Steve Schulwolf is the new chair of the Austin Bar’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section.
For those unacquainted, his career path might sound familiar: He started off working for Big Law in Chicago. Then, when he moved to Austin in 2019 because his wife got a job here, he decided to transition to ADR.
“I’ve always thought about doing it, and the time in my life was right to regain some flexibility over my schedule,” he said.
While this story may seem familiar—or may even describe your own career—what is surprising is a two-year stint teaching in Bulgaria between 1998 and 2000.
“I found some information about a program called the Civic Education Project,” he said. “This program put Westerners in the universities of former Eastern Bloc countries to teach.”
The program paid for Schulwolf’s apartment in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, his airplane ticket, and a small stipend. Then he was paid monthly what a typical Bulgarian law professor would be paid– about $150 a month.
“I was walking away from a six-figure salary in Big Law, so obviously I wasn’t doing this for the money,” he said.