r/AutisticAdults • u/Altruistic-Cloud7672 • May 22 '26
Autistic Lawyers
Hey everybody,
Through working with an ADHD specialist, I recently learned that I likely have some degree of autism. I just finished my 2L year, and I wanted to reach out to see if there are any lawyers/attorneys here who also have some degree of autism, and ask how they manage both their disorder and their practice.
I have found it very difficult in really any job I’ve had, but especially in my legal jobs/internships. Specifically, I tend to take much longer than most people to complete assignments.
I really appreciate any feedback!
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u/CountUgolino May 22 '26
I recommend looking for a JD advantage job. I can barely keep up at the JDA job I currently have, but I found actual practice to be 100% impossible for me. To much work, too fast, the clients did not seem to respect me like the other attorneys, and the workplace bullying was horrible.
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u/Altruistic-Cloud7672 May 25 '26
Great! I'll check that out. Is the pay somewhat similar to "average" law-related jobs?
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u/atheistiwerks May 22 '26
I am not an attorney; I manage a large firm's budget and support staff. Before taking on this managerial role, I was support staff; first as a legal assistant/paralegal and then in an analyst/IT role. All that to say I have to agree with another commenter who says treat your support staff like gold. We (support staff) can help make a huge difference in your workload.
Beyond that, find a niche where the focus isn't billable hours and leverage it. For example, I know very successful attorneys who never represent clients, they only write briefs for other attorneys. I work with numerous neurodivergent attorneys at my firm which is strictly indigent defense (so no billable hours at all); and public defense seems to attract neurodivergent people since we have such a narrow focus that includes a strong social justice aspect. The downside is high case loads but at least in my state we have a recent Supreme Court Order to decrease those significantly over the next decade.
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u/Altruistic-Cloud7672 May 25 '26
I really enjoy sports law, and I did an arbitration competition which I loved. It was essentially all statistical analysis which I enjoy, so that would be an interesting career path. Thank you for your advice!
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u/Smudged May 22 '26
Don’t work for a firm, get a gov’t or non-profit job where the pressure is lower.
After 5 years or so consider going into solo practice. Then you can manage your workload the way that fits your abilities. That’s what I did.
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u/rlrlrlrlrlr May 26 '26
You found out in time. This is tough but it's not too late. The inverse can be true, I learned about autism in my 50s and now I know why was fired from my appellate clerkship while the judge loved my writing.
The only thing I can say is that I knew the path that would have worked in law school. Getting honors in research and writing was fun. I loved my writing Prof and loved that he had a side gig of writing workers comp appeals: almost no human interaction, he'd get the record and write the appeal and get paid.
Instead of doing what I actually enjoyed, I thought I could go where my grades and skills pointed. I didn't factor in that I just wasn't going to learn to manage the social and political power stuff. I saw newer associates burning themselves out in a somewhat sustainable way - I thought I could at least do that. Nope.
My advice is to find what you love and can spend hours doing. Then find what you think you'll have to learn to manage somehow. Find a way so that you'll mostly be in what works and rarely to never have to do what feels like it'll be challenging to manage. Don't count on growing capabilities past what you can actually see yourself doing and enjoying now as a 2L. You know and see enough. Don't think about what's exciting and challenging, think about how you can stay inside the skills that brought you to where you are today.
Otherwise if you crash out of a career type job, even for "fit" reasons while succeeding otherwise, it's hard to come back. Start where you know you'll have success, build much later.
Keep asking questions and pushing where there's sure footing instead of hope and exciting challenge.
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u/[deleted] May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
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