My name's Charlie, and since I just passed the bar, I'm a lawyer. The short story is that the legal field's a disaster, I'm not betting on it getting better soon, and I'm walking away from the JD I just got. I couldn't find a job that was going to do it for me, and I decided to take the other path I had available: India.
I spent my first summer of law school with the 7th Circuit and my second summer at a prestigious Chicago law firm that decided to screw us. A few weeks after that shoe dropped, a college friend of mine in India told me that she was founding a non-profit and "wanted me on the team." I spent the next several months trying to find a real job, not ever really convinced that I'd wind up in India. But it just became clear to me that this profession wasn't going to provide me with a fulfilling life in any aspect (even the money would suck). So here I am, in Bangalore, trying to help orphaned and transient kids.
I have no idea where this adventure is going to lead me. If, in an interview, someone asked me for the 2 year plan, I'd say "hell if I know." But I know law isn't the right path, and this is the best other opportunity available. And as much as I'd like a stable career in Chicago right now, looking at things objectively, that just isn't going to happen. Moving to Bangalore isn't a bad alternative, though, even if it is almost the complete longitudinal opposite of Chicago.
This blog is probably going to be pretty broad. It's obviously going to be part travel blog. Probably part "hate on the legal industry blog" too. But this is also to keep the 'rents apprised, so a good chunk of this might just wind up being day-to-day descriptions of my life and how I'm adjusting. Which could fulfill the travel blog end of this, too, if I do it right. And, yeah, stuff about Indian work and poverty and whatnot.
Feel free to comment. In fact, please do. Anonymous posting is enabled, if that's your bag.
