Ex-Wall Street Lawyer Finds Work-Life Balance

// Quick, what do Legos evoke in your mind? Childhood nostalgia? Pain? It’s hard to think of anything else if you’ve ever stepped on a 1×1 barefoot. It may take a few hours of brainstorming to think of Legos as a ticket out of Wall Street lawyering, but that’s only if you’ve never heard of Nathan Sawaya. His work speaks for itself, but it never hurts to have an unexpected answer to the eventual “What can you do with a law degree besides Biglaw?” that inevitably gets asked every once in a while. The Guardian has coverage:

[Nathan Sawaya] made a living out of building sculptures from Lego and his work has been shown in 100 cities and 24 countries, attracting millions of visitors. But you won’t find any Lego in Nathan Sawaya’s home. Call it work-life balance: “I love what I do, but it is a job … not a hobby,” the 50-year-old American artist says.

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Trust, his Lego art is a lot more complex than what you’re used to:

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Took my daughter to Nathan Sawaya’s LEGO exhibit a few years ago.
The man is beyond gifted. pic.twitter.com/gKwfzXFQbI

— ChaiCoffsKey (@ZTan14377) September 13, 2020

to anyone who doesn’t watch game of thrones i went to a lego exhibit yesterday and it was SOOOO cool (artist: Nathan Sawaya) pic.twitter.com/QwNQntb5Di

— Audry🤍 (@AudryGoodwin) May 20, 2019

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You ever see a person create art with a medium and wondering if you’ve been doing something wrong? You aren’t the only one. Despite Sawaya’s excellence, he got a cease and desist order from Lego early on in his sculpting. Artistic liberties or not, gotta be careful with those trademarks.

Happen to be in Melbourne any time soon? You should check out “The Art of The Brick” in person. Bound to stay in your city because of a mandatory in-person policy? Sucks to suck, but as you think about the side gigs you can do to keep you afloat, it may be a good idea to walk through a toy store. You never know when or where inspiration can hit.

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The Wall Street Lawyer Who Quit To Make Lego Art: ‘It Is A Job, Not A Hobby’ [The Guardian]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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Biglaw, JD Advantage, LEGOs, Nathan Sawaya