Can lawyers really be happy? Research the world over is showing us that lawyers are unhappy in very large numbers. Here in Australia, current research suggests that one in three lawyers will experience depression at some stage during their careers. For anyone practising in law or considering it in their future, this statistic is both overwhelming and so very sad. Happy Lawyer, Happy Life is the book for people on the law path who want to live the happiest life they can, at the same time enjoying all that brought them to their law career in the first place. Written by Australian lawyer Clarissa Rayward, Happy Lawyer, Happy Life will give you the tools you need to make the best of your career in the law and, perhaps more importantly, find happiness in your life. Clarissa's own experience of managing unhappiness in her career is combined with the knowledge and wisdom of many other happy lawyers to create this practical guide - a must-read for anyone considering or navigating a career in the law.

You get good grades in college, pay a small fortune to put yourself through law school, study hard to pass the bar exam, and finally land a high-paying job in a prestigious firm. You're happy, right? Not really. Oh, it beats laying asphalt, but after all your hard work, you expected more from your job. What gives? The Happy Lawyer examines the causes of dissatisfaction among lawyers, and then charts possible paths to happier and more fulfilling careers in law. Eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach, it shows how maximizing our chances for achieving happiness depends on understanding our own personality types, values, strengths, and interests. Covering everything from brain chemistry and the science of happiness to the workings of the modern law firm, Nancy Levit and Doug Linder provide invaluable insights for both aspiring and working lawyers. For law students, they offer surprising suggestions for selecting a law school that maximizes your long-term happiness prospects. For those about to embark on a legal career, they tell you what happiness research says about which potential jobs hold the most promise. For working lawyers, they offer a handy toolbox--a set of easily understandable steps--that can boost career happiness. Finally, for firm managers, they offer a range of approaches for remaking a firm into a more satisfying workplace. Read this book and you will know whether you are more likely to be a happy lawyer at age 30 or age 60, why you can tell a lot about a firm from looking at its walls and windows, whether a 10 percent raise or a new office with a view does more for your happiness, and whether the happiness prospects are better in large or small firms. No book can guarantee a happier career, but for lawyers of all ages and stripes, The Happy Lawyer may give you your best shot.

How you can make use of your law degree—without making yourself miserable. When they enter the field, lawyers seem to have it made—with a high-salary, high-status profession that should set them up for life. Yet, even when they seem to have it all, they often start to feel like something’s off. Their careers have become horribly soul-sucking. They’re managing their lives, sort of—but they feel duped. Trapped. Their “good job” is affecting their health and relationships—and they’re just trying to keep all the plates spinning. Here’s the good news: Beverly Davidek has been there, and in this book she and husband Dirk show how you can find a job that allows for happiness, satisfaction, and peace of mind. If you’re still struggling to find a way to provide for your family without losing yourself, this book is for you. Part Ask and It Is Given and part What Color Is Your Parachute? (but written specifically for lawyers), Happy Lawyer gives you the tools you need to get unstuck in your career and start living your dream.

Are you in the throes of a divorce or separation and don't know where to turn? We often joke about the 'D' word (divorce) but if you are or have experienced the breakdown of a family relationship it is anything but a humorous experience. Although divorce is often unpleasant there can be a light at the end of the tunnel.Splitsville- How to separate, Stay out of Court and Stay friends will guide you and your family through the legal issues associated with your relationship breakdown and onto a path to a successful future.Written by Specialist Family Lawyer, Clarissa Rayward, Splitsville provides you and your spouse with the information you need to ensure that after your separation or divorce you can both move forward into a new stage of life without causing each other or your children unnecessary angst. The complex legal process is broken down into clear language to ensure you can gain the knowledge needed to negotiate sensible and sustainable agreements for your finances and your children.If you are considering or experiencing divorce or separation and want to minimise the financial and emotional costs to you and your family then this book is for you.

These past few years I have honed in on this question of what genuinely does it take to build a career in law that has at the heart of it, a happy life. Have I found the answer?I'm confident that having now spoken with 237, what I like to call, 'happy lawyers', I have found many examples of lawyers that just like me have had their ups and downs, but have found a way to build a career in this profession that they (mostly) love.Those stories have shown us that happiness really is different for all of us, but that there are common themes, a sense of belonging, purpose, and meaning, and a feeling of contentment, pleasure and joy. Over the past six years, I've had the opportunity to speak with some extraordinary people in our profession. Some are famous, some are hardly known, and all are going about their work with meaning, purpose, conviction, and are doing great things in the world.In finishing this show I thought it was time for another book. Not a book of my words, but instead, a book of their words. A book where you can find each and every one of the episodes of the Happy Lawyer Happy Life Podcast and refer back to it whenever you need. Through this book, you can find each episode and a QR code that will take you straight there. And with each episode are the happiness tips that were shared by each of our guests. Those little snippets at the end of each episode that summarised something that was working for them, either in that moment or across their careers. If nothing else, taking those 237 happiness tips and implementing them into your life is likely to make a pretty significant difference in how you feel!We can build careers in law that enable us to pursue a meaningful and happy life- just listen and I am confident you will find your happiness in law too.

Each year, over 40,000 new students enter America's law schools. Each new crop experiences startlingly high rates of depression, anxiety, fatigue, and dissatisfaction. Kathryne M. Young was one of those disgruntled law students. After finishing law school (and a PhD), she set out to learn more about the law school experience and how to improve it for future students. Young conducted one of the most ambitious studies of law students ever undertaken, charting the experiences of over 1000 law students from over 100 different law schools, along with hundreds of alumni, dropouts, law professors, and more. How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School is smart, compelling, and highly readable. Combining her own observations and experiences with the results of her study and the latest sociological research on law schools, Young offers a very different take from previous books about law school survival. Instead of assuming her readers should all aspire to law-review-and-big-firm notions of success, Young teaches students how to approach law school on their own terms: how to tune out the drumbeat of oppressive expectations and conventional wisdom to create a new breed of law school experience altogether. Young provides readers with practical tools for finding focus, happiness, and a sense of purpose while facing the seemingly endless onslaught of problems law school presents daily. This book is an indispensable companion for today's law students, prospective law students, and anyone who cares about making law students' lives better. Bursting with warmth, realism, and a touch of firebrand wit, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School equips law students with much-needed wisdom for thriving during those three crucial years.

You get good grades in college, pay a small fortune to put yourself through law school, study hard to pass the bar exam, and finally land a high-paying job in a prestigious firm. You're happy, right? Not really. Oh, it beats laying asphalt, but after all your hard work, you expected more from your job. What gives? The Happy Lawyer examines the causes of dissatisfaction among lawyers, and then charts possible paths to happier and more fulfilling careers in law. Eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach, it shows how maximizing our chances for achieving happiness depends on understanding our own personality types, values, strengths, and interests. Covering everything from brain chemistry and the science of happiness to the workings of the modern law firm, Nancy Levit and Doug Linder provide invaluable insights for both aspiring and working lawyers. For law students, they offer surprising suggestions for selecting a law school that maximizes your long-term happiness prospects. For those about to embark on a legal career, they tell you what happiness research says about which potential jobs hold the most promise. For working lawyers, they offer a handy toolbox--a set of easily understandable steps--that can boost career happiness. Finally, for firm managers, they offer a range of approaches for remaking a firm into a more satisfying workplace. Read this book and you will know whether you are more likely to be a happy lawyer at age 30 or age 60, why you can tell a lot about a firm from looking at its walls and windows, whether a 10 percent raise or a new office with a view does more for your happiness, and whether the happiness prospects are better in large or small firms. No book can guarantee a happier career, but for lawyers of all ages and stripes, The Happy Lawyer may give you your best shot.