Can you go to Law School twice? Forum

[cowgod]

Hear me out. I've always dreamed of becoming a lawyer, and I in fact *was* a lawyer for a period of time. Alas, that dream was dashed during ITE (2009) when I was unceremoniously fired from my legal job. Unable to find legal work, I had to take a job in retail to make ends meet, and the rest is history. Since my resume looks like rubbish and legal employers (who, dare-I-say, are a bit snobby imho) look down on my retail experience, I figure my best chance is to just go to law school again and roll the dice at OCI. I've come into some money due to GME and crypto, so I can easily afford tuition. I expect I could get into a T6 with my LSAT (170 on practice tests, albeit untimed). I have a full head of hair atm (well, vertex is lush at least) so I won't come off as as too old hopefully, although I'm hoping my experience will be seen as an asset.
Anyway, back to the point: will the admissions department at a T6 know that I have a law degree if I leave it off my application? Am I committing fraud if I leave this detail off my application (I know, I know, I should know this! )

[nealric]

I'm guessing there are far easier ways to resuscitate your legal career. If your law license is still current, why not look into a rural prosecutor's office or take overflow PD cases? Obviously biglaw is out, but there are certainly ways to use your law degree that don't depend on biglaw-level snobbiness.

I'm also guessing there are a lot of ways trying to hide your prior degree could go south on you, and I don't think any law schools would countenance admitting someone for a second law degree (other than an SJD or LLM). A biglaw firm could easily see you were already admitted the the bar if they do any due diligence. Most states have a public database of admitted attorneys.

[cavalier1138]

Am I committing fraud if I leave this detail off my application (I know, I know, I should know this! )

I don't think you need to be a lawyer to know that not disclosing your prior JD would be a bad idea.

As mentioned, you can go back for an LLM/SJD, but you've already got a JD and passed the bar. You just need to look up any requirements in your jurisdiction to resurrect your license and come to grips with the fact that your 12-year break would be viewed negatively regardless of whether you somehow conned a law school into letting you do a second JD.

[nixy]

Dude, no, you can’t do this and you know you can’t do this.

[objctnyrhnr]

Have you called any schools and explained the situation transparently and gotten their take? I’m not sure it’d be disqualifying, but I don’t know. I’m wondering if it would more be employers who would have an issue. Definitely something that needs to be thoroughly researched before jumping in, cause I wouldn’t be shocked if there was some prohibition on doing this.

[cowgod]

Have you called any schools and explained the situation transparently and gotten their take? I’m not sure it’d be disqualifying, but I don’t know. I’m wondering if it would more be employers who would have an issue. Definitely something that needs to be thoroughly researched before jumping in, cause I wouldn’t be shocked if there was some prohibition on doing this.

I'm not sure if they would react very well and I doubt they would encourage or want this happening.
The fact that no laws have been cited hitherto stipulating that this is not allowed is promising. As long as the question is not explicitly asked, I think I'll be in the clear. I'll also have a leg-up in class, given that I've already covered the material and practised Law. I really just want another crack at OCI so would just need to attend for 3 semesters in the event that OCI doesn't work out. This would be about $90k which I can easily afford atm. And if I ace OCI, I'll have access to immense financial resources down the line.
Certainly there must be some kind of precedent, such as people who attend non-accredited law schools? Tell me I'm not the first!
tl;dr everything is coming up cowgod atm imho

[nixy]

You don’t just get a mulligan and get to do your JD over. It doesn’t work like that.

[cowgod]

You don’t just get a mulligan and get to do your JD over. It doesn’t work like that.

Actually - and with all due respect - it's looking like it does work like that. People go back to school for second BAs all the time, how is Law any different? Are you telling me that the practice of Law hasn't changed substantially in the last 15 years? Just because attending law school twice is a luxury most can ill afford doesn't mean that it's not a smart career move for someone in my situation, and the additional law knowledge from the last 15 years of legislation and Case Law will just be the icing on the cake.

[cavalier1138]

You don’t just get a mulligan and get to do your JD over. It doesn’t work like that.

Actually - and with all due respect - it's looking like it does work like that. People go back to school for second BAs all the time, how is Law any different? Are you telling me that the practice of Law hasn't changed substantially in the last 15 years? Just because attending law school twice is a luxury most can ill afford doesn't mean that it's not a smart career move for someone in my situation, and the additional law knowledge from the last 15 years of legislation and Case Law will just be the icing on the cake.

If you've already attended law school, how do you think that you'll be getting the bolded?

And law is different because it's a professional degree and doesn't have different "majors" (which is what people do when they go back for a second undergrad degree). I don't know where you got the impression that people go back to law school for a second JD. I get that you haven't been practicing for over a decade, but you have to remember the basics about licensing and professional ethics.

[cavalier1138]

Evidently I'm not on cool enough parts of the internet to know that this is a cryptocurrency scammer, so farewell, cowgod. We hardly knew thee, and that was still too much.

[nealric]

Received a tip that the OP ran a similar schtick on xoxo which lead to a request for money (cryptocurrency). I'm locking this thread for now.