Between Law and Unknown

I studied law between 2018 and 2024 in Turkey. After graduating, I worked as a trainee lawyer in a law firm. Now I am in a gap year working at a robotics startup, in a role that has nothing to do with law on paper but I use the skills that I developed during my legal education.

This period has pushed me to ask a difficult but necessary question:

Do I want a career in law, or do I simply want to carry the knowledge law has given me into something else? Is moving to something else would be better?

This is a reflection on that question through my legal education, my experience practicing law and my ongoing gap year.

Legal Education

I have always appreciated having a legal education. What we do in law school is a complex intellectual process. We learn abstract concepts, understand how they relate to each other, and then analyze concrete situations in order to apply those concepts and rules to specific facts.

Of course, this is a very simplified description. Each field of law has its own internal logic and system. Criminal law operates differently from civil law, company law or administrative law. Learning law means learning how to move between these systems without confusing them while still seeing how they interact.

Practicing Law

Using what I learned in real life was exciting. Seeing legal concepts come alive in actual cases gave me a sense of competence. At the same time, practice is very different from theory.

There is a significant amount of repetitive work. Expectations change depending on the lawyer you work with. Sudden demands require constant adaptability and sometimes regardless of whether they feel logical or efficient.

This is not unique to law. Every profession has parts we enjoy and parts we tolerate. What truly matters is despite the downsides whether you still want to show up and do the work.

Constraints

My husband works in robotics and has been deeply involved in this field for a long time. For robotics, Turkey is not the first or even the second option globally. We want to live together, and build a shared life.

Law complicates this. Practicing in a different country often requires additional education, passing a new bar exam, and starting again within an unfamiliar system. At the moment, we are in the United States but we don’t know where we will ultimately settle.

Starting to build a legal career in one country while knowing I might have to restart in another does not feel like wasted effort, but it does demand careful consideration. In this context, not immediately committing to a legal path seems rational choice.

Core

At the heart of everything is this: I want to be good at what I am doing. Expertise does not appear suddenly. It requires time, consistency, dedication and hard work. I understand that. I have already invested years in studying law. I have built something there: knowledge, habits of thinking and a professional identity. What I don’t know is whether I should continue building on that foundation, or start building something new.

What I do know is that this period of uncertainty is not empty. It is full of observation, learning and recalibration. Maybe clarity does not come from forcing a decision but from allowing experience to give a direction.

For now, I am staying with the question, and trusting that it is doing its work.