“What are you going to do when you graduate?”
“What type of law do you want to practice?”
“What do you want to do?”
“Where do you want to live?”
“What next?”
I dread these questions and their innumerable variations. Why? Because I don’t have the answers. Frankly, I hardly have any ideas. I simply don’t know.
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QFirst of all, I actually read your column but mostly for the occasional humor and to hear about situations that lawyers get themselves into. But I don’t read it for advice because I’m what you call a happy lawyer. I like what I do, love the practice of law (family law mostly), and enjoy working with my colleagues. Plus, I get paid fairly well in my market.
No, I’m not fresh out of school and, yes, I have student loan debt, plenty of it. But I’m happy because I wanted to be a lawyer and am now a lawyer and loving it for three reasons: 1) it’s challenging; 2) I like solving problems; and 3) people respect me. So, my question: why aren’t you happy? Or, maybe put it this way: what makes lawyers so unhappy?
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For you 1Ls out there, networking is still something that is only a vague worry. But to the 2Ls and 3Ls it’s one of the last straws in our grasp as we seek to find someone willing to provide us with gainful employment as a lawyer. Unfortunately, the only guidance people have often comes from the school’s career services office, the same sort of people whose idea of good advice for students is telling them not to eat at cocktail receptions. When I was in consulting, a lot of my job was networking, and I’ve put together a few tips for those of us who are still working hard to land that first job in the legal field.
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Enclosed please find the single most important message I have ever attempted to impart on the masses. Namely, that there is ZERO truth to the sadly overused assertion, “You can do anything with a law degree!” Unfortunately the people who would benefit most from this advice are highly unlikely to be Bitter Lawyer readers. Nevertheless, it needs to get out now so it can ultimately trickle down to those who need it most, i.e. people who have not yet made the disastrously unalterable decision to graduate from law school.
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If you’re not buried in homework or constantly drunk (and still buried in homework), you’ve probably heard of the string of law students bringing suit against their former law schools.
Most are about graduated students who cannot find jobs and are suing their law schools, typically for falsification of employment and salary data. New York Law School is facing a class action suit for 200 million, Cooley is facing another class action suit for 250 million, and Thomas Jefferson is being sued by a single student for 50 million because she couldn’t find a job. And those are the front runners, filed last summer.
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QI’m a mid-ranked grad from a T14 school who found a job with a small firm in 2008 before the profession started to tank. I stuck it out, missed the layoffs and was somewhat thankful I did. But, to be honest, I also would have been pretty relieved if the firm I worked for—a low-grade firm that basically pays me on what I bring in—had started to go under and asked me to move on.
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With the recent premiere of the Bottom Rung, the web series about the underworld of document review, we’re receiving hundreds of letters in the post each day asking one thing: how do I avoid that hell hole? For many of you, it is too late and, while watching the series, you find yourself saying “hey, Ted is looking good these days” or “I could totally date that girl.” For those of you, however, who have not experienced the joy of basement-level law, here are at least thirty-four signs that you’ve got the skills and aptitude to press the down button on the elevator. Oh, and for you lifers or gunners out there, feel free to comment to add the warning signs we’ve surely missed.
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