If you really think you can, I would re-take and try for more money. If you can pick up an extra 20k/year in scholly, you'd make an extra 60k by waiting a year. Essentially, your salary at current job goes up 60k


Just my opinion. If you actually think you can raise score, go for it. You've waited this long for LS, what is one more year if you can save 60k+ in debt.

you better be darn sure your score is gonna go up or you're gonna feel like you wasted a year of your life

UT austin is a great school that will set you up for a good career if you work hard

This is what I was thinking.

UT Austin is t14 now and a fine law school. Nonetheless, I wouldn't pay sticker or really anything close to attend because even from there, job outcomes are murky.

I think this is even more true given that you also have debt from UG. I used to think differently, but I am now convinced that there are very very few law schools worth paying anything significant for (as in less than 6).

But yea, sitting out to retake is really only worth it if you are very confident you can get your score up AND you are very confident that a rise in that score will equate to scholarship dollars. TLS' answer to everything is retake the LSAT. It makes sense for many, but not for all. And, if you retake, and gain 4-5 pts, you may very well get into better law schools but with no scholarship and be tempted to go for the prestige rather than go to the same law school you could go to now just at a cheaper price.

Caveat Emptor.

I was accepted t6 and went full ride t20 and not a day goes without me feeling incredibly glad I took $$ > prestige.

Was offered in state tuition along with a 1k scholarship at UT Austin. Cost of attendance would be around 150k.

Also was accepted at Minnesota with a 32k/year scholarship. Cost of attending would be around 100k.

I am thinking retake > Austin > Minnesota aorn.

Semi-finalist in the 1L moot competition this weekend. This oral advocacy stuff not that hard.

GL this weekend. Moot court is fun stuff, I still go back to my law school alma mater each year to judge it.

i think i'd like to judge some of the law school competitions but i also think i would be quite terrible at it after practicing in state criminal court where everything is just bare bones "my argument is more logical than yours" type stuff.

I do it every now and then college as well as law school like maybe every six months. Just try not to forget stuff that I don't use much. It's fun and especially the college kids are good at it most of the time. The really good teams you can get a really nice back and forth going about nuances of rules and objections and stuff like that.

Got my first custody hearing coming up early next week. I'm a mixture of nerves and excitement.

Unfortunately, our CL isn't the most cooperative. Got it through a referral service where the fee is fixed for CL's who fall 150% below poverty line. Won't really get a chance to prep her for court/had an initial meeting for like 90 minutes.

Not feeling super confident obviously. OC is a biglaw attorney who does some family law in addition to transaction work. Her billing rate is higher than our fee for the entire case lol.

Any suggestions/tips? I'm buckling in for an interesting hearing

Turned out it was a custody conference, not a hearing. Ended up way overprepping, which is obviously better than the alternative lol.

Kind of got worked over by OC. His counters to my arguments were lightning fast and well-constructed. I was impressed, unfortunately. The temp order ended up getting extended 60 days instead of modified, so that's a slight win, but man, it hit me how little I knew compared to somebody with 5+ yrs experience.

I know that's like, duh obviously, but on display in an oral hearing, it really shines. Writing a demand letter or prepping a memo of law seems like experience edge is lessened, since we all have an adequate amount of time to prep....but the oral advocacy takes practice I suppose.

A little down about losing, not gonna lie. I know it's to be expected/it's going to become somewhat frequent for a few years, but the first one kind of stings more

Sometimes people have the better arguments prepped because they have the better case. Most family court judges in my experience already know what they're going to do based on briefs & there is only minimal room for compelling argument regardless.

& most clients who don't even cooperate with their attorney are not the most cooperative parents.

It definitely seems that way JMurder. When I worked for a family law judge as a law student, she told me that family law is rarely won by the best lawyer in the room, but usually by the client who can keep their **** together the longest.

At the time, I don't think I fully grasped what she meant, but yesterday was a crash course.

Yeah, half an attorney's job on custody cases is keeping the client in line (on average...some clients it's like 1% & some clients it's like 95%).

I do think there's more room for manipulating the situation & putting your client in the best place to succeed than that judge may think. Most of that isn't done at that type of hearing (here they're called Case Management Conferences), but rather through client control, effective legal writing, discovery & trial prep.

A judge often does not realize how they're being subtly manipulated, though.

Yeah, we were in a big city and I think we tended to see the worst of the worst repeatedly. Also, Judge was about to retire after nearly 30 years on bench, so cynicism was at an all-time high.

These conferences don't seem like a bad place to get started though. I've got a few more on the horizon and after doing one fully, I'll be better prepared.

starting my finals grind today fellas. see y'all on May 13th. My school so extra, my finals are 5 credits, 4 credits, 4 credits (legal writing was 2 credits).

Brother passed bar. 293. Ez game apparently.

Tell him congratulations. Anything 1 pt higher than needed is good enough.

Ya. He's super excited, his employer offered him job upon the condition of his passing. He's going to be working for legal aid, and outside of NYC his organization only handles felonies.

Didn't know this thread existed until I misclicked student life this morning. Gonna be 3l next year

where?

Gulc. And I need a sec reg outline asap.

any tax LLMs here?

24 hours left of this.. experience.

I just absolutely cannot care.