<p>and do the "rewards" of the profession outweigh the stress?</p>
<p>Yes, being a lawyer is stressful. In my opinion, working as a lawyer when I was single and when I was first married was worth the stress, as I was helping others, I was well-compensated, my job was intellectually challenging, and the particular area of law in which I practiced fit my personality well. Being well-compensated helps remove some of the stress inherent in any job (for example, I’d rather practice law than clean my house any day.)</p>
<p>Once I gave birth, however, and my first child had some initial health challenges, now gone, I could not imagine returning to work. It surely must be easier to combine motherhood with working as an attorney now than it was 17 years ago, but if you are female and wish to have children, you should investigate this aspect further.</p>
<p>being a lawyer can be enormously stressful. </p>
<p>a lawyer is responsible for diligently representing his/her clients’ interests – a lawyer is therefore by definition accountable to someone else’s interests. and in representing those interests, a lawyer often has to deal with other lawyers who are diligently representing their clients’ often conflicting or at least varying interests. there are clearly defined rules for how these interactions occur that must be followed or the client stands to lose a lot. there are time demands that are often outside of the control of the individual lawyer. there are also enormous economic pressures on a lawyer to make the law firm a successful business.</p>
<p>from my experience, those who find it a rewarding profession are those who thrive on such stress/pressure – who are exhilerated by the challenge of doing the best for their clients no matter the time and energy called for to do so.</p>
<p>yes, being a lawyer is stressful</p>
<p>I’d be hard-pressed to name a job that pays well that isn’t stressful. Many jobs that do not pay well are also stressful. But I’ve never had any job that was as stressful as not having a job.</p>
<p>When I have anxiety dreams, the setting is inevitably college or law school.</p>
<p>I just had my first anxious dream involving a client’s upcoming trial, so yes I’d say being a lawyer can be stressful. However, the things I find stressful about my job are different from what other lawyers might find stressful, since my job is very different (I do direct service at a nonprofit legal clinic). For me, the stresses and downsides of my job are definitely outweighed by the rewards. But if I had a different kind of legal job, I don’t know that I’d feel that way.</p>