Paul Sabaj is practicing in one of the most concentrated and competitive towns for lawyers, but he’s thankful he’s not doing it in a massive firm.
The attorney has his own firm, Sabaj & Associates PC, in New York.
The law school graduate from the University of Warsaw in Poland wrote his master’s dissertation about arbitration under rules of UNCITRAL, a commission that formulates and regulates international trade in cooperation with the World Trade Organization.
He picked Stetson University College of Law for its programs in alternative dispute resolution and international studies, and completed one year of intensive studies to graduate with an LL.M. in international law.
When he graduated, he was working at the time for a local boutique law firm in St. Petersburg, Fla., as a law clerk.
“I could have stayed with them. I would probably still be successful serving the Polish community as an associate in a general practice firm,” he said.
Instead, he chose a different and more difficult path. He took the New York bar and moved to the city where most international business and arbitration takes place, making use of all of his credentials.
Now he’s running his own law practice on 5th Avenue next to the Empire State Building and living across the bridge in Brooklyn.
“The beauty of not working for a big law firm is that I don’t do the same things over and over again. Every day brings something new, even though I start every morning the same way in my office,” he said.
He refuses to leave his desk until he accomplishes everything that day, even though that means he’s sometimes there until midnight.
“During one year at Stetson, I prepared for and passed the New York bar exam on my first attempt,” he said. “My thoughts still return to the classroom when I tackle day to day legal issues running my own practice in the heart of Manhattan.”
