Thinking about law school? Read this.

[RedLantern]

^ +1. Either that, or you believe you will be the exception. This was me. Hubris, FTW.

 

[nerdykarim]

Originally Posted by RedLantern

^ +1. Either that, or you believe you will be the exception. This was me. Hubris, FTW.

Everyone believes that they are the exception before they get to law school. That was me, too.

 

[AR_Six]

It wasn't too long ago I graduated. Even more recently I started working. I moved to a place 10 minutes walk from my office so that if I need to work multiple days / nights straight as sometimes happens, I can shower and change easily. Also a short commute is nice when you're there past 11pm on a regular basis. I was lucky to get said job.

I routinely discourage people from applying to law school. It's a catch 22 - it's a stupid thing to get into when you think you might want to practice but aren't sure, and it's well-night impossile to know that you want to practice until a long ways into the process. It's an even dumber idea in the USA. You really might as well save the 3 years of your life, head down to vegas and put your $100,000 on black for all your chances of making a career of it.

 

[edinatlanta]

Originally Posted by rjakapeanut

I feel like if I never stated my age you wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions about my maturity.

that's foolish. I'm very mature for my age, and I know what I want.

I mean, I "get it," I just disagree with most of your opinions.

Yeah that's the whole point. At 19, no one knows WTF they want to do and we are all really mature for our age and everyone is wrong about their assessments of us. Unless you are the truly one in a million case, and the odds say you aren't it, don't kid yourself into thinking you are.

Don't limit yourself to either law or education, that's kind of the whole point.

Be dumb, work as a journalist or some other bullshit trade for a few years, learn how to write and ask questions, then go to law school.

Look all I'm saying is, you're pretty much showing the same swagger we all had at 19. Don't be afraid to have goals and work for them, **** like that you know, but just be a little more realistic and flexible in life.

 

[RedLantern]

Originally Posted by edinatlanta

Yeah that's the whole point. At 19, no one knows WTF they want to do and we are all really mature for our age and everyone is wrong about their assessments of us. Unless you are the truly one in a million case, and the odds say you aren't it, don't kid yourself into thinking you are.

Don't limit yourself to either law or education, that's kind of the whole point.

Be dumb, work as a journalist or some other bullshit trade for a few years, learn how to write and ask questions, then go to law school.

Look all I'm saying is, you're pretty much showing the same swagger we all had at 22. Don't be afraid to have goals and work for them, **** like that you know, but just be a little more realistic and flexible in life.

This. FTF(me).

 

[rjakapeanut]

Originally Posted by edinatlanta

Yeah that's the whole point. At 19, no one knows WTF they want to do and we are all really mature for our age and everyone is wrong about their assessments of us. Unless you are the truly one in a million case, and the odds say you aren't it, don't kid yourself into thinking you are.

Don't limit yourself to either law or education, that's kind of the whole point.

Be dumb, work as a journalist or some other bullshit trade for a few years, learn how to write and ask questions, then go to law school.

Look all I'm saying is, you're pretty much showing the same swagger we all had at 19. Don't be afraid to have goals and work for them, **** like that you know, but just be a little more realistic and flexible in life.

my only concern is with the notion that i'm "limiting [myself] to either law or education"

i just happened to pick those things out. if i wanted to be an engineer, i'd have done that. if i had wanted to be an accountant, i'd have done that. these were the only two jobs i really thought i'd like to do, so i put myself in position to do either of them.

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Flambeur

It's just an amazing amazing combination of branding, image, reputation, etc... Everyone believes that they can go to a random law school and become a highly paid, respected attorney. They see biglaw and successful local guys on the billboards and think that those comprise 90% of the lawyers, when in reality it's anything but.
You're actually talking about two pretty disparate groups of attorneys. The guys on the local billboards and bus benches, by and large, did not go to T14 schools. Generally speaking, they're people who went to "lesser" schools and are making a career outside BigLaw by hustling like any entrepeneur.

 

[Flambeur]

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

You're actually talking about two pretty disparate groups of attorneys. The guys on the local billboards and bus benches, by and large, did not go to T14 schools. Generally speaking, they're people who went to "lesser" schools and are making a career outside BigLaw by hustling like any entrepeneur.

I know all of that. What I am saying is that to a lay person those are probably two groups of what they consider to be successful attorneys, and most people imagine that most attorneys join one of those groups and make a good living, when the reality of it is that the vast majority ends up litigating auto insurance cases, doing residential real estate closings, and so on.

 

[intent]

Originally Posted by edinatlanta

Yeah that's the whole point. At 19, no one knows WTF they want to do and we are all really mature for our age and everyone is wrong about their assessments of us. Unless you are the truly one in a million case, and the odds say you aren't it, don't kid yourself into thinking you are. Don't limit yourself to either law or education, that's kind of the whole point. Be dumb, work as a journalist or some other bullshit trade for a few years, learn how to write and ask questions, then go to law school. Look all I'm saying is, you're pretty much showing the same swagger we all had at 19. Don't be afraid to have goals and work for them, **** like that you know, but just be a little more realistic and flexible in life.
+1. It's only been a few years since i was OP's age, but I think a good rule of thumb is that when people say they're mature for their age, they're not.

 

[rjakapeanut]

Originally Posted by intent

+1. It's only been a few years since i was OP's age, but I think a good rule of thumb is that when people say they're mature for their age, they're not.

if you believe a statement like that you're not very smart, lol. that's a really bad justification for your beliefs.

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Flambeur

I know all of that. What I am saying is that to a lay person those are probably two groups of what they consider to be successful attorneys, and most people imagine that most attorneys join one of those groups and make a good living, when the reality of it is that the vast majority ends up litigating auto insurance cases, doing residential real estate closings, and so on.

Fair enough. But achieving the possibility of the "success" embodied by the second group is much more universally possible if one has sufficient initiative, drive, etc. -- whereas there is considerable truth to the observation that "success" in the form of a BigLaw job is far, far harder for those who graduate from a limited subset of law schools.

 

[Mark it 8]

If you attend law school, you will be surrounded by people whose grades were just as good as, if not better than yours. And many of those people did not have bullshit majors. Your grades will not guarantee any sort of scholarship. Your LSAT score will have a major impact, so start practicing well ahead of time.

EDIT: And listen to Lawyerdad. He speaks the truth.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Mark it 8

EDIT: And listen to Lawyerdad. He speaks the truth.
Wrong! What the hell co uld he possibly know about being a lawyer,

 

[Big A]

The truth kind of exists in an area between all of these posts. You do not need to go to a top 15 law school to get a Biglaw job, but it sure makes it easier. This is how people "arrive" at Biglaw:

- Traditional route as associates straight out of law school. A very small percentage are still there 5 years later.

- Work at a boutique firm that gets bought up by Biglaw. This happened a lot in the early-mid 2000's, not so much lately.

- Know someone on the hiring committee. I'm not ashamed to say this is how I got my first Biglaw job: I have a Tier 1 JD (lower Tier 1 state school) and an LLM from a top 10 school, so hiring me was somewhat palatable, if not preferred.

Finish ranked in the top 5% at any law school with a connection to the local BigLaw community. Used to be you could get to BigLaw from Fordham, and in S. Fla you can get there from Nova Southeastern or U. Miami. There is a similar story in practically every large town with a law school or two.

The question is, why work at BigLaw in the first place? It isn't the only place you can make money - some of my WORST years were simply drawing a salary at a BigLaw firm. It depends on your appetite for risk and whether you are happy just drawing a check or want more (money, responsibility, risk).

Also, I can't figure out where not becoming a fungible billing unit suddenly became a mark of failure. It's fun to have that fancy business card but the novelty wears off quickly among the 80 hour weeks. There are plenty of midrange firms out there that pay great and have much to offer. BigLaw is not a golden ticket, and not getting a BigLaw job is not failure.

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Mark it 8

EDIT: And listen to Lawyerdad. He speaks the truth.

You're clearly an idiot. You must have graduated from the T14-18 tier.