If you're thinking about leaving the law, there's a good chance you've asked yourself some version of this question. Am I justified in doing this? You already know the environment isn't good for you. You already know something needs to change. But there's a sense that you need some kind of external sign-off before you can actually go, and until that shows up, you keep waiting.

The waiting itself is part of what's keeping you there. The need to feel justified is almost always external, and it's often the same pattern that got you into law in the first place. Looking outside yourself for confirmation that you're on the right path, instead of trusting what you already know about your own experience.

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks about why so many lawyers ask whether they're justified in leaving, where that question actually comes from, and what it costs you to keep waiting for someone else to validate what you already feel. Sarah also covers why this is a skill worth building before you figure out what's next and where therapy fits into the work of untangling it.

0:29 - The question that comes up most often when lawyers think about leaving the law

1:02 - Why there is always someone who has it worse and why that keeps lawyers stuck

1:55 - Why the struggle to feel justified in leaving is fundamentally external

2:35 - "Am I justified in leaving" is really a question about who gets to say

3:55 - Why so many lawyers cannot trust their own experience

4:38 - What you actually need to access to find something better

5:57 - Why this needs to be your choice and not something you wait for permission to do

6:32 - The skill you are going to be developing as you move out of the law

7:56 - What it tells Sarah when she hears lawyers asking if they are justified in leaving

Mentioned In Trying to Justify Leaving Law Is What’s Keeping You There

First Steps to Leaving the Law

The Former Lawyer Collaborative