Hey 0Ls! Prove to me that law school is a wise investment. Forum

[Always Credited]

People like Locke will get their ass kicked constantly throughout life by people like me. Thank god for weak individuals, it makes things that much more fun.

[northwood]

law school is a wise investment for those who want to be a lawyer no matter what, and are willing to work in a lot of various fields of law in order to get established and a good reputation in the industry. IF you thought it out, and weighed all of the pro's and cons and still trully want to go to law school, then its a wise investment.

I have to laugh at people who compare lawyers to teachers... In my state teachers HAVE to have a master degree in order to get a job, or keep a job after 3 years. Thats another 15-30 K of debt ontop of a 4 year UG degree, and teachers still start out at 35K a year and slowly get raises ( 500-1,000) each year in service.

The fact of the matter is that all professions now require more education than in the past. With the cost of educaiton rising, more and more professionals are starting their careers in more debt. So, unless you have a scholly you more than likely have a nice sizxed amount of debt for the next 10-20-30 years of your life.

For me, I have always wanted to be a lawyer. I find law, and its implications to be very interesting. I also enjoy doing research and prepariing an argument and backing it up. However, it took a career in educaiton to remind myself that I wanted law, and not teaching. I worked a job in which I absolutely hated waking up in the morning, and seriously hoped and prayed that I could have some excuse not to go ( i.e. car break down, major snow event, illness, or my classroom flooding to pervent mefrom having to go to work) It took that to make me fully understand that law is where I am supposed to be doing... With that in mind, and no expecations of a making a 100k a year to start or going into big law.. I fully take on 100k in debt plus to make my dream a reality... I dont need your opiion about why its right or wrong to do it.. its what i want, and ill do it no matter what you think...

[romothesavior]

It shows all signs at the moment of never rebounding to the "good old days."

Really? Like, what kind of signs? Never is a long time.

Like, the entire global economy, upon which the biglaw model is dependent for revenue, making constant missteps and showing all the health and vitality of a sick old man. Firms wanting to entirely revamp their compensation, recruitment, and promotion structure. Firms canning thousands of lawyers. Firms deferring years' worth of first years into 2012. 43,000 JDs being minted every year in a market that cannot, now more than ever, employ them.

I know 0Ls aren't usually plugged into the legal news circuit (I certainly wasn't at that point), but do you read ATL, the WSJ Law Blog, and the like? These trends are often discussed and there are plenty of juicy pieces of news each and every day, that testify to the seismic shift (for the worse) that the profession is undergoing.

I'm a graduate, not a 0L. You have provided no evidence for the long-term collapse of BIGLAW. (I assume we're talking about BIGLAW -- the rabble still need lawyers, they just can't pay for them right now because they don't have teh jorbs).

Things might be down for a while, enough so everyone considering law school should take notice, but the sky is not falling. As soon as credit markets free up, M&A is back on, and things are back to normal. Only a handful of firms have changed comp, most of the 160 --> 145 crowd are back up to 160. The leverage model isn't going anywhere. It fuels profits far too easily for partners to abandon. Just watch your back next time there is a downturn, because they will not be hasty to latham a whole new crop.

No one has mentioned it yet, but this is lulzy.

[keg411]

straw man much?

That was directly addressing Mallard's specific situation which he has talked about ITT. He said that he didn't feel like he was researched or prepared enough going into law school and questions the reasons he did it for now. I was saying that just because he didn't do it then, doesn't mean that he can't do it now and maybe he will find that he likes the practice . Was trying to be encouraging because he seems glum when he is in a good situation. I didn't mean for it to come across as otherwise .

[T14_Scholly]

The irony of this whole argument is that the people who have done their research are here arguing about it, while the people who haven't are blissfully unaware of the doomsayers.

LOL, some guy at NU ASW had no idea the market was bad. Got lucky though, would have been class of 2011, but deferred two years.

how can you not know? seriously. i mean even laypeople that I work with have cautioned me against going to law school because they read on Yahoo News, the Miami Herald, blah blah blah, how bad it was. I'm talking about people who barely have a college education and make 35k a year.

Man, the state of the economy must really be widely known if even riff raff that make 35k a year know about it. I'm surprised that their community colleges even teach them anything about current events. I hope you promptly put them in their place and let them know that top law school grads make 160k a year.

[miamiman]

Dude, I wasn't trying to come off as pretentious. I'm a fucking social worker in the hood with other sws in the hood. I think I earned license to make that comment.

[tru]

.

[joeshmo39]

Dear OP:

GPA/LSAT? Schollies offer? School that granted your JD?

We need this information to judge/dismiss your claims fairly and accurately. Thx

Truth. Reminds me of 4chan:

T14 or GTFO

[tru]

.

[ozarkhack]

ITT:

JDUer flames TLSers.
TLSers talks about it with other TLSers.
JDUer, meanwhile, talks about it with other JDUers, mocking TLSers.
Then, TLSer flames JDUer, talks about it with other TLSers, mocking JDUers.

And now ...

[Always Credited]

Judging by the TLS Fitness & Nutrition thread, we'd obliterate JDU/xoxo in any physical anything.

[romothesavior]

The sky is falling. Why the hell am I going to law school?

[094320]

..

[miamiman]

The sky is falling. Why the hell am I going to law school?

Serious?

[VA LawDog]

The sky is falling. Why the hell am I going to law school?

[romothesavior]

The sky is falling. Why the hell am I going to law school?

Serious?

Yeah, a little bit.

[HazelEyes]

Dude, I wasn't trying to come off as pretentious. I'm a fucking social worker in the hood with other sws in the hood. I think I earned license to make that comment.

And that's not a pretentious comment?

[miamiman]

Dude, I wasn't trying to come off as pretentious. I'm a fucking social worker in the hood with other sws in the hood. I think I earned license to make that comment.

And that's not a pretentious comment?

No. You go ahead and work in the shittiest, most gang infested schools in miami. Then you tell me if you feel its pretentious. Every day, I try to help people beat the odds. I get paid virtually nothing for what I do and I do it because I get tremendous satisfaction in helping underserved populations.

Until you've stepped in my shoes, until you've been attacked WHILE YOU ARE AT WORK, you can promptly stfu.

[BaiAilian2013]

Judging by the TLS Fitness & Nutrition thread, we'd obliterate JDU/xoxo in any physical anything.

Plus JDU seems like kind of a sausage fest, so we'd be more versatile for dance battle purposes.

[Joga Bonito]

Dude, I wasn't trying to come off as pretentious. I'm a fucking social worker in the hood with other sws in the hood. I think I earned license to make that comment.

And that's not a pretentious comment?

No. You go ahead and work in the shittiest, most gang infested schools in miami. Then you tell me if you feel its pretentious. Every day, I try to help people beat the odds. I get paid virtually nothing for what I do and I do it because I get tremendous satisfaction in helping underserved populations.

Until you've stepped in my shoes, until you've been attacked WHILE YOU ARE AT WORK, you can promptly stfu.

Hey man, I hear you. I work in a similar context in Chicago and I have appreciated the experience, and I care a lot about social justce, but you put up with a lot of silly B.S. working in these areas and sometimes the B.S. is from the very people your serving; and what makes it worse, you don't get paid much to do it.

[Stanford4Me]

THE ECONOMY IS GOING TO MAKE A COMPLETE 180 AND BY THE TIME I GRADUATE IN THREE YEARS BIGLAW MARKET PAY WILL BE $200k+!

[HazelEyes]

Dude, I wasn't trying to come off as pretentious. I'm a fucking social worker in the hood with other sws in the hood. I think I earned license to make that comment.

And that's not a pretentious comment?

No. You go ahead and work in the shittiest, most gang infested schools in miami. Then you tell me if you feel its pretentious. Every day, I try to help people beat the odds. I get paid virtually nothing for what I do and I do it because I get tremendous satisfaction in helping underserved populations.

Until you've stepped in my shoes, until you've been attacked WHILE YOU ARE AT WORK, you can promptly stfu.

Wow, angry much?
I do non-profit work, though not in a SW capacity, something slightly different with a different set of underserved population.
I was more talking about your choice of descriptive words, rather than the obviously hard work you do.

That being said, I do have the utmost respect for the hard work social workers put in, so I recant. But you should be able to better defend yourself than telling people to STFU.

[xela kebert]

I know a lot of you sat for the LSAT only yesterday, and you are all still freaking out and worried about your scores. But are you worried about what will happen once you are "lucky" enough to be admitted into the/a school of your choice?

Have you really done the research? Have you looked beyond the echo chamber of TLS? Have you gone to sources other than the ABA, the law school, or NALP? (You even know what NALP is?)

Upon what information are you basing your decision to take the plunge despite all the information out there that law school is no longer a safe bet?

Feel free to vent your spleen on me, but I really am interested in finding out what is going through your mind as you see thousands upon thousands of new lawyers flooding into the legal industry with no way for the market to absorb them, and no way to discharge the crippling debt most of you will have to undertake to finance this endeavor.

Dad's a lawyer (rich as shit), uncle's a lawyer (clerked for supreme court justice...now retired in a dc penthouse that leases for over 1,000,000 a year), the family friends are lawyers (vacation on yachts in the Mediterranean, have 30k bespoke suits, etc.)

...that's how this 0L proves that law school is a good investment

[bk1]

Dad's a lawyer (rich as shit), uncle's a lawyer (clerked for supreme court justice...now retired in a dc penthouse that leases for over 1,000,000 a year), the family friends are lawyers (vacation on yachts in the Mediterranean, have 30k bespoke suits, etc.)

...that's how this 0L proves that law school is a good investment

Logic fail.

[xela kebert]

Dad's a lawyer (rich as shit), uncle's a lawyer (clerked for supreme court justice...now retired in a dc penthouse that leases for over 1,000,000 a year), the family friends are lawyers (vacation on yachts in the Mediterranean, have 30k bespoke suits, etc.)

...that's how this 0L proves that law school is a good investment

Logic fail.

nepotism win