Lawyer Who Dropped Out of BigLaw for Knitting Shop Returns and Makes Partner
Lawyer Jaclyn Cohen still turns to knitting to cope with stress, but after leaving a large law firm to run a yarn shop in suburban New York, she decided she prefers lawyering.
Cohen left Dewey Ballantine in 2005, even though she was close to attaining partnership, the Careerist reports. Two years later, she was ready to go back. Taking time out from the law didn’t hurt Cohen’s legal career; this year she made partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the firm where her former boss at Dewey is now a partner.
The Careerist talked to Cohen about why she went back to law practice. “After the first year, I started missing being a lawyer—the intellectual stimulation,” Cohen told the blog. “After two years, I thought retail was not a long-term commitment. I thought about all the things I loved about being a lawyer—negotiating deals, taking on new transactions. The store satisfied my creative side, but I missed the structure of a big firm and having clients call me, and the intellectual affirmation.”
Cohen also realized that yarn customers aren’t always pleasant. “I never realized what a nice customer I was until I had my own business,” she told the Careerist. When people have a bad day, “They don’t hesitate to take it out on you.”
