I am a lawyer and licensed to practice, but I only do so in simple pro bono matters in my community. I also have a PhD in a social science discipline and do very niche work at the intersection of law and my social science speciality. I consult with lawyers and work with them as a team on certain kinds of cases. Besides my own work in academia earlier in my career and I was married to a professor as well, I know the lifestyle pretty well and I think it's difficult for people to leave it. I know it was difficult for me to go from full time to part time and I would have stayed for a lifetime if I wasn't married. But research lost its shine for me early on and it took awhile for me to realize that wasn't what I wanted. I'm much happier now and find greater meaning and purpose using knowledge to help people in the real world.

It's always good to hear people who know good lawyers, though. I hear a lot about stupid and crooked and lazy ones (and every once in awhile I have to work with one) and I feel little need to defend the profession anymore.