So where do the law school drop outs go? Forum

[longhornlaw]

There was a guy in my office who dropped out after a semester and a half and became an accountant. Audits sound worse than 1L.

[hexyz]

Sooo.. how's that Java treating you?

Java is going great.
C++ is going great as well.

Can't wait to get into cryptography.

Thanks for asking.

You are in law school, right? How is that going for you?

[hexyz]

This thread should have been posted in the Social Networking Section. Hmmmm...

[NegaDuck]

One guy ended up at Comedy Central:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetri_Martin

Funny guy. Wonder what he got on his LSAT. A guy who went to grade school with my brother dropped out and went into pharmaceutical sales. He was making like $200K a year at 25.

[haus]

went into pharmaceutical sales.

So, is that the title that your friendly neighborhood cocaine dealer goes by now a days?

[BarbellDreams]

If I went to a TTT and I didn't do well first semester, I'd drop out. No point in waiting, really.

What an obnoxious thing to say...and I doubt you would.

Obnoxious? Not at all. At a TTT you're already looking at a long uphill battle. If you're at median or below coming from a school like Southwestern Cal Law you absolute should drop out unless you're dad is either K, L, or Gates in K&L Gates.

[shepdawg]

If I went to a TTT and I didn't do well first semester, I'd drop out. No point in waiting, really.

What an obnoxious thing to say...and I doubt you would.

Obnoxious? Not at all. At a TTT you're already looking at a long uphill battle. If you're at median or below coming from a school like Southwestern Cal Law you absolute should drop out unless you're dad is either K, L, or Gates in K&L Gates.

Not everyone wants to do big law. In fact, most people at 3rd tier schools want to do something outside of biglaw.

[BarbellDreams]

If I went to a TTT and I didn't do well first semester, I'd drop out. No point in waiting, really.

What an obnoxious thing to say...and I doubt you would.

Obnoxious? Not at all. At a TTT you're already looking at a long uphill battle. If you're at median or below coming from a school like Southwestern Cal Law you absolute should drop out unless you're dad is either K, L, or Gates in K&L Gates.

Not everyone wants to do big law. In fact, most people at 3rd tier schools want to do something outside of biglaw.

If you go to a TTT you never had a shot at biglaw to begin with. I am talking about getting a 40k public interest job. If you honestly think that being at median or below at a TTT and have a decent chance of landing one of those you are dreaming. I have friends above median at my T2 that dominates its secondary market that are struggling mightily. If you read any sort of statistics or news about the current state of the market you would know this. People thinking "Oh, if I don't get good grades I guess I'll just go become a PD or a DA" are absolutely delusional. DA/PD and similar jobs are being absolutely fought over right now.

[waxecstatic]

Obnoxious? Not at all. At a TTT you're already looking at a long uphill battle. If you're at median or below coming from a school like Southwestern Cal Law you absolute should drop out unless you're dad is either K, L, or Gates in K&L Gates.[/quote]
Not everyone wants to do big law. In fact, most people at 3rd tier schools want to do something outside of biglaw.[/quote]

If you go to a TTT you never had a shot at biglaw to begin with. I am talking about getting a 40k public interest job. If you honestly think that being at median or below at a TTT and have a decent chance of landing one of those you are dreaming. I have friends above median at my T2 that dominates its secondary market that are struggling mightily. If you read any sort of statistics or news about the current state of the market you would know this. People thinking "Oh, if I don't get good grades I guess I'll just go become a PD or a DA" are absolutely delusional. DA/PD and similar jobs are being absolutely fought over right now.[/quote]

Well, the original statement was that you should drop out, period, if you had lousy first semester grades, and judging by the personalities on here, I am guessing that mean's below top 10%. The initial statement also said drop out, regardless of what your goal was. Everyone knows the legal market is saturated. Everyone has read the articles in the NYT and WSJ, and probably have read the commiseration of people who can't find a job, and have decided to use their time to blog about it, rather than actually look for one.

[waxecstatic]

If I went to a TTT and I didn't do well first semester, I'd drop out. No point in waiting, really.

What an obnoxious thing to say...and I doubt you would.

Obnoxious? Not at all. At a TTT you're already looking at a long uphill battle. If you're at median or below coming from a school like Southwestern Cal Law you absolute should drop out unless you're dad is either K, L, or Gates in K&L Gates.

Whether or not you're right, or could be right, doesn't preclude you from being obnoxious. And for fuck's sake, everyone is different.

[LAWYER2]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

[waxecstatic]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

BigLaw is not a discipline of law. Before insinuating that those who do, or set out to do, public policy, aren't as intelligent as those doing BigLaw, you may want to learn that. BigLaw is not defined by the difficulty of the cases or the scope, but mostly by money. How much the attorney's charge, how much the firm is worth, the number of branches, and especially the financial resources of the clients. If a lawyer is making $300,000 a year at Hale and Dorr. then he is doing BigLaw, regardless of the substance of the cases. A much different job from a DA, but is it even fair to compare what job is more challenging, or requires more brain power? No, I don't think so.

But yeah, sounds like a great read....

[LAWYER2]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

BigLaw is not a discipline of law. Before insinuating that those who do, or set out to do, public policy, aren't as intelligent as those doing BigLaw, you may want to learn that. BigLaw is not defined by the difficulty of the cases or the scope, but mostly by money. How much the attorney's charge, how much the firm is worth, the number of branches, and especially the financial resources of the clients. If a lawyer is making $300,000 a year at Hale and Dorr. then he is doing BigLaw, regardless of the substance of the cases. A much different job from a DA, but is it even fair to compare what job is more challenging, or requires more brain power? No, I don't think so.

But yeah, sounds like a great read....

I was not insinuating, nor did the article imply that BigLaw was thought of as a (majored in) discipline. The article was conveying the correlation between personal professional aspirations and first time bar passage rates. It was quite fascinating. I literally could not put the 25 page document down even though I had a ton of reading to complete!

[waxecstatic]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

BigLaw is not a discipline of law. Before insinuating that those who do, or set out to do, public policy, aren't as intelligent as those doing BigLaw, you may want to learn that. BigLaw is not defined by the difficulty of the cases or the scope, but mostly by money. How much the attorney's charge, how much the firm is worth, the number of branches, and especially the financial resources of the clients. If a lawyer is making $300,000 a year at Hale and Dorr. then he is doing BigLaw, regardless of the substance of the cases. A much different job from a DA, but is it even fair to compare what job is more challenging, or requires more brain power? No, I don't think so.

But yeah, sounds like a great read....

I was not insinuating, nor did the article imply that BigLaw was thought of as a (majored in) discipline. The article was conveying the correlation between personal professional aspirations and first time bar passage rates. It was quite fascinating. I literally could not put the 25 page document down even though I had a ton of reading to complete!

Public policy law is a discipline of law, and BigLaw is not, so it's not fair to compare the two. Who the fuck cares? If it doesn't insinuate the type of people who go into a certain field of law, then what is it supposed to say?

[DoubleChecks]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

BigLaw is not a discipline of law. Before insinuating that those who do, or set out to do, public policy, aren't as intelligent as those doing BigLaw, you may want to learn that. BigLaw is not defined by the difficulty of the cases or the scope, but mostly by money. How much the attorney's charge, how much the firm is worth, the number of branches, and especially the financial resources of the clients. If a lawyer is making $300,000 a year at Hale and Dorr. then he is doing BigLaw, regardless of the substance of the cases. A much different job from a DA, but is it even fair to compare what job is more challenging, or requires more brain power? No, I don't think so.

But yeah, sounds like a great read....Public policy law is a discipline of law, and BigLaw is not, so it's not fair to compare the two. Who the fuck cares? If it doesn't insinuate the type of people who go into a certain field of law, then what is it supposed to say?

UMAD?

[LAWYER2]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

BigLaw is not a discipline of law. Before insinuating that those who do, or set out to do, public policy, aren't as intelligent as those doing BigLaw, you may want to learn that. BigLaw is not defined by the difficulty of the cases or the scope, but mostly by money. How much the attorney's charge, how much the firm is worth, the number of branches, and especially the financial resources of the clients. If a lawyer is making $300,000 a year at Hale and Dorr. then he is doing BigLaw, regardless of the substance of the cases. A much different job from a DA, but is it even fair to compare what job is more challenging, or requires more brain power? No, I don't think so.

But yeah, sounds like a great read....

I was not insinuating, nor did the article imply that BigLaw was thought of as a (majored in) discipline. The article was conveying the correlation between personal professional aspirations and first time bar passage rates. It was quite fascinating. I literally could not put the 25 page document down even though I had a ton of reading to complete!

Public policy law is a discipline of law, and BigLaw is not, so it's not fair to compare the two. Who the fuck cares? If it doesn't insinuate the type of people who go into a certain field of law, then what is it supposed to say?

LoL, you keep talking about disciplines.

It's this simple:

Q: Where do you see yourself working after law-school?

A: Biglaw = statistically higher first time bar passage rates

A: Gov't job = statistically lower first time bar passage rates

[ResolutePear]

BigLaw is not a discipline of law. Before insinuating that those who do, or set out to do, public policy, aren't as intelligent as those doing BigLaw, you may want to learn that. BigLaw is not defined by the difficulty of the cases or the scope, but mostly by money. How much the attorney's charge, how much the firm is worth, the number of branches, and especially the financial resources of the clients. If a lawyer is making $300,000 a year at Hale and Dorr. then he is doing BigLaw, regardless of the substance of the cases. A much different job from a DA, but is it even fair to compare what job is more challenging, or requires more brain power? No, I don't think so.

But yeah, sounds like a great read....

I was not insinuating, nor did the article imply that BigLaw was thought of as a (majored in) discipline. The article was conveying the correlation between personal professional aspirations and first time bar passage rates. It was quite fascinating. I literally could not put the 25 page document down even though I had a ton of reading to complete!

Public policy law is a discipline of law, and BigLaw is not, so it's not fair to compare the two. Who the fuck cares? If it doesn't insinuate the type of people who go into a certain field of law, then what is it supposed to say?

LoL, you keep talking about disciplines.

It's this simple:

Q: Where do you see yourself working after law-school?

A: Biglaw = statistically higher first time bar passage rates

A: Gov't job = statistically lower first time bar passage rates

...No? If you have data on this in the forum of a 3D Doughnut Chat, I'd love to see it.

Or a Doughnut.

I'm cool either way.

Promise.

[meshtdagn]

Back to the topic, I know a dropout who is in bigconsulting. Dropped out from a place where biglawl was not really an option. Crushing it now.

[ResolutePear]

Back to the topic, I know a dropout who is in bigconsulting. Dropped out from a place where biglawl was not really an option. Crushing it now.

You can't talk about Canada like that.

[JusticeHarlan]

If I went to a TTT and I didn't do well first semester, I'd drop out. No point in waiting, really.

What an obnoxious thing to say...and I doubt you would.

Obnoxious? Not at all. At a TTT you're already looking at a long uphill battle. If you're at median or below coming from a school like Southwestern Cal Law you absolute should drop out unless you're dad is either K, L, or Gates in K&L Gates.

If your dad was Gates of K&L Gates, you'd probably be pretty set these days.

[LAWYER2]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

http://www.swlaw.edu/pdfs/jle/jle601yakowitz.pdf

[waxecstatic]

OT, but I read a REALLY interesting article on the percent of non-bar-passes (10-12% of all JD holders) and what they eventually go on to do. The article also did a great job laying out empirical data on the association with salaries and bar passage rate, schools, GPA etc. Damn good read, extremely eye opening! The best part is the author identified the trends that relate all the back to what field of law people initially set out for and the correlation between bar failure.

Public policy law = higher likelihood of 1st time bar failure
Big Law = higher instances of bar passage

As soon as I get home I'll post a cite to the article

http://www.swlaw.edu/pdfs/jle/jle601yakowitz.pdf

I was going to comment but after reading all the concessions the author makes on the flaws and limitations of the data, I'm reading an article on FHM about things girls say on Facebook, and really don't know why anyone cares about what happens to people who didn't pass the bar exam and what they reported as their interest on some survey they filled out when they took the LSAT, from the early 90s.

[bjsesq]

I was going to comment but after reading all the concessions the author makes on the flaws and limitations of the data, I'm reading an article on FHM about things girls say on Facebook, and really don't know why anyone cares about what happens to people who didn't pass the bar exam and what they reported as their interest on some survey they filled out when they took the LSAT, from the early 90s.

This sentence makes my head hurt.

[Pleasye]

I think my friend dropped out of law school (I haven't asked her outright) and is now interning as a pastry chef.

[ResolutePear]

I think my friend dropped out of law school (I haven't asked her outright) and is now interning as a pastry chef.

Delicious.