TPF lawyers and lawyers-to-be, post here!

#16
I recently passed my bar so I'll be officially "licensed" next week after I get sworn in. :wlae:

Being a lawyer was on the bottom of my list when I was in college. I originally wanted to get into medicine but I somehow ended up going to law school. :Push: All my friends were very shock that I got into law school since I'm such a shy person and I usually avoid conflict instead of getting into arguments with people.

I had the most miserable/stressful time in law school but I wouldn't trade it in for another profession. Looking back, I'm very proud of myself for surviving law school.

There's an old saying in law school:

1L: they (law professors) scare you to death (with the Socratic method while dropping as many students from your class as possible)!
2L: they work you to death!
3L: they bore you to death (by this time, the prof are really easy on you since you're basically home free)!

Just get past your first year and you should be fine. You won't get much sleep for the first 2 years so at least try to eat healthy. I'm known to eat sushi with red bull! lol

Good luck at Yale!! :yahoo: You'll do fine! You're such a smart girl!
 
#17
I'm a 1L but I think I just failed my Property exam so I might be working at the gas station pretty soon.

Seriously I think I failed it.

I hope you all follow your dreams and wish you much success. As for me, if I knew then what I know now I probably never would have applied to law school

It is the most difficult thing I have ever done. I have been so tired I actually cried. My bf is a saint. Any other man would have left me a long time ago.

I used to cook every day, keep an immaculate house, make up and dress nice, and :graucho: in the bedroom department. I am a little OCD so I was super neat and orderly.

Now, a year into law school, bf does all of the cooking and shopping. Laundry piles up until we run out of underpants, crumbs, dust basically my house is junky.

As far as my looks it is a good day if I am not wearing sweats. No more makeup for me and the hair goes into a ponytail. The only bedroom activity I am interested in is SLEEP and lots of it.

Law school is soooo much harder than I ever dreamed. All the reading is the worst. Sometimes hundreds of pages a day. I am always tired. Sometimes I wish I had never done this.

Sorry I'm so negative.
 
#18
CONGRATULATIONS IRISSY! and also to nerdphanie for getting in! its harder and harder nowdays to even get in!! u should be proud of urself! :tup:

i am currently in law school, just finished my first year, and will be a 2L in Sept, (if i passed my family law final..lol..) but i basically agree with IRISSY's assessment-1L was HORRENDOUS. i cried so much bc i couldnt finish my daily readings..and i was terrified at the beginning of each class bc i knew i might be called on..*sigh* thinking back gives me the chills still..haha..but the process will make u a stronger person and give u "thicker skin', which i think is very necessary for an attorney. ;)

be mentally prepared that the study of law wll be one of the hardest academic challenges ever. i went through undergrad, grad school (masters) with straight As and they were NOTHING compared to law school. i always thought i was rather bright in school, but being in law school humbled me..there are ALOT of brilliant law students and getting an A in law school is REALLY tough. u cant slack off and dont be behind in readings..they will bury u!! i had to also learn to time manage bc i use to be able to shop, go out, etc and still get As. thats NOT the case in law school. law school basically robbed me of my social life..lol...i no longer had time to go to the stores, so i resorted to online shopping (which i think is a greater evi..but thats another post..lol) and i was MIA from my friends for the longest time...but hey, its a sacrifice we gotta make!!

alot of pp were surprised i decided to go to law school bc it is alot of yrs in academics for me already (5 yrs of grad and undergrad, and now 3 in law..no breaks) but i think its better for me this way...also, i have been modeling for 6yrs (still do now,) and pp always associate models as DUMB, and its sooo different from law..but i think that drives me to prove pp wrong. anyone can be a great lawyer, as long as ur willing to work hard and NOT DROP OUT. i have classmates in my first semester who were SO SMART, but couldnt handle the stress...

i have a suggestion for u. before ur first day of law school, write down on a piece of paper the answer this this Q: WHY DO U WANT TO GO TO LAW SCHOOL? and then stick this paper @ a visible place..desk, refridgerator..wherever..then, when the going gets tough later on, look at ur answer and remind urself of WHY ur going through hell..hehe...it will inspire u..i know it helped me when i was crying trying to get through my consitutional law reading at 2am..haha...

law school gives u a really good APPRECIATION of our laws and justice system. it sharpened my reasoning skills and it will help u too. :yes:

as for those pp who say they regret law school, its not new to me bc i heard it before...often. everyones differenet but maybe some pp didnt go to law shcool for the right reasons..some go bc lawyers make alot of $$..but others go bc they really are passionate and some want to use the law degree to make social changes. i think if u go to law school for the right reasons(for urself), u will never regret it. i have a close friend who just graduated and is now studying for the bar..3 months ago, BEFORE he has a job offer, he was feeling depressed and he told me he regretted going to law school..etc...but AFTER he got the job offer@ a fantastic firm, hes MORE EXCITED than ever and im super happy for him!

so, the moral is, DONT WORRY! if u know u always wanted to be an attorney, just do it, and hang in there!

good luck!! im rooting for u!!!
 
#19
EmilyK said:
Oh, god, I know. People say the stupidest sh!t when they find out you want to go into law. "Oh, another lawyer, that's just who we need in this world," "Oh, you want to cheat people out of money, huh?" etc. I think most of them are just jealous, tbqh.
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im REALLY SORRY for writing so much, im not trying to write a thesis or take up room on this thread..hehe..sorry!

but, i just wanted to respond to this bc i heard it ALOT too. my father is also an attorney so i have been hearing this since i was little..lol..

to me, pp who say this are REALLY uneducated and ill informed. if u look at our nation's history, almost every significant social changes and reforms involved lawyers. civil rights, womens rights, and the list goes on. good lawyers are ethical and professional, they separate passion from the law, and facts from fiction. they fight for their clients, their rights, and justice.

with that said, im sure there are MANY unscrupulous lawyers who are just in it for $$. and many TV shows are centered around that. but, unethical practioners is a minority that exists in ALL professions.

ignore those stupid comments pp make. they dont know what they are talking about..haha
 
#20
To be honest, I was planning on going to law school when I finished my Bachelor's last May.

However, after careful consideration, I decided to become a paralegal instead...I did not want my life to be super stressful and always working, KWIM?

The salary of a paralegal with a bachelor's, certification and CLA/RP designation is really great.

I love working in the legal field and feel that I have made a great choice so far.

If I ever change my mind in the future, law school will always be there, but for now I definitely think that I made the right choice :smile:
 
#21
miss alice I totally agree with you. I used to think I was smart. I was at the top of my class and had a 4.0 etc....

It is humbling to be surrounded by so many brilliant people and no longer be considered a star student. If I don't flunk out this semester and I manage to get through the next 2 years I'm sure I won't regret it. I just had such a tough semester.
 
#22
I graduated law school in 2005 - studied like crazy for the CA bar exam - passed and moved to Washington. What an idiot I am. Oh well. I hated law school. It was stressful and boring and I wanted to drop out every day. Part of me just stuck with it to prove to myself that I could. Now I work as in-house counsel for a technology company. I only have to work 40 hrs a week, which is unheard of for 1st year associates in top law firms. My best friend is working about 90 hrs a week and billing around 70 hrs - he lives in his office. The other day he told me that they set up a cot for him - and he's happy about it! So in the end, I guess if you love your job, the hours of hard work are worth it.
 
#23
I'm a 3L, I graduate (I hope) in just a couple of days. My best advice is don't take out big loans unless you're going to a school where you can easily get a high paying job -- no matter how you do. And don't even do that unless you're willing to work crazy hours until you've paid off that debt. I'm happy with my choice (though a little scared of work), but it isn't nearly as exciting or glamorous as you think before you start LS.
 
#24
luckybunny said:
My best friend is working about 90 hrs a week and billing around 70 hrs - he lives in his office. The other day he told me that they set up a cot for him - and he's happy about it! So in the end, I guess if you love your job, the hours of hard work are worth it.
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:roflmfao:

Oh wait... that will be me in a few years:cursing:
 
#25
Ok, I hope I'm able to inject some positive thoughts! I'm a lawyer who's been out for a few years. And I LIKE being a lawyer. There are days when I'm not thrilled with my job--but that's why it's called a "job" and not "fun." It can be stressful, time-consuming and frustrating, but I think A LOT of professions have that in common.

My advice is that before going to law school, you really MUST figure out if this is what YOU want to do. Sort out why you want to become a lawyer--is it for the prestige, the money or the power? If that's it, I say go find a career elsewhere. But if you like "counseling" clients, analyzing problems and coming up with potentially creative solutions, this might be the job for you.

And in terms of having a life outside of work, it all has to do with the type of employer you have. A government or in-house counsel position will give you more of a 40 hour work week. A large, multi-state/multi-national firm will give you a 2 x 40 hour work week, i.e. 80+ hours. With firm jobs, it's usually all about the billable hours, so keep that in mind.
 
#26
wickedassin said:
Ok, I hope I'm able to inject some positive thoughts! I'm a lawyer who's been out for a few years. And I LIKE being a lawyer. There are days when I'm not thrilled with my job--but that's why it's called a "job" and not "fun." It can be stressful, time-consuming and frustrating, but I think A LOT of professions have that in common.

My advice is that before going to law school, you really MUST figure out if this is what YOU want to do. Sort out why you want to become a lawyer--is it for the prestige, the money or the power? If that's it, I say go find a career elsewhere. But if you like "counseling" clients, analyzing problems and coming up with potentially creative solutions, this might be the job for you.

And in terms of having a life outside of work, it all has to do with the type of employer you have. A government or in-house counsel position will give you more of a 40 hour work week. A large, multi-state/multi-national firm will give you a 2 x 40 hour work week, i.e. 80+ hours. With firm jobs, it's usually all about the billable hours, so keep that in mind.
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I would add though, that if you don't want the hours, be careful about how much debt you end up with ... golden handcuffs and all.
 
#27
I am an just-recently-quit lawyer who now works at another big law firm managing that firm's diversity and work-life balance initiatives. I went to law school in New York and then moved back out to California, passed the bar, and started working for a big law firm as a litigator. My dad is a partner at another big law firm in LA so I knew what this life was going to be like before I even started :smile:

Law school was tough -- I had taken two years off between college and law school and worked in finance in Asia, and going back to school after that in a super-competitive atmosphere where everyone was focused on grades again was quite a challenge. Fortunately I found some friends who were less competitive and, after the first year, I started to enjoy it a lot more. 3L year is great -- if you can work it, definitely take a clinic or something along those lines and less classwork, because what people say about law school is definitely true (it doesn't prepare you really at all for being a lawyer, but it does teach you how to think like a lawyer, to a certain extent).

Practicing law however wasn't really for me, at least not at a large law firm. I was working a ton of hours, traveling a lot, and really not having much of a personal life at all. When I moved up to the Bay Area to live with my now-fiance, I realized that I needed to re-evaluate what was important to me. And, after I thought about it, I hadn't taken a vacation without work involved somehow since June of 2005 (and when I quit practicing it was March of this year). So I quit. But some others who stayed are much better at balancing their work with their personal lives, and I admire that. :smile: I have a lot of friends who have left the law since we graduated, and an equal number of friends who are still practicing, either by running clinics at law schools, being big firm lawyers, or doing in-house work. My fiance is doing a fellowship at a plaintiffs' firm that focuses on employment discrimination and he works 9-6 most days.

What I think is important (now that I work more on the law firm recruiting and retention side of things) is that, as other posters have said, it's important to look at not just the type of law you'll be practicing but the type of job and environment that you'll be in! Also -- even though law school career offices push it hard sometimes, BigLaw is not the only way to go.

Sorry for the super-long post, but please feel free to PM me if you want to talk about this! I look at work-life balance initiatives now, like I said, so this topic always interests me. :smile:
 
#29
Hi! Could someone of you explain to me how you become a lawyer in the USA - and I'd love to hear also in other countrie! :smile:
Here in Italy you must attend Law University, then do 2 years of practice (what I'm doing) and then take the exam of abilitation.
Good luck everybody!!! :smile:
 
#30
Alice From Italy said:
Hi! Could someone of you explain to me how you become a lawyer in the USA - and I'd love to hear also in other countrie! :smile:
Here in Italy you must attend Law University, then do 2 years of practice (what I'm doing) and then take the exam of abilitation.
Good luck everybody!!! :smile:
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alice you take your lsat's sometime after you've graduated from college, attend law school for 3 years, take your bar (and hopefully pass) and that's pretty it-you're a lawyer! :tup:

i'm a rising 3L, and definitely much less bitter than i was as a 1L (or at least bitter in different ways-actually maybe more bitter who knows :Push:smile: -only 1 more year to go!!! :wlae:
 
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