Lawyer Gives Up Law Practice for Yoga Studio
Dallas lawyer David Buckner gave up law practice to run a Bikram Yoga studio with his wife. Now he’s thinner and happier.
“The best thing about my job is that when people come in, no matter how bad they feel when they come in, they always feel better when they leave, and I never got that in the law,” he told Texas Lawyer.
Buckner didn’t take a yoga class until January 2001, when a friend invited him to try it. In just two months, he had lost 30 pounds, and he felt an emotional and psychological change. He knew that the corporate finance work he was handling at Jenkens & Gilchrist was not the career he really wanted.
“I just could not see myself working like that for the rest of my life. I saw guys still putting in those hours after 30, 35 years, and I thought, ‘When does it get better?’ ” he told the publication. “For some of them, it was their passion, but that was just not me. I wanted to see my kids, I wanted to be able to go on vacations and not be on a conference call all the time. I saw these guys who were successful—they were on the phone all the time, even on vacation—and I thought, ‘I don’t want that life.’ “
Still, Buckner didn’t make the move right away. He moved to Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr the next year, but gave up the position to buy the yoga studio. He later returned to law practice for a year on a part-time basis, but now he’s given it up to devote full-time to the studio. The business has taken off, he told the publication, and he’s happy.
“We’re having a ball, and we’re finally feeling like now we’re getting into the groove of what we’re doing,” he said.
