Here’s a helpful definition from Urban Dictionary:
Hustlin’ backwards: busting your ass without making any progress.
Google AI overview:
Putting in a lot of effort and hard work without making real progress toward your goals, often because the strategies are inefficient or misaligned with objectives.
I take the November LSAT in 3 weeks. I’m already a licensed attorney in the state of New York and I’ve spent about 9 years practising law in my home country, and 1 year in the United States. I say this not just to highlight the mere length of time spent practising (it’s possible to work for years and learn little) but I’ve built quality transferable skills and solid niche experience. I’m also pretty good at networking, business development and just being a normal human being.
I moved to the U.S. for my LL.M (Master of Laws) degree. It cost me everything. All my life savings, my share of my mother’s pension, generous family support, and $30k in debt. Not blindly - a kind gentleman had encouraged me to consider a JD (and I did) but I decided I’d take my chances. No regrets there. I spent that LLM year immersed in the issues I had long wanted to do deep dives in, and it truly expanded my mental world in ways that I should probably talk about in a blog post of its own. While I understood that a JD was preferred, I did not get (really, could not have understood) how weird this country is about a degree that is valid in practically every other country in the world. I expected to work hard to prove myself, not realizing that not having a JD disqualified one from the running in the first place. I also didn’t understand how the system recruited in advance - many of the JDs that graduated the same year already had their jobs a year in advance.
In the book Designing Your Life, they talk about gravity problems. A gravity problem is an unsolvable problem - a reality you cannot change through your own effort. Actually, gravity problems aren’t really problems. They’re just facts of life. The only way to deal with gravity problems is to accept them, and reframe what one can do. My thinking about the JD has evolved. I have gone from rationalizing that I can prove my experience and abilities if only given the chance, to realizing that this is all well and good, but that’s not what firms are looking for. There’s a way things are done, and have been done from time, and this is just the way it is. It is a gravity problem. A fact of life.
Again - the chances of getting into a law firm without a JD are NOT zero, that’s not what I’m saying. Getting into a firm with a JD isn’t 100% assured, either. It however dramatically increases the odds.
Why am I set on going into a firm anyway? A big law firm for that matter? Those cavernous places that put you through the grinding machine, where everyone is presumably horrible and mean? A few reasons: Law firms are the ideal training ground to gain exposure to best practices, diverse client work, and grow fast. In-house teams ideally want people that already have law firm experience. Also, wanting to do copyright in the media & technology industry is niche work that is competitive in every market, and mostly done on a high level. Boutiques exist, but many also want you to have big law experience because they can’t afford to train you. And of course, the money (Remember I already spent everything I have?!).
So. For the path I’ve chosen, being in a firm does matter. Having a JD does matter to firms. Where you got that JD also matters. Accepting this now, how do I move forward?
At this time, taking the LSAT. I understand that I’m already late in the cycle - November and most likely retaking in January. I only decided in August after I withdrew from the 2-year JD program I was supposed to start. I’m not in an ideal position, but I’ll take my chances this cycle anyway. If I’m not employed as an attorney by June 2026, I’ll evaluate my options with a JD. 3 years feels like a lot of time, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s only just 3 years in what I hope will be a long, illustrious career.
It won’t be the first time I’ll step back to move forward, but I can’t help but wonder - is this the right thing? 3 more years outside full-time employment - am I better off pivoting and just navigating whatever alternative path opens up to me, that will supply an income? What if I do all this and take on additional debt and I STILL don’t end up at a firm or in an IP position? What will the world look like in 3 years when AI is done replacing entry level associates? I cannot know where I’ll end up, I can only do what’s within my power, which is to try. To think. To pray and hope that I am indeed not hustling backwards. God, abeg.
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