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.