I first posted on this forum when I was contemplating applying to law school, so I thought I would return a couple months before graduation and share some of thoughts.
1. Almost nothing you learn in law school is useful in the actual practice of law. With the exception of maybe Torts, every area of law is heavily state-specific and/or statutory which is not what you learn during your 1L year.
2. That being said, probably the most essential skill in lawyering you DO learn in law school is legal research and writing
3. In the actual practice of law there are forms for everything, and what would be plagiarism in most other occupations is fairly widely tolerated.
4. Law school grades seem unlikely to predict who will be a good lawyer; however you can use them to predict what areas you need to improve on when doing Bar prep.
5. The vast majority of lawyers work as solo's or in small firms (less than 10-15 attorneys.) according to ABA statistics.
6. While I wish law school had more of a mandatory vocational component (as is found in every other Common Law country) I found law school an intellectually stimulating, and at times inspiring experience.
Reflections of a 3L Forum
-
ConMan345
- Posts: 577
- Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 1:08 pm
Re: Reflections of a 3L
bahari2010 wrote:I first posted on this forum when I was contemplating applying to law school, so I thought I would return a couple months before graduation and share some of thoughts.
1. Almost nothing you learn in law school is useful in the actual practice of law. With the exception of maybe Torts, every area of law is heavily state-specific and/or statutory which is not what you learn during your 1L year.
2. That being said, probably the most essential skill in lawyering you DO learn in law school is legal research and writing
3. In the actual practice of law there are forms for everything, and what would be plagiarism in most other occupations is fairly widely tolerated.
4. Law school grades seem unlikely to predict who will be a good lawyer; however you can use them to predict what areas you need to improve on when doing Bar prep.
5. The vast majority of lawyers work as solo's or in small firms (less than 10-15 attorneys.) according to ABA statistics.
6. While I wish law school had more of a mandatory vocational component (as is found in every other Common Law country) I found law school an intellectually stimulating, and at times inspiring experience.
Where do you go to school?
