Working as an attorney?

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Hi folks, I am one of those blessed/cursed people. Intelligence off the scale, but the usual Aspy/ADHD social problems. I coasted through education because I was smart enough to, exceeding in areas I enjoyed and doing well enough in others. But I hit the brick wall in grad school and the real world. I found out about ADHD in college, Aspy's more recently (I literally checked off 95% of the descriptive traits as applicable to me) After talking to my mother she says maternal instincts always told her there was something "not right" about me as a child but my father said I was just being a boy...

Anyway - after long periods of unemployment and underemployment I am in law school in my 30s. I have no choice but to stick with it, and have some massive debts I accumulated along the way. Obviously I would be better served going to a larger law firm where work is assigned to me so I do not have to be a self-starter solo practitioner.

Does anyone have any experience as a lawyer with ADHD and/or Asperger's? Any suggestions on methods to survive law school and the practice of law? Thoughts on which areas of practice might be best-suited for someone with our social challenges? As of now I am gearing my work towards transactional practice, I think the more technical nature would be better than litigation and require less people-skills.

Thank you!

I have Asperger's. I'm not a lawyer but I play one on TV. (I'm a para-lawyer - a Contracts Administrator.) I'm in-house, but occasionally freelance for a micro-sized business. I have done best when I am in-house instead of with a law firm. I have found that I need a supportive mentor who appreciates my quirks to be successful. You still need some people skills, but you can be the resident expert in (whatever) and do well even if you are odd.

I enjoy contract law. I hate family law or anything where people get over-emotional. In the National Contract Management Association there are some JD's and lots of non-JDs. Each are respected for their work and contributions. JD's are typically consulted for complicated issues, the CA's get the day-to-day stuff, but your experience may vary.

The work itself isn't boring because it varies between projects, subagreements, big nasty commercial contracts, tiny NDAs, etc. You can work to make things that go into space or cure cancer or make jet engines or build courthouses. I do take pride in what my paper helps to build.

The pitfall of it is you can over-obsess on the details. Not everything has to be perfect to be right. For example, today I'm going to ask a subawardee for a letter certifying something because they won't agree to the inclusion of certain FAR clauses in their agreement. Not perfect, but it shows diligence in the event of an audit. If I wanted perfect, I would ask the Defense Contract Audit Agency for an assist audit (s-l-o-w). I'd rather get this project moving.

Although I don't have nearly as much experience in it directly, I think tax law is equally interesting and complicated. There is a good niche for tax lawyers to work with non-profits and small businesses. Again, lots of details but, generally, low emotion.

I know of one lawyer here, and I don't know if it is the most AS friendly profession. But, there are so many different areas of law, or professions that can use a law degree, that I'm sure you will find something that suits you perfectly even if it isn't the stereotypical lawyer duties.