I'm Retiring … Again

Or am I? You never really retire if there are causes you care about.

I tried to retire in 2022 but it didn't stick.

It didn't stick because even when I stepped down as a partner in an international law firm, I was encouraged to stay on with a different job title in order to continue overseeing the firm's publications about U.S. immigration law, which I did.

It didn't stick because I had taken on the role of Executive Producer of what turned out to be an award-winning documentary, and I embraced the opportunity to learn about filmmaking and to find ways to get the film's important message — about what motivates some people to migrate, and others to help them — out into the world.

It didn't stick because in addition to my existing service on the board of directors of two nonprofits focused on immigration and education, I was invited to join the boards of two other nonprofits and the advisory council of a third — all of which are focused on fighting for the rights of people who have felt compelled to flee their countries in search of safety and security.

It didn't stick because when there are issues, causes or activities about which you are passionate, retirement need not be an ending. It can be a beginning.

You never really "retire" if there are causes about which you are passionate

Retirement from paid employment can be an opportunity, assuming one is fortunate enough to be able to walk away from a regular salary. It's a chance to take those skills and experiences gleaned from a lifetime of professional challenges and apply them to new causes and new opportunities. You get to leave the petty (and not so petty) workplace bullshit behind and focus on what matters.

And what matters to me? I've always been driven to fight against inequality, to speak up against injustice, to be a helper. I've had to find ways to give back that are consistent with my own character quirks and limitations. So I was never going to be a star litigator, an organizational CEO or a sparkling media personality. But during the course of my career, I've had the luxury of time to analyze and understand important issues. I can write clear and compelling prose, and I’m a decent public speaker. And I've had the good fortune to connect with other passionate people who want to do good in the world.

I actually think I sold my soul to the corporate overlords too cheaply. I was never all in, and therefore I never progressed professionally the way I could have. Sometimes I ask myself: Might I not have done better to go for the gold as long as I was compromising?

As an aside, I actually think I sold my soul to the corporate overlords too cheaply. Thanks in great part to the economic devastation I suffered as the result of a traumatic divorce, I segued early in my legal career from working in the public interest in nonprofit legal services organizations to working in for-profit private law firms.

But I was never all in, and therefore I never progressed professionally the way I could have if I had dedicated myself to achieving what constitutes success in the private sector. The pay was good (not great, but good enough) — certainly better than I ever imagined when I was planning a career as a low-paid public interest lawyer — and so I coasted, while taking on every opportunity to do what counted as subversive within a corporate law firm structure: writing provocative articles, and managing pro bono programs, and helping to build DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, and more along those lines. But sometimes I ask myself: Might I not have done better to go for the gold as long as I was compromising? Might that not have been better for my own and my family's long-term economic security?

While retiring doesn't mean I've stopped working, after a lifetime of hard work I do want to relax! But I will also continue to devote much of my energy toward continuing to do what little good in the world an individual person can do.

In any event, after an adulthood of nonstop work for pay — to pay for my own education, to house and educate my child, to create a comfortable base for my new spouse and me for the future — I also want to relax a little! So this is a long way of saying that I am now, officially, retiring from paid work as an attorney. But it doesn't mean I've stopped working. I will continue to devote much of my energy toward continuing to do what little good in the world an individual person can do.

Although I look ahead to these next few years with trepidation at what the world is becoming in a time of great geopolitical instability, I am also excited for what lies ahead.

I hope to find more time to write about what matters to me in the months and years to come. I hope you’ll join me in this journey.