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I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. Essentially, after graduation next spring I have to move out of my school's home market for family reasons. My mother is very sick, and needs someone whom she knows well to care for her (alzheimers). I also have to close down the family business and work with our attorney to settle the estate. I'll be moving back to my hometown, but I won't have time to work at least for a year after graduation. The good news is that my family prepared very well for end of life problems, and have saved more than enough money to care well for my mother until she passes and still provide for me to a point.

How do I survive this career wise? I'm still dealing with it emotionally, but we saw this coming a long time ago so at the risk of sounding coldhearted I'm not totally overwhelmed. I'm moving into one of the tougher to crack legal markets. Biglaw was never in the picture, as my grades are only average and my school is a lower T1. I really want to work in what most people call shitlaw anyway, criminal/family/bankruptcy law, so I guess that's a plus. I assume I just need to hit the pavement and build a network of attorneys who can serve as mentors and potentially refer me, but is there anything more I can do?

Since I have no debt, I'm only 23, and have some money to float me I think time is on my side. But I don't want to blow my parent's hard earned money just to bum around with no job. Taking care of my mom will be a major part of my life for the next few years, but outside of that I'd like to at least work in the industry in some capacity.

Any thoughts? Pointers? People who've dealt with this themselves? Thanks.

That's a tough break, but it sounds like you have your head screwed on right about the whole thing.

The TLS perspective is by and large accurate, but it's very warped by people who see law school - and the debt one takes to attend it - as a means to an end to a big paycheck. As long as you're ready to 'network' (awful word but legitimate practice) and know what you want to do with the law degree, moving is hardly going to be insurmountable. It might take you a few (dozen) more resumes to get a bite, but it's hardly going to be impossible. And the fact that you're moving home instead of to a totally unknown location will be a big boon. The two places people have the best odds of finding legal work are the market of their school (since firms and government employers will know the school) and home (since firms and government employees will always have a soft spot for locals).

Thanks for the reply, it seems what you are saying fits into my picture of the way home market employment works. Having a sob story may help too, but I'd rather not fling that in people's faces unless they ask "...why did you move home?"

I'm used to living on next to nothing, so at least I can stretch my cash out for a few years. Especially living at home for free, essentially. And not being in a rush to build connections and make money really helps. I figure I'll do a few pro bonos on the side here and there, get to know some people, and go from there.

Once again, thanks for the reply! And if anyone has ever had to move back to their home market from their far flung regional school, please PM me with how you made it work. Or post here, it could be a valuable resource for kids that get thrown a curveball in life (unless I'm missing a pre-existing thread here).

If you truly can't work in the time it takes to settle the estate and provide career, I'd try to get plugged in with local bar and/or local public interest network...if you're volunteering some you can keep your skills sharp. I'd also take (and pass) the bar if you can, that way you're ready to go when the time is right.

Yeah I've already gotten in contact with the county bar, as well as the local PI agency that covers most of my area. They were extremely receptive, which is great. I'll take the bar next summer, and hopefully pass (which is a prerequisite to all of this anyway). Taking care of someone with alzheimers/dimensia can be really hard as oftentimes they won't deal with anyone except you (and that's if you are lucky enough that the person still remembers you), so unfortunately while the money is there finding suitable care givers is tough. Even finding a good nursing home can be hard.

I wish I knew more about consulting, then I could just attempt to run the old biz! But engineering was never my thing.