Exactly ten years ago today, I was sitting in my living room watching IT (the original not the remake). I had just gotten off early from my glamorous post-bar job at JC Penny’s and had received a text message from my law school friend, Traci. It turns out bar results were going to come out a day early.
So, I sat alone, hitting refresh on my browser until I saw the fateful email from the Texas Bar Examiners. The results from the July 2013 test were in. Since you are reading this blog on my law firm website, I bet you can deduce what was on the other side of that email. The few seconds it took to scroll down to the middle of the alphabet felt like an eternity. This was going to be the ultimate Halloween trick or treat. I eventually found my name and, in all caps, next to it was the word PASS. I had made it to the finish line or so I thought.
Just because I was now an officially licensed attorney did not guarantee that I was a practicing attorney. It took a lot of rejection and soul searching to get where I am at today. Here are a few lessons I learned throughout the past ten years.
Follow your gut
It took me over six months after becoming licensed to get a job with the word attorney attached to it. I had sent out hundreds of applications and went on dozens of interviews with nothing to show from it. Finally, I had a law firm that was willing to hire me. It was a small immigration firm in Dallas-Fort Worth. I was so excited that someone wanted to hire me as an attorney I did not take the time to properly research the firm. Almost immediately I could tell that the firm’s owner had no interest in training me and would tell clients almost anything to get them to give her money. The pit in my stomach grew and grew as each day past. I knew I needed to get out of there before someone came for my law license. So, I left with no job lined up.
Sometimes you need a little luck
In the spring of 2016, I had decided that I had enough. I had lost track of the number of interviews I had gone on. Frustration was building as I was seeing fellow classmates go on to have successful careers. I decided it was time to stop spinning my wheels and try something new. I was going to get my teaching certificate. However, as luck would have it, the Thursday before I was scheduled to start classes for my teaching certificate, I got a call from a job I had interviewed with. It turned out that the first person they had offered the job to was not going to accepted it after all. They wanted to see if I was still interested. Of course, I was! Sometimes I think back to what would have happened if I had not gotten that job. My life would have been taken on a completely different trajectory. Without that job opportunity at the Department of Public Safety, I never would be trying murders and sexual assaults. Yes, I had to do well in my interview, but I was also lucky that one other person said no.
Find a good mentor
I have worked at some places that could not care less about helping younger attorneys learn the ropes. They took the attitude that if I figured it out so can you. How quickly we forget that at some point we were the young attorney who didn’t know what we were doing and needed help from older attorneys. One of the things that I have found so refreshing about the defense bar is that so many people are willing to lend a hand to help their fellow attorneys. I would not be where I am today if I did not have attorneys show me around the courthouse. We stand on the shoulders of those that come before us. I thank every attorney who introduced me to the judges, court staff, and bailiffs when I was just starting out. The ability to bounce of ideas to a more seasoned person is critical to success.
It is wild that I have been practicing for ten years. It really feels like just yesterday I was sitting in a lecture hall taking notes for class. I truly believe that all the twists and turns that my career has taken my on over the past ten years has led me to exactly where I need to be and want to be. As I start my next ten years, I am excited to see where the road takes me.
