in california at least.. you can go to school for it, but its a colossal waste of time and money. All you really need is a bachelors (and its one of the few fields where having an arts/humanity degree is helpful. mine is in history) and a legal employment agency. almost all law firms use legal recruiting/temp agencies because they dont want to screen the employees themselves and they tend to get decent people as a result. i got my start by answering a legal recruiter ad looking for someone with a BA, an 'attention for detail and organizational skills.'
once you actually get your foot in the door all you need to do is work in a law firm for a year, get some good experience and then have someone who passed the bar to sign a form that basically cites some stuff from the california business practices codes and statutes and BAM. youre a paralegal. no certificate, no school, none of that.
― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Monday, 9 February 2004 21:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 9 February 2004 21:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Peeney, Monday, 9 February 2004 21:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago) link
So yes, I second the idea of working in the area of law in which you are interested before doing anything drastic.
Also, to quote some lawyer friends of mine: "law school is basically trade school. Do not go to law school unless you really want to be a lawyer." So yes, if you think you'd like to be something other than a lawyer, there is probably a better way of getting there.
― quincie, Monday, 9 February 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago) link
amen, and so MFOTM that it coulda been me who said that :-)
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:08 (twenty years ago) link
theres a grip of legal placement agencies. i used kelly legal. they seem to place alot of people with big firms. or at least my own firm. which is big.
if youre up north in the bay area, try landmark legal. nice people.
thats the beauty of the legal profession. you dont have to do half the work you would trying to find other kinds of work. i got my job here after being unemployed for 5 weeks a year and a half ago when the economy was SHIT-TAY. paralegaling is kind alike nursing in that respect. quite recession-proof.
― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:08 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:10 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:12 (twenty years ago) link
― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:16 (twenty years ago) link
others that'll get you far: michigan, vanderbilt, georgetown.
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:21 (twenty years ago) link
And Ivy Leaguers have gotten laid off from BIGLAW in the last few years, and I am informed that positions are much harder to come by.
― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:26 (twenty years ago) link
Pick up one of those books about what you can do with a legal degree besides practice law, and you'll see very quickly that most of those things involve having some other type of experience that you can supplement with a law degree--or else they are even more mind-numbing than being an attorney (employee benefits coordinator, for example). Are there people with law degrees who went on to other fun, exciting non-legal careers? Sure. Same with MBAs, MAs, PhDs, or any other graduate degree. John Grisham was an attorney--but getting a law degree doesn't qualify you to become a best-selling author unless you already have the requisite talent and discipline.
What are you doing now, Colin? Did you cash out of some NY Biglaw firm and move on to calmer, smaller pastures, or did you leave law in general?
― webcrack (music=crack), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:27 (twenty years ago) link
theres one lawyer at our firm whose making it work for him tho. this past year he's billed something like 700 hours, all the while raking in 6 figure salary. he'll be politely let go in a couple more months and then he can probably ease into something else that suits him.
― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:30 (twenty years ago) link
― webcrack (music=crack), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:33 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:37 (twenty years ago) link
― webcrack (music=crack), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:40 (twenty years ago) link
― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 9 February 2004 22:45 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 10:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 10:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 16:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Try not to be assholes.
Thanks,adam.
― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― n.a. (Nick A.), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 18:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 24 August 2004 18:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 18:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― mike a, Tuesday, 24 August 2004 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― anonymous poster, Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Danzig and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Danzig and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Danzig and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 8 January 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― anonymous poster, Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:07 (nineteen years ago) link
I just ate a burrito in a major law firm!
Next to documents!
― Danzig and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Danzig and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 8 January 2005 22:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― ai lien (kold_krush), Sunday, 9 January 2005 00:19 (nineteen years ago) link
Ok, I lied. I actually ended up spilling Pellegrino on my printer. Good times.
― American Apparel and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Sunday, 9 January 2005 01:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 9 January 2005 04:45 (nineteen years ago) link