How to Deal with the Anxiety of Dropping Out of Law School

I received the following question from "Karen" regarding the tough situation in which she finds herself as a 2L:

I am a 2nd yr., 4th semester and now thinking of dropping out now. I am on academic probation and the stress of pulling my GPA up .5 points is causing physical symptoms now. I have anxiety over writing and feel like a failure if I can't make it or quit. I can argue in mock court fairly well using case law along with reciting state and Federal rules. However, for me it's writing that is the worst, to have to put together an appellate brief is worse than 10 root canals. I am mid semester and am having serious doubts if this is my path. I love law, I love classes along with the discussions. But rule synthesis from all the cases out there on Westlaw and writing my own argument for the fictitious client (facts) is keeping me up at night, making me feel like I am not cut out for law school. I don't want to disappoint family by quitting so should I hang in and try? Letting the chips fall where they may or get out now and save myself this stress and the next two months of hell?


Dear Karen,

First, I want to clarify that you are the only one that can make this very important decision.  I genuinely want to help you out, but I know that I don't have all the facts of your life, and therefore can't give you the best advice.  I will do my best, however.

Second, if you are having physical symptoms from anxiety, go talk to your school's student health services.  If this isn't available to you for whatever reason, talk to a qualified counselor.  I can relate to your experience with anxiety, as I had the same situation.  I didn't want to admit it, but it was the case.  I talked to a counselor who informed me that I was only the 100,000th law student she'd seen who had the same health problem resulting from law school stress. (I'm exaggerating, but it's extremely common.)  Believe me, you're not alone, and I'm willing to bet that there are quite a few people in your classes that can relate, as much as they'll put on a happy face.  Talk to your counselor or doctor about what is stressing you out, and come up with a plan of action for how you can best overcome.  In doing this, I was able to really get a better handle on how I could be happy again, and better deal with stress and anxiety.

Third, talk to your school's academic counselors.  If they're anything like mine were, they'll be very helpful and give you some great ideas for how you can still move forward.  If you're on probation, you may already be in contact with them, but they may be able to help you in determining if continuing your legal education is really going to be beneficial to you.

Fourth, anxiety is a medical problem.  You do not need to feel like a failure if the anxiety is too overwhelming for you to do your best in law school.  I sincerely hope that your family is supportive enough that they would be understanding when you tell them that you are having physical problems from the stress.  It's not your fault that this is happening to you.  But you can take steps to get yourself better so that you can reevaluate and find the best career path for you whether that's through law school or not.

Fifth, you do not have to finish law school to have a successful career and happy life.  There's a lot more to it than jumping through educational hoops.  If writing in law school is something that you just can't make work for you, it's likely that the extensive writing of many legal jobs would be very difficult for you as well.  This doesn't mean that you could not possibly finish law school and get a great legal job.  It is probably possible that you can find a way to mitigate your anxiety symptoms and finish out your last few semesters.  Perhaps then you can find a legal job that wouldn't require as much writing.  Or, since you mentioned that you love the law, you could consider that there are law-related jobs that you could also do that don't require a JD.  Perhaps you could work for a policy-making group or organization and you could use your oral argument skills there in a think-tank type setting.  All I'm trying to say is that if things don't work out this semester in raising your G.P.A. or if you decide to quit, it doesn't have to be the end of the legal road for you.  And it certainly doesn't make you a failure.  If you've proven to yourself that you're a capable oral arguer, there are clearly many other things at which you could be successful.

Finally, this isn't going to be an easy decision.  Talk to counselors.  Talk to your family if you think that they can help.  Consider taking a break.  Just don't try and tackle everything on your own and force yourself into a worse physical and mental situation.  If you're calling law school and legal writing "hell," it sounds like things are bad.  Don't make them any worse on yourself.

I hope that I've helped you consider some ways you can get through this tough time and decision.  Don't rush it, but don't delay so long that you become extremely unhappy or unhealthy.  I wish you all the best, I truly do.

-Jeff

Next time on How to Quit Law School:  First-semester 1Ls and quitting.

How to Deal with Critics of Your Decision to Quit Law School

Listen to them.

Of course, listening doesn't mean you have to heed their advice.  Like I mentioned in my first post, my family and friends were all very supportive of my decision to quit.  It was fairly clearly a good choice, if not the best, for me.

I did, however, have one very strong voice to seriously consider the things I was giving up.  There are many opportunities that just having a JD can present.  (Admittedly less in this economy than in times past, but still, having a JD on your resume can put you in a better standing with almost any employer than not having one.)  I was very glad that this individual was there to be that voice.  He reminded me of just what law school could mean to me.  I listened to him for a good hour while he chatted with me about my decision.  I didn't fill him in on everything, but he knew pretty much the whole picture.  He gave good advice.

He made a compelling case for sticking with it, but I still chose to quit.  I am very grateful that he forced me through that.  Having had that conversation let me know just how seriously I was taking this decision.  Moreover, even in the face of a fairly comprehensive list of what I was giving up, I still felt strongly enough about quitting to do so.  While I did have some pangs of regret, I came out of the conversation stronger in my resolve to make this life-changing decision count.

This critic had my best interests at heart.  I know, though, that there are many people that have familial or other pressures that land them in law school in the first place.  If you have overbearing parents, or people in your life with lofty expectations of you, they may be extremely critical of your decision.  Maybe you have a family that's relying on you for support, and don't want to make any risky moves with your career plans.  I'm sorry.  Those situations are elements to your law school experience that I don't know much about.  I'm sure that makes law school feel even more like a prison if you hate it.  I hope you have others with whom you can speak.  Heck, talk to me!  Ask me questions in the comments, or I'll give you my email upon request.  Just try to include as many voices as you can so that the possibly overbearing ones aren't the only ones you're hearing.  (Or just tell them to shove it?  Your choice.  But probably not the best choice for the sake of preserving familial/other relationships.)

My point, I think, is remember that in quitting, you are/would be giving up a lot.  But in facing the comprehensive list of "but if you just finish"-isms that your critics will throw at you, you may still find the benefits of quitting to weigh more.  Take your critics' comments in stride.  They'll be for the better when it comes to needing the resolve to make something great of your decision to quit and do something else.

Next time on How to Quit Law School:  Quitting law school just blew up my résumé.  What to do with your résumé after quitting law school.