Law Is For Smart People Who Don't Know What Else To Do

Jordan Nahmias didn’t grow up dreaming of being an entertainment lawyer. He wanted to be an artist. But a professor suggested he write the LSAT, he did well, and suddenly he was on a track.

Once you’re on the track, it’s easy to mistake momentum for destiny.

“It is a well-worn groove,” he told me. “Once you’ve made the choice… the blinders are on.”

He continued, “Law is the thing that smart people do when they don’t know what to do.” OOF

For Jordan, there wasn’t one clean “I’m done” moment. It was more like epistemological dissonance, in his words. He knew for a long time, even going back to law school, but couldn't make himself act on that knowing.

But then in 2021, he got into a fight with a long-term client and he was treated poorly in a way he could not shrug off.

“I ended up firing them,” he said. “And that was really hard for me… but then I was like, whoa, wait a minute, you can fire people? You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to continually expose yourself to this.”

And he realized that i you can fire one client, you can fire them all.

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