Going To Law School

yay!

15 years?

I think that sentiment represents a good 90% of our fellow law students up there. Contracts is pretty interesting, but I also found accounting to be really something special.

Con Law is painful, though. The cases ... they take forever!

"15 years?"

You think this shit ends when you're out of school?

i don't think you've given ENOUGH time

what is he, retiring at 40?

guess u cd retire at 40 if you make partner pretty early (32?) but good luck w.that

if you make partner generally you stay there until you are 92 and they wheel you out

No. I think he's going to default into a bigfirm job and hate his life and still feel compelled to succeed, and drift out of the job at around 40 years of age.

I'm going to reconsider after the end of the year and my summer internship and all. I might consider dropping out if the economy isn't even worse by then, which it probably will be. Oh, I see how they get you now.

OneL Summer: "Oh The Economy is Bad"
TwoL Summer: "Oh, I've already invested two years of my life, why not just get the degree?"
Graduation: "Well I have the degree and it's not like I'm qualified to do anything else"

rite?

I imagine being a lawyer is one of the securest professions during an economic downturn tbh; you can always make the switch to insolvency if things get rly bad, or firms insolvency practice doubled in 6 months o_O

our firm's

My roommate hates law school enough that she didn't do an internship her first summer because she was looking for a full-time job outside of law. Unfortunately, the economy IS bad so she's now well into, "Oh, I've already invested two years of my life, why not just get the degree?" I hope she is able to get a job.

Hurting, welcome to my world. Except you actually have good grades. What's another realistic option for a career for you? My field, writing, is toast. I don't even get the 8 zillion freelance job spams I used to years ago... maybe one or two trickle in every week.

Good luck making partner from a school like Cardozo or Brooklyn ... our best bets is to start our own firm, though you could very well go full elite, Hurting.

Yeah, I don't have many options. It's the liberal arts major's curse.

I worked in journalism, which is in bad shape. I could maybe get my last job back - decent pay but doesn't go anywhere (although I guess if I really shake a leg I could get some kind of supervisor position or a job in the main office in Cali and move there). Even teaching - my other backup plan - is tough right now. NYC is mulling big cuts, probably not hiring many out-of-system people.

Is there any point in joining this Phi Delta Phi thing? $75 sound like 75 good reasons not to.

I imagine being a lawyer is one of the securest professions during an economic downturn tbh; you can always make the switch to insolvency if things get rly bad, or firms insolvency practice doubled in 6 months o_O
But the real estate/conveyancing people have taken a hammering, shirley?

well every dept is a bit quieter tbh but prop is always busy and always hiring, tht stuff never seems to get old, bare in mind it's all commercial conveyancing tho so not damaged by any housing slumps

Wish I had your optimism!

i work in a litigation boutique practice... we're pretty flat out and not expecting to slow. i've heard some of the big firms' property practices are doing nothing but defaults right now. it'll recover quicker than other industries though, that's my prediction.

What the hell am I going to do this summer? I have to focus on public interest/government stuff, but I simply can't find any internships to apply to! I get maybe 2-3 results on pslaw.net, no results on idealist.org, etc. etc. Time to work the family connections. ;_;

Law school really does absolutely nothing to help you; it's like you hand them huge amounts of $$$$$$$, and in return you get a decent professor or two. That's it. No nice, comfortable facilities ... no assistance in anything law related outside of how to read cases. Lovely.

btw phi delta e-mail person made dumb mistake of putting all names in the "To" line. Everyone on the list now knows who fell below 3.2, which is kind of sad. I couldn't help but think of a couple people differently after that, and I wish I never knew.

gah law school is so frustrating and pointless and life-sucking
(appellate brief due Monday)

yeah, mine's Tuesday.

I got malicious prosecution - defending a successful summary judgment motion of. What's yours?

Sometimes it's like we're the same person. Sometimes it's like everyone in law school is the same person.

Mine is appellee counsel for school that won summary judgment motion on first amendment claim by a student suspended for wearing a medical marijuana shirt

It's a very well-designed post-Bong-Hits-4-Jesus mindfuck.

Always with the summary judgment motions. Do they get these from the same book?

I think someone at my school writes them, but I could be wrong.

It might be more plausible that they're from a book.

yeah i really really hate writing classes because i can't get into the hypothetical shit. like i don't really care what happens to my fictional client at all. i do way better at work. legal writing/app ad i found to be the most pointless and life-sucking things.

They bookmakers are probably only up to summary judgment motions. Maybe next year's students get to do judgment as a matter of law. though I guess they're both basically the same thing, but with a ton of extra steps.

same here, harble. Doing like, Unemployment Action Center is fun and engaging. These fake scenarios is really hard to inspire hard work and motivation.

Our scenario feels slightly implausible anyway -- it's too constructed and there's too much purposefully left out of the record.

Instead of inventing this bullshit down-the-middle could-go-either-way scenario for our first brief, they should have us do something a little more settled, I think. It would be more useful. I have very little caselaw that supports me and I'm going largely on gut and policy.

Law madness is kind of great at the same time. I wrote a long e-mail to Eugene Volokh about Alito's concurring opinion in Morse v. Frederick!

"Sometimes it's like we're the same person. Sometimes it's like everyone in law school is the same person."

...and with every passing year, my violent hatred for you dudes more and more resembles pity.

I hate this appellate brief crap. That is all.

I'm in the home stretch

Well, partner and I got an A on our appellate brief, so at least I'm not a total slacker/dumbass. No luck on getting any internships for the summer yet. :{

Spring break. How quaint.

Anyone have any thoughts on the current legal job market, prospects for 2009 OCI, etc.? There's a lot of gloom and doom on the law school boards but sometimes the people there tend to exaggerate.

i'm sure many firms will still do OCI to nab some summer associates probably

it's hard to predict as it hinges on the economy and God knows where that will be come September, but my guess is that BigLaw will still show up although they won't nab as many potential summer associates as in the recent past and will be even more snooty selective than they normally are.

if you have any pre-law school experience with bankruptcy you may have a chance.

Sadly no. I have the grades for OCI easily, but some are speculating that certain firms may skip schools like mine this year and focus on top schools. That's just rumor, of course.