“I just stopped working. ... I was lucky.” —JEFF BEAN
from the law actually reinforces how
much they enjoy it.
Jeff Bean had been handling
high-end corporate real estate matters at a boutique firm he co-found-ed in suburban Detroit. He’d served
as managing partner, handling administrative matters, including the
partners’ retirement plans and the
firm’s equity deals in real estate development. In 2004, he quit.
“I just stopped working,” says
Bean, who left to manage his own
investments, something he called a
natural jumping-off point from the
firm business he’d been handling.
Bean was in a financial position to
not work. “I was lucky. Other people my age live paycheck to paycheck.”
For several months, Bean traded
options in the mornings, had lunch
with his wife, then “hung out and
kick[ed] back.” He was 48 and still
had kids at home. His family supported the career move. “Their
main concern was that I was doing
something fulfilling.”
Eighteen months into his time off,
a friend of Bean’s
who worked at Jaffe
Raitt Heuer & Weiss
in Detroit had a large
client that needed a
senior attorney. Bean
had not been actively
looking to return to
lawyering—especially
at a firm—but the op-
tion to work part time
appealed to him. “The
client and I got along
well and it was a nice
firm,” Bean recalls.
Before long, the posi-
tion became full time
and Bean is now a
Jaffe Raitt partner.
“I’m back in the
saddle,” he says. “If
you asked me when I
left if I would return, I
would have said, ‘No
way.’ [But my return]
was a natural, organic
progression—not,
‘Crap, I need a job.’ ”
Being away from law
was very helpful, says
Bean, now 53, who has
been back at work for
two years. “The change from small
firm to big firm made a huge difference. It was really energizing. There
are different people, different ages.
I was able to come in as a senior guy
and mentor.”
TODAY, BEAN PLANS TO
practice law indefinitely. “I am billing as
many hours as I ever
have in my career,”
he says, adding that his children are
now grown. “I have no pressure to
be home. I don’t feel like I’m shortchanging somebody [in my family],
and I really like the work I’m doing.”
For lawyers contemplating taking
a break from a legal career, Bean advises living “within your means. If
you want an escape hatch, have a
capital plan for yourself—even for
new lawyers.” Because he’d lived
modestly, Bean wasn’t afraid “to
step off track,” he says. “But I
would have been scared if I didn’t
have money saved.”
There are, in fact, distinct risks
to leaving a law practice. And the
longer you’re out, the harder it is to
get back in, if that’s what you decide,
career counselor Ostrow cautions.
But, she says, it’s hard to quantify
how long is too long. “The amount
of time is probably less crucial than
what the attorney has been doing.”
In general, Ostrow adds, the longer a lawyer is out, the harder it is to
demonstrate up-to-date skills and
knowledge of the current market
plus a commitment to the profession. “It’s also harder to sustain contacts over a long time unless you
continue to actively travel in those
circles. Sometimes someone who has
been out for a long time can go back
for formal training like an L.LM.,
and this makes returning easier.”
“If you are a lawyer with a well-developed practice and you have a
lot of clients, it’s probably difficult”
to take time off, Ostrow says. “You
can leave your clients for six months
if you leave them in good hands and
you’re in phone contact. A year is
hard. Traditional law practice has its
own definition of commitment, and
people in the industry are suspicious
of people who don’t commit.”
If there’s even a chance you will
want to return to a traditional practice, Ostrow advises not burning any
bridges and also keeping one toe in
the water.
“Unless you’re absolutely certain
you never want to practice again,
maintain your networks and keep
your license current,” she says.
“Stay involved in whatever way
makes sense to you: Take CLE in
a different area of practice or take on
a pro bono case. That way, if you do
want to return, you can say, ‘I never
really left. I just took a step back
and now I’m committed.’ ”
Despite the risks, taking a year
off has distinct benefits. According
to Hekker, an intense and stressful
job can narrow the focus of your life,
and taking a break helped broaden
her horizons.
“You can rediscover parts of
yourself that you were in tune
with before the intensity of working,” she explains. For instance,
Hekker had once been a competitive swimmer but says she never
exercised much after she passed
the bar. She’s since returned to the
sport and now trains for triathlons,
