By: Vickie Pynchon

Vickie Pynchon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:27:15 +0000

Carolyn,
Great post, indeed (and thanks for the shout out).
The idea that any lawyer could be “out of work” just because a law firm laid him/her off is as foreign to me today as being anything other than an employee was twenty years ago.
But I have to blush a bit when I’m cited as someone who took layoff adversity and transformed it into a happy and successful Vickie, Inc. when in fact what I did was just to get another job.
What made that job life-changing was not what it WAS but what it wasn’t. It WASN’T completely consuming. I had half the money but twice the free time to do what I needed to do to BEGIN to move toward an occupation in which I would some day thrive.
THAT’s the opportunity laid-off lawyers have today. I took the time the ’92 recession gave me and pursued fiction writing which gave me literature back. Having literature — and creative writing back – I needed my evenings back. And to have my evenings back, I had to give up some bad habits. Having given up those bad habits, I had to acquire new life-skills. The new skills gave rise to different opportunities, which I had the time and the growing wisdom, to pursue or not.
So maybe the $100K for the laid off attorneys won’t be used to open a law practice but to pursue an MBA or enroll in acting school; to spend a year in a foreign country building schools for children or teaching English; or even doing something as apparently “selfish” as taking a month-long trek in Nepal. Or maybe it’s simply being the parent who now stays at home while the other works. The choices are endless. And the movement we make can be made, as ever, only one step at a time.
Best of luck to everyone. There’s not a morning these days when I don’t wake up thinking of lawyers being battered by the economy because they/we are still my people, my tribe.

By: John Thompson

John Thompson — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:53:24 +0000

Carolyn:
This is a great post. I am 28 years old straddled with student loans and a mortgage payment and I will be launching my own law firm this summer. I think it is the nature of the work that makes attorneys so risk adverse, but with so many opportunities out there now to innovate and a huge population of the public not being served by the legeal community I think this is a great time to dive right in!

By: gyi tsakalakis

gyi tsakalakis — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:32:18 +0000

This is exactly the “yes we can” attitude that we need in today’s troubled market.
Newly freed BigLaw’ers, the resources are out there. Take advantage.

Comments on: The $100,000 Law Firm

By: Vickie Pynchon

By: John Thompson

By: gyi tsakalakis