Whew. Finally made it through all 36 (!) pages of this old people's thread today (in between, you know, taking care of the kiddos).
I'm a 33-year-old married mom of three, and I plan to start law school in Fall 2012. The kids will be 9, 5, and 2 at that point. My husband was surprised at this turn of events, but he's supportive, though admittedly worried about how LS will affect our family life, and probably whether I'll still keep up on the laundry, meals, etc. I've managed to convince him, after reading a lot of law school blogs written by frazzled juggling moms, that I can treat it like a job and go 8-4, get the kids and do family stuff, and hit the books again after they're in bed 3-4 nights a week. He has a lot of evening meetings, so that's no big deal. Finals week and a week or two leading up to it, he's promised to give me some leeway.
Currently I work part time as a professional writer. I like my job, but the field has changed a lot, and the intellectual stimulation is all but gone. It's now about churning out as much copy as possible for very low pay to be plastered all over the internet to increase that site's search engine hits. The field is going through a rough time, and I don't like it enough to weather it. I fell into writing passively, but am actively making a decision to go into law, and it feels good.
Nerd alert: I kind of had fun studying for the LSAT. After three kids, I felt like my brain had gone into hibernation, but it's back, baby.
My prospects are decent. I live 3 miles from a T2 school with low tuition and a strong regional presence, and my LSAT and GPA are far above the 75th percentile, so I'm in a good situation for a scholarship. I'd be really disappointed if they didn't offer me a full ride, but I've heard that I need to play hard to get and apply to other schools so I can threaten to leave town. Word is that if they think I won't move, they'll use the money elsewhere. Of course I can't move, because my husband has to pay lots of the bills while I'm in school. We will have to take minimal loans out to cover some living expenses his salary doesn't.
I'm keeping an open mind right now, but I'm leaning toward IP (probably soft IP, though I do have a chem minor so could dust off those rusty skills if necessary and take the patent bar) and/or business law. Would ideally love school hours or some version of part-time when I graduate, though this job market doesn't seem like the place to make those demands. I might even hang a shingle. I know that's anathema to even say on TLS, but there it is. I'm entrepreneurial by nature and am not afraid of starting my own firm and rainmaking.
That said, I'd really love to work at a place like this:
http://axiomlaw.com/overview.html Other aging hipsters might see the attraction.
