Finally going after my calling after 5 years down the wrong road...

[Curmudgeon]

Uh oh... why does it surprise you??

 

Given the law you've been practicing, you would actually be going into this with your eyes wide open!

[mental_traveller]

Thanks for the input, MT. But I don't really care what anyone else's motivations are. Why would I? I only care about my own.

 

There's red tape and bureaucracy everywhere. There's people who are jaded and show up just for a paycheck everywhere too - sh*t, I'm one of them now!

 

Where I am now, I have difficulty believing in either my employer (the firm) or its clients. Where I want to go, I believe in both the "firm" (the particularly entity I'm interested in) as well as it's clients (the "people" of my community).

 

I cannot really "shadow" anyone while they're actively practicing law. There's a huge potential for the violation of privilege there, not to mention that I wouldn't want to take time off of work to do that.

 

Yeah, I mostly agree with you and I didn't mean to sound negative! But I do think it's good to go in with eyes open. Personally I made a career move several years ago into something I loved doing, which at the time seemed quite risky, and I am really happy I made the move. There are downsides of course but overall it is far easier to get past those when you care about what you are doing.

 

So, overall I would say go for it! If you can't work-shadow, maybe just try to get a bit of time from some people in the public sector and ask what the work is like? You might be able to use your alumni network, trade bodies, or simply cold-calling/writing letters to notable public lawyers.

Edited February 24, 2008 by mental_traveller