[blindlaw] career transition to Law...

[Bill Spiry]

Hi folks.

. I am considering making a pretty big career change, returning to school
for my JD. I'd appreciate talking to someone, a successful blind attorney
who might have come to the law with similar circumstances to those I'm
wrestling through at this time.

 The short of it is as follows:

.         I'm 48 years old. I've been a senior Human Resources manager for
the last 20 years, most recently Director of Human Resources for a
municipality for the last 9 of those years. As you might expect my work
involves complex employment and labor issues routinely, I've negotiated more
collective bargaining agreements and dispute resolutions than I care to
remember during my career, and have been very engaged with the laws and
regulations of the profession in employment, labor, and the ADA, as well as
risk and other disciplines. Its often my experience that I have more
extensive knowledge of the laws involved with my work than the attorney's I
consult with. 

.         I am an HR generalist, but my sweet spot has always been dealing
with the most difficult and complicated disputes and employee performance
and discipline issues.  My strongest competencies involve providing counsel
in complex and sensitive employment issues, guiding managers and employees
back to the core facts, fairness considerations, and desired outcomes needed
to bring resolution.  

.         I'm burned out with the internal politics of HR management in
government employment. As an executive, I'm tired of battling to justify the
strategic importance of good HR management in the face of internal
popularity politics, regardless of how effective my team has been bringing
best practice to the table and helping people.  I'm tired of being the guy
who has to take the body blows for internally unpopular decisions directed
by City Managers and elected officials. After 20 years of this, I expect I
can find another executive position where things will be fresher again, but
fundamentally I believe this is one of the crosses I'll continue to bear as
an HR professional regardless of the organization. It's the nature of the
beast. I have liked the work, but dislike the BS. I have decided to leave
this position either to go to law school or to seek a position elsewhere
with a fresher start.  I guess fundamentally, I'm looking for more
independence. I suspect my core competencies would serve me well helping
people as an attorney, but the difference would be having the credentials to
be heard and taken seriously. 

.         The law has always been of interest to me, I completed 3 law
school courses in labor and arbitration many moons ago during my Grad
studies at the U of MN and did very well, and have actively sought
continuing education in the legal aspects of my profession. I considered
entering law back then, but I was still transitioning into my blindness and
frankly intimidated by the accessibility challenges I faced. So, I followed
an alternative path.

.         I've lost my vision to RP, mostly as an adult. I was not
introduced to skills for blindness until around 19, and really didn't start
to take the need for those skills seriously until my vision continued to
degenerate and I entered grad school a few years later.  I no longer have
any functional vision.  I've had a couple of rounds of Braille training over
the years, but my skills are limited and my use of it is limited to
administrative functions such as labeling and brief notations. I am skilled
in the use of screen readers user (JAWS and SA), and perform the vast
majority of my information and document based work using electronic
materials.

.         I have a family, wife and three teenage kids. My wife is
supportive of me in this transition. We think we understand that there will
be significant sacrifices we'll have to make over the next few years if I do
enter law school. I suspect however that the reality of how much work it
will be and how tight things will become is still a bit under the radar for
us.  That's why I want to be pretty certain that it's the right decision. 

 

If you feel you could offer me some wisdom from your own experience, and
would be willing to talk with me, I'd appreciate hearing from you.  Please
drop me a response offline to my email address below. From there we can
arrange to talk if appropriate.

 

Thanks guys.

Bill

 

Bill Spiry

 <mailto:bspiry at comcast.net> bspiry at comcast.net