Do you hate working as a lawyer? Are you an unhappy lawyer who wants to leave the law, but isn’t sure what to do next? Do your family and friends think you’re crazy for wanting to leave the law, or are you too afraid to tell them you don’t want to be a lawyer? The Former Lawyer Podcast is for you! Each week, host Sarah Cottrell interviews a different former lawyer who has left the law behind. Hear inspiring stories about how these former lawyers are thriving and found their way to careers and lives they love.
Being good at your job and being in the right job are not the same thing. For lawyers who are high achievers, that distinction can be almost impossible to see when every external signal, strong reviews, steady advancement, a reputation for getting things done, is telling you that you must be in the right place. That disconnect often has roots…
Lawyers are, as a group, highly responsible, hard on themselves, and convinced they should be able to handle more than anyone else around them. That combination does not just make for a stressful career. It makes it genuinely difficult to acknowledge that something is wrong, let alone do anything about it. That is where perfectionism becomes a trap. When you…
For lawyers who know they are unhappy but are not ready to make any real moves yet, the waiting period can feel like dead time. There are things you can be doing right now, though, that will set you up for success when you are ready to go through the process of figuring out what comes next. One of those…
A lot of people end up going to law school without ever really asking themselves whether it’s what they want to do. Sarah Cottrell hears from people who send episodes of the podcast to friends who are thinking about law school. More than once, listening to the podcast has convinced someone that they don’t actually want to be a lawyer,…
The start of 2026 has been genuinely hard. Sarah’s father-in-law passed away at the end of last year, which meant travel, grief, and being present for her husband’s family. Then came a brutal bout of flu B in January, the kind that knocked a lot of people flat this winter. Then her kids got sick. Then more family travel. Then…
Lawyers love a good assessment. Sarah has learned this running The Collab. There’s something appealing about taking a test that promises clear answers about who you are and what you should do next. That appeal is also the problem. When you rely on just one assessment, it’s easy to treat the results as the definitive answer. You think, “This is…
