Is praticing law anything like law school? Forum

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Bildungsroman

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by Bildungsroman » Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:10 pm

typ3 wrote:Law school is nothing like practice. I come from 3 generations of lawyers and nearly every single person in my family is a practicing attorney (everything from corporate M&A to consumer bankruptcy to products liability). I've been in nearly every single practice area. I can handle everything from an adoption, bankruptcy, personal injury case start to finish- I'm a 2L. That being said, I've learned almost nothing that I've applied or used in my nearly 10 years of working in the law for or with family members. You'll find pretty quick that there is a divide between practicing attorneys and the academicians in law school. To quote someone wiser than myself.

"They get out of law school and they are completely useless as lawyers; they've been trained by academicians who have never been in the courtroom. Who have never looked a client in the eye. Who have never had the responsibility of a man's life or a woman's life. Who have never done anything except read books. And it is silly, and it is ridiculous, and they ought to be sued.”

Gerry Spence
You talk a lot about this Gerry Spence guy. And your avatar appears to be a photo of him. You're a weird dude.

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typ3

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by typ3 » Sat Dec 22, 2012 3:18 am

Bildungsroman wrote:
typ3 wrote:Law school is nothing like practice. I come from 3 generations of lawyers and nearly every single person in my family is a practicing attorney (everything from corporate M&A to consumer bankruptcy to products liability). I've been in nearly every single practice area. I can handle everything from an adoption, bankruptcy, personal injury case start to finish- I'm a 2L. That being said, I've learned almost nothing that I've applied or used in my nearly 10 years of working in the law for or with family members. You'll find pretty quick that there is a divide between practicing attorneys and the academicians in law school. To quote someone wiser than myself.

"They get out of law school and they are completely useless as lawyers; they've been trained by academicians who have never been in the courtroom. Who have never looked a client in the eye. Who have never had the responsibility of a man's life or a woman's life. Who have never done anything except read books. And it is silly, and it is ridiculous, and they ought to be sued.”

Gerry Spence
You talk a lot about this Gerry Spence guy. And your avatar appears to be a photo of him. You're a weird dude.
Well, I spent a lot of time with him and a group of his lawyers the last month & 1/2 in Des Moines while he was in trial. I come from a state nearly as rural as Wyoming. The guy rubs off on you after awhile.

TheGreatFish

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by TheGreatFish » Sat Dec 22, 2012 4:43 am

Scotusnerd wrote:Well, I don't think I'll need promissory estoppel or the Lemon test, but they teach it to me anyway. And since something like 50% (quoting out of my ass, feel free to correct if I'm wrong) of employed lawyers are in private practice, showing newbies the basics of how a firm works is not a bad thing.
I think the original intention was for students to receive legal instruction from school, and more practical instruction from their internships and their first job. Due to a number of factors, like the shrinking job market, rise in student debt, and probably most importantly, the development of massive law firms that essentially operate like a legal factory, students don't have as much opportunity to get hands on instruction in the practical side of the law business.

It might be helpful for law schools to devote at least some class time to prepping students on the business side of law, but with the way some of these large law firms operate these days it could be a pointless endeavor. There are stories about guys who have been working for some of these big firms for 10+ years without ever stepping into a courtroom. For these guys, law practice is probably exactly like law school. Brief some cases, write a memo applying the law to the facts, and then hand it over to the boss.
typ3 wrote:The guy rubs off on you after awhile.
There's gotta be a better way to say that.

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LAWYER2

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by LAWYER2 » Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:06 pm

good info

KingsCup

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by KingsCup » Wed Jan 02, 2013 4:31 pm

TheGreatFish wrote:
typ3 wrote:The guy rubs off on you after awhile.
There's gotta be a better way to say that.
It's better than saying the guy rubs you off after awhile. Or not as good. Depending on how you look at it

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dingbat

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by dingbat » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:15 pm

TheGreatFish wrote: the development of massive law firms that essentially operate like a legal factory
The more I see this, the more ridiculous I think it is. Massive law firms don't resemble a factory in any way, shape or form
Last edited by dingbat on Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Scotusnerd

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by Scotusnerd » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:40 pm

I don't want my name attributed to that quote Dingbat, because I sure as hell didn't say it. :shock:

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dingbat

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Re: Is praticing law anything like law school?

Post by dingbat » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:45 pm

Scotusnerd wrote:I don't want my name attributed to that quote Dingbat, because I sure as hell didn't say it. :shock:
Sorry - bad deleting on my part. My sincerest apologies. Here's a picture to make up for it
Image

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