Three weeks into her legal career, Natali Curukovski posted a TikTok titled “The truth about being a lawyer.” One week later, she was out of a job.

The Melbourne lawyer didn’t hold back.

“It’s my third week practising as a lawyer in Melbourne, and I knew this was coming, and I knew I’d feel this way, but I’m really just not loving it,” she said.

She mentioned the deadlines, the after-hours grind and the lack of downtime.

“The constant deadlines, the pressure, the working after hours, doing all these CPD events, reading extra books - it’s like I did seven years of all of this to just go back and do the same thing. There’s no freedom. You barely take a lunch break.”

She called the job “soul-sucking” and warned others “think again” before going to law school.

Her verdict on the industry: “You’re overworked and underpaid.”

The video blew up, pulling in over 1000 comments and 2000 saves. Commenters saw the risk coming, warning her not to “let your employer see this.” But they did.

A week later, Curukovski was handed a termination letter.

“I officially received my termination letter yesterday around 9am, it was effective immediately,” she told followers in a follow-up TikTok.

She was adamant she did nothing wrong.

“I didn’t mention names, I didn’t mention client files, I didn’t mention the firm and the name of the business, I didn’t mention anything, I was merely talking about the experience of junior lawyers,” she said.

She said her firm asked her to take the video down and warned she’d struggle to find future employment, a response she said only further solidified all the issues she outlined in her initial video.

Despite losing her job, Curukovski said she felt liberated.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am and how free I feel already.”

Her story echoes DLA Piper trainee Inês Pinheiro, who quit weeks into her training contract, saying burnout and Big Law’s “insecure overachiever” culture left her “collapsed.”

Source: TikTok