Thinking of a Career Move? Make Sure You Have No Regrets Afterwards!

Alas, the new CBS legal “reality” show entitled “Brooklyn DA”  has already been cancelled - sigh (controversy, low ratings). The show usually had  three segments in “Sixty Minutes” fashion that dissected real cases as they were evaluated and tried by actual “line” Assistants with input from Bureau Chiefs and even the Kings County District Attorney himself, Charles J. Hynes. The viewer got to “sit in” as the Assistants plot strategy, prepare witnesses, comfort grieving family members, talk with investigating detectives, and go over plea discussions with defense counsel.

In watching the show, I have had bursts of emotion and nostalgia because The Kings County District Attorney’s Office is where I got my start and “cut my teeth” as a young Assistant and trial lawyer. I note with amazement that there are brand new courtrooms in “Brooklyn Supreme.” Years ago, I had to walk through urine invested hallways (“perps” do the  damnest things when they are angry and headed for sentencing!) in an courthouse that must have been over seventy five years old to get from court room to courtroom. The entire District Attorney’s Office is now lodged in a spanking new building. It looks so inviting that it makes an old alumnus want to go back. . Well, at least think about it.

Back when I stared as a young Assistant District Attorney, we had no office at all – not even a desk to call home! . .We had 18 x 18 “cubbies” where we were asked to put everything: files, legal books, and all our personal items. At least I didn’t have to worry about an IPhone back then. What’s that?)  

In the fall of my first year, I worked as a Misdemeanor Line Assistant doing Arraignments, and working midnights in the Complaint Room reviewing charging documents that the NYPD brought in subsequent to an arrest. When I finally passed the bar (if you have the time, you may want to read my nutty how-I-learned-I-past-the-bar story: http://lawschoolsuccessandcareers.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-crazy-and-unexpected-bar-results-story.html,) I was able to try cases and moved up to the Felony Division and then to the Sex Crimes Division.  From there, I left the office to pursue what I thought would be a more “lucrative” career in private civil practice.

Now, as I look back at my career in the King’s County District Attorney’s Office through the lenses of this new TV series, I begin to realize just how much I loved this first job out of law school.  I was thrilled to prepare cases and stand up and say “Philip Guzman for the People of State of New York, Your Honor.”

I left the DA’s office to move over to a Wall Street Insurance Defense firm that specialized in Products Liability stuff. “Interesting stuff,” I said to myself. Besides, I had convinced myself that “it was time” and that it was “the right thing to do” at this time in my career . . . “don’t be branded as just a “criminal lawyer” etc: That’s what everyone was telling me, anyway.

As I look back however, I believe that I perhaps made the wrong decision. I now feel that I shouldn’t have left as early as I did (just three and a half years into the job). I was enjoying my work, growing as a trial lawyer and found a great deal of satisfaction in what I was doing. There was always time to move on into civil practice. Maybe my career would have taken a completely new – and more satisfying – path if I had stayed. I could have become a Bureau Chief and supervised new attorneys (something that I have always found satisfaction doing). Maybe I would have had the time (I certainly would have had the expertise at that time) to write a legal thriller based on fast-paced criminal stories! John Grisham before John Grisham!

What’s the point in rambling on a little bit? ,. . .

. . . I would advice all law students and young lawyers considering career moves not to let Social Media, legal bloggers and other “gurus” on the Internet (yes, even in your Career Services Offices) to ultimately affect your career decision. Don’t move out of a position simply because someone is telling you that “it’s time (similarly, I advice students to not be swayed by negative media on going to law school if that’s what they really want to do).  Always check your “gut” first. What’s your heart telling you? Nine out of ten times, you’ll come to the right decision if you do! As they say in baseball (here I go again): . . “Sometimes the best trades are the ones that are contemplated, but not made!”

That’s not to say that one doesn’t search for and evaluate the good advice that’s out there coming from competent career counselors before making informed career moves. But once you have made a conscientious examination of your career goals and the things that make your bells and whistles go off when you wake up in the morning --- if  all signs point to staying put when people are telling you to move on – hang in there!

“Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.”

Doris Mortman,  author