Question for Attorneys

[wuapinmon]

I've got a student who wants to be an attorney. (All non-attorneys please create a separate thread for your digs). He is a junior, and he spent a semester in Costa Rica last Fall. His Spring grades were solid. Before Costa Rica.....not so much.

Anyway, he's thinking that he'd like to try immigration or family law. He has questions about law-school application strategy that I probably can't answer as well as some of yall could. He hasn't taken any exams yet, so there's a lot we don't know. I do know that he's determined. He's the oldest of 8, single mom, really hard times growing up. Determined to bring his family out of poverty.

Anyway, if anyone wants to be a mentor to him, shoot me your email in a PM and I'll have him contact you. He's still got a long way to go, and he might have to go get a masters first to improve his writing, but anything you could do, other than discourage him, would be appreciated.

[Jacob]

1st off, going into a lot of debt to become a lawyer is a terrible way to try to get your family out of poverty, IMO.

2nd, getting a masters before going to law school just gets him more debt and is a terrible idea. There is no masters program that is going to help him be a better lawyer. If he's only a Jr. he's got time to improve his writing skills. And writing skills have nothing to do with getting into law school i.e. nothing to do with the LSAT. Getting a job for 2 years before law school would be a much better use of his time than getting a masters in anything. Seriously, terrible idea if his end goal is to practice law. And I mean working at a gas station would be a better use of his time...save some money.

If he is intent on getting into law school, the best thing he can do is take an LSAT prep course, and dedicate himself to studying hard to prepare. He's already a jr, so he should start now. Good LSAT score = good school or scholarship at slightly less good school. By studying hard, I mean for at least 6 months, a few hours every day with lots of practice tests.

If he cares about his family, he needs to see what it takes to get a scholarship to a local law school and dedicate himself to getting that scholarship.

He needs to get good grades too, but the LSAT is more important.

That's what I think.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Tell him not to go to law school.

[Mrs. Funk]

You might have your student browse through the blog Above the Law to get a sense of how law students are doing in finding jobs and other law school related gossip. It pretty consistently provides good, anecdotal information for how the law students and law grads are doing.

A high LSAT score is really helpful. I did all self-study and only about two months really seriously. I didn't get a great score, which combined with my high GPA meant that I got waitlisted at most of the better schools to which I applied. In this market, it doesn't make very much sense to go to a lower ranked school without at least a half-tuition scholarship. Even some folks with degree from top 10 schools are struggling to get jobs at the moment.

If the kid is really serious about it, getting some kind of legal experience can be crucial to finding out if he wants to do it and making some early contacts. He might even consider offering to work for free for a firm that handles the types of law he's interested in. Preemptively beginning his job search in the region or regions he might wish to practice in will give him a leg up; he should talk to firms and see what their long-term hiring plans are and if in the next couple of years if they will be looking for new hires.

The trajectory of the legal hiring market in the next five years or so is going to be pretty interesting to watch. The traditional hiring model has more or less collapsed upon itself, with larger firms taking smaller and smaller classes of law clerks. Firms in smaller and medium-sized cities are reporting receiving 500+ applications for positions starting at $60k. It appears that law school are pumping out increasingly more graduates than the legal market can handle. As with many careers, your student's ability to meet the right people and leave them impressed will have a big part to do with his success.

[falafel]

Tell him not to go to law school.

He said no discouragement!

[Mrs. Funk]

He said no discouragement!

It's okay. I know where he sleeps. And he will sleep with the fishes.

[Commando]

I will say that Immigration and Family Law has gotten me into poverty, but I'm not the shining example of ambition here I'm sure.

[Jacob]

I will say that Immigration and Family Law has gotten me into poverty, but I'm not the shining example of ambition here I'm sure.

Yeah, not the typical big money practices.

[wally]

Tell him not to go to law school.

EXACTLY.

Tell him to become an engineer. You get to work all day solving problems that matter. You can graduate with zero debt. (I graduated with my masters with virtually no debt, and I didn't have any scholarships, beyond a one time $1000 one).

You can land a job with decent-to-good earning potential with a bachelors degree. There are excellent job prospects in Civil, Envronmental and Biomedical Engineering fields right now. In fact biomedical is exploding. BLS predicts 10 year Job growth for biomedical to be in the 72% range (7-12% is about agerage) Civil is projected at 24% and environmental at 31%.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

Growth in Law is projected at 13%, or average.

[Pheidippides]

EXACTLY.

Tell him to become an engineer. You get to work all day solving problems that matter. You can graduate with zero debt. (I graduated with my masters with virtually no debt, and I didn't have any scholarships, beyond a one time $1000 one).

You can land a job with decent-to-good earning potential with a bachelors degree. There are excellent job prospects in Civil, Envronmental and Biomedical Engineering fields right now. In fact biomedical is exploding. BLS predicts 10 year Job growth for biomedical to be in the 72% range (7-12% is about agerage) Civil is projected at 24% and environmental at 31%.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

Growth in Law is projected at 13%, or average.

If I had to do it again, without knowing what law school I would get into, this is what I would have done.

[pellegrino]

EXACTLY.

Tell him to become an engineer. You get to work all day solving problems that matter. You can graduate with zero debt. (I graduated with my masters with virtually no debt, and I didn't have any scholarships, beyond a one time $1000 one).

You can land a job with decent-to-good earning potential with a bachelors degree. There are excellent job prospects in Civil, Envronmental and Biomedical Engineering fields right now. In fact biomedical is exploding. BLS predicts 10 year Job growth for biomedical to be in the 72% range (7-12% is about agerage) Civil is projected at 24% and environmental at 31%.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

Growth in Law is projected at 13%, or average.

The only problem with this is that I doubt wuap's college offers an engineering degree. This would mean he'd have to transfer, as a junior. That said, I think this is the best option for someone who is looking to get his family out of poverty. I will encourage all of my children to strongly consider an engineering degree.

[Commando]

I will say that Immigration and Family Law has gotten me into poverty, but I'm not the shining example of ambition here I'm sure.

Oh -- I will also say that if you get a gig with Homeland Security deporting fools, Immigration Law will pay off monetarily.

Just sayin.

[wuapinmon]

Correction. It's ENVIRONMENTAL law. I was mistaken.

[landpoke]

Correction. It's ENVIRONMENTAL law. I was mistaken.

LOL, good one.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Correction. It's ENVIRONMENTAL law. I was mistaken.

Navigating through NEPA, RCRA and CERCLA regulations for a living?

:igiveup: