Ex-Baker Botts Lawyer Says Colleague’s Depressing Advice Made Him Leave
Michael Weinberg knew he wanted to own his own business when he went to law school, but he followed the traditional career path and ended up as an associate at Baker Botts in Dallas.
“When you’re offered something from the big firms in Dallas, you can’t turn it down. It was a lot of money, and it was the natural next step,” he told Texas Lawyer.
Weinberg liked the law firm and the people, but he didn’t like the work and the billable-hours pressure, he told the publication. He recalls the advice he got that led him to choose a different direction, one that led him to become a Dunkin Donuts franchisee.
He went to a colleague about to make partner and asked if it was true that the work gets better with years of experience. “The colleague responded, ‘No, it doesn’t really get better. You just resign yourself to [the notion that] this is what you do, you resign yourself that this is an easy, safe way to make a living,’ ” Weinberg recalled in an interview with Texas Lawyer.
Weinberg said the advice “was just one of the most depressing things I’d ever heard. And I remember thinking, ‘I gotta get out of here.’ “
Weinberg went on to land jobs with two hedge funds and the corporate investment arm of Mary Kay Cosmetics, the story says. Now he is a partner in a company that is purchasing Dunkin Donuts franchise rights in Texas. He has opened three stores and plans to open 25 more in the next six years.
“For years I’ve worked in things I’ve never been able to explain to my children,” he told Texas Lawyer. “But now I am in a business they understand, and it’s fun. I make doughnuts.”
