In Episode 039 of The Former Lawyer Podcast, I’m sharing the second half of my conversation with Sarah Rutledge Fischer. (You can listen to part 1 here.)

Sarah is an artist and art teacher. She spent 3 1/2 years in biglaw before left and found her way to her current career as an artist. 

In the second half of our conversation, Sarah shares about:

• The shame she felt during her biglaw experience;
• Feeling like there was something fundamentally wrong with her as a person because she wasn’t finding the right fit in her firm;
• The disturbing parallels between biglaw and abusive interpersonal relationships;
• The weirdness of working with her firm’s in-house career counselor;
• The thrill of winning asylum for her pro bono client the day before she left the firm for good;
• How an unexpected opportunity for her husband convinced them to uproot and move from California to the gulf coast of Alabama, closer to family;
• Thinking that she would return to the practice of law eventually, and finally admitting to herself that she just didn’t want to;
• Deciding to pursue a writing career, and how her “shame-based achievement-seeking lawyer hat” worked against her;
• Why being put in charge of the weekly figure-drawing class she had begun attending was helpful in moving her towards her new career (perhaps not for the reason that you might think); 
• Her “cartoon hammer on the head” moment when she realized that her art could be her next career;
• Why she thinks “follow your curiosity” is much better advice than “follow your passion”;
• How she still has to actively work to combat the grind mentality of biglaw in her life now;
• Why she works to cultivate compassion for her former self;
• and much more!

Show Notes:

• Free First Steps guide—> formerlawyer.com/guide
• Former Lawyer Fundamentals—> formerlawyer.com/fundamentals
• Former Lawyer Collaborative—> formerlawyer.com/collab
• Connect with Sarah:
• • sarahrutledgefischer@gmail.com