Big-Lawyers, thoughts on these replies?

[crazyquik]

Until a year ago some could lateral out and play banker. I still think once the market loosens up a bit there will be some selective lateraling out of people who have experience in restructuring.

Plus, if there is one thing lawyers can count on, it will be the Democrats rolling back tort reform

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by Connemara

This is a pretty common LS admissions pitch but I have seen multiple studies (one from the ABA IIRC) that sort of dispel the myth of gaggles of lawyers working in all sorts of diverse professions.

If lawyers are doing non-lawyer jobs, it's mostly because they had some skills independent of their law education. A legal education is a pretty specific regiment of training, as compared to the other academic branches. It's basically good for going into law, politics, lobbying, and tax.

On the plus side, being such a narrow profession means that you're slightly more insulated from the competition of other professionals, e.g. you ain't going to find a MBA guy going into court.

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

If lawyers are doing non-lawyer jobs, it's mostly because they had some skills independent of their law education. A legal education is a pretty specific regiment of training, as compared to the other academic branches. It's basically good for going into law, politics, lobbying, and tax.
Sure, but politics and lobbying are filled with non-lawyers. The majority of registered federal lobbyists actually don't have JD's. And while it's true that many law firms have lobbying practices, lobbying-only firms are more common. For example, the top 15 firms by revenue: Patton Boggs LLP$302,917,000 Cassidy & Assoc$276,895,000 Akin, Gump et al$246,665,000 Van Scoyoc Assoc$198,348,000 Williams & Jensen$145,474,000 Hogan & Hartson$133,153,907 Ernst & Young$129,857,556 Quinn, Gillespie & Assoc$115,363,500 Barbour, Griffith & Rogers$114,430,000 PMA Group$110,925,132 Greenberg Traurig LLP$107,088,249 Holland & Knight$94,069,544 PriceWaterhouseCoopers$92,114,084 Verner, Liipfert et al$88,595,000 Alcalde & Fay$83,720,660 Only 6 (or 7, if you count Verner Lipfert) of those are actual law firms. The big firms like Patton Boggs and Earst & Young employ a lot of non-JDs who have titles like "Public Policy Specialist," "Senior Policy Advisor," etc. I often hear people ask "But isn't a law degree required for lobbying?"

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

On the plus side, being such a narrow profession means that you're slightly more insulated from the competition of other professionals, e.g. you ain't going to find a MBA guy going into court.

MBA students have much better vids on youtube though.

Granted, they probably got class credit for them

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Only 6 (or 7, if you count Verner Lipfert) of those are actual law firms. The big firms like Patton Boggs and Earst & Young employ a lot of non-JDs who have titles like "Public Policy Specialist," "Senior Policy Advisor," etc. I often hear people ask "But isn't a law degree required for lobbying?"

Actually, a couple of my classmates went to work for E&Y as lobbyists. One got his MPA as well as his JD, and who was also our class President. He was a consummate politician, though; always remembered everybody's name and everything they've ever done.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

Actually, a couple of my classmates went to work for E&Y as lobbyists. One got his MPA as well as his JD, and who was also our class President. He was a consummate politician, though; always remembered everybody's name and everything they've ever done.

Those types always rubbed me the wrong way (except when the booze is flowing). I guess I just prefer technocrats.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Those types always rubbed me the wrong way (except when the booze is flowing). I guess I just prefer technocrats.

Me too. But this guy seemed like he genuinely cared about everyone. Maybe he was that good. The joke around the law school is that he's going to be the first Indian governor of a US State somewhere. But alas, he was too late...

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

Actually, a couple of my classmates went to work for E&Y as lobbyists. One got his MPA as well as his JD, and who was also our class President. He was a consummate politician, though; always remembered everybody's name and everything they've ever done.
Oh, I don't deny that you will not be successful going that route. It's just that some of the lobbyists I've spoken to have noted that those who start a lobbying career sans Hill connections (or statehouse connections) will start out with a decent salary; but it takes a while to build your Rolodex looking from the outside in. Contrarily, it's not uncommon for someone with a fairly senior position on the Hill (deputy chief of staff, chief of staff, comm. director, legislative director, blah blah) to be able to negotiate based upon contacts/experience. Those are the guys who are often leaving their ~$100K Congressional gigs for $300K+ lobbying jobs. This is all anecdotal. Just sayin'! EDIT: This one always makes people sick...Roy Blunt's chief of staff let slip that he was thinking of going private (this was in 2006 or 2007). Now, this guy is making a little over $100K as the minority whip's CoS. Well, he ends up at Cassidy & Associates with a $1 million base salary and bonuses for new clients.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

MBA students have much better vids on youtube though.

Granted, they probably got class credit for them

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[bluemagic]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Those types always rubbed me the wrong way (except when the booze is flowing). I guess I just prefer technocrats.

Agreed.

 

[DNW]

While we're on the law/law school topic, let's talk about grade inflation. http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/usc...to_grade_curve Race to the bottom?

 

[bluemagic]

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

While we're on the law/law school topic, let's talk about grade inflation.

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/usc...to_grade_curve

Race to the bottom?

Blatant William Cary trolling.

 

[unjung]

Why the hell would an MBA need to know how to create a Mac ad clone?

 

[HEWSINATOR]

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

While we're on the law/law school topic, let's talk about grade inflation.

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/usc...to_grade_curve

Race to the bottom?

What do letter grades equal in grade points usually? Here a B is a 3 and a B+ is a 3.3. Not 3.2 and 3.3. But unitl just a fe years ago we still used the stanine system.