Oh, Boom Is Real, M&A Roaring Back and More: But Undercurrent of Dread

It's palpable: Little confidence in the current let the good times roll. But mostly that's not been made explicit. Not even on the noisy professional anonymous networks such as Reddit Big Law and Fishbowl Big Law. There's the usual stick-to-the-knitting issues like how to shake loose more hours from partners and if after leaving Big Law is there a path back in.

Then today Lawfuel says what associates, partners and recruiters have been quietly feeling. 

"The market feels like a party where the music is still playing but the host is quietly counting coats. Firms are hiring, yes, but with one eye on rate resistance, one eye on AI, and a third imaginary eye on the next economic wobble ... Clients are smarter, meaner, and armed with dashboards. Bills are interrogated. Teams are trimmed. 'Efficiency' now means 'explain your existence.'”

And so here we are poised for the blip, as the saying goes, when life can change in a minute. Incidentally, that's a chapter in American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron's book "Welcoming the Unwelcome."  She published that in 2019. But even in that more tame time the ground was changing beneath many professionals, even if it was the hit from ageism. 

Both Paul, Weiss and Sullivan and Cromwell sketched out some of the how life in the legal sector will change. But probably not in a minute. Those scenarios cover everything from the significant drop-off in demand for junior lawyers to myriad practices becoming commodities. The pacing, initially, could resemble the old business story of the frog in a pot of slowly heating water. They don't feel the danger, so they don't exit the death chamber until it's too late.

The common sense business mindset is, sure, cash in on the good times. Sock that money into paying off debt, including the mortgage, and ramping up investing. But the wisdom piece is not what you want to hear. Chodron puts it this way:

"Nothing in our conceptional framework can prepare us for the experience of 'life as you know it ends.'"

No matter who you are in the loop you are bound to lose your bearings. As an intuitive coach/tarot reader I witness the inability to get it that you are rooted up from all you know and tossed into the abyss. There is no ground under you. 

Now for the good news. However, once that's accepted, then the needle can start moving toward the next. The precedent for that were the lawyers, both associates and partners, terminated in 2008. Those who owned their groundlessness managed to put together again ways to make a good living, in the legal sector and outside all that.

Another useful read, also based in the Buddhist tradition, is "Radical Acceptance" by Tara Brach. Four years ago that was my playbook when content-creation no longer could be how to make a very good living.

Success is a mental game. Failure comes from being done in by the “committee” in your head.

Together, we reprogram your thinking. Then we change your story. And, unleash success.

Intuitive Coaching. Special expertise with transitions, becoming a solopreneur and aging. Psychic/tarot readings, upon request. Complimentary consultation with Jane Genova (Text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com). Yes, test out the chemistry. Zero risk.

Don’t give up before the miracle.