idealawg

Jackson went from lawyer to billionaire as wine industry patriarch

From "Wine industry patriarch still in full stride - Under Jess Jackson, Kendall-Jackson has grown from a small vineyard to one making 3.8 million cases yearly" (Los Angeles Times):

When Jess Jackson coaxed his family into helping crush a load of grapes some 25 harvests ago, he had no clue he was about to create one of the nation's largest wine empires.

"I was attracted by the lifestyle. I wanted to get away from law and become a farmer," said Jackson, a former property rights attorney from San Francisco.

Most of you have likely heard of his winery Kendall-Jackson? (His first wife was Jane Kendall.) He has done well since leaving the practice of law.

By volume, the company is now California's eighth-largest wine producer, according to Jon Fredrikson, a Woodside, Calif., wine industry analyst. But more important, it is one of the most profitable, he said.

Kendall-Jackson's Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay is now the bestselling wine in U.S. food stores based on dollar volume ... .

Jackson has held many jobs in addition to lawyer. From "Chardonnay Crusader" (Food & Wine):

Before practicing law, he worked as a lumberjack, an ambulance driver, a policeman, a longshoreman, a teamster, a carpenter's apprentice and even a candymaker. "I made peanut brittle and those little mints with the green things in 'em," he says, laughing.

What motivates him?

"We are not looking for quarterly profits," Jackson said. "We want something to hand down to the next generation."

From practicing law, she turned to writing about cheese and sees a piece of cheese as "a whole universe"

Writer of the blog and book Pacific Northwest Cheese Project is a lawyer. In the past, I have not been drawn to reading about cheese but this article "A foodwriter who gets it right" (Christian Science Monitor) has changed my mind. Anyone as passionate about cheese as Tami Parr deserves a look.

I wanted to learn more about Parr but her About page will not load this morning. Can you read it?

From an interview (Voracious) of her:

How did you get started writing the blog?

I was working as an attorney, disliked my job, and blogs were just starting to happen in a serious way. And I was reading the Julie/Julia Project [when it first appeared on Salon]. I 'm like, if I don't have a creative outlet of some kind I'm going to kill myself. [Laughs.]

If you read back, the blog is dorky at first. It was fairly random, but the little spark was that no one was writing about local cheese. I decided that the blog was going to be stupid unless I got more journalistic about it. I started doing interviews with cheesemakers, and, voila! I became an authority on NW cheese. I was starting just as there was an explosion of cheesemakers here.

That's a good story, don't you think?

September issue of ABA Journal online: Lead article is about midcareer malaise

Excerpt from "Midcareer Malaise: How to find a new path for your 40s":

Seventeen years into his career as a plaintiffs lawyer, Jeb Wait grew weary. He was tired of battling with the opposition, of court deadlines and of dealing with dishonest professionals.

For Wait it was something akin to a midlife crisis, and he decided to redirect his career into consulting for mass tort pharmaceutical litigation. The Houston lawyer, who also has a medical degree, says he is much happier after the shift.

“Midcareer,” he explains, “is when you wonder if what you’ve been doing was really what you wanted to do, while also wonder ing if you have enough time left to do something else that you really want to do.”

Call them the Jan Bradys of the legal profession—those lawyers in the middle. Typically, they’re 10 to 15 years out of law school and, if they’re practicing at law firms, are senior associates or junior partners.

A lingering identity crisis can present itself when these attorneys hit the proverbial fork in the road. This is the point at which they are either going to make partner or make a change, the point at which they have a command of their subject matter but need to bring in more cli ents, the point at which—like Wait—they’ve become bored or weary and need to shake things up.

These midcareer crises are occurring earlier because the practice of law, particularly at large law firms, has changed. ...

Read the rest of this edition's articles here.

Thinking of leaving the law? Pave the path by writing a story about your exit

That's exactly what lawyer Terry Brooks did to make his career switch easier. In his book Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life, Brooks talks about his hesitancy to leave. He had been practicing law for a decade and one-half, and had three books published so far in his writing career.

I was an attorney in a small law firm and had been so for almost the same amount of timeI had been writing Shannara books. I had become an attorney so that I would not starve to death trying to become a writer. But it had grown increasingly difficult to allocate my time between the two professions. ...

I was still unsure about giving up my law practice. I know. I know. Was I waiting for a voice from a burning bush or something? But you have to remember how structured my life was back then. I was terrified of taking a wrong step. Practicing law provided a certain balance to my life that I was afraid I would miss badly if I gave it up. ...

So what did he do? He wrote another book, about a character with whom he shared much in common.

The man was a lawyer, and he was fed up with his life and wanted to change it. He wanted to change it at any cost. He was that desperate.

That man was me.

In the story, the lawyer buys a magic kingdom (did I mention that Brooks is a fantasy writer?). He also grapples with some dilemmas.

[E]ven though I cloaked this book in trappings of humor and populated it with peculiar and sometimes comical characters, the questions I asked were serious. What happens when you change your life completely? What are the consequences of abandoning everything you know? What is the impact on you and those around you when things do not work out as you expect?

And did Brooks quit the practice of law? When he was on a book tour for Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!, he realized the book was a "blueprint for [his] life." He returned home and quit.

I moved to Seattle. I began my new life. It wasn't always easy; there were many complications. But overall, it felt right. In time, I discovered it was right.

In time-honored fashion, life had imitated art. To my surprise, my book did not lead me into the wilderness after all.

Instead, it led me home.

Any of you feeling the need to read that book? Or buy a magic kingdom?

Andrea Bocelli: His life after law is to sing

As an adult, Bocelli was supported in his singing career by Luciano Pavarotti. As a child, Bocelli sang and sang and sang. But in between, there was the practice of law. From "Music and light" (The Australian):

"I got an opera record [when a youngster] as a present and I started learning it and then sang along for hours on end. There was a step by the fireplace in my father's kitchen that was my first stage."

Nevertheless, he was persuaded by his family to study law at the University of Pisa. "I studied with passion; many of my relatives were lawyers, so I went to university and studied diligently. It's an interesting job, but when you have a vocation for something, you end up following that." He lasted in the legal profession less than a year after graduation.

After the law, he went on to a career as a singer, traveling the world and enjoying much success. Listen to Bocelli:

• "Time to Say Goodbye" with Sarah Brightman
• "The Prayer" with Celine Dion
• Singing Elmo to sleep
• "Besame Mucho"
• "Can't Help Falling in Love"
• Medley with Pavarotti
• "Because We Believe" with Carola

Yes, "when you have a vocation for something," you should follow it. Are you following yours?

Mark Susnow: Read his life-after-law story— and his ethical will

Mark Susnow was a trial lawyer for 30 years and then switched direction and purpose. Here is his story. Today on his blog he posted an ethical will, a writing practice we have mentioned here at idealawg in the past.

Excerpt from Susnow's story:

Every once in a while you have to take a leap of faith. That leap of faith for me ultimately changed my life. It was 1999. Would I really do it? For the previous six years I had carefully planned for this next period of my life. I had been a trial lawyer for 30 years. I had reached the point in my life when I just didn't want to do it any more. My soul cried out. But what was I going to do instead? How was I going to support my family? My children were 13, 11, and 8. Although I put some money aside for their education and for our future I wondered if it would be enough.

Read the rest of his story.

And an excerpt from his ethical will:

I’m doing something a little different in this blog. What do you want people to know about life, long after you are gone? It might be your son or daughter or a friend that you really care about. My message is in the form of a letter.

DEAR LOVED ONES:

I KNOW THAT SOMEWHERE YOU CAN HEAR ME. I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU.

I HAVE A LOT TO TELL YOU. BUT I WANT TO LEAVE YOU WITH ONE THOUGHT THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER FORGET.

Read the rest of his ethical will.

As a supporter of ethical wills, I am happy to see one written by one of the people living a life-after-law story. I hope to post some ethical wills by those still practicing law, as well as by those lawyers no longer practicing. Please send them along and I will feature them. Thanks.

Another story of life after law: Moira Donohue writes children's books about punctuation

After attending Santa Clara University School of Law, Moira Donohue practiced law—and then became a published author of stories about punctuation marks! Her debut was Alfie the Apostrophe. Moira's second book was Penny and the Punctuation Bee.

She has also published two children's plays, including The Three Bears versus Goldi Locks. Seems you can't take the lawyer out of the children's writer. The Three Bears plot:

Judge Rip Van Winkle presides over the trial about Goldi Locks' trespassing into the home of the three bears. The sleepy judge has trouble staying awake as the attorneys try to present their arguments. The jurors include Grandma, Mother Gooses, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel. The Big Bad Wolf rudely interrupts the proceedings and is ejected from the courtroom. When Goldi gets to tell her version of the events, the sleepy judge dismisses the case.

When I knew Moira, I never spotted the inner punctuation geek. But she was very playful and loved spaghetti for breakfast. All in all, I was not surprised by this life-after-law story. Good for you, my old roommate!

Moira's blog.

From Colorado lawyer to gratitude specialist

A while back, I mentioned my friend Tama Kieves here at idealawg. Last summer, JDBliss blogged about Tama's career progression from Harvard Law to Colorado lawyer to life coach. Now it looks as if she has become an expert in gratitude. Just love following that woman's story!

That lawyer happiness thing again: Now being discussed at WSJ Law Blog

The comments to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog post What Holds Unhappy Lawyers Back From Leaving? are almost as interesting as the post itself. The post features Monica Parker of Leaving the Law who has a book coming out next month entitled The Unhappy Lawyer: A Roadmap to Finding Meaningful Work Outside of the Law. From the post:

Unhappiness in the law has, unfortunately, become a distinct sub-genre of LB coverage. To such an extent, in fact, that the storyline of lawyer wretchedness has become somewhat of a cliché: Wayward liberal-arts student, law school, indebtedness, dashed career hopes, inertia, misery.

But what happens next? Is there a way out? Monica Parker ... thinks unhappy lawyers can be coached out of law, and back to happiness. After stints as a producer at Spike Lee’s film company and a manager at a Winn-Dixie grocery store, Parker, a Harvard grad, returned to Cambridge for law school. “‘I should have a larger income, I should have something with more prestige and status,’” she thought to herself.

“Being the true law school type, I decided on law school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she told the Law Blog in a recent interview. “You hear it opens doors.”

Click for the rest. From another post (also featuring Parker) entitled Escaping the legal profession is becoming its own business (National Association of Freelance Legal Professionals blog):

How do you know that dissatisfaction with the legal profession has reached an all-time high? When helping lawyers leave the profession becomes its own cottage industry.

A cottage industry! Let me know of other people doing this kind of work and I will post them here.

Here's a directory of legal career consultants (in which I am listed). Also:

• Stephanie Kane*
• Hindi Greenberg
• Leslie Hilton*
• Anne Angerman*

Yes, when I actually think about it, law-leaving consultants do make up an industry. Who else should be on this list?

• Ellen Ostrow wrote me to be included on this list (her Web site says she works with women lawyers)

*Certified to use The Highlands Ability Battery

New blog looks at life after law

JDSnub Blog is written by Taisha Rucker, "a writer trapped inside a lawyer's life." Rucker writes:

I want to say that this blog is not about bashing the legal field. It is not about changing the way lawyers do business. It is about sharing the experiences and stories of lawyers who have successfully transitioned into other careers. I am reaching out to former lawyers who have inspired me and want to hear from others who want to share their stories as well.

If you or anyone you know is a lawyer turned _______ (you fill in the blank) who would like to share their wisdom, please send them my way. The Survey "Lawyers in Transition" is located on the right. In addition, I'll share my wisdom, learned the hard way of course, as I go through the process of becoming a writer/entrepreneur.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Taisha.

Hat tip to Marci Alboher. Read her article "Why Lawyers Leave" (New York Times).