Lawyers!!

[Luckboxer]

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While I'm not a lawyer, my dad is and I worked at his office for a year, and I think it's safe to say that its RIDICULOUSLY stressful. My father actively discouraged me from going to law school when I considered it in college, and says that anyone would be insane to consider a career in law in the post-information age. The stress is unbearable.

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[Mens Rea]

Here's my honest take on law school -

1st Year - By far, the most difficult year. You'll be adjusting your habits in law school to better fit the method of teaching and testing. On top of this, it is absolutely essential to do well during the first year, as it is really the only year that counts when it comes to interviewing as a 2L for summer positions with big firms.

2nd Year - In my opinion, the best year. You'll have become more efficient by this time, so the effort required to do well will decrease, and your enjoyment of your classes will go up. I enjoyed the recruing season too.

3rd Year - Boring as hell. Hopefully, by this point, you'll have a job lined up and a summer of work under your belt. You'll be looking ahead to taking the bar and starting work.

As a general matter, I don't think law school was that hard. However, some people who sailed through college find it difficult. I've found that the most important thing for a law student to have is the ability to work efficiently. You really have to be able to figure out how to put in a minimal effort for an acceptable return. There's just to much to do for a student to be able to brute force everything with mere effort, which does work for a lot of undergrads. Once you get to law school (and most other grad schools, I'd imagine), the value of hard work goes down, and that of raw intellegence and the ability to develop an effective system goes way up.

As far as the actual practice of law - it's the same with any other professional occupation. You work hard, you work long, and you are well compensated for it. Whether it's for you is a question only you will be able to answer.

[Poofler]

I'm in law school, and I consider it a mistake for the most part. Reading cases and writing documents for 10 hours a day just doesn't motivate me. I should have accepted my quant-nerdness at the beginning and ran with it. But, I'm joint-degreeing-it anyway, and don't plan to practice law.

I have an economics background, and I can't say that a quantitative versus a qualitiative background is all that important for law school. Writing ability is more precious to an employer - law exams are more about hitting certain points. Eloquence might help at times, but an undergrad degree involving logic probably has its benefits.

It's a lot of work, and it's a three-year committment. I wouldn't call it hard, it's just competitive.

1L - Year: Lots of work, getting acclimated, and fighting for ranking
2L - Year: Lots of work, a little less grade jockying, intensive job search for internships that typically become full-time offers
3L - Year: Boring is right. It feels like killing time.

Consider getting an internship somewhere or working as a legal assistant after graduation to get some experience - it might help you make up your mind.

[tsearcher]

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3rd Year - Boring as hell.

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100% accurate.

[Cheech3398]

Ok so it sounds to me that law is hell for some and enjoyable ( or maybe tolerable) for others. How would you guys recommend I get an idea for where I would fall? I get the feeling that there is a lot of reading and writing involved. At this time, I do lots of calculus and qualitative type work, but have always been good at writing. English classes have always been a breeze for me. What resources are there online for me to look at?

Thanks again for your help.

[Poofler]

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Ok so it sounds to me that law is hell for some and enjoyable ( or maybe tolerable) for others. How would you guys recommend I get an idea for where I would fall? I get the feeling that there is a lot of reading and writing involved. At this time, I do lots of calculus and qualitative type work, but have always been good at writing. English classes have always been a breeze for me. What resources are there online for me to look at?

Thanks again for your help.

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Law school *is* reading and writing, there's no linear algebra here. If you want a big community of law students and some relatively new lawyers to talk to, try browsing this board.

[Misfire]

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Can any lawyers or those that know about the law give me some insight to what its like to be a lawyer.

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What's it like to be a poker player? There's too many variations to answer.

[thirstyforwater]

I think the better question is more of why you want to be a lawyer.

Law school is very expensive and takes a lot of work. It would suck to go through all of that expense to find out that you do not want to be a lawyer.

I was very sure that it is what I wanted to do and I actually enjoy law school (except for finals).

I reccommend that you get some first-hand experience to see if it is what you want to do. If you are near a law school, you can go and sit in on a class. You might consider contacting a lawyer in your area and ask to sit in on part of their day and go to lunch. As part of a class during my undergrad, we had the opportunity to shadow a lawyer for a day which was very helpful.

[tuq]

punkass,

So what was the word?

[Bulbarainey]

first let me say i agree completely with what mens rea said. i finished school in december and just took the bar exam about a week ago and now I'm waiting on results.

One thing I would say about law school is, at least for me, it really didn't relate to hardly any of the work in regular college. Undergrad stuff is pretty much straight memorization and repeating what you memorized. Imagine law school more like this, since this is more what your exams/the bar is like:
memorizing anywhere from 15-30 pages of typed law which you will make yourself from course outlines based on your notes and other sources. Then, you are given a fact pattern, and you have to be able to spot all the issues that arise from the facts and discuss the law and how it applies to those facts. Most classes that are also bar subjects are typically 3 hour exams, where 100% of your grade is the final. It's usually 2, 1 hour essay exams and one hour of multiple choice (which contrary to undergrad, MC is usually the harder part). Good use of the english language isnt as helpful as you might think... a classmate of mine from China who spoke semi-broken english usually had better grades then i did, and when you get out in the job world youll see how many attorneys speak broken english, well at least here in california.

as for jobs, they typically are stressful, more stressful if you work at a big firm, but from what ive seen so far it can really go both ways. 60-80+ hours a week is not toally uncommon. for government jobs, public defenders are heavily overworked and underpaid, while if you are a research attorney for a judge in a regular civil court, its not that bad at all. Some other attorney jobs arent that bad as far as time/effort but you can make big $$, like immigration, where paralegals fill most of the standard-form paperwork, but depending on your state this might not be the same booming industry that it is in CA and NV.

lastly... check out www.4lawschool.com for other info, and course outlines to help you on your way when you get in. good luck