.

As I said, everything is monitored, reported, and logged.  While on TV and movies it seems like guards or inmates can get the most complex plot together to kill people with choreographed precision, never leaving a trace, that’s just not real life.

I’ve been in prisons too often to believe that CIA-type shenanigans are likely to happen in a place where a guard is generally no more than a few feet away, and that’s so poorly managed the elevators don’t often work.

Provided the right materials, like a sheet or a T-shirt, it doesn’t take much time for an inmate to asphyxiate himself in jail.   A guard could have been looking the other way, or maybe Epstein knew their schedules and planned it carefully, but for my money, this was no Clintonian (or even Trumpian, who knew him also) conspiracy.

Considering what he was facing and how far he’d fallen, he may have seen suicide as his best option.

Toni Messina has tried over 100 cases and has been practicing criminal law and immigration since 1990. You can follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.

Kinney Recruiting is partnering with a global firm on its search for a real estate transactions associate to join its rapidly expanding Chicago office.

We are seeking an associate with at least two years sophisticated real estate transactions experience and an interest in working along side a group of partners who are at the top of their field. This firm is committed to the Chicago market and it is developing a substantial presence in the city, which is attracting high level laterals to its practice.

This is an exciting time to join the firm’s Chicago office because associates are on the ground floor of something relatively new and will participate in the growth of an international firm’s strategic location. The litigation associate will work with a group of partners, some recent laterals themselves, with substantial business located throughout the US and Americas.

This firm is offering its associates an outstanding compensation and the opportunity to be involved with business development early in their careers.  Associates are often a part of client pitches and they are trained on how to develop their own business.In addition to considering candidates currently living in Chicago, this firm welcomes candidates from outside the state who are seeking to move the city and will provide relocation assistance. If you are interested in learning more about this position then please apply through this positing or send your resume to jobs@kinneyrecruiting.com.

As diligent followers of either Kim Kardashian or law school gossip know, the second-oldest Kardashian sibling has taken a step to follow in her father’s footsteps and is working to become a lawyer. Though she taking a non-traditional route to becoming an esquire (she’s working through an apprenticeship program), she’s been working her way through a standard 1L curriculum.

Through her constantly updating social media, you get a sense of her coursework. There was the criminal law issue spotter that featured some of her famous friends. Definitely some appropriate 1L work. Then she explained that she was derelict in her live tweeting duties to keep up with torts homework.

Now she’s taken to her Instagram stories to report once the kids go to bed, Kim K. starts work on her contracts homework. And, yes, of course, she’s rocking the IRAC method.

Looks like she’s really serious about living that law school life.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

“Flow.”

It’s the mental state in which you’re fully immersed in an activity, performing it effortlessly, and almost divorced from the rest of the world.

A great pianist might experience the state of flow in the midst of a performance.  A great athlete might experience it in the midst of a game.  Flow is being “in the zone,” although the “flow state” was actually named by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, of course.  (Have I mentioned that Google is a great gadget?)

What does flow have to do with law?

Because lawyers can be in a flow state, too.

Did you ever argue an appeal, and the only thing that existed in the world was the panel?  You were completely focused on questions, and answers, and making your point.  When the red light came on, you didn’t know where the time had gone, and everyone congratulated you on the argument.  Where were you?  In flow.

Or maybe it happens during jury trials (though long trials are a long time to remain in a state of flow).

Some folks are in a state of panic before jury trials.  Some are in stress.

But then the trial starts, and a lucky few go into flow, performing effortlessly at an extraordinarily high level.

(Or some people absolutely hate preparing for and trying cases, but they love the ability to tell war stories after the fact, and that’s where they find joy in the game.  To each his own.)

Maybe you find flow elsewhere in the law:  Arguing tough motions.  Deposing adverse experts.  Sitting at a desk, pen in hand, marking up an extremely tricky brief.

You look at your watch, and hours have vanished.  The work product is great.  You were in flow.

At a law firm, the times when you’re in flow are the best times.   You’re doing something challenging.  You’re immersed in it.  You’re performing at your best.  And time passes unnoticed.

Sort of the opposite of document review, but that’s another story.

When you go in-house, you still need flow:  It’s part of what makes work satisfying.  But you’ll probably have to find it in different activities.  Depending on where you work, you may no longer be arguing motions or appeals, taking depositions, or trying cases.  So you’ll have to find flow elsewhere.

You might still find flow in editing briefs.  You might find flow in giving presentations to the Board.  There might be some other aspect of your in-house job that has you immersed and performing at your best.

But be sure that there’s an opportunity to be in flow before you choose (or as you decide whether to keep) your in-house job.

Flow is, after all, a big piece of what makes work worth doing.  (You may be in flow for only a small percentage of your time at work, but it could easily be those moments that make your job worthwhile.)

If you choose a job that provides many benefits, but strips away the chance for you ever to be in flow, you may have picked the wrong job.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Inside Straight: Advice About Lawyering, In-House And Out, That Only The Internet Could Provide (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.