How Lawyers Survive Being Fired; Like Riding in a Careening Car, One Says
It’s been well over 10 years since attorney Deb Volberg Pagnotta was fired from her job as acting general counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. But the experience—which she describes as “like being in a car that’s careening out of control”—still stings.
As a result, however, she can not only empathize with but offer advice from one who’s been there to lawyers who are being laid off as a result of the current economic crisis. At the last tally, some 7,300 attorneys nationwide had gotten the ax since June 2008, with more layoffs expected before the end of the year, writes the New York Law Journal, in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
To find another job right now is going to take guts—and, for many, a willingness to consider nontraditional options, Pagnotta tells the legal publication, in a lengthy interview.
Among the alternatives she recommends considering are returning to school to seek another graduate degree; solo practice; moving into an entirely new practice area; and looking for work outside the legal arena that does not involve practicing law.
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