Massage therapist to lawyer? (iykyk)

[psychoblast]

I try to keep relatively anonymous on here by keeping enough personal details unknown, so I can speak freely about stuff I may do, or have done, that is/was illegal. But now that I'm married, with kids, it's not like I do much illegal these days or have much to fear. If I go to a party and some one I trust offers me shrooms or 2cb and the kids are safe with a babysitter, might I ingest? Sure, but it has not happened yet, and it might never happen given the kind of social events I'm going to these days with other parents of kids, going to Wiggles concerts and such. it's not like that's going to keep the DEA up at nights trying to track me down. So, I think I'm probably overly cautious and can let this particular secret out of the bag.

The point of this post is that I'm considering a shift from massage therapist to criminal defense attorney, specializing in drug cases. This may not be as huge a leap as it seems. Growing up, I did speech & debate, was a very good debater and some thought I should be a lawyer. After college, my roommate and tripping buddy was attending law school and we would always talk about his classes, the lessons, the hypotheticals, and as we discussed the example cases, he kept insisting I should go to law school (I had an college degree in philosophy which he thought would be good fit). But, anyway, I love holistic arts (massage, tantra, reiki, meditation, yoga) and don't like the idea of being chained to a desk. However, in the three years I lived with this roommate while he attended law school, and would discuss his classes, the stuff he was learning, I feel like I got a second-hand legal education, and recently I had a kind of epiphane over the weekend, reading about a drug-related case and analyzing the legal issues, and feeling like I could have gotten the defendant off (which alas did not happen in that case). And suddenly it was like I was hit with a lightning bolt telling me, "This is what you should be doing with your life."

Not that I'm necessarily limiting myself to becoming a lawyer who only defends criminal drug cases. I find I have a real passion to fight the war on drugs, to keep people from having their lives ruined for mistakes that are a product of psychological, sociological or even physiological disorders, not from malice or ill-will. Sanity needs to come to our drug laws (and the fucking hypocrisy needs to get recognized and addressed -- I'm looking at you Pharmaceutical Companies and Medical Establishment). I think I would not just address this in the courtroom on a case-by-case basis, but also work on papers or books or advise politicians or whatever on these issues, to make a bigger impact. But I think doing the defense cases is part of giving me both experience and credibility for those other things.

I'd especially like to make policy and change the laws and change the societal mind-set on a large scale working with groups like NORML or MAPPS or even the ACLU.

I guess the part that seems tricky to me, and that I'm looking for advice on, is that I'm in my mid-40s with a family and switching to a new career can be financially hard. I mean, law school isn't cheap, and even if I can work part time and get through it on loans, grants, credit cards, and my savings and maybe parents charity, It's not like a lot of people will be lining up to be the first person I defend in a drug case. People want experienced lawyers. So I expect there may be some hard times making a name for myself.

I also wonder if this area of law brings a seedier element into your life, or your office. I don't really want to have violent psychopathic types coming through my door and getting pissed at me if I can't help them. I'm more interested in the well-meaning hippie-types or even yuppies, who get snagged by the man. Well, I guess I am wondering if anyone out there has experience with

1. the job of a criminal defense lawyer / drug-related
2. mid-life career changes (particularly requiring years of further education and with a family to support)

I'm also curious if anyone does think that for some one who still admittedly may sample recreational drugs on occasion, this kind of career move might put me too much in the spotlight, so this is an unwise move? Well, I'll probably decide this is all a pipe dream anyway after some time to reflect (and do a budget).

~psychoblast~

 

[Bluepoo]

Wow! go for it is all I can say, and don't worry about changing career mid-life. I know more than one person who's done it, and I'm 36 and about to chuck my really silly money job and go back and do a 2nd PhD. If it goes wrong, you can usually go back to what you were doing before (I doubt I can - but you probably can). Just imagine how you'll feel if your doing the same thing when your 50 .... channel that mid-life crisis.

I also think representing drug users and ultimately developing enough understanding to make progress against the insanity of the drug laws would have profound beneficial effects to society.

I don't have much useful to add except encouragement and to recommend you check out the UK drug policy foundation (transform drug policy foundation). I've never come across a better lobbying group. The one final point though is I guess it's going to be hard managing the internal conflict between the utter absurdity of laws that lock people away for dealing meth with longer terms than for killing people and the fact that you will have to work within the law.

 

[Oxycondone]

I think the first step to changing drug legislation and social stigmatisation of drug users requires the a positive change to the publics perception of drugs, drug use and drug users, which should ideally start at the school level working its way to prominence in a generation or two. However I am from a medical background and not a law background so may look at it differently. The main issues I see with APAP/Para poisonings, varying standards of treatment of drug users by professionals and social treatment of drug users all comes from lack of factual and evidence based education, most probably due to the horrible stigma that follows drugs around due to propaganda campaigns of yester-year (although they continue today in various forms).

The only way to beat the powerful entities which support draconian laws/restrictions/punishments is public outcry, as seen with PIPA and SOPA recently.

 

[Cyc]

Two things you've probably already considered.

1.) Your income will vary considerably based on who you choose to take on as clients. I assume that in order to focus on these cases, you'll have to remain in the private sector.

2.) Consider where your money is coming from. You start defending people involved with organized crime, and you could find yourself under a lot of pressure to succeed, if you know what I mean.

 

[TheAppleCore]

I'm also curious if anyone does think that for some one who still admitedly may sample recreational drugs on occasion, this kind of career move might put me too much in the spotlight, so this is an unwise move?

Sounds like a bit of paranoid thinking. What evidence do you have for the suspicion that anyone would bother snooping around your personal affairs for drug-related offenses, simply because you're defending drug cases?

 

[AmorRoark]

I'm not a lawyer but I graduated from law school in the Spring last year. I'm currently getting my LL.M. in a state across the country from where I got my J.D. (hence me waiting to take the bar this summer). I worked for about a year at a state capital appellate defense office and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary other than the office's location not being posted in the lobby. I thought that was understandable. I was never concerned or uncomfortable working there or with the clients... and we're talking CAPITAL convictions.

To be honest personal injury attorneys seem to me to have a reputation to attract as seedy if not more-so clients than criminal defense. It's an unfortunate and ridiculous perception, I'm aware, it's just what I perceive on a regular basis from those around me. I agree with you that they are, in general, just people who got caught up in a terrible situation (especially drug scenarios). Thus, I think it's important to keep that perspective if you are serious about going into criminal defense.

I don't believe your experience with recreational drugs in the past/present should affect your reputation in the slightest taking this avenue. You don't have to change anything. You've clearly been careful and responsible in the past and you should just continue on if you decide to transfer career fields. I personally don't use any drugs anymore but I do know of several lawyers who use non-'Other Drugs' as we call them here on bluelight. I've never seen the 'spotlight' focused on them any more than other lawyers. Hell, as I'm sure you know the 'spotlight' is usually on alcoholics anyway.

In sum, I'd say go for it. We're here for such a short period of time and you have to at least TRY to enjoy and believe in what you're doing. If it doesn't work out and you go broke (I highly, highly doubt this) you can go back. You have your license. It isn't that significant of a risk. That said, I don't have a child so take my opinion with that in mind. Good luck.

Feel free to PM me.