Praise for
Life After Law
and Liz Brown
This wonderful book is the answer to the Thank-God-its-Friday syndrome that affects so many lawyers who dread Monday. Liz Brown shows that you can find work you love. You just have to know where to look. You can do good and do well. You just have to be creative about your job. Read Life After Law . It will change your life and the law.
Alan M. Dershowitz, author of Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law
How do I get out of the law? is a question that lawyers constantly ask me. Liz Browns Life After Law answers that vital question. She gives practical information and timely adviceplus, real-life examples of lawyers whove made it to the other side. A worthwhile read for any lawyer whos thinking of making a career change.
Vivia Chen, senior reporter at The American Lawyer and the creator of The Careerist blog
Im a big believer in the power of serendipity, and Life After Law is an excellent guide for lawyers who are thinking about making a career change. The lawyers Liz Brown profiles are terrific examples of people who have taken their skills and education and applied them in new ways. Law and medicine are probably two of the most difficult professions to leave, and yet the skills and knowledge both require are broadly adaptable in other kinds of work. Life After Law is a must-read book for lawyers who dream of different careers.
Jim Koch, brewer and founder of Boston Beer Company
If youve ever wondered what else you could do with a law degree, you will love Life After Law . Drawing from her own experience and the stories of thirty other inspiring ex-lawyers, Liz Brown has created an amazing toolkit for leaving the law and succeeding in a different career that capitalizes on your talents and fits your values. Its a fantastic read, and a resource youll come back to over and over again.
Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead and author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power
Life After Law is not just a great book for lawyers, former lawyers, and law students considering non-traditional paths, but also a great reminder for all of us to follow our North Star and carve our own patha creative and meaningful one. This is not merely a think outside of the box book, it is a leap outside of the box dare.
Peter H. Reynolds, author of The Dot, Ish , and The North Star and founder of FableVision Studios
Unhappy lawyers, this book is for you! Liz Browns Life After Law is the definitive guide to alternate careers for lawyers, blending superb advice, strategy, and success stories in an authentic voice that could only come from someone who has been there herself.
Carol Fishman Cohen, co-founder of iRelaunch and co-author of Back on the Career Track
Life After Law is an essential resource for any lawyer who questions staying in traditional practice. By telling the stories of actual ex-lawyers transitions, and focusing on what made them successful, it provides an inspiring, realistic set of new career options and shows how versatile legal skills can be. No matter what you love to do, in or out of law practice, this book will show you a better way forward.
Deborah Epstein Henry, Esq., founder & president, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC; author of Law and Reorder: Legal Industry Solutions for Restructure, Retention, Promotion & Work/Life Balance
This book is a powerful antidote for the tunnel vision often fostered by our legal culture and education. It thoughtfully reminds lawyers that they have acquired a wide range of knowledge and skills which they can use to improve both the world and their own lives.
Michael Astrue, former Commissioner of Social Security
If you are a lawyer hoping that there is life beyond the law but fearing the impossibility of your yearning, this book is a must-read. Although there are many helpful books that instruct you to analyze your transferable skills and interests, here Liz Brown has filled a gaping hole in print resources: the stories of 30 lawyers who have successfully transferred their own skills into satisfying career paths outside the law. Bravo to Liz for providing such a compassionate and hopeful window into the possible future for so many unhappy lawyers who otherwise might fear to dream!
Ellen Ostrow, Ph.D. PCC, Lawyers Life Coach LLC
This is the how to book that women lawyersheck, most lawyershave been waiting for. Brown understands the bonds that tie so many attorneys to the profession that they and their families too often come to despise. She starts but doesnt stop with complaints that will be familiar to every J.D. in the land. Quickly covering the fools gold of property, power, and prestige that has kept so many of us in platinum hand-cuffs, she lays out a step-by-step course of action that can take any lawyer from the courthouse or corporate conference room to a satisfying, productive and lucrative occupation. It takes courage, of course, but with Liz Brown by your side saying you can do it! you really can.
Victoria Pynchon, J.D., LL.M, co-founder, She Negotiates Consulting and Training
Prepare to be uplifted! Liz Browns Life After Law proves that lawyers can use their training to find non-traditional careers that leave them happy and fulfilled. With a refreshing candor and conversational style, this great book shows how smart lawyers are finding work they love outside of the corner office.
Hollee Schwartz Temple, author of Good Enough Is the New Perfect: Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood
First published by Bibliomotion, Inc.
33 Manchester Road
Brookline, MA 02446
Tel: 617-934-2427
www.bibliomotion.com
Copyright 2013 by Liz Brown
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Liz.
Life after law : finding work you love with the J.D. you have / Liz Brown.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-937134-64-8 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-937134-65-5 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-937134-66-2 (en)
1. LawVocational guidanceUnited States. I. Title.
KF297.B725 2013
340.023dc23
2013020750
To the memory of Edward Eric Brown, whose beautiful, too brief life taught me never to take time for granted.
FOREWORD
by Gloria Larson, J.D.,
president at Bentley University
1968 was a turning point for my generation. The assassinations of Dr. King and RFK threw a country already in turmoil over the Vietnam War into full-blown rebellion. More than 115 cities erupted in violence. Riots rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Black Power raised its proud fist at the Mexico City Olympics. And President Johnson spoke of a nation challenged at home and abroad.
With that as a backdrop, I packed my bags and drove north from Virginia for my freshman year at Vassar College. I left early to participate in a retreat sponsored by Vassar and Yale. Led by our schools chaplains, the group read books about race relations Malcolm X, Black Like Me, The Wretched of the Earth , to name a fewand discussed their relationship to what was happening around us.
Like Paul on the road to Damascus, scales fell from my eyes. I was a socially committed student, perhaps a bit nave, but these discussions in that environment cemented my desire to pursue justice by solving important public problems. I knew law school was in my future.
That sense of purpose and meaning has yet to fade, though nearly four decades have passed since I began my career setting up legal services for Virginias elderly. I still wake up eager to solve problems like my childhood hero Nancy Drew, and I still seek to serve the greater good with integrity like my other idol, Atticus Finch. But I no longer wake up as a practicing attorney in a law firm. I am a university president. And its the toughest, most rewarding job of my career.