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How Sarah Rutledge Fischer left Biglaw to be a Working Artist: Part Two

May 4, 2020

In Episode 039 of The Former Lawyer Podcast, I’m sharing the second half of my conversation with Sarah Rutledge Fischer. (You can listen to part 1 here.)

Sarah is an artist and art teacher. She spent 3 1/2 years in biglaw before left and found her way to her current career as an artist. 

In the second half of our conversation, Sarah shares about:

  • The shame she felt during her biglaw experience;
  • Feeling like there was something fundamentally wrong with her as a person because she wasn’t finding the right fit in her firm;
  • The disturbing parallels between biglaw and abusive interpersonal relationships;
  • The weirdness of working with her firm’s in-house career counselor;
  • The thrill of winning asylum for her pro bono client the day before she left the firm for good;
  • How an unexpected opportunity for her husband convinced them to uproot and move from California to the gulf coast of Alabama, closer to family;
  • Thinking that she would return to the practice of law eventually, and finally admitting to herself that she just didn’t want to;
  • Deciding to pursue a writing career, and how her “shame-based achievement-seeking lawyer hat” worked against her;
  • Why being put in charge of the weekly figure-drawing class she had begun attending was helpful in moving her towards her new career (perhaps not for the reason that you might think); 
  • Her “cartoon hammer on the head” moment when she realized that her art could be her next career;
  • Why she thinks “follow your curiosity” is much better advice than “follow your passion”;
  • How she still has to actively work to combat the grind mentality of biglaw in her life now;
  • Why she works to cultivate compassion for her former self;
  • and much more!

Show Notes: