Fall 3L: Solid resume. No offers. Career dead in a ditch? Forum

[bahari2010]

I want to echo the post about Public Interest clients being ungreatful...it's basically true, or perhaps half and half, it's very much a "why haven't you helped me five minutes ago" sort of attitude.

The legal job market really is horrible, unless you're going to school mostly for free, ecconomically law school is a bad investment....most of my TTTT classmates have monthly debt payments larger than their rent....

[Anonymous User]

Stop dreaming and go back home and get a job in your home market.

...Never. I won't go into personal history, but just understand, my home market is widely considered one of the -worst- urban environments in the U.S. More bad memories from that place than anything combined (victim of multiple crimes; horrible education; etc). Any reasonable person would hate that place with a fury and escape at first chance. It's the feature of most "let's get out of the hood" movies.

LA? Detroit? Every major metro is a pretty decent legal market. You've hit dead ends at every turn and the one thing you keep repeating in your OP is how XYZ but I won't go back to my home market. Well, that is your best shot at a job. You wanted advice, that's the most reasonable thing to do. Nobody is saying you have to live in the hood or wherever.

It's among those cities. But I can assure you, any reasonable person would want to get the living hell out of such a place - it truly is a miserable seething shithole.

I understand the logic behind your advice and thank you for your opinion, but it is simply not an option for a number of valid personal reasons.

Your grades are very, very good. Keep hustling at it and you should be able to land some mid sized law firm gigs, and keep in mind that the economy will improve, and that you look really good on paper. You're going to be fine in the long run. Student loans have low interest rates. Even if you were making $160k per year, you wouldn't pay them off any faster because it wouldn't make financial sense to pay them off ahead of time instead of putting the money in stock or something.

Also consider going into general business somewhere - insurance, real estate, whatever. I know a guy that went to LS, then became a real estate agent because he hated the thought of being a lawyer. He now owns a real estate company and his hobbies include yachting, fly fishing, and african safaris. If you're intelligent and hard working, which you clearly are, things shake out in the long run.

Also, please realize that:

Even the shittiest of cities have really nice areas. In fact, the shittier the shittier areas in the city are, the nicer the nicer areas tend to be. LA = Some of the worst poor areas in the country. Not that far away in LA = some of the richest areas in the country. If you're a lawyer, you don't live in the ghetto. You live in the nice part. Welcome to polite society and congratulations on graduating top 10% in law school.

[pferaso]

Student loans have low interest rates. Even if you were making $160k per year, you wouldn't pay them off any faster because it wouldn't make financial sense to pay them off ahead of time instead of putting the money in stock or something.

No wonder why there´s a student debt bubble in the U.S.....

[2LsAPlenty]

Without some law firm experience, you will have a difficult time, particularly if you are out of it for any length of time. You have a ton of competition from the bottom 50% who all are scrambling for the few private practice firms positions that might be available to them who do not do shit law.

[BarcaCrossesTheAlps]

I'm not so sure St. Louis is a "hell hole." East St. Louis, on the other hand, qualifies.

[2LsAPlenty]

Well, there is always Cleveland.