Sarah Rutledge Fischer: From Biglaw to Working Artist, part 2

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Episode 039 of The Former Lawyer Podcast, I’m sharing the second half of my conversation with Sarah Rutledge Fischer. (You can listen to part 1</span> <a href= "http://formerlawyer.com/038"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sarah is an artist and art teacher. She spent 3 1/2 years in biglaw before left and found her way to her current career as an artist. </span></p> <p><strong>In the second half of our conversation, Sarah shares about:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The shame she felt during her biglaw experience;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Feeling like there was something fundamentally wrong with her as a person because she wasn’t finding the right fit in her firm;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The disturbing parallels between biglaw and abusive interpersonal relationships;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The weirdness of working with her firm’s in-house career counselor;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The thrill of winning asylum for her pro bono client the day before she left the firm for good;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How an unexpected opportunity for her husband convinced them to uproot and move from California to the gulf coast of Alabama, closer to family;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Thinking that she would return to the practice of law eventually, and finally admitting to herself that she just didn’t want to;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Deciding to pursue a writing career, and how her “shame-based achievement-seeking lawyer hat” worked against her;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-wei