Should you go to law school? 18

So - you wanna be a lawyer?  Here is the "catch all" answer I give to those who ask me:

    Have you always known you want to go to law school?  Has it been your dream to be a lawyer since you were 6?  When the other kids were playing with Barbie and He-Man action figures, were you playing with Lawyer Barbie and Lawyer He-Man action figures?  When all of your friends had posters of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and their favorite sports or rock stars on their wall, did you have picture of the Justices of the Supreme Court?  While your friends were wondering who to ask to the prom, were you obsessing over the latest decisions from the Supreme Court?  Did you go out on a date in high school and bore your date to death discussing the intricacies of conflict of laws?

    If the answer to the above is "yes," then go to law school.  Your destiny awaits.

    If the answer to the above is "no," then become a paralegal (takes about 6 months) and work for a law firm or in some legal field for two years.  You will gain knowledge which will serve you well in law school and put you ahead of other students.  You will make some $$$.  And, MOST IMPORTANT, you will really know if the field of law is for you.

 

Should you go to law school? 17

OK - we are close to wrapping this up.

     Over these series of posts I have tried to demonstrate to anyone thinking of going to law school the following:

1.    Becoming a lawyer requires a lot of work
2.    Being a lawyer requires a lot of work
3.    It is not something you should decide to do because "I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life - might as well go to law school" or "what the hell, I'll take the LSAT for fun"
4.     Being a lawyer will change you and the way you think
5.     Law schools and TV shows lie to you about the reality of being a lawyer

and

5.      If you do it right, law can be an incredibly rewarding career

     I guess the overall theme of this thread is something you learn to do as a lawyer - think before you act and analyze the situation.

     I will close this thread out tomorrow with the general advice I give to everyone thinking about becoming a lawyer.

 

Interludes - Fraud in the Middle Ages

Fraud is as old as time - as this interesting article points out.

We will get back to the law school thread in the next post.

http://www.medievalists.net/2014/02/26/defraud-lord-medieval-manor/

NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS BLOG IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE NOR IS IT INTENDED TO BE LEGAL ADVICE.  IF THE READER HAS ANY LEGAL QUESTIONS, PLEASE REFER TO AN ATTORNEY.

                                             

http://www.tauskvega.com

 

----------à>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gene tausk

 

Should you go to law school? 16

One final question as we move forward to wrap this up.

     What is it about being a lawyer that attracts you?  I'm certain its not the long hours, working in an office environment or spending a great deal of time in front of a computer.  A lot of jobs have the above requirements and you certainly do not have to be a lawyer to be engage in the above.

     Take a few minutes and really think, think, about what it is that attracts you to the profession of law.  There must be something which stands out.  Something above and beyond the rudimentary descriptions of what it is to be a lawyer must attract you. 

     Once you can answer this question, you are well on your way to having a good reason for going ot law school and entering the field of law.

 

Should you go to law school? 15

OK - a few more posts until we wrap this up.

     We have discussed both why and why not you should go to law school.  Let's ask a very basic question here: if you want to go to law school, ask yourself how did you first get interested in the law? 

     Every lawyer I spoke with always has some story of what first "inspired" them to be a lawyer.  It can be many things:

1.     TV shows or movies (let's face it, this is how most of us first explore the idea of being a lawyer)

2.     Family member or friend who is a lawyer

3.     An encounter with the law (hopefully not a negative encounter)

4.     A career day in high school or college

5.     Reading a novel which features a lawyer as a hero (YEAH!) or villain (yeah, it happens)

6.     A class which turned out to be a prelaw class in high school or college

7.     Working with lawyers

     It is important to examine first how you came to be interested in the law as a career to really find out if a career in law is for you.

 

Should you go to law school? 14

OK - here is another self-examination question.

     Do you like working with people?  Specifically, do you like to meet with and interact with new people all the time?

     Law is a human activity - laws are not made, nor are they enforced, in a vacuum.  Even if you are a lawyer who never sets foot in a courtroom, you will always be, to one extent or another, interacting with people.  Even if you are a patent lawyer (a lawyer that must have a background in engineering or science to get licensed), you will need to constantly meet with and interact with people. 

     It is not a job for those who dislike people or who have some innate fear of constantly seeing new faces.

     Once again, this is a question you need to answer yourself.  No one can do it for you and certainly no law school recruiter or "cheerleader" for the lawyer profession will advise you otherwise.  Even if you spend all of your time doing nothing other than legal research, you will have to spend time speaking with your clients (who will be other lawyers). 

      Think carefully on this.  I have known law school graduates who passed the bar and found the practice of law very uncomfortable because of the above.  Before you invest the time and money into law school, make certain you know this bit of information about yourself.

 

Should you go to law school? 13

OK - here is a basic question for you - can you write?  Do you like to write?

      No matter what you choose to do in law, you will have to write.  You will have to write well.  You will have to learn to write as a lawyer (which you may learn in law school but you will certainly learn by the time you practice for a few years).  You will have to write continuously.

     I look back sometimes at a time when I was 16 and taking an Honors level English class in high school.  I was assigned a 10 page term paper (not including footnotes)!  At the time, it seemed like I was writing War and Peace.  I remember the effort and the sense of accomplishment I felt when it was over. 

    I write on average 10 pages a day with little or no effort.  When I really push myself, I can do 30.  Sometimes more. 

    I am not boasting, but I am reflecting on how expectations change. 

    So - can you write?  Do you like to write?

   

Interludes - Amazing Fraud out of China

We will get back to the law school series in the next post.  But, this article was too good to pass up.

I've said it before and I will continue saying it: the imagination that fraudsters have is sometimes better than J.R.R. Tolkien (writer of The Lord of the Rings) or Robert E Howard (the guy who created Conan the Barbarian).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10646217/Chinese-fraudster-fakes-superhuman-powers-to-rob-victims.html

NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS BLOG IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE NOR IS IT INTENDED TO BE LEGAL ADVICE.  IF THE READER HAS ANY LEGAL QUESTIONS, PLEASE REFER TO AN ATTORNEY.

                                             

http://www.tauskvega.com

 

----------à>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gene tausk

 

Should you go to law school? 12

Here is another question to ask yourself, although this should be obvious: can you deal with stress? 

     It is clear from even the most lackluster review of a lawyer's life that it is a stressful one.  Every "cheerleader" for law school admits this.  Law school is stressful enough but it is only a preview of what is to come. 

     Can you handle stress?  Many lawyers cannot.  The law profession has one of the highest rates of alcoholism and drug abuse of its members of any profession in the United States.  This is to say nothing of the rates of divorce, stress-related illnesses and a shocking lack of physical exercise among lawyers. 

    If you are going to be a lawyer, you need to learn how to handle stress.  Or, I should say, another way of handling stress other than hitting the bottle or drugs.  And, you need to have this method of handling stress in place before you go to law school.  Whatever works for you: religion, long-distance running, martial arts, writing fantasy novels, doing volunteer work with animals, whatever.  Find something to blow off steam.  Find something and make certain that it stabilizes your life.

     Not to sound New-Agey or like Dr. Phil, but you need this release or your legal career will make your life short and miserable.

 

Should you go to law school? 11

As I mentioned in an earlier post - being a lawyer means being a fighter.  A lawyer is someone who defends another person (or a corporation or another legal entity, etc.).  A lawyer defends his client.  It does not necessarily have to be in the courtroom, but a lawyer is someone who will stand up for his client against all that seek to do him harm.

     So - the next factor to consider if you can be a lawyer - can you take a hit and get back up, still swinging?

     I don't have to mention this again but I will anyway - the practice of law is nothing, nothing, like what you see on TV.  There is no such thing as a lawyer that will be victorious every single day.  Sometimes, sometimes a lot of the time, you will take a hit.  You will lose a trial that you are sure you should have won.  You will analyze a situation incorrectly for a client, despite your best efforts.  You will turn in a legal brief to a court confident in your arguments only to have a judge look at the brief and call it moronic and stupid (yes, judges do use that kind of language from time to time).  In other words, like everyday life, the practice of law will sometimes hit you like a kick in the gut that leaves you on the ground, breathless and in pain. 

     Can you get back up and swing back?  Or, if you do not have this skill yet (which is fine), do you think you can acquire it? 

     The practice of law is no place for the meek.

 

Should you go to law school? 10

OK - let's start focusing on reasons why you should go to law school.

      Let's start with the most basic reason: are you the kind of person who is not scared of hard work?  This is not a frivolous question nor is it the kind of "Dr. Feelgood" question that you often hear coming from high-school guidance counselors or some recruiter.  It is a serious question and in many ways the most basic one in evaluating whether you should be a lawyer.

     Look back at the earlier posts.  Look at the one where I state that lawyers (good ones anyway) work about 80 hours a week.  This is not an option for lawyers; this is just a fact of life.  So - are you the kind of person that can handle this workload?  Are you the kind of person who can throw yourself into your work and laugh at those who actually think that getting into the office at 8 and leaving at 5 is some kind of major accomplishment? 

     This is what real lawyers do, boys and girls.  Real lawyers work and they work hard. We make no apologies for our dedication.  We do this not only because we have to, but because we want to.  We love our jobs.

     So - ask yourself - can you work hard?  Only you can answer this question.  Be honest with yourself. 

 

Should you go to law school? 9

Before we move on to discuss why you should go to law school, I need to define something at this point in time.

     What does it mean to be a "lawyer?"  You can look up this definition yourself on Wikipedia or other sources.  For the purposes of this blog, however, I define a lawyer as someone who will represent clients as lawyers.  I realize that this is kind of a circular definition, but in the end, a lawyer is someone who will represent a client and defend his interests against other people or organizations that are trying to do him harm.  I am not talking exclusively about courtroom work: there are many lawyers who fit this definition who will never set foot in a courtroom.  I am talking about people who get a law degree, get licensed as attorneys and spend their time defending their clients' interests against those who try to do harm to their clients. 

      Maybe it is the romantic in me, or maybe it is because I practice full-contact historical fencing as a hobby, but I see lawyers as Medieval warriors of old ready to do battle to defend people.

     This definition is important because over the next few series of posts I will be describing why a person should go to law school and become a licensed attorney.  If a person is going to go to law school to be a businessperson, a business consultant, an office worker, a drone in some office, a real-estate agent, etc. then in my opinion they are not practicing law.  People who seek these positions do not need to go to law school; an MBA will do just fine.  There is no need to ask if people such as these should go to law school, therefore, since they have other educational options available to them to fulfill their career goals.

    Lawyers fight.  Pure and simple.

    So, the next series of posts will affirmatively try to answer the question: should you go to law school?

 

Should you go to law school? 8

OK - last of the posts on reasons NOT to go to law school.

    This one has always puzzled me: people tell me sometimes that they are bored in their current position and want to go to law school because they think being a lawyer is exciting.  When I ask why they think it is exciting, I usually get one of two responses: (1) going to trial is exciting or (2) dealing with criminals is exciting.

   Let's start with reason 2: dealing with criminals.  What these people usually mean is that they want to become criminal defense attorneys (or prosecutors) and they think that dealing with criminals will be exciting (whatever that means). 

     Look, being a criminal-defense lawyer is only one possible career path to being a lawyer, as is being a prosecutor.  Being a lawyer offers a lot of career options.  Second, if you want to become a criminal defense attorney because you think it would be "exciting" to work with criminals, then do something else.  I have learned over long years of this job, as has every successful criminal defense attorney of which I know, that you need to learn how to deal with people when they are at their lowest and are facing serious penalties for something they may not have done.  It is not "exciting" to deal with people when they are at the lowest point in their lives.  You have to develop a degree of compassion and understanding of your client because at this point you are the only person capable of helping him.  For all intents and purposes, you are the only friend of these people.  If you think that being a criminal defense attorney is some Wild-West shoot-em-up like a bad TV/internet program, you have no business being a criminal defense attorney.  Do something else. 

      As for the first reason, as I have explained previously, going to trial occupies a small percentage of a lawyer's time (with the exception of rare circumstances).  If you can't do the work leading up to trial, you will never be a good trial lawyer.

   OK - we move on to reasons to go to law school next post.

 

Should you go to law school? 7

Only a few more posts on "proving a negative," namely - the reasons not to go to law school. 

    Strangely enough, one of the reasons I get from would-be lawyers about why they want to go to law school is: "I just graduated with a worthless degree (Philosophy, Art History, Women's Studies, etc.) and I can't do anything with it.  Might as well go to law school."

      This is just another way of saying that you don't know what you want to do with your life so you might as well go to law school.  Review the last series of posts.  I've already explained what a tremendous challenge is law school and being a lawyer.  Do you honestly think that such a decision and commitment should be left to: I don't know what I want to do?

      If I can get carried away here: this is the stupidest reason to go to law school and become a lawyer. 

     Unless you are one of the VERY lucky 10% of people who become lawyers on the spur of the moment and find out they really love it, you are setting yourself up for failure.  I really cannot emphasize enough that choosing to go to law school "just because" is an incredibly bad decision.  Once you have committed yourself and find yourself $150,000 in debt "just because," you probably will be kicking yourself in the ass.

    In other words, don't waste your time and money if this is your "thought process" for taking the LSAT and applying to law school.  Go on a round-the-world trip instead and get your head in order. 

 

Should you go to law school? 6

Once again, continuing with the theme of "proving by a negative," I will be discussing reasons why you should not go to law school before we move to reasons why you should go to law school.

     If your underlying reason to become a lawyer is because you want to "help people," then you need to take a step back.  I am not criticizing the desire to help your fellow human beings (once again, check out my Facebook ravings), but there are many ways to help people without becoming a lawyer.

      When we talk about "helping people" when it comes to law, we are usually talking about working at legal centers for low income people.  These legal centers offer assistance to individuals and families who otherwise would not be able to afford an attorney and are usually non-profit organizations.  These legal centers and organizations rely on donations of both time and money from sponsors to keep working.  And, of course, such organizations cannot really pay their staff and lawyers a great deal of money. 

     Review the post on the law school experience.  Review the debt that you will accumulate.  After going through three years of law school and (for most people) massive debt, when you get out of law school you may not be in a position to work in a low-paying non-profit.  I am not kidding when I say that these organizations offer low pay; I have seen lawyers working for these organizations make less money than managers at McDonald's. 

     Further, even if you are in a position to work for these organizations, remember the earlier post about finding a job - jobs for lawyers are scarce and these non-profit positions, which in years past sometimes went begging for someone to fill them now have a waiting list of lawyers wanting to get jobs with them. 

      So - if you are looking to become an attorney because you want to help people, then ask yourself if it is only by becoming a lawyer that you can help people.

 

Should you go to law school? 5

Continuing with our theme of "proving by a negative," which is to say I am giving reasons not to go to law school before I give reasons to go to law school, let's move onto another area in which people are often confused about the life of lawyers: the trial.

      I hear all the time from prospective law school students that they want to go to law school to be trial lawyers.  They "LOVE" trial work.

      Now, let's start with the basics: if you really want to be a trial lawyer, then go for it.  There is no stopping you.  But, keep in mind the following:

1.   Most cases you will get (and by this I mean about 90%) will NEVER get to the trial stage.  This applies for both civil and criminal cases.  Most civil cases will settle.  Most criminal cases will be pled out or, on rare occasions, dismissed.  This is simply the way it works.

2.   For every hour you are in the courtroom for a trial, you will be outside the courtroom for at least the same amount of time preparing for that trial.  The preparation phase of the trial is the "grunt" work.  Just like an Olympic athlete needs to spend countless hours preparing away from the limelight, it is the same for trial lawyers. 

    The only exceptions to the above are:

1.   In Harris County, Texas (where I live and practice), we have a group of attorneys that exclusively handle traffic tickets, which are crimes in Texas (very minor crimes, but crimes nonetheless).  This group of attorneys usually has at least three trials per week.  But, these trials do not last more than one day and are usually only a few hours long (this is not to disparage their work, but this is the way traffic ticket trials operate).

2.  There are a VERY FEW attorneys who have risen above all other trial attorneys and are brought in for the sole purpose of trying cases. 



    

Should you go to law school? 4

So - picking up on our post from the other day.  I stated not to go to law school if your goal is to earn lots of money.   Any decent lawyer will tell you this.

     So - what's wrong with going to law school to become a lawyer to earn lots of $$$?  There is nothing wrong with earning money.  Anyone who looks at my Facebook rants knows that I am a huge libertarian and if your goal in life is to make money, I have no problems with that goal.  Everyone has the right to maximize his own utility.

     The issue with becoming a lawyer because your primary goal is to make money is that you have no idea (until you become a lawyer) the amount of work involved.  Let me make this clear: if you are a lawyer in private practice and you want to earn a good salary, you will be working a minimum of 80 hours per week.  And only half of that will be "doing law" (a/k/a being able to work on projects for which you can charge clients for your time).  The rest will be the cost of doing business - running your law practice like a business, which it is.

     Which is something they will not teach you in law school - being a lawyer is a BUSINESS.  You have to account for your hours, you have to have a budget for marketing, an office, website, equipment, etc.  You need to pay employees.  You need to have insurance.  The list goes on. 

    Being a lawyer is being a businessman.  Pure and simple.  However, your "business" is the practice of law which means you have to be not only a good lawyer, but a good businessman as well.  You need to live in the world of a businessperson and the world of law.  You are working two jobs and THIS is where the 80 hours a week comes in. 

 

    Consider this, therefore: you are working two jobs, full time.  If you work two full time jobs, you will most probably have a good income no matter what.  Working as a lawyer to get rich, therefore, means that you are working two full time jobs.  When you do the math, you will see that making money as a lawyer is a huge investment of time.  Doesn't seem so easy to "get rich" now, does it?

 

 

Should you go to law school 3?

So - we can see that law school is a big investment of time, money and relationships.  Is it worth it?

     The obvious answer is that for many people the answer is "yes."  They enjoy being lawyers (yours truly being one of them) and while law school may not be the best of times, it is worth it to become a lawyer.

    So - the real question then is: do you want to put up with three plus years of hell to become an attorney? 

   Which, of course, leads to the real question: WHY do you want to become an attorney?

    Let's start by looking at why you should not become an attorney.  The first step is an obvious answer that any attorney will tell you: if you want to become an attorney to make lots of money, do something else.  Becoming a lawyer because you want to make money is the WRONG reason to go to law school.

    We will explore this tomorrow.

 

Should you go to law school 2

Let's start with a rather objective view of law school.  These statements are beyond argument:

1.  It is an extreme commitment of time.  It takes three years to get a J.D. (I know some people that did it in 2.5 years, but they had to really apply themselves at the expense of their personal lives).  Some law schools have part-time programs, but even this is a four-year commitment which demands a great deal of time when you are in law school.

2.  During the time you are in law school, you cannot really do anything else.  Law school takes an extreme commitment to studying and review of materials.  Although the intensity of law school is somewhat overrated (I suppose a hangover from "The Paper Chase" and John Grisham novels), it is true that the study of law is very demanding.  I speak as someone who received a Master's degree in a very intense program (Russian) before going to law school, so I do have some experience in this.

3.  Law school is extremely competitive.  Once again, although the competition in law school is somewhat overrated (once again, you can thank "The Paper Chase"), it is true that getting an A is very difficult.  On the flip side, it is next to impossible to fail out of law school.

4.  Unless you are independently wealthy, you will have to take out loans to attend law school.  We will discuss this further in a later post, but the low end of law school debt is $30,000 (yep that's THIRTY THOUSAND dollars).  Debt of $150,000.00 (yep - that's ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS) is not unusual.

5.  Getting into law school itself is a challenge.  A good law school demands a good undergraduate GPA and a good score on the LSAT (although what the LSAT has to do with being a lawyer is beyond me).  Your undergraduate program will also be evaluated.  Getting a 3.0 in a field like Mechanical Engineering will be a lot more impressive than getting a 4.0 in Basket Weaving.  This means that even before you set foot in law school, you will need to invest time and money in studying for the LSAT.  (For my foreign readers: LSAT = Law School Admissions Test)

6.  Even if you go to a good law school, the days when you can graduate assured of a high-paying job are long-gone.  Just going to law school is no guarantee of future employment and that $150,000.00 in debt you may accrue will haunt you for the rest of your life, good job or not.

7.  The three years you are in law school will be a strain on any relationship you have.  Some marriages do not survive law school and I have heard from many people that I could be a total prick when I was in law school.  Including my wife.  I know several people whose marriages did not survive.

8.  For the most part, law school does not prepare you for being a lawyer.  It doesn't even prepare you to take the bar exam.  You will learn how to be a lawyer after you graduate and work as a lawyer.

9.  Speaking of the bar exam, getting your J.D. degree means nothing.  You have to pass the bar exam of your state to be able to practice law.  This means that AFTER you graduate, you must study for the bar (a full-time occupation in and of itself) for about three months (depending on the state) and attend bar-review classes.  This means you can expect to add another $5000.00 to your debt and have another three months of being a social hermit and a general pain-in-the-ass to all of your friends and family.

    It should be clear, then that deciding whether or not to attend law school is not a spur-of-the-moment decision.  If you are going to go through all of the above, make damned sure you are not doing it on a coin toss.

 

Should you go to law school?

Once again, I will take a break from fraud and move to a subject which is close to me.  As I mentioned in my bio, I am an attorney and a Certified Fraud Examiner.  I get questioned a great deal about becoming a lawyer, going to law school and if becoming a lawyer is a career option. 

    I've been asked these questions for years now and I suppose it is the right time to put my thoughts in writing.  I'm not a career counselor or psychologist, but the decision to go to law school and become a lawyer is one of the most important decisions anyone can make, whether it is a person just starting college or someone looking for a second career. 

   So, for the next few posts, we will be tackling this vexing question.  Just a note, some of these posts might contain some profanity.