Law School

[webmonarch]

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I planned on going but decided not to go after I worked in a Defense firm for 3 years of my undergrad. Young lawyers are assholes and Old lawyers are primadonna assholes.

It is a negative life in my opinion.

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We have never met, but I can already tell that you are smarter than most every law student in this country. Good work.

Ive heard B Clinton went to Yale and did not attend class too often. Just went to washington alot and worked on political campaigns. Maybe you can try to get in an ivy school. heard they are easy, the hard part is getting in.

[CollinEstes]

The main difference in going to an Ivy League school is when you get you have like 200,000 dollars of debt vs. under 100,000. Then you take your Havard JD and get an interview with a big defense firm or company and sitting next you is a guy who graduated in the top 10% from (Enter cheaper regional Public Law School)and you both have equal oppurtunity to get the job. But since he had to work his way through school and therfore interviews better gets the job over the snobby Ivy League guy who was a member of the crew team and never worked a day in his life.

[Chobohoya]

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I planned on going but decided not to go after I worked in a Defense firm for 3 years of my undergrad. Young lawyers are assholes and Old lawyers are primadonna assholes.

It is a negative life in my opinion.

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We have never met, but I can already tell that you are smarter than most every law student in this country. Good work.

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Now I get it! Every law student is exactly the same! Not only that, but everyone has the same expectations and goals! Wow this whole life thing just got so much simpler!

Enjoy!

[eviljeff]

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Maybe you can try to get in an ivy school. heard they are easy,

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this is not true at all

[SackUp]

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There was a thread on this awhile ago, but I couldn't find it.

I just graduated from a Top 20 law school. I spent $120,000 and three years of my life and I can COMPLETELY guarantee you that it was not worth it.

I think law school (especially the good ones) is a good choice for exactly one kind of person: a snobby [censored] whose idea of a cool job is to lick some partner's ass in a big law firm while making serious bank.

I am honestly considering writing a book on this exact topic in the next few months.

Also, before people accuse me of being crushed by the system or something similar, I was on moot court, ublished an article and proscribed a legal theory in a state court that became international legal news. I could have done ALL of it with about half the time in school and about 1/10th the cost.

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It is unfortunate that you had such a negative experience during law school and with the legal profession. There are many people in your same shoes though, so you are not an anomoly. However, I do believe it can be a very rewarding profession, but you need to be selective in where you practice and what you practice.

It is helpful to see the perspective of someone who trule regrets his decision to attend law school and join the legal field, especially for people on the fence. Just remember that each has his own experience and more often than not the people I see unhappy have gone into law school for the wrong reasons.

Either they went b/c they did not know what else to do or they thought it was the best way to make some cash. Granted, some people go in with the best of hopes and intentions, but still feel shortchanged, but I see that is a much rarer situation. If you do your research, you will know what you are a getting into and what the realiities of the legal profession are.

I would definitely head the warnings of webmonarch before you decide law schoo is for you. But don't let icompletely discourage you from attending if it is something that you really want to do.

I am a 3L at UVA Law, and honestly I think it sucks.

I like most of the people here, and most of the profs I get along with just fine. That said, I wish I had never come, and here's why.

It all hinges on what you can do out of law school. Most people out of UVA go work for a big law firm. I thought for $125k per year this would be worth doing, but after I worked at one for a summer and saw that these people are fat, balding and depressed, spending 60-80 hours a week pushing paper I realized that this job really sucks and there's no way on earth that I'd do it for a measly $125k. Sounds like a lot of money, but when you do the math after taxes it's something like $30-$40 / hr. A lot of people have to do that bc they have a ton of debt, I don't, so I'm lucky in that regard.

After I realized BigLaw totally sucked I went to look to find out what else there was to do. Turns out most stuff you can do (consulting firm, public service) pretty much sucks as well for one reason or another. So no law stuff for me, I'm going to go back to trading and running my software company.

The one thing most people WONT tell you is that it's freaking easy. There's an essay exam at the end of the semester that is your whole grade and it's on a B+ curve. Most people get a B+ or near it. Maybe 2% of the class gets a C and no one gets Ds or Fs.

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No offense intended to anyone, but there is definitely no shortage of lawyers in the US, more like a surplus.

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Bingo. We have a winner.

[WDC]

I went to law school 89-92. I was 26 when I started. I worked relatively hard but also partied very hard. I had no interest in law review so I chose not to work extremely hard. You will meet a lot of classic [censored] who are way too competive but you learn to ignore them. You will also meet alot of really cool people.

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Is this a clever commentary on the litigious nature of our society? Because it is hardly difficult for good law school graduates to get jobs.

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You are talking about maybe 15 schools out of 200 here. For the other 185, yes, it is very hard for them to get jobs and I know a few people that couldn't find anything after they graduated.

The top schools students can go to BigLaw and make a bunch of money pushing paper and working ridiculously stupid hours. This is because the average attorney lasts maybe 3 years in BigLaw before he gets pushed out the door. It's a very pyramid-shaped structure and after a few years most of the time you get shuffled out.

Not a game I want to play.