Post
by mscarn23 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:25 pm
I take it you're not an Ayn Rand fan, which is a shame... Anyway, like I said in my post, I had been out of the classroom for quite a while, and while running my business honed certain skills (client development, capacity to work long hours, employee management, etc.) these skills did not necessarily prepare me for law school. Not wanting to squander 1L year, I did everything in my power to be successful, and for the most part it worked.
As I've said, I can understand being wary of my approach, but I would disagree that successfully following it would be a predictor of big law burn-out. I spent 8 years growing and running my business and during that time I consistantly put in 80 hour+ work weeks. I would argue that someone who shudders at the idea of putting in as many hours of studying as I did- especially knowing the importance of 1L year- would be at a much higher risk of being chewed up and spit out if they managed to land big law after graduation. I know the pain of 12 hour days, the realities of both office and industry politics, and would begrudge no one who decided they didn't want that life.
Likewise, I can understand someone imagining a schedule like mine would make them suicidal, but it's really not that bad once you do it and get used to it. I prepped hard during 0L summer, but I also took a 2-week vacation to Scotland. I killed myself during the fall, but then I took a 12 day trip to Brazil over Christmas break. I studied like crazy during the spring, but it scored me a high-paying summer associate position which will fund my end-of-summer vacation. I managed to go to the gym every day, eat a great dinner every night (though my wife is entirely responsible for this aspect of things), drink many, many decent bottles of wine, and enjoy a great sex life.
If this makes you suicidal, then so be it, but for my tastes there are a lot worse ways to spend a year. Sure, I could have done things differently, but I also need to acknowledge that my idea of fun may not be the same as those who have trouble fathoming how I made it out alive. I could have made a million new friends, or gone to bar review every week, but let's level for a minute. I'm a married guy in my early 30's, who ran a successful business, and who takes pride in his 200 bottle wine cellar and collection of first editions. I don’t want to force my idea of a good time on people who are just looking to get drunk, play trivia, and forget about law school for a few hours, and there’s no reason I should force their idea of fun onto myself. I'm happy with a small group of good friends, and think I was successful in that respect during my 1L year. I'm not Vince Vaughn in "The Breakup," playing Madden and looking forward to quarter beer night, or Owen Wilson in “Hall Pass” trying to score floozies at Starbucks. (I should acknowledge that the interests which made me slightly less social with other students have had the opposite effect since starting work, but that’s not really my point with all this.)
Oh, and with regards to research points, they can definitely be lucrative- I'm sitting on around 11k Lexis points after my first year, and got a handful of free supplements and a free 1-year ABA membership thanks to raffles Lexis held at my school.
no judgment.
.....I just can't shake it. I even feel guilty in the summer.
