How did you know you wanted to be a lawyer? Forum

[ccmart]

After perusing several threads on TLS, I have started to question whether I want to become a lawyer. I took some legal classes in undergrad and enjoyed them, and I have always loved reading and writing. Furthermore, being intellectually stimulated excites me, I enjoyed discussing cases, theories, and ideas with classmates at length, and throughout undergrad I was a good student that looked forward to reading and studying for classes. For all of these reasons, I am fairly certain that I would enjoy law school even considering the stress and workload. I also have a pretty solid GPA and scored above average on my first cold turkey LSAT, so with studying I can probably be admitted into a T14.

However, I am not sure I want to actually practice law. I have read countless comments on TLS that all state I should not go to law school if I do not want to be a practicing lawyer. I understand this and have thus taken some time off from undergrad to reflect and explore other passions and careers. My question is: for those who were not set on being lawyers when they were 14 years old, how did you determine you wanted to not only go to law school but actually practice law? I have had legal internships (PD, courthouse) but of course I did not do any actual legal work, more administrative and observing. From what I saw at the PD at least, a lot of it seemed like sitting at a desk all day, doing paperwork, and generally always being stressed. After my current job I am considering working at a law firm to try and figure it out again, but I was hoping others had stories about how they came to their decisions and if there is any advice for approaching the monumental decision of becoming a lawyer.

Also, I have read several posts saying that if you don't have a "burning desire" to become a lawyer, do not go to law school. I am not sold on this idea, primarily because it is possible that my doubt is more due to my pragmatic consideration of debt and future constraints rather than a disinterest in the law. While I obviously do not want to "settle" and go to law school, I am also worried about the converse happening; that is, not going only because I do not feel 110% committed.

I realize this is largely a personal decision and none of you can see into my future (if you can pls pm me). But I believe this feeling of hesitancy is quite common in law school hopefuls, and it would be beneficial to hear how others dealt with similar situations.

[sjp200]

My answer is probably one of those outliers. I took no legal classes at all. I was engineering. Junior year I got an internship (really a co-op cause I worked during school) at one of the "best companies to work for" in the fortune 500. I found the lack of competitiveness and content for what I thought was mediocrity to be a turn off. I also did mock trial. In trial, there were winners, and losers. If you did not give it your all, you failed. There was something to motivate me to try my best. I then graduated with my engineering degree, got a full time job, and found the same thing at a new large company. Engineering was not competitive, and once you got hired it seemed almost like seniority trumped true talent, drive, and know-how. The legal profession isn't as lenient as far as trial work is concerned. So, here I am, applying to law schools, looking to do trial work because it kept me honest, driven, and made me feel like I was not "just getting by".

[mist4bison]

However, I am not sure I want to actually practice law. I have read countless comments on TLS that all state I should not go to law school if I do not want to be a practicing lawyer.

I agree with this. If you don't plan on practicing law in some capacity, don't get a JD. I know some will disagree and spout anecdotal evidence of JD grads with non-legal jobs, but that's the minority.

I understand this and have thus taken some time off from undergrad to reflect and explore other passions and careers. My question is: for those who were not set on being lawyers when they were 14 years old, how did you determine you wanted to not only go to law school but actually practice law?

I actually decided really young, but I hate admitting that because I didn't know what lawyers did until much later. I went back and forth between a few different career choices. I ultimately decided that I 100% wanted to be a lawyer after working as a paralegal at a pretty big, well-known firm. I've worked here for two years now and having the opportunity to spend day after day observing what people here do, in various capacities, has helped me make the decision to attend LS. Because I've been here a while (and probably because some partners don't trust our last batch of first years...) I've had the chance to work on some substantive projects, too. Other than that, I've been able to observe what lawyers do day to day for two years.

I have had legal internships (PD, courthouse) but of course I did not do any actual legal work, more administrative and observing. From what I saw at the PD at least, a lot of it seemed like sitting at a desk all day, doing paperwork, and generally always being stressed.

Yep, that's about right. Lawyers are glorified--any form of media portrays the job as one solely involving courtroom litigation and moving very, very quickly, but that's not the reality. The law takes a lot of time. Before and in-between and after any appearances in court, lawyers have filed dozens, sometimes hundreds or thousands, of motions. That means they've sat at their desks, culled through case law, written the briefs, been told the briefs sucked, changed the briefs, changed them again, and again and again and then the brief is filed and the attorney starts working on the next brief. I suppose I'm generalizing, but this also just happens to be the general rule. I'm not trying to rain on your parade, just trying to give some realistic expectations.

If you're really questioning your decision, I'd suggest taking a break for a year and applying to some legal positions. Especially if you're K-JD.

[zot1]

I had a political science professor as freshman who talked to me about law and why she thought I'd be good for it. I started to think about it then.

Then as a junior, I did an internship with Justicecorps (a program of americorps) where I would talk to people about the process of small claims court. All the information I could give was procedural (here's the form you need, here's the info you need to provide, etc.). I enjoyed doing that (I did it for a year) even though procedure could be so boring. But I couldn't help but always think about the kind of advice I would give these people if I actually could. It made me realize I would really enjoy that kind of setting (there's a problem, I am in charge of coming up for a solution of the problem, hopefully problem solved) and law made more sense than other advising type of careers because I like the type of problems involved (I'd rather advice on a contract term than whether someone should invest in real property).

I also went to court through that program. That was very informative as well. I saw the lack of preparation in counsel (the judge reprimanded both sides of one case because neither of them had read a relevant case) and thought, perhaps naively, that I could do a better job than that.

All of these experiences combined informed my experience of going to law school. That is, I found the work exciting and I thought I could do decent at it. This combination, I thought, would help me get up everyday and be excited about work. It's been half a year so far in practice, and I'm excited every time I go to work.

Also, and honestly to my surprise, I am really good at what I do. This increases job satisfaction because who doesn't like to be told they're doing a good job often?

Although all of this worked out for me, I realized in law school that what I knew about the practice of law was extremely limited despite having some exposure to it. If I could go back, I would have probably called up a handful of attorneys in different areas of the law so that I could have chatted with them about their day to day.

I think this is important because going into law school, you have a good idea of what you'd like to do. However, your outcome isn't guaranteed. So if you end up on a job that isn't your dream job (most people end up here) you could be doing something completely different from what you wanted to do when you went to law school.

[Echoduck]

John Grisham...

[ccmart]

I ultimately decided that I 100% wanted to be a lawyer after working as a paralegal at a pretty big, well-known firm. I've worked here for two years now and having the opportunity to spend day after day observing what people here do, in various capacities, has helped me make the decision to attend LS. Because I've been here a while (and probably because some partners don't trust our last batch of first years...) I've had the chance to work on some substantive projects, too. Other than that, I've been able to observe what lawyers do day to day for two years.

If you're really questioning your decision, I'd suggest taking a break for a year and applying to some legal positions. Especially if you're K-JD.

Did you take paralegal classes and get a certificate? I was considering being a paralegal but I don't want to go to extra school just for a position that I would definitely not keep (either stop when I realize I don't want to go to law school, or stop to go to law school)

[mist4bison]

I ultimately decided that I 100% wanted to be a lawyer after working as a paralegal at a pretty big, well-known firm. I've worked here for two years now and having the opportunity to spend day after day observing what people here do, in various capacities, has helped me make the decision to attend LS. Because I've been here a while (and probably because some partners don't trust our last batch of first years...) I've had the chance to work on some substantive projects, too. Other than that, I've been able to observe what lawyers do day to day for two years.

If you're really questioning your decision, I'd suggest taking a break for a year and applying to some legal positions. Especially if you're K-JD.

Did you take paralegal classes and get a certificate? I was considering being a paralegal but I don't want to go to extra school just for a position that I would definitely not keep (either stop when I realize I don't want to go to law school, or stop to go to law school)

Nope, just a BA. My firm doesn't require paralegal certificates at all, but I don't know about others.

[Gitaroo_Dude]

I had a political science professor as freshman who talked to me about law and why she thought I'd be good for it. I started to think about it then.

If you don't mind me asking, was the professor Sellgren? I'm 99% positive you're also a UCI grad, so I was just curious. I'm in kind of a similar position to the OP, trying to make sure that becoming a lawyer is the path I want to go down, and the UCI Law Forum was one of the things I participated in during my time at school that solidified my interest in going to law school.

[zot1]

I had a political science professor as freshman who talked to me about law and why she thought I'd be good for it. I started to think about it then.

If you don't mind me asking, was the professor Sellgren? I'm 99% positive you're also a UCI grad, so I was just curious. I'm in kind of a similar position to the OP, trying to make sure that becoming a lawyer is the path I want to go down, and the UCI Law Forum was one of the things I participated in during my time at school that solidified my interest in going to law school.

It wasn't him. I went to UCLA for undergrad.

What's holding you back?

[Gitaroo_Dude]

I had a political science professor as freshman who talked to me about law and why she thought I'd be good for it. I started to think about it then.

If you don't mind me asking, was the professor Sellgren? I'm 99% positive you're also a UCI grad, so I was just curious. I'm in kind of a similar position to the OP, trying to make sure that becoming a lawyer is the path I want to go down, and the UCI Law Forum was one of the things I participated in during my time at school that solidified my interest in going to law school.

It wasn't him. I went to UCLA for undergrad.

What's holding you back?

Not much at this point. I'm prepping my apps now so I can basically submit them Day 1 come September 2016.

Just a few lingering concerns about the day-to-day life of being a lawyer though. I've never worked in a law office, so the only familiarity I have is from talking to attorneys I know or have reached out to. I enjoy reading, writing, and research, am a huge Con Law nerd (though I don't have any delusions of ending up with a gig in that line of work), and am interested in a few different areas of the law. But there's always that doubt in the back of my mind that I'm not fully prepared for what I'm about to get into to, so I figure I'll spend between now and decision day in 2017 laying those doubts to rest. I've been perusing TLS pretty heavily the last few weeks to get a better idea of what a lawyer's day-to-day is, but am still looking for resources on narrowing down which fields of law I'm particularly interested in. Litigation associate, or at least the kind who works behind the scenes putting everything together (not so much arguing it in court) is really appealing, but I'm trying to ascertain how difficult that is to break into given where I'll probably end up school wise.

[zot1]

I had a political science professor as freshman who talked to me about law and why she thought I'd be good for it. I started to think about it then.

If you don't mind me asking, was the professor Sellgren? I'm 99% positive you're also a UCI grad, so I was just curious. I'm in kind of a similar position to the OP, trying to make sure that becoming a lawyer is the path I want to go down, and the UCI Law Forum was one of the things I participated in during my time at school that solidified my interest in going to law school.

It wasn't him. I went to UCLA for undergrad.

What's holding you back?

Not much at this point. I'm prepping my apps now so I can basically submit them Day 1 come September 2016.

Just a few lingering concerns about the day-to-day life of being a lawyer though. I've never worked in a law office, so the only familiarity I have is from talking to attorneys I know or have reached out to. I enjoy reading, writing, and research, am a huge Con Law nerd (though I don't have any delusions of ending up with a gig in that line of work), and am interested in a few different areas of the law. But there's always that doubt in the back of my mind that I'm not fully prepared for what I'm about to get into to, so I figure I'll spend between now and decision day in 2017 laying those doubts to rest. I've been perusing TLS pretty heavily the last few weeks to get a better idea of what a lawyer's day-to-day is, but am still looking for resources on narrowing down which fields of law I'm particularly interested in. Litigation associate, or at least the kind who works behind the scenes putting everything together (not so much arguing it in court) is really appealing, but I'm trying to ascertain how difficult that is to break into given where I'll probably end up school wise.

That's fair. Have you checked out this thread: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=228583. It should be helpful.

When I went to law school I only had a small of idea of what some lawyers did. This lead to a serious freak out in the middle of 2L because that's when I realized I could end up doing some mind-numbing job. I think being aware of the ideal and shitty outcomes will help you make a much more informed decision and it sounds like you're at least way more informed than I was when going through the process myself.

[RCSOB657]

I've had to use our legal system as a sword and as a shield. I've succeeded at both, to my benefit. This is before I went back to school and before I actually said hey, let's do this. Also, I'm one of the now minority (formerly majority) of people that don't list "a good job" as the number one reason I want an education. YMMV.

[zeglo]

.

[kaiser]

Had a vague interest in the law after finishing undergrad. Visited my dad one day at work and ended up chatting with a friend of his in the legal department who handled employment law issues. Thought it sounded super interesting and something I would really enjoy doing. Decided to pursue that route. And now that I am an employment lawyer, I find it super interesting and its something I really enjoy doing.

To extrapolate a bit more, I always loved reading and writing, critical argumentation, logic, etc. But I also really loved client service and dealing face-to-face with demanding clients. I thought that law would be a good middleground between the two, especially an area of law that involved a number of "human" issues that apply to literally everyone.

[Gitaroo_Dude]

That's fair. Have you checked out this thread: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=228583. It should be helpful.

When I went to law school I only had a small of idea of what some lawyers did. This lead to a serious freak out in the middle of 2L because that's when I realized I could end up doing some mind-numbing job. I think being aware of the ideal and shitty outcomes will help you make a much more informed decision and it sounds like you're at least way more informed than I was when going through the process myself.

Thanks, that's pretty exhaustive, haha. The good part though is that there are a lot of outcomes in there that I could see myself being happy with.

I guess my only lingering question from that is are there any resources about which schools are best suited to achieve those outcomes? I saw a really good thread about PD/Prosecution career paths and what to do if you're interested in that, and I know LST has a nice breakdown on what job types schools place their grads in, but is there a good resource that says "If you're looking to follow Path A, then look into schools X, Y, and Z"?