Sarah Cottrell: Hi, and welcome to The Former Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Cottrell. I've 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.

So, as I'm sure you all have noticed, 2026 and 2025, for that matter and even before that, was a dumpster fire. And so, as a result, there are a lot of people who are struggling in lots of ways that they might not have been before, in all sorts of arenas, but their career is one of them. So, you know, I will talk with a lot of people who will tell me that they felt like they were managing fairly, like they knew the environment they were in, the work environment they were in was not great. They felt like they were managing pretty well. And now in the last, say, 12 to 24 months, all of a sudden it feels completely unsustainable and they don't understand why it's so different and etc, etc. And I just wanted to offer a couple observations, if you're someone who's in a similar position, if you have similar feelings.

Especially if you're someone who is based in the US like I am, the reality is that there are so many things going on that are so awful, that are so dysregulating and especially that are dysregulating specifically to lawyers, right? So for all of us who went to law school, there is kind of this fundamental idea of like the rule of law and things like that, that you sort of have to be on board, with if going to law school is the thing that you plan to do with your life, or practicing law is the thing that you plan to do with your life. And so I think for a lot of reasons, many, many people, especially those of us based in the US, have been reeling over the last couple of years. But in particular, I think lawyers have been hit especially hard, in part, because of the kind of work that we do and the things that we were trained to see as important.

And here's the thing, a lot of people will say, will tell me like, I just don't feel like I can do what I've been doing anymore. You know, it was never all that sustainable, but now it just feels completely impossible. And as with so many things, there's this sense that people often have of, like, well, is it just because I'm weak? Is it just because I can't hack it? And what I want to say to you is, like, being impacted by traumatic events doesn't make you weak. You know, and that's true whether we're talking about, like, abusive behavior within your workplace, or some of these broader issues that I was talking about before, like being impacted and having those things diminish your capacity, you're not going soft. It's not a question of whether you can hack it.

Fundamentally, it's the reality that you are human, right? And especially with some of the really terrible things that we're seeing in the US, like a person with empathy, which the vast majority of people who listen to this podcast are those people, a person with empathy is going to be impacted. There's this sense sometimes that I think we have as lawyers, that we shouldn't be affected by anything. And then when we are, instead of seeing that as just like, oh, I'm being human, I'm empathizing, we see it as like, oh, I must be weak. There must be something wrong with me. Really what's going on is it's just your nervous system recognizing that this is not sustainable, especially in a context where you are having to take in so many inputs that are like just highly distressing. And listen, you know, people will look at other lawyers around them and they'll say like, well, why is that person not struggling and I am? And what I'm going to say to you is like, there are some people who don't feel very much empathy. There are also some people who manage the ways that they're being impacted by horrible things going on in the world, in very personally, emotionally, mentally, interpersonally destructive ways.

So I think that we can create this illusion if we're someone who's highly empathetic and working in one of these environments and it's never really felt that sustainable, but we've been making it work and it just is feeling less and less and less sustainable. I think we can often create this narrative in our head that it's something uniquely wrong with us and it's just not. Being impacted by what's happening in the world doesn't make you weak. And the fact that you feel like you cannot continue operating in an unsustainable situation that is embedded in a larger unsustainable situation, is normal. It means you're normal. It means you are able to perceive the world accurately. And here, in 2026, hypervigilance is basically our baseline, right? Like both, if you're in an environment that is toxic, you most likely have developed hypervigilance, if you didn't already have a hypervigilant nervous system before you started that job.

And I think on a broader scale, the things that are happening create an environment that requires a certain level of hypervigilance. And so when your nervous system rises to meet the realities of your context, that necessarily means that, like, you will not have the same capacity, because your capacity is going to other things. And dealing with that, having your nervous system at that heightened state is going to affect you over time, because it is taxing on your nervous system and your nervous system is not a machine. So all of this is to say, if things are feeling unsustainable in a way that they weren't before and you are feeling like, what's happening? What's wrong? Why now? Am I doing something wrong? Am I doing something different? Does this mean I should think about doing something else?

I mean, okay, first of all, like, we know The Former Lawyer podcast was created, because I think everyone should think about doing something else, if they have an interest in doing something else other than practicing law. But also, I do think that it is a very good idea to listen to what your nervous system is telling you. And of course, I will always recommend that you work with a therapist, because a lot of this stuff can be very difficult to manage. But ultimately, I think the reality is that, you know, if you feel like something has changed, it may be that something has changed for you individually. It also may just be that you are human in this time, in this context, where our nervous systems are constantly being primed and we are hypervigilant for all sorts of threats. And that makes sense.

If that's you, if you've been thinking about, like, well, what does this mean? Does this mean I should be doing something else, thinking about doing something else? I certainly can't tell you what to do, but I do think that it is very worthwhile to listen to your body. Listen to your nervous system. Listen, like, accept the reality of, like, who you are and where you are and what your capacity is, because that is ultimately going to help you figure out what the best next step is for you, career-wise. Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you next week.

Thanks so much for listening. I absolutely love getting to share this podcast with you. If you haven't yet, I invite you to download my free guide, First Steps to Leaving the Law at formerlawyer.com/first. Until next time, have a great week.