Lawyer, Law School, BigLaw FAQ - Page 3

I'm guessing dropping at a bar to a lady that I just made GS15 probably isn't that effective

I think I've heard of Cargill hiring new grads.

Speaking of oil companies, they also hire new grad attorneys for their tax departments. I have a friend who was hired by Texaco as a tax attorney, and I think he was starting out at $125K. In Houston that will buy you a nice size house.

No, private practice is working in a private law firm. As in not gov'mint or in house counsel.

i wondering.....is it possible to land a job at a private firm making $100k plus after having attended a tier 2 to tier 4 school?

Yeah it is...you can even work at a top tier firm making $160k right out of a tier 4 law school, but you have to be at very close to the top of your class. I have a couple friends who have done it.

Yes, especially if said tier 2 school is in the state where the firm is located. For example, in New Jersey, the top NJ firms (that have starting salaries anywhere between $135k - $160k) hire pretty deep into the classes of Rutgers and Seton Hall (the two NJ law schools that are both tier 2).

Alternatively, don't plan to graduate from the University of Alabama (which is a fine law school) and then work in San Francisco or NYC at a 160k firm (although a Cout of Appeals clerkship would make that move a lot easier). For the majority of law schools (and firms), hiring is regional. Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, and perhaps New Oreans would be the larger markets that Alabama would serve.

The logic behind the OP's questioning, IMO, represents the sort of reasoning that explains why so many lawyers are unhappy with their careers and why so many burn out of the profession early - you can't choose the law based on big firm starting salaries, or what career will be the quickest path to an M3. You should choose a profession based on an affinity for the work and for the people within the career. Lawyering well, whether at a 40-hour a week state government job or an 80-hour week NYC firm requires intellectual dedication. Once you take out a loan to pay for the first semester of law school, it's just about too late to change your mind that you don't want to do this work or spend your working life with these people. You are already in the hole a shit ton of money and therefore, of course, need a career to pay off the debt. Get a job or internship where you can decide if you like lawyering and spending time with lawyers before you pay for that first semester. And do as well on your LSAT as possible (and it should be possible to be almost perfect).

I am kind of glad in a way - law in one of the top three universities in my State (probably top 5 in the country) has only sunk me into between $50-60k of debt from start to finish.

Anyone here do work in constitutional law?

That's my passion, my interest. Has been ever since I took two semesters of conlaw as an undergrad. The "prof" wasn't a prof at all, but a lecturer with a JD who formerly worked for BigLaw in St. Louis. She told us from day one she would be teaching the class like a law school one, and she wasn't kidding - Socratic Method, law briefs, reading 150 pages of cases a week - it was intense, and I loved every minute of it.

But is there any money to be made in conlaw? I don't want to live the BigLaw life. I want to do public service work. My biggest concern would be finding a school with connections (court clerkships and such) that I could also afford to pay for with a public law salary.

I don't even know where to begin...

Does anyone know something about environmental plaintiffs' firms?

If your passion is ConLaw, accept the fact that you will not make a lot of money after you graduate. But, you can still make a decent living working for the DOJ, the ACLU, or clerking somewhere. So, your priority is to get into the best law school you can afford. If you go to a public school, it's going to be cheaper than a private school. But, you may be limited to the state that you reside in. Obviously, if you can get a big scholarship and financial aid to a private school, it would make it less costly for you to go to a public school.

In short, ConLaw is not the field that pays. If you're passionate about it, it will make your life more enjoyable even if you can't afford most of the stuff your corporate counterpart makes.

I've heard that if you work for the government, a lot of, if not all, of your student loans may be forgiven. Also I've seen that if you promise to work for the government (in what capacity, I forgot), they will give you 50K straight up. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

I'm in law school right now, and I have little to no intention of working for the government, so I haven't really looked into this at all. I may be making up this whole thing, I don't know...