Post
by sadsituationJD » Wed Mar 14, 2012 1:33 pm
Look OP (and everyone else for that matter)- if you MUST go to law school, go wherever is 100% free, and work part-time to pay living expenses if you can (i.e wait tables, bartend, etc). The "opportunities" afforded to grads of St. John's, Seton Hall, R-N, Brooklyn etc are not any better than those for a CUNY or Pace grad, despite your thoughts to the contrary. So if these lower-ranked places give you full ride, take it and don't look back.
The old PI firm I worked at in NYC had grads from Pace, CUNY, NYLS, and Brooklyn, as well as an NYU grad (that one's a long story). Having 0 debt opens up a world of possibilities: you could spend the 75 K you would've given a toilet like St John's or Seton Hall on say a google adwords campaign or something that will make YOU $$$ when you get out, rather than debt service. And should you fail, that debt can be discharged in bankruptcy. Shitlaw clients could care less where you went to law school, believe me when I tell you that is the last thing on their mind. All my friends who went to law school for free now have pretty decent practices of their own, because the $$$ I spend on debt they spent on building their own biz.
Small firms also don't give a hoot where you went to law school- the only thing they require is bar admission so that you can cover court appearances and sign off on your own motion affirmations. Another piece of advice to to become a NY notary right now, as it will make you more attractive as a part-time intern or law clerk since you can notarize HIPPA authos and other docs that clients might bring in. You can wait until bar admission and then they waive the notary exam, but the test is so easy you might as well just take it now and get that credential so you'll have it on your resume for intern jobs in shitlaw. It's little things like that which might get you a gig in like a small personal injury shop or other shitlaw office your first year summer.
Another thing you should take advantage of are the CLE classes- most of them will let law students attend the lectures for free (although if you want the form books and such you'll have to pay for them). The CLE classes are basically what law school SHOULD be- local small firm lawyers who are practicing experts in certain areas and know current updates and caselaw for their respective disciplines. They also put together EXCELLENT form books/practice guides with everything you'll need to cut n' paste a case in X practice area together from soup to nuts: demand letters, motions, complaints, orders to show cause, all with little notes and hints throughout. These are expensive though- most are about $400 but do include all the forms and such on CD-ROMS which are editable Adobe PDF or Word docs with merge fields and shit. I actually will be teaching a NJ residential construction law CLE in the fall, I got a call from a friend at Thomson West who invited me to do it (you get CLE credit for teaching as well as attending CLE, although you don't get paid anything). You also will meet a lot of practicing lawyers there and might score an internship gig if you ask around at the CLE class.
Law school ITE is simply too risky to warrant paying anything for, esp. for TTT schools like the OP is considering. If those places gave him $$$, a place like CUNY might give him a total ride if he can tell them his dream is to "help people" and all that jazz, which they apparently love.
The good thing about going to a place like that is you can just forget grades/Biglaw nonsense pipedreams altogether and get C's while working/leanring as much as possible in shitlaw, and in 3 years getting a basically "free" law license. IMO those people are the only non-Top 14 kids who will have any shot at success in this industry with the way things are going.
HTH
