What do you guys say when lay people ask you dumb questions about law school. I'm starting in the fall. I'm getting sick and tired of peeople asking me the same old dumb questions. What type of law do you want to practice? That's annoying mainly because the answer I would give would be something like transactional or litigation but would be open to both. But the answer a lay person would expect is family law or criminal or defense/prosecution. Talking to lay people about law school is becoming nauseating. I also work with a bunch of TTT lawyers in an office. These lawyers are probaly the slowest uninformed people I've ever been around (no joke). They assume that all law schools are TTT regionals who charge 200k. This will not be my situation and I can't relate to them. I've been there for about a year. I'll be there until august and can't wait to get out. How do I handle this?

Your problems are petty and stupid. If you don't like what people are asking you about, change the subject. You don't like your boss? Whoa, stop the presses! Deal with it. Get drunk and get laid. You've got plenty of time to hate your life and be a sad sack fuckstick once you get to law school.

Get used to it. . .

I don't really have a problem with it. I'm just annoyed. I'll try to change the subject, but some lawyers are egomaniacs who insist on giving unsolicited useless advice. Stuff like Kaplan was a great way to study, the local TTT is a great school or go to the highest rank school in us news regardless of $. I was just curious about how current students/graduates handle these awkward conversations.

How do you handle this?! You stop acting like a self-absorbed, judgmental, entitled, douche-bag asshat.

Good luck and I hope you fall flat on your face the first time you compete against one of the persons you seem to disrespect so much.

This post makes you sound like the egomaniac. Be polite. If your boss gives you advice you disagree with, you can either explain why you are doing something differently or smile and nod, depending on how much you care. And just because lay people don't have all the law school admissions and job market information that you do, or think you do, does not make them stupid.

And if you don't have a problem with it, it sure doesn't sound like it.

I hear your pain, brother. I too work with people who do not know that there are non TTT schools that charge $200k. It's very frustrating working with these people, because despite my efforts to explain it to them once, they didn't understand, and I really want them to understand. When I work near slow people, I find that I get slower myself, and getting slower is one of my biggest fears. To combat this, I try to listen to fast paced music when I'm not around them to counter balance the situation. I also go very light on coffee to reduce my cortisol levels.
In terms of lay people asking me about law school, I just tell them "I'm doing international law", they say "cool", and I get to laugh. I'm not sure why you're getting so angry about this, brother. It's quite clear that you're smarter than everyone you're around, so it's important that you embrace this fact positively, rather than getting nauseous from it. One thing that I like to do when people ask me stupid questions is go to the bathroom and masturbate. Have you tried this? It's a great stress reliever.

That's funny because the people I work with think that they are better than the lowly staff. Something I would never do. I have a very low tolerance for lawyers who think they are better than anyone simply because they are lawyers. I've seen it all the time. They treat you like shit and once they found out that a lowly staff member is going to a better school they get all defensive or hate, like it’s a blow to their ego or something.

When you speak of this "low tolerance", can you provide examples/incite as to what the consequences are when the threshold is breached?

With nonlaw people, I just explain how it works in varying degrees of detail depending on the situation. People aren't likely to feel patronized when the subject is something they have no reason to know anything about. Sometimes the answer to "what kind of law do you want to practice?" can be as simple as "business law."

With people in the profession, you have to be more gentle. I worked in a regional city my 1L summer as was asked a ton of questions by the attorneys there about my plans. None of them were aware of the concept of OCI or the biglaw hiring model in general. I just explained how it worked over time in response to questions. OCI is something that constantly needs explaining because people cannot understand why the most important interviews of your career are at the end of your first year.

Damn bro, just relax.

Don’t listen to these haters. Dealing with people who went to TTT law schools is painful, and you shouldn’t be forced to carry that heavy burden.

My advice? Be as snide and condescending as you can get away with. They probably won’t even get it when after they suggest you attend their alma mater you say “Yeah, taking a few years off after law school instead of getting a job right away does sound appealing .” People who don’t go to law school (or worse TTT’s) deserve little-to-no respect as human beings, especially if they haven’t adequately researched your personal interests to be as conversational in such matters as you are.

I guess it came out the wrong way. My question should have read. How do you react to people giving you unsolicited advice who previously never spoke to you because they thought they were better than you? At the office I work at the lawyers never socialize with the staff, but once I got into law school than they want to socialize. I'm still the same person before. It just seems all fake to me.

I agree with all of this except the part of them not deserving respect. I think it's important to respect people up until the point they prove they don't respect others; at that point however, "fuck 'em" as Biggie Smalls used to say. It's evident that the OP is in a situation where the TTT lawyers aren't good people, and therefore, they should be treated poorly also.

It's so fake and it's so demeaning! The way I see it you have three options:
1. Confront them. Tell them that you do not appreciate their advice. You have researched your goals thoroughly on the Internet and know what lies ahead. Tell them that their advice does not apply to you because you're in a vastly different situation than they are.
2. Roll your eyes, walk away, then masturbate. I think this one is self explanatory.
3. Quit

Like not ackowleging staff members in the hall. Saying hi to a lawyer while completly ignoring a staff member when passing by. Saying to your friends who visit the office that he/she is just an assistant. Once they found out such staff member is going to law school they all want to include the staff member in their social circle while they still ignoring other staff members, but the staff member does not care to be part of that social circle.

Wow, do you know what the word "consequences" means? Are you sure you're smarter than these people?

This is all solid advice, just because they now share a common interest with you of at one point wanting to attend law school doesn’t make you all buddy buddy. Fuck that noise.

Try to explain the importance of what percentile your LSAT score is. They were probably on a different scoring base in their day and don’t understand what a waste it would be to attend a TTT with it.

Take a shit into a styrofoam to-go box, leave it on their desk after they have left for the night, crank the heat up as high as it will go. This works best if their office is small and poorly ventilated.

Either this or give them an upper decker.

con·se·quence   /ˈkɒnsɪˌkwɛns, -kwəns/ Show Spelled[kon-si-kwens, -kwuhns] Show IPA
noun
1. the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier: The accident was the consequence of reckless driving.

Are you fucking kidding me here. I don’t want to be part of that social circle, because they treated I and all the other staff members like shit before. That’s the consequence.

No I'm not fucking kidding you. Now I realize you were talking in the 3rd person you fucking weirdo, but still, when somebody says "I have a low tolerance", and I respond, "what happens after the tolerance is breached", an appropriate response is not to explain an example of how the tolerance is breached. And you simply don't go to their functions?? That's hardly a consequence. They probably didn't want you there anyways because you're a total putz.

ITT: Dude gets acceptance to a law school and is transformed from "lay person" to seasoned insider. Awesome.

Hardly a consequence is still a consequence. If they didn’t want me there they should not have invited me. How would you feel if all of a sudden people invited you to a function but did not invite your other coworkers who happen to be your true friends? I'm guessing you are one of those future esteem esquire's who can't be bothered with the staff.