Barbara Leach

Follow Your Bliss
“Follow your bliss,” says Joseph Campbell. Three years into lawyering, I thought, “What does he know?” I was working ungodly hours, wallowing in the fact that even after three years, I knew nothing, and I couldn’t see an end in sight. So, I did just that: I ended it. Armed with $20,000 cash stored in my sock drawer and the conviction that I could “figure it out,” I quit the practice of law. I didn’t know who I was, but I knew I didn’t want to be a lawyer.
That resolve lasted an entire 10 days. Upon learning I had left “The Practice,” my girlfriend asked if I was interested in doing some hearing coverage for her. Another girlfriend wanted me to serve as an ad hoc associate on a $10 million case. I had nothing but time and a desire to help my friends, so I was all in.
Over the next six months working with these brilliant women, I realized maybe it wasn’t the practice of law that left me bliss-less; maybe it was the fact I was practicing in a law firm.”