Hi, and welcome to The Former Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Cottrell. I practiced law for 10 years and now I help unhappy lawyers ditch their soul-sucking jobs. On this show, I share advice and strategies for aspiring former lawyers, and interviews with former lawyers who have left the law behind to find careers and lives that they love.

Hello everyone. Welcome to the very first episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast that's releasing in 2022. I want to talk to you today about a question that I'm sure many of you have, which is, “How can I leave the law in 2022?” It's interesting because often, I think when I speak with non-lawyers about the work that I do, this question might seem to them a little bit like, “Well, you just leave, what is there to talk about?” But if you're a lawyer—and I know you are—it can be much more complicated than that. I know from my own experience that there are a lot of things that you have to work through, both internally and externally in order to get to the place where you feel that you can leave the law. It's different factors for each person. But there are a couple of things that are really important, if you're sitting here at the beginning of this new year, thinking like, “Yes, this is the year that I want to get out.”

The first thing that you need to do—and this may be obvious advice—but just start somewhere. I know I've talked to you before about how, as lawyers, we often think of thinking about something as actually doing something about it. I know for sure, this was an experience that I had where I would be thinking about how I wanted to leave and thinking about what that might be like, but there's a difference between thinking about it, and actually taking action in that direction. For different people, the action that they need to take can be different. It's completely variable. The clients that I work with, everyone has a unique plan that they have to develop but the key is simply to start. In particular, the key is to start and to take action. We've also talked about the fact that clarity follows action. Not the other way around it.

This is so counterintuitive for lawyers. I know that this is true and I still have to remind myself that it is true over and over because for me, for my personality and for my training as a lawyer, it's simply not intuitive. I just have this innate sense that I should be able to think my way to clarity to know exactly what I should do, then I should do the thing. The older I get and the more people who I work with who are transitioning out of the law, and the more people I talk to who have left the law, the more obvious and the more clear it is that really getting clarity requires you to take some action. Taking that action of course can be very difficult for lots of different reasons, but you really need to bring yourself to the point where you are willing to take some action towards your goal of leaving in order to begin to get that clarity.

First is the just start piece. The second one is to take some action. The third one that I want to talk about in terms of what you should be doing if you want to be leaving the law this year is a flip. It's not what you should be doing, it's what not to do. I talk about this in more detail in my free masterclass, which if you haven't watched it already, I highly recommend. It's The Simple 5-Step Framework To Identify An Alternative Career (That You Actually Like!). You can go to formerlawyer.com/masterclass and sign up, and get the link to watch anytime that you want. Anyway, in that masterclass, one of the first things that I talk through—and this is so important for lawyers to hear—is that what you do not want to do is just look at what your skills are, then try to find something that matches that.

I'm not saying that your skills don't matter but the problem with that approach when you're like, “Okay, I want to leave,” is that it doesn't account for whether the thing that you ultimately identify, whether it's actually a good fit for you beyond like, “Are you capable of doing it?” I know we've talked on the podcast here before and I'm sure you've heard as I've shared my own story about having this realization of, “Oh, just because I can do something doesn't mean that I should.” If you are in a position where you're like, “I want to leave,” whether you're at a big firm or you're in a different position but you're like, “I need to get out. I want 2022 to be my year,” what I don't want you to do is just look at, “Well, what skills do I have? What can I find that I think is a good match for those skills?” Because in order for you to really have a successful transition—and by successful, I just mean something that moves you into a position that is truly a better fit for you—that is not the place to start.

Of course, if you're wondering more about what that looks like and etc, I mean this is a big part of why I do the work that I do because the individual execution of these things can be quite complex, but again, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. If you are in a position where you are unhappy in the law, you need to think very carefully about whether the thing that you are trying to move to is something that you actually want to be doing versus something that you just know that you could do or just know that you're “qualified for” or just know that someone would hire you for.

Those are the three things that I really want you to keep in mind if you are like, “I want to make a move in 2022.” Take action. Just start. Clarity follows action. Don't simply look at what your skills are and try to find something that matches that because just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I'll be here with you in 2022 with episodes of the podcast, with episodes on the YouTube channel. I'm cheering you on. I am wishing you all the very best as you move towards your goal of leaving the law. I will talk to you next week.

Have you watched my free masterclass, The Simple 5-Step Framework To Identify An Alternative Career (That You Actually Like!)? In this master class, you'll learn the proven framework that I use with all of my clients to help them identify an alternative career. You can watch the masterclass right now, just go to formerlawyer.com/masterclass, sign up, and get the link to watch. Once you've watched, message me or email me and let me know what your biggest takeaway was from the class. I would love to know.