I (23M) to be lawyer/have a career in politics, but ADHD, anxiety and depression have always made reading for long periods of time hard for me.

[u/daddy-phantom]

For a little context, my dad is a patent lawyer and was a partner at a firm. I was inspired by pro bono work he did to help immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, as well as various experiences in my life that have led me to the recent conclusion that I want to pursue a career in immigration or criminal defense law, but I’m worried it will be too challenging for me.

While I am a fairly smart kid and my first semester of college (did a year then dropped out bc of personal reasons/covid) I managed to get a 3.8 gpa, all throughout my life it has been hard for me to manage getting reading done, especially if it isn’t interesting to me. My mind just wanders and before I know it, it’s been 10 min and I’m on the same page.

The other thing I’m worried about is most of the time in order to make it in law, you have to work these insane hours at corporate firms in order to get up the ladder and gain experience, and I honestly have a hard time doing 40 hours a week working at damn T-Mobile.

Even so, in light of the recent human rights violations that have been placed on both documented and undocumented immigrants, it’s a passion of mine to make a difference. And I think this is the best way I have to do that and still be able to make a decent living.

I know that none of you know me so that also means none of you really know whether or not I have what it takes to be a lawyer, but I guess I wanna know if anyone has similar stories / what they did to conquer these challenges.

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[u/windstride3]

Am a lawyer, have ADHD. DM me if you want.

[u/Chichirinoda]

I'm also a lawyer with ADHD. Feel free to message if you want.

[u/reckless_reck]

A higher percentage of the population of lawyers have ADHD than the general population by like 2-3x

[u/Demonkey44 → u/reckless_reck]

I agree, I’m a paralegal with ADHD and work in house. Of our 30 attorneys in my company at least 20 are on the spectrum with ADHD traits or traits that could be on the AuTism spectrum. Also, many of their kids are ADHD/Autistic, they themselves were just never diagnosed (or are keeping their diagnosis private.)

Don’t let a diagnosis limit you. My attorneys multitask really well and most like having many different things to do over the course of a day. We have corporate, compliance, IP, environmental and litigation attorneys where I work.

Some thrive on conflict and that’s good when negotiating contracts with vendors and dealing with plaintiffs. Some are just little sunbeams, and that’s good for dealing with customers, the EPA and our cranky business managers. Some are overworked and scattered and need a para to keep them supported so they can focus their intelligence on what matters.

If you work in a field with deadlines for deliverables- motions, summary judgement (I’m corporate, not litigation, so I’m just pulling this out of my ass) you will need either a great calendaring program or a great legal assistant/para/sec’y to keep you focused and meeting your deadlines. The deadlines are what will fuck you up.

There are many different types of law. You may find that family law and all the emotional permutations is what you find interesting. You may like research and litigation will appeal to you. Immigration law and helping people could also work. Just make sure that what you do on a daily basis doesn’t burn you out.

My attorneys do three things to stay engaged and positive:

1) take plenty of vacation (4 weeks for most, taken one week at a time) so they don’t burn out. We’re a corporation, so most have that time.

2) have strict boundaries so that the business lines are doing their share of the work and not foisting everything onto our attorneys. (Our contracts are mostly boilerplate or riffs off of existing contracts, etc.) I.e.

Insist on specific amounts of time necessary for prep so the business lines don’t think they can submit everything last minute, because the business lines would sell their mother to close a deal.

Lots of pre-canned email templates to keep the sales guys in line, because they’ll give away the farm to make that sale.

3) our attorneys keep an Attorney Teams Chat where they basically bitch about everyone. I’m not on it, so they probably bitch about support staff and our General Counsel too, but it lets them vent, feel supported, get advice and work things out in a safe environment.

They also WORK FROM HOME, except for three days a month when they come into the office for meetings. This is key for morale. When you control your environment you can limit distractions. We do everything over Teams anyway.

There are always workarounds. You just have to find a field that you can hyperfocus on. I like being the answer person, so for me, that’s corporate. (I don’t practice law, I just answer questions about our company.)

[u/Sits_On_A_Hill]

Don't try and live a life you'll hate

[u/BourbonDeLuxe87]

I almost went to law school. Got into several but not my top schools but I also feared the hours and the reading (slow reader, focus issues). I’ve bright about if I could make enough money to retire early could I get a law degree to help immigrants too.

Here’s my take: you can find ways to get the reading done. You may not need to do Big Law to go into immigration, but there is such a back log of cases that if you do care you will work a ton of hours. Look up Scott Hicks on Facebook. He’s a pastor and an immigration attorney. Anyway, commendable you want to do that, but if your gut says it isn’t right, don’t go down that path and find another way to help (not easy for now). Good luck!

[u/thuchuong_huynh]

Have you tried those brainrot automatic readers with popping words? I read can fast but can't focus for long. I find out i fan read even faster with words popping up at the same time and the sound reading them out loud while retaining the info.

[u/OnlyMovie7320]

So. Many. Lawyers and law school students have ADHD. And confront anxiety and depression! And (though we’re not supposed to admit this) law school students shout at the heavens regularly that they want to quit law school, then they take a breath, let that urge pass and go back to work with (eventual) relish.

It’s a personal journey to learn how to surf or manipulate your hyper focus to success. There are study hacks, Cornell note taking methods, course nutshells. Read with colored pencils to highlight your textbooks (law school survival guides will explain this) for the case elements. Try mind mapping software. Definitely get a school counselor/therapist to check in on your state of mind when you start law school.

[u/GrahminRadarin]

Pick up the thing you're reading and start pacing. Helps more than it should.

[u/daddy-phantom → u/GrahminRadarin]

This has worked for me with other things so I’d imagine it would work for law-required reading. Thanks!

[u/PrincipleStriking935]

Paralegal with ADHD here. As you probably know, being an attorney isn't the only career in the legal services industry. There are all sorts of jobs that go into making our justice system system work. You should definitely explore if being an attorney might be something you want to do. There are plenty of attorneys with ADHD.

But I would explore other careers in the legal services field as well. The best attorneys who are making the biggest difference as advocates in the immigration or criminal defense practice areas are backed by a team of non-attorneys who contribute in ways that are unseen but critical.