Read the stories of attorneys just like you who found their dream "alternative" career out of the law
You can do this too.
Hear what our successful course members have to say...
Like a lot of people, I went to law school because it was the thing to do.
The programs are so well organized and the community is so incredible that I'm simply thankful that LLB gave me my life back!
Nik Agharkar
LLB Grad
I was anxious about leaving the security of the law behind, but now I earn even more money than I did as a lawyer. My "lawyer" skills have been a perfect fit for these "non-law' jobs - I've been promoted three times and my career growth upside seems limitless... On top of that, I am a much happier, calmer and motivated person. I even look forward to work on Mondays!
"Every day I am not only excited to start work, but I am consistently encouraged by my bosses. They celebrate my achievements and consistently tell me how excited they are about my contributions and the success they anticipate we will have as a result of my involvement. I feel for the first time in 10 years, that I am flexing my professional muscles and loving every minute of it!"
Starrett Berry
LLB Grad
I knew within the first month of law school that law wasn't for me. By following the Modules step by step, I was able to quickly learn and build on Casey’s leave the law concepts with minimal questions or frustration.
Tyler Hinz
LLB Grad
Hear How the Leave Law Behind Coaching Program Helped Them
"I absolutely love my new position and look forward to work each day. I have Leave Law Behind to thank for this!”
A criminal and family law attorney in Indiana left his practice of 30 years and became the head of operations and project manager at a medical services company at 57 years of age.
“Casey, while working through my Unique Genius in Module 4 of the coaching program, you reminded me of who I was before I went to law school. I cannot thank you enough."
A Denver-based insurance defense and probate trial attorney who left his practice to become an author, commentator and founder of an American policy & history blog and YouTube channel.
“TBH, I am still adjusting to all the new freedom I have, but it is great, and you both and the course were a big part of achieving it!”
A New York City Big Law litigator who left the law and landed a data analyst position with a global financial software, data, and media services company.
"I’m pleased to tell you that I received the offer today! I’m excited about the position of becoming a Trust Officer and I love the company. The terms were more than I expected. It almost doesn’t feel real. I will be giving my notice to my firm tomorrow and officially leaving the law.
"I can’t say enough how useful LLB was to me throughout this process. The course included everything I needed, from tackling my fears to determining what non law job would be good for me. I felt ready for my interviews, because I had a great answer for why I wanted to switch careers. I also felt confident about the skills I could bring thanks to UG.
"The community aspect of LLB has been essential. It’s been great to know I’m not alone in leaving the law. When I was feeling discouraged, I could read through the Slack Members Forum. When I got busy and stepped away from the course, a live stream brought me back. When I felt hopeless, the announcement that other people were able to leave inspired me.
"I can’t thank you enough for this course and the community you’ve built! I’m so excited for my next career. I will keep you posted as I make my way out of the law world. Of course, if I can be helpful in any way to you or anyone else in the LLB community, please reach out."
"Thank you for helping me keep my spirits up when it all seemed impossible. I kept seeing the success story posts and those always helped me to do one more thing. I knew I had you there to walk me through when I was just too overwhelmed and unfocused to believe I could actually get out. Your confidence in me gave me confidence to keep trying. Many many thanks for all of your support. We'll keep talking because I want to help the group however I can. I have ideas!"
A long time upstate New York family law and real estate attorney who left her practice to become the Employee Relations, Resource and Satisfaction manager for a cutting edge provider of innovative behavioral health services.
"Hi Casey, I just wanted to give you a quick update about things, since I am now 8 months out the law and I have to admit I have been taking the time just to enjoy life without the stress. My family was a little worried about me leaving the law, but now they see how much happier I am and they agree it was the best decision I ever made. This last summer even with COVID was one of the best summers I ever had. I can honestly say I feel like I have my life back. I've been able to be so much more present with my family and friends it's amazing.
"I can not thank you enough for the program and the community. I still think back to that first conversation we had when I was at my wits end and you told me to be patient. I am so happy I did."
A data privacy attorney who left to become an associate consultant for a major advisory firm specializing in pharma and biotech.
A Philadelphia-based zoning and land use attorney who left the law to become a trust officer at a rising financial services firm.
We have helped Hundreds of Attorneys
Leave the Law Behind!
No one else in the industry gets results like these.
No one helps attorneys to reinvent themselves like we do at Leave Law Behind.
Here is a small sample of who we've helped:
... and many more!
Read Their Success Stories in Detail
Gabe Rothman
“I’ve truly found my unique genius and I owe a huge amount of my new-found success and happiness to Casey Berman.”
First and foremost, regardless of his talents as a motivator, speaker, writer, businessman and yes … attorney, Casey is an amazing human being. He is the type of person I feel lucky to have met regardless of circumstances and I treasure his friendship. All of the qualities that make him a great mentor also make him a great friend — enthusiasm, empathy, intelligence, sense of humor and introspectiveness are just a few.
As a mentor, Casey has been invaluable. Without him I would not have found the boldness and persistence to do all of the things ultimately required for me to transition out of my litigation career. Casey stayed relentlessly positive while giving me his time and insight well after my work with him during the inaugural Leave Law Behind course had finished — 3 years in fact.
After the course, I did what alcoholics might refer to as “falling off the wagon.” I lost my resolve and did what got me into this situation in the first place — I did the “safe” thing and took another litigation job. Casey stuck with me and was there to help me hop back on the wagon when, after almost two years of dissatisfaction in my second litigation stint, I was truly ready to Leave the Law and never look back.
Ten months later, after numerous informational interviews, networking events, coffees, lunches, and a double-digit number of rejections, I landed a job at a consulting firm in San Francisco specializing in sales and marketing technologies.
That was four years and two jobs ago. I’m now a Director of Sales Operations specializing in systems architecture at the San Francisco based company Lookout. We build software that protects mobile devices from malware and hackers. I love every minute of my new career, which truly leverages the talents that I thought would make me successful and satisfied as an attorney — problem solving, strategy, networking, and team leadership among others.
Since changing careers, I’ve yet to fail what I call “The Sunday Night Test,” (i.e. how do you feel at 9:00 pm Sunday?). Dread? Fear? Nausea? When I was an attorney — all of those; every single Sunday night. Now? None of those. Ever.
While I occasionally don’t feel like going to work on Monday, it is always with a sense of calm and satisfaction in the knowledge that I have to wake up Monday morning and go to a job I love, even if sometimes I’d rather sitting on the couch with my wife and dogs watching Game of Thrones.
As Casey would say, I’ve truly found my unique genius and I owe a huge amount of my new-found success and happiness to him.
Tyler Hinz
“I knew within the first month that law school, and probably the practice of the law, was not for me.”
I was never meant to be an attorney, my intellect was better suited for telling people which horrible movies they ought to avoid, not how to navigate federal civil procedures.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why I went to law school. I assume that I am not a rare case, I went to law school because I could not think of anything else to do and what the hell does anyone do with a Literature Degree? Become a barista that silently judges the reading selections of my patrons? Constantly remind people that Frankenstein was the doctor and that the monster was not called Frankenstein?
Someone suggested I attend law school and I decided to give it a go. I liked the idea of potentially making decent money, and I loved the way people responded to the news that I would be attending law school; people were finally validating my intellect.
I knew within the first month that law school, and probably the practice of the law, was not for me. The subject matter was stuffy, I was struggling to connect with my classmates, and I was the only student being lectured not to attend hearings in jeans and a t-shirt. For some reason I convinced myself that I needed to persevere, to get through this and give the practice of law a change; so I just kept making deals with myself along the way. If I pass my classes then I’ll take the bar. If I pass the bar then I’ll just see what this lawyer thing is about.
In a blink I found myself floating around the fifth year of my own law practice. In my practice I found myself doing a little bit of everything, since I did not really like any one aspect of it. The money was ok, not great since it was my own practice, and the work was not terrible; but what sort of masochist carries on when the best thing they can say about their work is that it’s not terrible? I felt stuck and fantasized constantly about leaving the law; even just to be a barista that held the patrons in contempt.
I had no idea where to go and when I told people whom I trusted that I wanted to quit they had no idea how I’d do it or why I’d want to. To my friends and family, you don’t devote yourself to the time and debt of law school to pursue something you could have done without either. I understood and let the pressure keep me in the law for five boring years. By the end I was desperate to leave, and during one of my many google searches of “I hate being a lawyer” or “how to quit being a lawyer” I came across Leave Law Behind and I figured I’d give it a shot.
Leave Law Behind did not change me, it helped me better understand what makes me successful in the work world. My legal background was not something I just had to chalk up to poor judgment or ego, instead the program helped me understand how I could better shape my experience and my natural talents in pursuit of new and non-law opportunities.
First off, I always knew being a lawyer wasn’t for me. But I never made any change to help my life … until I began the Leave Law Behind Program. Casey and LLB helped me be honest with myself and finally understand how being a lawyer wasn’t a fit for me.
The Program then gave me the courage, the map and the tools to overcome the daunting task of taking those first steps to find a “non-law”, alternative career.
The Program gave me the tools necessary to get out of the law, and to do so in a way in which I could leverage my past to attain my new career. The Leave Law Behind Program was very well organized and conceived. By following the Modules step by step, I was able to quickly learn and build on Casey’s leave the law concepts with minimal questions or frustration. It taught me what I was looking to learn, was well organized, and well paced. And whenever I had questions, I was able to easily get an answer from Casey directly! It is a real bonus to have access to such a highly experienced professional in this field.
It helped me realize that my background was not specific to the law or even one aspect of the law but was general and exciting enough that non-law employers would be interested in my candidacy. And they were interested! I had several interviews for roles I assumed I had no business being considered for; roles that required 5-10 years’ experience in fields and professions I had never even been near. But I felt confident about who I was and they took me seriously. Eventually I landed a non-law job that I’m excited about: I left my solo law practice and now I’m the Director of Trusts, Estates and Stewardship at University of California, Santa Cruz and am loving my life. Thank you Leave Law Behind!
If I ever hit a point that I’m not excited about what I’m doing, then I have the tools and the support of Leave Law Behind to pursue change.
Mike Chestnut
“I'm making more money in this role than in my average years, I've matched my highest years' earnings!”
I am a former criminal defense attorney who last year was hired as the in-house counsel for a multi-company pharmacy firm. I know that many think that transitioning from a law firm to in-house counsel is not actually "leaving the law," but I am so glad that I took this route. It now allows me to move into increasingly more "non-law" roles, which are fantastic and right in my wheelhouse.
I have a great company that is using me as in-house counsel for contracts, compliance, HR, operations, etc, but is also training me by including me in the leadership team, operations team and are soon going to begin training as a project manager. Project manager aligns perfectly with my skills and strengths (what Leave Law Behind calls your "Unique Genius"), and my COO recognized it and suggested it. I am treated as much like a second COO as I am the attorney. The dual role is incredible!
And I'm making more money in this role than in my average years, I've matched my highest years' earnings!
Why I left the law
I did not hate being an attorney. I was just done with the litigation and criminal defense. I was not too fond of the constant backbiting, positioning, and adversarial roles everyone took in the litigation practice.
When I joined LLB, I was 57 years old and had been practicing law for 20. I was in solo practice and did primarily criminal defense in a rural southern Indiana town. None of that made me hopeful that I would be able to find a job that paid what I wanted. But I knew the law was no longer for me. I would get ill on Sunday's just thinking about having to go back to the office on Monday morning. So out of desperation, I tried LLB.
How I Found Leave Law Behind
I have shared my story to help give hope and motivation to anyone who is looking to leave the law. I was depressed and lost and thought there was no hope for me to leave the law, given my age, experience, and being a small-town attorney.
Then Leave Law Behind appeared in a tweet across my feed. I can't even tell you why I bothered following the link, desperation maybe, and as Adam can tell you from our initial telephone conference, I was really on the fence due to my fears. Man, am I glad I watched the LLB video, and happy Adam reached out personally in response to an email. Thank you so much for that, Adam!
I'm not religious, but I think everything in the universe has a purpose, and things happen for a reason. I know that if I had not attended the LLB training sessions or worked the program, I would never have applied for this position.
How Leave Law Behind Helped Me
I worked through the program, watched the live feeds, and soaked up as much information as possible. I also used their resume bank and sample cover letters to help me develop mine. I would not have been able to prepare my resume, cover letter, or kill the interviews without the training I received from LLB. I was able to confidently convey my years of experience in a way that showed my value to the firm and not just another litigator.
I used many of the phrases and language that I heard from Casey's and Adam's training along with those from the folks I watched on the Wednesday night monthly training. Every question they asked, the answers were just there from the live coaching/trainings. Your membership fee was the best money I ever spent. If I remember correctly, I think I joined LLB around either Thanksgiving or Christmas, and left the law around six months later. Thank you all so much.
Segueing Out of the Law as In-House Counsel
I decided that I wanted to seek an in-house counsel position because I had no idea how the corporate world worked, but I knew the law. About six months or so of working through the LLB program, I landed my current position as in-house counsel for a pharmacy and PBM company. I didn't know anything about health law, but they liked my experience and leadership. I have been with them for around nine months now, and I have just finished the first round of project manager training that they are sending me to in order to expand my responsibilities outside of just legal matters.
It has not come without its challenges and a steep learning curve, but that is what I expected and was looking for. I am the oldest guy next to the CEO. I am not the best with technology, but all my coworkers are great and are showing me what I need to know. Plus, there are plenty of online self-paced classes to teach me what I need to know. Working for someone besides myself was a change as well, but it was a trade-off to get out of the practice.
What I get to do now that I’ve left the law
And look at all of the fears and blockers I had to overcome
As a former U.S. Marine, I am admittedly not very "touchy-feely," so I wasn't sure how the inner work from Leave Law Behind would work for me.
I go to work now and love it! I have my bad days and stressful days, but nothing like what I had in private practice. My age and years of experience are appreciated, and there are plenty of resources to learn the technology that I don't know. It was an excellent move for me. I am on a whole new path now. I look forward to going to work, and I look forward to my future.
That is my story. If you have any questions about how I used LLB or anything, feel free to ask. Age equals experience, and that is a unique thing that people our age bring to the table that the young people can't just get. I learn from them every day, and since not a day goes by that I don't have one of them in my office, or online now, asking me things, I am confident that they appreciate me as well.
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