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