PSA: Borrowing is GOOD Forum

[pancakes3]

Does anyone on TLS want to offer more than a passive aggressive answer to my original question?

As a rising 3L, I'm already bored out of my mind. Law school and legal concepts are only shiny, new, and thought-provoking for your first year and even then, maybe for only the first semester. Once you figure out the rules of the game, it's really not that interesting.

To be fair, this is applicable to just about every job out there. Just don't glorify the profession.

[HYSplease]

6. Generally speaking, when you insult one poster on TLS, you're not going to get friendly responses from other folks either. And the thread that was posted for you has good insight. Don't be rude and then expect people to help you.

My original question asked the poster to expand on his comment, it wasn't rude. The 3 replies had no productive answers and seemingly put me down for even asking such a question (like your 6th point does), not really an insult to point that out. Thanks for actually answering with your first five points though.

[HYSplease]

Does anyone on TLS want to offer more than a passive aggressive answer to my original question?

As a rising 3L, I'm already bored out of my mind. Law school and legal concepts are only shiny, new, and thought-provoking for your first year and even then, maybe for only the first semester. Once you figure out the rules of the game, it's really not that interesting.

To be fair, this is applicable to just about every job out there. Just don't glorify the profession.

Thanks for the 3L perspective. Are you regretting law school now? Or did you begin as a 1L with the more realistic expectations you mentioned?

[pancakes3]

Don't regret it but I also went in knowing:

1) What the best/probable/worst case employment scenarios are and was comfortable with them
2) This is a professional endeavor, not an academic one (sure I'll learn things but this wasn't to broaden my horizons, it was a means to a job)
3) Don't put the profession on a pedestal. I wasn't going to be Harvey Specter, Atticus Finch, or SCOTUS justice. I was going to be "just" a lawyer.

[stego]

The only thing I quibble with is that law school is the right decision. Law sucks really really bad for smart people. Getting big law is a death knell for using your brain. Smart people who like analysis should be doing business school. Dumb people who want to work in government or do compliance or do shitlaw should do law school.

Can you expand on this?? Are you just ragging on big law? Because I'm having trouble believing that most areas of law are not intellectually stimulating.

I am sorry that you are having so much trouble. Trust me though, it will become easier to understand soon.

Thank you for the three very helpful responses guys. Also not sure why linking to a post asking about law school and practicing invalidates my question, I haven't applied yet and I'm trying to get as much information as possible before making a decision.

Does anyone on TLS want to offer more than a passive aggressive answer to my original question? The law classes I have sat in on, the cases I have reviewed and debated in class, and the trials I have observed were all intellectually stimulating (and trial seemed fairly exciting and fast-paced for the prosecutor). I loved my constitutional law class because of how complex and intricate the decisions were, and I don't think that's something "dumb people" are attracted to. So again, is your comment regarding law sucking for smart people only applicable to biglaw?

0L but what I've heard others on TLS with biglaw experience say is:

1) much of law practice is not intellectually challenging or stimulating but requires only average intelligence

2) in big law you will rarely be given the (intellectually) challenging assignments as a junior associate because the firm is terrified of you fucking up.

[BigZuck]

Can someone walk me through why we should just ignore the looming tax bomb? I'd happily jump aboard the "PAYE is GOAT" thing if I could understand why we shouldn't worry about the tax bomb at the end. Seems to me that would really, really suck to deal with if you were only making like 60Kish (or less) in the years leading up to that.

Seems like a lot of people just say "LOL, don't worry about it, it won't happen." Why should anyone bank on it not happening?

Bump

[Johann]

Can someone walk me through why we should just ignore the looming tax bomb? I'd happily jump aboard the "PAYE is GOAT" thing if I could understand why we shouldn't worry about the tax bomb at the end. Seems to me that would really, really suck to deal with if you were only making like 60Kish (or less) in the years leading up to that.

Seems like a lot of people just say "LOL, don't worry about it, it won't happen." Why should anyone bank on it not happening?

Bump

the tax bomb on debt forgiveness is only to the extent you're solvent. i.e. it's a wealth tax. if you have $0 in assets and get $200k of forgiveness the tax bomb is $0. if you have $100k of assets, 100k of tax bomb (35k) taxes.

[Johann]

Thank you for the three very helpful responses guys. Also not sure why linking to a post asking about law school and practicing invalidates my question, I haven't applied yet and I'm trying to get as much information as possible before making a decision.

Does anyone on TLS want to offer more than a passive aggressive answer to my original question? The law classes I have sat in on, the cases I have reviewed and debated in class, and the trials I have observed were all intellectually stimulating (and trial seemed fairly exciting and fast-paced for the prosecutor). I loved my constitutional law class because of how complex and intricate the decisions were, and I don't think that's something "dumb people" are attracted to. So again, is your comment regarding law sucking for smart people only applicable to biglaw?

[/quote]

lot of doc review. lot of due diligence. lot of discovery. lot of proofreading for consistent defintions. the rare analysis of course goes to the partners at the top with 20 years of experience.

[Tiago Splitter]

Everyone focuses on what happens if you work at Starbucks, but if you work at Starbucks for 20 years, you were always fucked and law school makes little difference. just three years of vacation, but no big financial disaster.

What people should be focusing on is the normal outcome, which is to say a solid income you likely could have approached with many other less expensive paths. If you average 100k a year for the next 20 years you're going to pay a huge amount to the feds, including the tax bomb at the end which, despite my best efforts, has not been wished away.