Attorney forced to deliver pizzas to pay the bills (link): Forum

[thuggishruggishbone]

http://parentstudentloans.wordpress.com ... ege-loans/

[Kohinoor]

"a mortgage, three children"

I think we're done here.

[KibblesAndVick]

A) "Greenway, who works for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, graduated in 2005 from Syracuse University College of Law in New York with a $130,000 student loan.

International human rights law was Greenways first path of choice for his profession, but a law professor turned him on to public defending."

leads to...

B) "With a salary lingering right around $30,000 per year, a mortgage, three children and a $130,000 student law school loan to pay, Greenway picked up the second job in October 2006.

His student loan payment is $477 each month for the next 20 years."

Obviously law school can be a horrible horrible financial decision.

[PDaddy]

Glad I'm not going to Syracuse!

Dude let a law prof making about $200K a year tell him to go make $30K w/o considering the fact that dude had practically paid sticker at the 'Cuse. That was a clue not to follow the prof's guidance.

[Kohinoor]

A) "Greenway, who works for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, graduated in 2005 from Syracuse University College of Law in New York with a $130,000 student loan.

International human rights law was Greenways first path of choice for his profession, but a law professor turned him on to public defending."

leads to...

B) "With a salary lingering right around $30,000 per year, a mortgage, three children and a $130,000 student law school loan to pay, Greenway picked up the second job in October 2006.

His student loan payment is $477 each month for the next 20 years."

Obviously law school can be a horrible horrible financial decision.

Was law school even the horrible financial decision? I assume that someone with the grades to be a public defender could have at least gotten something in document review or at a smaller personal injury firm and be making 40-50k.

[KibblesAndVick]

To be fair the current Vice President and the Attorney General from the State of Delaware are both Syracuse Law grads. But the AG is Joe Biden's son and rode his father's coat tails and Joe Biden went to law school in a by gone era.

[debbiestevens]

A) "Greenway, who works for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, graduated in 2005 from Syracuse University College of Law in New York with a $130,000 student loan.

International human rights law was Greenways first path of choice for his profession, but a law professor turned him on to public defending."

leads to...

B) "With a salary lingering right around $30,000 per year, a mortgage, three children and a $130,000 student law school loan to pay, Greenway picked up the second job in October 2006.

His student loan payment is $477 each month for the next 20 years."

Obviously law school can be a horrible horrible financial decision.

Was law school even the horrible financial decision? I assume that someone with the grades to be a public defender could have at least gotten something in document review or at a smaller personal injury firm and be making 40-50k.

Public defenders have grade cutoffs? I just assumed that was the job you got stuck with if you finished at the bottom of the class.

[jrobby6]

he went to syracuse at sticker?

[chicoalto0649]

Greenway, who works for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, graduated in 2005 from Syracuse University College of Law in New York with a $130,000 student loan

Cue snarky TLS know-it-all eye roll:

[jack duluoz]

“Being a lawyer doesn’t give me any kind of excuse not to work hard,” he said. “It doesn’t make me above anybody else just because I’m a lawyer. I could have decided not to be a public defender, not to come to Kentucky and stayed in New York or New Jersey or Pennsylvania and done private practice and done fine. But this is what I really love doing. As long as I still love it, I hope to keep doing it.”

[ggocat]

This article is from 2007...

[chicoalto0649]

“Being a lawyer doesn’t give me any kind of excuse not to work hard,” he said. “It doesn’t make me above anybody else just because I’m a lawyer. I could have decided not to be a public defender, not to come to Kentucky and stayed in New York or New Jersey or Pennsylvania and done private practice and done fine. But this is what I really love doing. As long as I still love it, I hope to keep doing it.”

[98234872348]

"a mortgage, three children"

I think we're done here.

I stopped reading at "he went to Syracuse and is working in Kentucky"

[Kohinoor]

A) "Greenway, who works for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, graduated in 2005 from Syracuse University College of Law in New York with a $130,000 student loan.

International human rights law was Greenways first path of choice for his profession, but a law professor turned him on to public defending."

leads to...

B) "With a salary lingering right around $30,000 per year, a mortgage, three children and a $130,000 student law school loan to pay, Greenway picked up the second job in October 2006.

His student loan payment is $477 each month for the next 20 years."

Obviously law school can be a horrible horrible financial decision.

Was law school even the horrible financial decision? I assume that someone with the grades to be a public defender could have at least gotten something in document review or at a smaller personal injury firm and be making 40-50k.

Public defenders have grade cutoffs? I just assumed that was the job you got stuck with if you finished at the bottom of the class.

No, that would be unemployment.

[rayiner]

Syracuse University College of Law in New York with a $130,000 student loan.

International human rights law was Greenways first path of choice for his profession

He was doomed from the beginning.

[KibblesAndVick]

"a mortgage, three children"

I think we're done here.

I stopped reading at "he went to Syracuse and is working in Kentucky"

He also went to Syracuse with the intention of working in international human rights law... I'm worried about the "reality" of law school and I've spent hours and hours looking into employment statistics, researching fields of law that interest me, talking to practicing attorneys about their jobs and current law students about their lives, etc. I'm not sure I can imagine how it must feel to think you're going to be able to practice International Human Rights Law only to discover you're six figures in debt and attend Syracuse Law...

[98234872348]

"a mortgage, three children"

I think we're done here.

I stopped reading at "he went to Syracuse and is working in Kentucky"

He also went to Syracuse with the intention of working in international human rights law... I'm worried about the "reality" of law school and I've spent hours and hours looking into employment statistics, researching fields of law that interest me, talking to practicing attorneys about their jobs and current law students about their lives, etc. I'm not sure I can imagine how it must feel to think you're going to be able to practice International Human Rights Law only to discover you're six figures in debt and attend Syracuse Law...

Yep.

My career path will still bear a striking resemblance to this man's, methinks, the way things are going. And I did well.

[Aeroplane]

B) "With a salary lingering right around $30,000 per year, a mortgage, three children and a $130,000 student law school loan to pay, Greenway picked up the second job in October 2006.

According to a 2006 Louisville Courier Journal article, the starting salary (in 2006) for a PD was $37,522 to start. And this guy was making only "around $30,000" after a year? Am I missing something here?

http://www.nlada.org/DMS/Documents/1161700462.76/1008

[reverendt]

What the hell was he doing going to Syracuse if he wanted to work in Kentucky????

Right there is the problem.

[Kohinoor]

B) "With a salary lingering right around $30,000 per year, a mortgage, three children and a $130,000 student law school loan to pay, Greenway picked up the second job in October 2006.

According to a 2006 Louisville Courier Journal article, the starting salary (in 2006) for a PD was $37,522 to start. And this guy was making only "around $30,000" after a year? Am I missing something here?

http://www.nlada.org/DMS/Documents/1161700462.76/1008

They rounded down to the nearest ten thousand.

[keg411]

“Being a lawyer doesn’t give me any kind of excuse not to work hard,” he said. “It doesn’t make me above anybody else just because I’m a lawyer. I could have decided not to be a public defender, not to come to Kentucky and stayed in New York or New Jersey or Pennsylvania and done private practice and done fine. But this is what I really love doing. As long as I still love it, I hope to keep doing it.”

It sounds like he likes his job and is happy with it and is far from complaining about his circumstances. He chose the career path. It wasn't like he was forced to take the PD job in KY because he couldn't get employment anywhere else. The thread title is misleading without reading the bottom paragraph in the article.

[BigA]

http://parentstudentloans.wordpress.com ... ege-loans/

Why would that be surprising? I thought that's what everyone did out of tier 3s and 4s, based on reading these boards

[Cavalier]

International human rights law was Greenways first path of choice for his profession

Roflcopter.

[Mr. Matlock]

Apparently they didn't have IBR back in the stone ages.

[bigben]

Public defenders have grade cutoffs? I just assumed that was the job you got stuck with if you finished at the bottom of the class.

Collectively speaking, the "bottom of the class" among all law grads gets no lawyer job at all. And that is a huge percentage of grads.