Law School Lamentation: Jobs are Scarce, like everywhere else

Interesting article about the sizable debt being incurred, sometimes to no avail.

An interesting microcosm of how no industry is a guaranteed safe landing spot these days.

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109478/bar-raised-for-law-grad-jobs?mod=career-work

 

Re: Laws School Lamentation: Jobs are Scarce, like everywhere else

*ducking and covering*

 

Re: Laws School Lamentation: Jobs are Scarce, like everywhere else

i graduated from law school in 2007. i was lucky to land at a good firm where i actually get to practice law as opposed to slave away reviewing documents. my firm is good not because it's prestigious but because i work for and with good folks and they let us newbies actually litigate and make important decisions. there is no prestige at all and we are getting resumes from graduates who 3-4 years ago, when i was in law school and searching for work, would never have dreamed of working for this type of firm.

people are doing this to themselves. people are ignoring the realities of the cost of the legal education and of the job market. i have some sympathy for the current class who decided in 2006 to enroll in 2007 and got fucked because the great recession started while they were in school. but for the people who thought they would ride out the recession in law school, they chose not to see the reality of the crushing debt, restructured legal job market, new paradigms in billing and the fact that the recession hit law firms just as it hit every other type of business.

to me, it seems inevitable that the law school bubble will burst, just as the undergraduate higher education bubble is a few years away from bursting. here in florida, we have 12 law schools. this is way too many. a j.d. from some of these lesser and newer schools (florida coastal, ave maria, florida a&m, etc.) is almost worthless; you are barely prepared to pass the bar exam and usually unprepared for the job market.

 

Re: Laws School Lamentation: Jobs are Scarce, like everywhere else

I'm about to finish law school in July. I'm not even thinking about practicing. It's a good thing, because I probably couldn't find a job. Luckily, my debt load is not nearly as crushing as many law students. It's at least semi-manageable.

People always love to ask me about going to law school. Seems like a ton of people have thought about it. Law school is a convention of really smart, hard working, people that had no idea what they wanted to do post undergrad. My advice is always to only go to law school if you have a solid grasp of what lawyers actually do and are sure you want to do that. If you think "being a good arguer" is one of the most important characteristics of an attorney, you probably shouldn't go to law school....

Also, while the top end of the legal profession has great financial potential, I think the notion that most lawyers are rolling in dough is one of the biggest misconceptions around.

 

Re: Laws School Lamentation: Jobs are Scarce, like everywhere else

absolutely!

by the way, what will you be doing with your j.d. if you're not practicing? people talk to me about law school all the time as well. whenever they raise the "you can do anything with a j.d." argument i tell them that this is a bullshit line sold to you by law schools solely because they are motivated by profit. 99.9999 percent of those things that you can do with the j.d., that don't involve actual lawyering, can be done without the j.d. as well, so if they don't intend to practice they shouldn't bother with law school. i'm not criticizing your choice, but those who go into it thinking that this degree will "teach them how to think" and make them marketable to non-lawyer employers are delusional

 

I want to get into management of American-Indian tribal businesses and/or tribal government. I am a member of a federally recognized tribe, and thus, have the advantage of falling under the "Indian preference" of tribal hiring processes. Would love to get involved with the management of casino operations, but am about to put in an application for a position in charge of developing the cultural preservation programs of a tribe.

 

Read this blog and weep:

http://bigdebtsmalllaw.wordpress.com/

 

When I was looking at possibly attending a journalism master's program, I looked at one that also had a concurrent J.D. as one of the options. Three years, and get both your journalism master's and your J.D. Mentioned this to the adviser, and they said, "Piotr, you seem to have a passion for journalism. Do you have a passion for law?"
I responded that I was not sure.
"Well . . . maybe you should just think about the Journalism master's, then. Because law school is more work, and much more debt than people realize, without the automatic pot of gold at the end that a lot of people seem to expect. And if you don't have a passion for it . . . "

Great advice.

Journalism schools regularly bring in "guest speakers" (and some professors) who tell people, "Oh, everyone cares about journalism! It's about the future of democracy! WATCHDOGS! We'll get through this crisis! There will be a lot of ways to continue practicing journalism! BLOGS! I'm very optimistic about the future of journalism!"

So yeah, nothing surprises me re: college academic programs focusing more on profit today than viability for students tomorrow.

 

Absolutely fantastic. Like every moderately intelligent person who isn't satisfied with their careers, I entertain the law-school fantasy and need to have it slapped out of me every once in a while.

 

A friend who graduated from law school opted to revive her freelance writing career post-law school and makes better money there. I haven't asked her if she'd take back the time she spent there.

leo, what do you mean by "prestigious"? Just wondering at the choice of words because I wouldn't have thought that someone would jump straight into "prestige" right after college in any profession.

 

Interestingly enough, I have a friend who is a lawyer for an Indian tribe in Minnesota. She's a member of the same tribe and she's probably got about the best job she could hope for since getting that gig is why she went to law school in the first place.

 

There are people fresh out of college who get journalism gigs at the Washington Post/L.A. Times/New York Times/ESPN the magazines of the world.