Most lawyers contemplating a mid-career break tend towards Tuscany, golf or perhaps staring silently at their billing software. Pittsburgh trial lawyer Ben Schweers chose something rather more strenuous: becoming a rookie lifeguard.
At 42, Schweers has become the oldest rookie lifeguard in the 100-plus-year history of the Rehoboth Beach Patrol in Delaware.
Schweers, a medical malpractice attorney whose work includes asbestos-related cancer cases, decided that years behind a desk warranted a three-month sabbatical. So he swapped the computer for a lifeguard stand and underwent training he describes as among the most physically and mentally demanding things he has ever done.
His considerably younger colleagues have nicknamed him “Uncle Ben”, while Schweers has found himself dispensing career advice between patrol duties. They tell him about entering the working world. He asks them which way to run off the lifeguard stand.
More importantly, he has already participated in a rescue.
Schweers is now considering how he might make the lawyer-lifeguard combination a more permanent arrangement.
It may be the rare legal career move where the phrase “sink or swim” is not metaphorical.
