Working at a corporate law firm can be insane and soul-crushing and depressing.
Why would anyone do it?
Well, some people like it. And then there are those who want to get rich. And then there are the people who just desperately want to pay off record-high student loan debt.
Case in point: one Ivy League law graduate who is suffering through a corporate job he hates.
"The main reason we take these horrible but high-paying jobs is because we have so much debt," the young lawyer tells us.
(And no, this is not the same disgruntled lawyer we profiled in November.)
In two years at a big New York firm, our source has managed to pay back $95,000 in student loan debt. He still has $70,000 to go, which he considers a "manageable debt load."
He really hates his job.
"I'm pretty sure they're about to find me out. I mean I'm not really a lawyer: I'm a moron. If you task me with anything that is remotely important, because I couldn't care less about it, I'm not going to be able to do it and everyone will get mad at me — so before I get found out I have to leave," he says. "Right now I have a good reputation there, but it's going to turn sour in another month or two."
His feelings about work range from boredom to cynicism.
"[Working on a bond sale] is just horrible too because it's boring. If it was like structuring a deal and I had to think about it for 15 minutes then I'd be like: 'I got you. Buy this thing, turn this into the holding company. Those two things hold shares of this one. Done. I'll see guys later.' And they'd be like, 'Oh he's so brave that lawyer. Look at him go. What a hero. He saved us. Wait a second—he cost us a bunch of money! Fooled again!'"
If he could do it all again, he wouldn't.
"Going to law school was the biggest mistake of my life," he says. "Yes, absolutely the worst decision I've ever made. It's not a complete mistake, I just wish I'd gone about it differently. I probably would have gone to a lower ranked school with a bigger scholarship. I would have also gone to business school maybe. It's one year shorter."
At least he's better off than the tens of thousands of lawyers who can't find jobs.
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