Law - if you're a huge introvert & have anxiety

Hi all,

I plan to study law and to be honest, it's the only subject that I'm interested in studying.

Basically I have anxiety issues and take meds for it. Public speaking makes my knees weak (even in front of only a few other people). I am well aware that in order to succeed in law, you need to be a good communicator - or at least not afraid to voice your opinion! I'll speak up when forced to but my social anxiety beats me up.

My biggest worry is not only making it through law school (mooting, etc) but after graduation. I constantly hear how lawyers work horrific hours, endure insane amounts of stress and must be the confident, outspoken type in order to succeed.

Does anyone know which areas of law are better for the introverted/easily-stressed type, if you would still like to make a decent salary? Is there anyone here who's similar to myself and is interested in law or currently studying law?

Feedback would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

pp93

7

Original post by Ava11

Hi all,

I plan to study law and to be honest, it's the only subject that I'm interested in studying.

Basically I have anxiety issues and take meds for it. Public speaking makes my knees weak (even in front of only a few other people). I am well aware that in order to succeed in law, you need to be a good communicator - or at least not afraid to voice your opinion! I'll speak up when forced to but my social anxiety beats me up.

My biggest worry is not only making it through law school (mooting, etc) but after graduation. I constantly hear how lawyers work horrific hours, endure insane amounts of stress and must be the confident, outspoken type in order to succeed.

Does anyone know which areas of law are better for the introverted/easily-stressed type, if you would still like to make a decent salary? Is there anyone here who's similar to myself and is interested in law or currently studying law?

Feedback would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks :smile:

You won't have to do much public speaking during your degree. Mooting is seen as an extra curricular and optional. It may be that you're called upon to contribute in seminars and tutorials but that's normally in small groups of 6-20 people depending on the uni.

Law as a career is high pressured as a whole and solicitors need to be able to communicate effectively to do their job. Don't worry about that for now - focus on choosing your degree properly!

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Reply 2

TimmonaPortella

21

Original post by Ava11

...

Public speaking scares most people to begin with, and it doesn't matter that it's only in front of a few people: what matters is that it's in front of some other people. The best way to lose your nerves is to do more of it. After you've done a bunch of moots, or debates, or whatever else, you'll find that the world hasn't ended at any point, even though you might have screwed up once or twice, and you'll start to build some confidence.

If you want to develop that sort of communication skill, and your confidence in presenting yourself -- which you should, if you want a legal career -- you should force yourself to do public speaking before events force you to. Don't think it's beyond you. Don't think about it at all. Just do it and see what happens.

I'm no psychologist, so I don't know this, but what you're describing is just a more severe version of the same insecurities everyone else has, so the same cure should work.

All that said, the poster above is right. If you want to study law academically, you should do so. That doesn't commit you to a legal career.

Reply 3

Ava11

OP

Thank you for your response guys :smile:

you're right, it isn't something that I should worry about now and I should just bite the bullet and do it more. I have had a horrific fear of it since being a kid but I don't want to let it impede on any jobs in the future! Onwards and upwards!

Reply 4

Profesh

20

Law is a versatile, respected discipline both academically and professionally; however social anxiety—not to be conflated with mere garden-variety 'introversion'—will be considerably to your disadvantage in any but the most rarefied and hermetic of fields, and should thus be taken to task as soon as humanly possible.