Depression after Campbell Law Forum

[jdcumlaude]

Depression after Campbell Law

I suppose this could relate to many “after law school experiences”, but as I only have experience with Campbell Law School I will stick to my title.

I have posted on this forum and forums like these for some time now. Full disclosure, I hate Campbell Law. I feel I was duped by an over-zealous admissions office trying to fill seats at a for-profit law school wearing the proverbial sheep’s clothing of a non-profit. I will take some of the blame for this, but ABA data was not as detailed today as it was in 2009 when I was accepted.

What sparks me to write this particular entry is not any change in the practices of Campbell in recruiting. Although they are doing everything they can to fill seats (part-time program, Chinese partnerships etc…). No, what encouraged me to make this entry relates to the school’s newly released employment statistics.

For the Class of 2015 only 50% of graduates had fulltime, long-term job as an attorney. This statistic may not seem so awful relative to other schools such as Elon or Charlotte School of Law, but the statistics hides an unmeasured factor which greatly inflates even these coin-flip odds. That being many Campbell Law students have employment as an attorney waiting for them before they even took the LSAT. I am from the class and 2013 and even then when the employment rate was higher I would estimate that 10% of employed graduates had family jobs lined up prior to enrollment. This number is conservative the actual percentage is likely a good deal higher.

If this statistic holds true for the class of 2015, then only 40% of graduates actually found employment by virtue of their education from Campbell.
Campbell is also boasting a 17% unemployment rate among graduates for 2015. This leads me to the first half of my title. The depression after attending Campbell Law School for me is difficult to deal with. It would be one thing if I graduated, passed the bar, became employed and then hated my job. This is a fairly common story in the legal field. Mine is a bit different. I graduated in 2013, passed the bar the same year and never found employment. I bounced around document review for some time, all the while applying for and interviewing as often as I was able. I volunteered full time as an ADA for several months and soon thereafter I had to face the fact that money was not coming in. At least not enough to functionally support my family.

During this time I was in regular contact with Campbell’s Career services and doing everything I could to network and meet with people that I could help with my skill-set and hopefully help me move into a paid legal position. Resume seminars, and other advice relating to professional documents was the order of the day. In two years I sent out over 1000 job applications, and far more unsolicited phone-calls and letters. This was to no avail. I had a total of 4 Job interviews. This was after I was told by multiple professionals that my documents and experience were great. Both Public and Private sector professionals confirmed this.

The depression comes not from hating what I have achieved, as is with so many lawyers who grow to hate their jobs. It comes from working so hard to achieve nothing. The simple truth is that Campbell Law is a scam that is run from day to day while quoting the Book of Micah and pocketing the money. So many hapless 21 year olds will continue to fall for the scam and their futures are bleak at best. If you are reading this, know that you have been warned. Bookmark this post. Send me a private message. Avoid making the same choice that I made. The single worst choice I ever made in my life. Avoid the Campbell Law School scam.

[gsy987]

I'm honestly really sorry this happened to you. Campbell (and other schools like it) are the scum of the earth.

For what it's worth, I've read countless other stories like this here, and it inspired me to really try to nail the LSAT after my first try went poorly. I do think this message is starting to get through to people, as schools like Campbell and Cooley have gotten more desperate to find people and their applicant pools have trended downward.

[Leagles5161]

Sorry to hear about your situation. The problem is that the people on this website are well aware of the risks of law schools, but the people who need to be educated on these risks are off in their Elle Woods fairy tale world. It's disgusting to me that the ABA fully allows, and arguably encourages, the sales pitches that these life ruining law schools use.

I'm sure that this will not alleviate your blues, but your motivation and unwillingness to give up is very inspiring. Good luck!

Also if you are serious about your depression I think I can speak on behalf of everyone here that you should seek out some help. Depression can be crippling but there are ways to overcome it.