There's already too many lawyers and people who graduate from law school but never use their degree. Unless law is really your passion, law school just seems an expensive exercise in hubris and status chasing.
― redmond, Thursday, 22 January 2009 18:21 (fifteen years ago) link
My impression that there is a general rule that going to law school "to fight for the rights of x" means that you have to be willing to compete very hard for low paying jobs. The reason for this is simple -- people who really NEED someone to fight for their rights in order to avoid being screwed by the Man don't generally have money, or else they would just hire a good lawyer on their own and avoid being screwed by the Man.
There's no reason, I suppose, that you couldn't be some other kind of lawyer that also did that work pro bono or at a low cost. You could do any kind of stuff in your "non-doing-that time."
But my general opinion, which is largely received wisdom, is that a mere interest in a social cause is not a good reason to go to law school -- you have to actually like and be interested in the legal aspect itself in order to not want to claw your eyes out from the tedium of law.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Thursday, 22 January 2009 18:23 (fifteen years ago) link
whiney, stop right there.
law school will teach you the doctrines, but that's useless. to get experience in IP and fight for whomever's rights, you need to get a job in IP.
to get a job in IP, especially copyright law, you will be competing with the millions of other people who think it's an attractive field. it's hard to get a job in an IP-centric firm without a technical degree. they want you to be able to do the patent stuff as well.
most soft-IP firms that only do copyright/trademark do not hire out of law school.
― cutty, Thursday, 22 January 2009 18:40 (fifteen years ago) link
IP is probably the most fashionable field in law right now... it's fun, easy, and you get to deal with all that 21st century "cool stuff" like the internet, media, software, etc. So basically, unless you absolutely destroy the LSATs and then are willing to work hard to one-up all the aspie douchebags who make up the top of the class of the top 10 schools, you know ... it's probably not a particularly wise move if you sit around and take into consideration these above here factors.
God knows why I'm in law school. At least I'm good at the really boring stuff.
― burt_stanton, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Well thanks for the advice, guys. Just looking for SOMETHING I can be passionate about since rock critic/drummer is about as smart a career option as "typewriter repairman" right now.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:06 (fifteen years ago) link
if you want to be a lawyer, try not to expect to be passionate about your work.
being a lawyer for me is a job, an honest profession. pays the bills. i leave the passion for drumming and bike racing (no one is paying me to do those things.)
― cutty, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Having a job that one is genuinely passionate about is a luxury few obtain. If you really like being a rock critic and a drummer, find something else to support those things that uses your skills, e.g. some kind of writing job of a more boring and technical nature.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:16 (fifteen years ago) link
OH MY FUCKING GOD THIS IS BOTH AMAZING AND HORRIFYING.
My Property professor is the female equivalent of The Onion's Kelly. She won't let us use laptops in class. Not only that, but she referred to a student's laptop as "that gizmo". She also said, "you kids only know your rappers. I doubt you're familiar with literature" (when using a book to lay out some property principle).
Kelly points:
usage of the word "gizmo" to refer to completely ubiquitous and normal technology +10usage of the phrase "those rappers" +10 and its usage to show that the youth of today don't know culture +10constantly insisting that "kids these days" don't know about responsibility or hard work like they did in the old days +1,000,000
― burt_stanton, Friday, 23 January 2009 03:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Society is in the gutter
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 23 January 2009 03:15 (fifteen years ago) link
first sentence of that post was overstating things a little burt_stanton
― xhuxk d (deej), Friday, 23 January 2009 03:55 (fifteen years ago) link
My property professor is a horror -- the single worst teacher I have ever had in my life. I'm seriously considering a letter to the dean over it, although I'm concerned it will just look whiny and self-entitled if I do.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Friday, 23 January 2009 04:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Slogging through Constitutional Law. This class is so useless... why do they make us study this? If I'm advising a client about shifting liability with explicit notice, I could frankly care less what Marshall has to say about the Judiciary Act of 1801.
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:04 (fifteen years ago) link
fuck a constitution
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:11 (fifteen years ago) link
seriously I used to not know what my law student friend meant when he said it, but it's true. Non-constitutional democracies are just as free if not freer than we are.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:12 (fifteen years ago) link
law students are so fucking uppity
― cutty, Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah i would like a non-constitutional democracy but we don't have one. the class has been useful to me in later classes though, and sometimes at work. but i hated all that marbury v. madison, etc crap.
― Schwwww (harbl), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:28 (fifteen years ago) link
cutty otm
What's wrong with questioning a curriculum where you're investing a lot of time and money in? Cutty is off the mark for being complacent.
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:32 (fifteen years ago) link
maybe after you become a lawyer or take some real classes you can decide whether it was or was not useful, but now how do you know? btw i loved property and i love wills
― Schwwww (harbl), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I love the property casebook so far because it's all whaling and duck decoy ponds and fox hunting.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Interviewing with two Fed Dist Judges for summer.
This feels very strange. I was never a prestige guy.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:15 (fifteen years ago) link
That's so awesome. I'd be lucky to get traffic ticket court in the Hudson Valley
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm going to send out all my resumes tomorrow ... my grades block me out of anything noteworthy, so whatever.
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought your grades were pretty good, iirc. At least one A, nothing too bad, right?
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:27 (fifteen years ago) link
also, it's good that such accolades are going to someone who doesn't seem like one of those douchy shark gunners, though I'm sure they're doing fine, too.
No, bad.
Civ Pro: B-Torts: B
That's all we got. We have 19 credits this semester, so there's definitely a chance to get out of that nosedive.
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Well, they say your first summer job doesn't matter very much anyway as long as you do something decent and get something out of it. I'm not even sure why I want the federal judicial thing except that I don't know what else to do and it's what everyone says is the thing to do.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Federal is federal. I'd like to work for some kind-of gubment agency or Legal Aid type thing, just to network and see what it's like. I didn't know I'd like Contracts so much. I probably only did well since I was a straight-A accounting student back in the day, and my corporate job involved working with general counsel on advertising and marketing copy.
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:35 (fifteen years ago) link
You could probably make your undergrad and your corporate job work well to counterbalance some of your grade damage.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:44 (fifteen years ago) link
cant wait for burt_stanton studies for the bar posts
― twitty milk (deej), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 09:00 (fifteen years ago) link
ohhh, I finally just realized what they meant when they called the constitution a "contract with the people". wow, it really adds some dimension.
― burt_stanton, Thursday, 29 January 2009 04:42 (fifteen years ago) link
This is entirely the truthiest truth ever truthed.
Even unemployed, the fact that I never have to take the California bar exam again makes me smile, smile, smile.
― Barackin' In the Free World (B.L.A.M.), Sunday, 1 February 2009 21:28 (fifteen years ago) link
What is it about spending 12 hours a day with law books that turns people (including me) into cranky, hateful bastards?
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:12 (fifteen years ago) link
i was already that way
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:16 (fifteen years ago) link
turned me into a straight b*tch
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Either
A) I have become paranoid orB) Ever since I did well and also got this judicial internship, this one kid is out to get me.Yesterday he climbed over me and banged into my laptop, today he practically yelled -- in earshot of the professor after class -- that I was gchatting during class.
He might just think he's doing a little friendly ribbing.
Either way I'm having strong visions of breaking his nose and it's making me a little uneasy.
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Also my patience for everything is very low.
um that's insane. i try to avoid the building as much as possible. like i know you can't when you have class and stuff but it's full of horrible, shitty people who will drive you nutz on purpose
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:22 (fifteen years ago) link
(xp)
my patience is low too. sometimes i feel so hateful about school people my stomach hurts. other times it doesn't bother me. i dunno.
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― straight b*tch (harbl), Tuesday, February 3, 2009 9:22 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark
Yeah. I'm also avoiding law school people for the most part except for a select few. I'm lucky to be married to someone in a completely different field -- hearing about elementary school is my only sanity.
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:27 (fifteen years ago) link
I think I need to take up boxing or something.
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:29 (fifteen years ago) link
it's not just their meanness or competitiveness even, i just get tired of how shockingly dumb and boring and shallow most of them are sometimes
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, that too. There's a lot of petty gossip, a lot of dull talk about luxury items and vacations (that, ironically, many of them will never actually afford, though they think they will), a lot of the same thing said over and over again about the same classes.
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Are you a 3L harbl? I forget.
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I also wrote a rather scathing complaint about a professor to a dean (which I have NEVER done before, though, admittedly, this guy is horrendous) and have already written a couple of bitchy e-mails to my con-law prof about really minor things.
― autosocratic asphyxiation (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:35 (fifteen years ago) link
haha, wow, that is some straight bullshit, Hurting. What does that guy even think he could accomplish by that behavior?
I'm making some good friends out of law school, but they're only good outside of the law school context and while doing non law school related things. During school hours I want to ram my head through the drywall.
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:35 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah, so 12 weeks left or something? i don't actually count. xp
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:35 (fifteen years ago) link
I've also written my share of bitchy letters. In order to get funding for summer internships we have to do this stupid auction. I was literally -minutes- late in handing in my item and they rejected it and denied me funding for the summer based on that; I argued with people in the room about how ridiculous it was to not let me hand in the item that was in my hands that was literally minutes late, and now I'm in trouble for doing -that-(god forbid, a future lawyer is argumentative!). I just finished writing a 2 page letter of appeal to the supervisor explaining why I should get funding, and apologizing for my past conduct.
These people are just lovely. I told the situation to everyone I know and they said, "why the hell would they not accept it?" It's obviously because they want to find easy ways to deny people funding, but apparently they don't appreciate hearing that easy inference out loud.
Perhaps we should have gone to real schools. :[]
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:39 (fifteen years ago) link
burt i don't know what a "real school" is but i'm 100% sure it's no different
― straight b*tch (harbl), Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:40 (fifteen years ago) link
People at better schools get funding for sitting on their butts, because they're established and have money. If Columbia nickle and dimes their students with ridiculous traps and then punishes students when they get upset over that and other veiled acts of sleaziness, then fine.
― burt_stanton, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 02:44 (fifteen years ago) link