What's you guy's general advice for someone considering entering law school? I'm a senior Crim J major / Business Law minor, obv don't know what I want to do with my life.

Have a friend who is a 2L at nova and hates it so far.

yeah that was a bit of an exaggeration and also still as a student i prob shouldnt be making conjecture like that (seriously)

see post #5128

I find my Legal Writing class to be fairly fun, save for the bluebooking.

What does the "R" stand for in "LRW"? Research?

read through this thread

figure out what lawyers actually do

make sure you actually want to do that (unlikely)

get into a raelly good school or dont pay much $$

Unless you have a trust fund, don't go to law school.

I've been lurking this thread for a few weeks, and I've talked a bit about law school with my buddy whose currently going to nova. He basically works his ass off and doesn't enjoy it.

Definitely don't. I do good enough in school that I'd probably get offered some sort of petty scholarships, but would be financing the majority of my education. Also I doubt I would get into top tier schools or even be willing to accumulate that much debt for tuition.

Essentially I'm a pretty smart (aren't we all, though?) 22 year old and would like to not be stuck in a cubicle for the rest of my life. Come from a family where not a single member has gone to college, and I severely lack available guidance from well do to adults, so I'm sort of having to find my way.

I was a business finance major but quickly fled from that idea, criminal justice (and the ~4 undergrad law classes I've taken) is the only subject that's really interested me, but I'd definitely like to make and feel I'm worth more than a state trooper's salary. I've been fruitlessly searching for master's programs and a general direction for my education for some time.

I worked 80 hours this week and make less than a state trooper... THEY get overtime.

Yeah I agree that LRW is important, but all the minor technical details are still frustrating.

is there any sort of reliable way to compare which law schools and which states have been hit worse than another in the job market? at least something more scientific than comparing the graduate salaries/% employed that are listed on TLS?

Lawyer Boss: you know how to write legal documents?

DMW: I had two legal writing classees where we wrote a memo and a motion for summ-

Lawyer Boss: As I suspected, you know nothing.

did he then 5 minutes later send out 50 pages of discovery asking about a slip and fall when the case is a car wreck?

How did you get it so close? He sent me 200 pages (including restatement of torts) telling me to write a discovery letter out of the office where the case was an assault.

Because I am not up to my eyeballs in work with the two papers I have to research and write this semester, I need homework from an part time job

The picayune bluebooking stuff is annoying, but I doubt that anyone's legal methods grade is ever destroyed by comma errors or the like. Many people focus on the sentence level and formatting stuff as the source of their problems in writing classes, when any half decent teacher is way more interested in logical reasoning, providing ample support, and dealing effectively with counterarguments. With citations, the major killers are going to be mis-citing something such that your reader can't find the source based on your citations or misusing your sources (i.e. they don't say what you claim they do). From the legal writing that I have seen, there are enough people who have problems with these various areas that if bluebooking is your biggest problem, you are ahead of the curve.

A pretty interesting article coming out in the Columbia Business Law Review about the future of the field. If you're challenged for time, the last 14 pages are where the authors make their predictions.

Interesting in places - nothing groundbreaking.

-we're not sure why big law was as big as it was
-the spike in 140-160k jobs has been flattened indefinitely
-all the kids that can't get 160k jobs are taking your crappy government and bankruptcy jobs, which means:
-you're going to be doing contract work indefinitely
-elite school stay elite and may even get elitier
-second tiers will place more importance on manipulating placement numbers to get better rankings
-second tiers will also spend more time making up joint-degree programs and headhunting celebrity professors for two-year contracts
-TTTs shrivel and die
-people will begin to realize that law school is a waste of money and applicants will become more polarized towards kids who really want to be lawyers and idiots

A word of warning to people filling out their law school applications - be thorough and review your application carefully. Your application will be reviewed in the future for character and fitness certification by your school and by the state bar. I just had my character and fitness interview for the DE bar and the interviewers found a slight discrepancy between my law school application and my bar application/other materials regarding my graduate education that I had never considered. I had no explanation for this, other than to cite the numerous times where I had accurately represented my education, and while the interviewers seemed satisfied, it made for a lot of stress. Make your life easier - disclose what they want you to disclose and double check your answers before submitting anything.

Do you mind telling us what the discrepancy was? Glad to hear you were able to resolve it.

Why do I always get cold called for the 8 part problems instead of the simple 1 part problems?

Before I went to law school, I was going for a PhD in English. In Dec. 2005, after the fall semester was over, I applied to law school and resigned from the PhD program (I don't remember which I did first). On my bar application, I listed myself as A.B.D. (all but dissertation) which is what I always do on my resume, and in my law school personal statement I discussed my dissertation and my A.B.D. status, but on the law school application printout that the interviewers showed me today, it says "Degree: PhD" as if I was claiming that I had indeed received the degree. I don't know how that happened and was totally shocked to see that on the printout (which I am sure I have reviewed). I suspect that the online application didn't provide for the answer that I usually give, and whatever I did write got translated that way. In any case, the interviewers recognized that I had been very open in all of my other application materials about my status and that I would have to be a lunatic to lie about getting a PhD when I was submitting my graduate transcript along with the law school application. So they said not to sweat it - just be more careful about my paperwork in the future and read stuff before I submit it.

OMG OMG OMG OMG got a job. Doing expungements for people at a non profit. Start Friday. I'll be the only lawyer in the place, which I guess is good and bad, but they have resources left over from the last people and I have people to call to get info/help. OMG OMG OMG

NH Dave. You will also be the big guy everyone goes to over speeding tickets and slippery floors.

Awesome news Dave - congrats!

Congrats Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76p_ncbffCE

Congrats Dave!

ajrenni,

I have the exact same situation (all but dissertation for a Master's), although I am pretty sure my law school application was explicit about it. Now I am going to have to go bug admissions for a copy.