How do I know that law school is for me? Forum

[erikiv]

I'm a math major and I'm interested in law school. I think I have the stats to get into HLS, and I find law interesting.

Pretty much everyone tells me that being an attorney sucks and that I shouldn't go to law school. I have, however, met a few attorneys who like what they do.

How do I know, without ever having studied law, if law school is right for me? How do I know if I want to be a lawyer?

A friend told me that grumpy lawyers tend to be in massive debt from NoName State U, and that graduates from H/Y/S aren't as affected by America's excess of attorneys. Is this true?

Thanks

[NYstate]

Get a job as a paralegal in a biglaw firm and observe closely the work of the attorneys.

[AC Vegas]

I decided to go to law school because I realized that people are wrong like 80% of the time and I like to call them out on their shit. Maybe you do too.

[StillIll]

Check your career chip.

[dextermorgan]

Most of the people in law school don't know if law is for them.

[sinfiery]

in for answers

[Scotusnerd]

There is no way of knowing whether you like practicing law without practicing in some limited form. And you cannot do that without taking a job as a paralegal or getting a job your first summer as a law student.

Also, don't make the fallacy of assuming that law school is like practicing law.

[cinephile]

Most of the people in law school don't know if law is for them.

[Motivator9]

Get a job as a paralegal in a biglaw firm and observe closely the work of the attorneys.

This would be a great start. Or, if your interested in PI, do an internship at a Public Defenders office, or some other governmental legal agency. It's good that you're asking this question, it's an important one to ask.

[Tiago Splitter]

Yes, graduates of HYS are less affected by the excess of attorneys. You probably will find a high paying job out of Harvard if you want one. But you can probably find a decent job now and avoid debt and three years of opportunity cost if you already have the numbers for Harvard. Since pretty much any white collar job will give you some exposure to the legal world if you look for it, get one of those and see what you think.

[CyanIdes Of March]

You say you have the numbers for Harvard but it doesn't sound like you've taken the LSAT. Have you?

[sabanist]

Get a job as a paralegal in a biglaw firm and observe closely the work of the attorneys.

+1
I got really freaked out by people saying how much practicing law sucked. I interned for a PD office while in undergrad and worked for a biglaw firm this summer and loved them both, despite some long nights and weekends at the latter. (Caveat: I'm jaded by 5 years in retail - getting yelled at by a partner who clerked for SCOTUS and is smarter than I'll ever be is WAAAY more tolerable than getting the same treatment from a middle school dropout in a tweety bird shirt, so even my worst days were pretty good based on my experience.)
Plenty of people love their legal jobs, plenty of people hate them with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. You'll figure out which category you fall into pretty quickly if you get to witness legal work first-hand.

[westphillybandr]

Law is a calling and if you have to ask then it isn't.

I'm only joking but that is a tough question. Talk to attorneys. Talk to the happy ones and the unhappy ones. Get a sense of what they like about their jobs and what they don't like about their jobs. But also talk to them about experiences you have in common to get sense of whether you share a similar temperament. For example, I wrote a senior thesis in college which I considered to be the defining academic experience of my life. I chatted to attorneys who had gone through a similar experience to see if we had similar feelings on the subject. I used things like this to gauge how applicable their advice would be to me

Good luck!

[thewaves]

You're asking a personal question. How can we answer that for you? You have all the resources at your finger tips. Do some research on the current legal climate--a quick Google search will turn up relevant articles. Talk to current law school students and attorneys. Look at law school websites to determine your research interests. Consider taking off time to work in a field unrelated to law if you're not committed.