u/zehtiras

I'm a third year associate attorney at a small law firm in a mid-sized city doing hyper-specialized real estate development and financing work. I don't dislike it at all. The pay is fine, it has extremely reasonable billable expectations, and the people are supportive. The issue is that I absolutely despise billing for other people and having little control over my work. I am realizing how much I crave agency and control over my practice. I feel immensely unmmotivated and dissatisfied despite the seemingly good situation I am in (and to be clear, in many ways it is good!). This is my second firm - I was at my previous firm in a related practice area for two years, was laid off, and started here only a month later.

In my free time, I volunteer as an organizer for a group I am helping to get off the ground for an issue I care passionately about. Simultaneously, I am attempting to invest in my own real estate. When I'm building my own thing (whether it is the activism group or a side-business in real estate investment), my motiviation and enthusiasm is through the roof. This is what I believe is missing.

Thus, I'm seriously contemplating transitioning into a solo estate planning practice. I'd stick with real estate, but lawyers aren't required for real estate transactions in my state and quite frankly, I don't feel skilled enough to market myself within the niche I'm currently practicing in. Estate planning is appealing in part because I would be working with real people (as opposed to quasi-government entities as I currently do). I could charge flat fees, I could design my own business entirely, and I envision it feeling much more like plying my trade than grinding in a cubicle. Additionally, I could choose the amount of clients I work for - if I wanted to have less than a full caseload, that would be entirely my choice. I could actually take a vacation.

The plan would be to slowly begin to build skills in estate planning (or whatever it ends up being) and begin to create a business plan over the next year while leveraging my network for mentors. I know it won't happen overnight. That said, am I being unrealistic or naive? I haven't been an attorney for that long, and in many ways I still feel like a first year. Would it be better to just stick around at my firm for a while longer?

As the title says, I (28 m) am interested in making a move to the EU. Though I am U.S. born and raised, I have German citizenship. Uncertainty about the future here, rising cost of living, and an extremely demanding work culture have made me curious about finding a way to practice in the EU. My German is around B2, but I am open to moving most places in the EU and am a fairly quick language learner (though I certainly wouldn't be professionally proficient in any relevant time frame). What would you recommend I do to craft a career path practicing law in the EU?

Here are my thoughts: Getting an LLM at an accredited EU institution seems like a reasonable way of getting my foot in the door. Though I imagine I will largely be bound to working for international U.S. firms, this could also be a time to study for necessary exams (say, the Irish QLTT exam, which would then admit me to practice in other EU jurisdictions).

I have some specialized experience in the issuance of bonds and other types of municipal financing. It wouldn't be much of a jump to get an LLM in international tax law or a related field. I have a strong research background in natural resources (water) law, though my impression is that is extremely specific to the U.S. (and even more so to my jurisdiction).

I decided to go to law school in the first place after living in Jerusalem for a year and being motivated to use my skills for human rights purposes (read: Palestine). I have strayed far from that original goal, and I'm feeling it. Is there a world in which human rights law is a viable career path at all?