Going To Law School

My roommate hates law school enough that she didn't do an internship her first summer because she was looking for a full-time job outside of law. Unfortunately, the economy IS bad so she's now well into, "Oh, I've already invested two years of my life, why not just get the degree?" I hope she is able to get a job.

Hurting, welcome to my world. Except you actually have good grades. What's another realistic option for a career for you? My field, writing, is toast. I don't even get the 8 zillion freelance job spams I used to years ago... maybe one or two trickle in every week.

Good luck making partner from a school like Cardozo or Brooklyn ... our best bets is to start our own firm, though you could very well go full elite, Hurting.

Yeah, I don't have many options. It's the liberal arts major's curse.

I worked in journalism, which is in bad shape. I could maybe get my last job back - decent pay but doesn't go anywhere (although I guess if I really shake a leg I could get some kind of supervisor position or a job in the main office in Cali and move there). Even teaching - my other backup plan - is tough right now. NYC is mulling big cuts, probably not hiring many out-of-system people.

Is there any point in joining this Phi Delta Phi thing? $75 sound like 75 good reasons not to.

I imagine being a lawyer is one of the securest professions during an economic downturn tbh; you can always make the switch to insolvency if things get rly bad, or firms insolvency practice doubled in 6 months o_O
But the real estate/conveyancing people have taken a hammering, shirley?

well every dept is a bit quieter tbh but prop is always busy and always hiring, tht stuff never seems to get old, bare in mind it's all commercial conveyancing tho so not damaged by any housing slumps

Wish I had your optimism!

i work in a litigation boutique practice... we're pretty flat out and not expecting to slow. i've heard some of the big firms' property practices are doing nothing but defaults right now. it'll recover quicker than other industries though, that's my prediction.

What the hell am I going to do this summer? I have to focus on public interest/government stuff, but I simply can't find any internships to apply to! I get maybe 2-3 results on pslaw.net, no results on idealist.org, etc. etc. Time to work the family connections. ;_;

Law school really does absolutely nothing to help you; it's like you hand them huge amounts of $$$$$$$, and in return you get a decent professor or two. That's it. No nice, comfortable facilities ... no assistance in anything law related outside of how to read cases. Lovely.

btw phi delta e-mail person made dumb mistake of putting all names in the "To" line. Everyone on the list now knows who fell below 3.2, which is kind of sad. I couldn't help but think of a couple people differently after that, and I wish I never knew.

gah law school is so frustrating and pointless and life-sucking
(appellate brief due Monday)

yeah, mine's Tuesday.

I got malicious prosecution - defending a successful summary judgment motion of. What's yours?

Sometimes it's like we're the same person. Sometimes it's like everyone in law school is the same person.

Mine is appellee counsel for school that won summary judgment motion on first amendment claim by a student suspended for wearing a medical marijuana shirt

It's a very well-designed post-Bong-Hits-4-Jesus mindfuck.

Always with the summary judgment motions. Do they get these from the same book?

I think someone at my school writes them, but I could be wrong.

It might be more plausible that they're from a book.

yeah i really really hate writing classes because i can't get into the hypothetical shit. like i don't really care what happens to my fictional client at all. i do way better at work. legal writing/app ad i found to be the most pointless and life-sucking things.

They bookmakers are probably only up to summary judgment motions. Maybe next year's students get to do judgment as a matter of law. though I guess they're both basically the same thing, but with a ton of extra steps.

same here, harble. Doing like, Unemployment Action Center is fun and engaging. These fake scenarios is really hard to inspire hard work and motivation.

Our scenario feels slightly implausible anyway -- it's too constructed and there's too much purposefully left out of the record.

Instead of inventing this bullshit down-the-middle could-go-either-way scenario for our first brief, they should have us do something a little more settled, I think. It would be more useful. I have very little caselaw that supports me and I'm going largely on gut and policy.

Law madness is kind of great at the same time. I wrote a long e-mail to Eugene Volokh about Alito's concurring opinion in Morse v. Frederick!

"Sometimes it's like we're the same person. Sometimes it's like everyone in law school is the same person."

...and with every passing year, my violent hatred for you dudes more and more resembles pity.

I hate this appellate brief crap. That is all.

I'm in the home stretch

Well, partner and I got an A on our appellate brief, so at least I'm not a total slacker/dumbass. No luck on getting any internships for the summer yet. :{

Spring break. How quaint.

Anyone have any thoughts on the current legal job market, prospects for 2009 OCI, etc.? There's a lot of gloom and doom on the law school boards but sometimes the people there tend to exaggerate.

i'm sure many firms will still do OCI to nab some summer associates probably

it's hard to predict as it hinges on the economy and God knows where that will be come September, but my guess is that BigLaw will still show up although they won't nab as many potential summer associates as in the recent past and will be even more snooty selective than they normally are.

if you have any pre-law school experience with bankruptcy you may have a chance.

Sadly no. I have the grades for OCI easily, but some are speculating that certain firms may skip schools like mine this year and focus on top schools. That's just rumor, of course.

Man, I'm sitting around waiting to find out if I made the final cut for Moot Court. Some people have already heard. Even the possibility of not making it is making me realize that most of the "happiness" in law school comes from winning stuff, and that's a pretty empty kind of happiness.

btw, what ever happened to Burt Stanton?

he was suggest banned without notice or a hearing

tbh if you don't make it you can just feel relieved that's like hundreds less hours you can spend doing school stuff for the next two years

barfy harbl

i like to barf and i am crazy

i like to harbl and i am barfy

i didn't do moot court. we had to do a competition second semester of 2L to get on a team and i didn't feel like it. i do not regret it.

I kind of want to do it -- I enjoy appellate argument more than most things in law school. Mostly I just want the right stuff on my resume so I can do...???

Moot court and journal work help, but GPA is the most important thing. You're doing well in that regard, right?

I've not seen burt around at all lately.

So in the case of another round of good grades, transfer or stay on the full-ride? I'm a bit debt-phobic and I REALLY don't want to move again (I live in student housing), not to mention have to start gathering materials and recs during finals. I also fear change. But some think the opportuinites are better for the average NYU student than they are for the top at my school. No idea whether this economy makes that more or less true (or neither?).

i don't know if my opinion is less useful or something because i'm pretty anti-fancy schools but i would stay. the benefits seem pretty marginal. if you're at the top of your class at bls the same jobs are open to you, and not having any debt is a huge huge thing.

not to mention you could also lose stuff you've built up like if they also choose moot court in the first year you'd have to re-apply and might not get on, and law review too, and you'd have no reputation with your new professors you'll want recommendations from for 2L summer jobs.

it really frustrates me that they've convinced people that the advantage you get from going to a place like nyu is worth the extra tens of thousands of dollars. i know a bunch of people from my midwest state school going to big fancy firms in nyc (though their start dates are all deferred now) and they've saved themselves a boatload of money by not going to a "real law school" as burt_stanton liked to say. anyway my impression is if your record is good you really don't lose anything worth that much money by being at a lower ranked school as long as it's somewhere in the top 50.

Yeah, actually risk of deferral or no offer makes lack-of-debt seem all the more enticing, and it's not like I'm trying to become a federal circuit court justice or leading legal scholar.

No, you're perfectly set-up to become a completely neurotic BIGFIRM burnout case by the time you're 34.