Top Law Schools

My apologies for the length of this post, I'll try to be brief.

I was a 1L at a T25 two years ago (originally c/o 2015) at partial scholarship and finished that first semester in roughly the Top 5% of my class, and also secured a job with a prominent COA feeder judge. I had a really difficult second semester for a lot of personal reasons, and withdrew towards the end of the year prior to taking exams to focus on what had become a pretty serious mental health situation. Obviously I both paid tuition second semester for no grades, and lost a scholarship of my eligibility, which isn't great at all.

I've managed to make some amount of progress on my issues, but my financial situation is awful even apart from my student debt (about $60,000 in CC/other debt, and $75,000 in loans from 1L/UG), and I'm struggling for direction. I do have a letter of good standing from my law school, and they have told me that, subject to passing a physical and mental readiness examination by the University Health Services, I'm eligible to restart in any future semester and do the last 5 semesters (or 2.5 years).

I guess I'm wondering whether anyone knows how all that will affect a potential bar admission or my career goals. I've managed to keep most of the mental health stuff off of my formal medical records, but I do have tons of debt apart from my student loans, and the possibility that I may have to declare personal bankruptcy may a) prevent me from taking Grad PLUS loans and b) pose trouble when it comes to bar admission.

If it matters, I've also considered just throwing away the semester at the T25, retaking the LSAT and aiming higher, but I want to get a sense for how this all would impact my bar and career prospects. I have, at least, worked at two firms so far since leaving law school and gotten some decent experience. It's just a terrible situation because I was on track to probably make LR and get big law/clerkship if I'd stuck on that path and now I may not even ever be able to pass a bar/get a decent job after LS.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated, including lines of work I might try to pursue if I don't go back to law - I have a pretty unmarketable UG degree (philosophy/literature).

Thanks all!

Hard to comment regarding your concerns because this is a highly subjective set of circumstances which need to be discussed with someone more fully informed about your situation. Without more, I wonder whether the pressures of law school triggered the condition or events, or whether a now resolved non-likely to reoccur situation triggered the crisis.

No great advice from me. Just want to say congrats rocking your first semester of law school, condolences for the problems, and best of luck going forward.

Clearly you had a talent for law school exams. Just go back and move on. I'm sure you can think of a reasonable way to explain your leave of absence. Re-taking the LSAT however doesn't make much sense.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I feel like I may have burned a lot of bridges amongst my classmates and some of the administrative staff, but I suppose that doesn't prevent me from going back, keeping my head down, and trucking through some more exams.

I am curious, though, does anyone have any sense of how the bankruptcy would affect the possibility of bar admission? Would it be worth returning if I was unsure of my ability to pass (and thus would have to concentrate more on 'JD preferred' jobs or some such thing)?

Thanks, all. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

You may want to discuss the issues presented with your school. There's likely someone on staff that can provide you with more concrete advice. Additionally, the state bar may have a C&F hotline that you can call, or a local bar association may have an outreach group that you can consult. Alternatively, there are attorneys out there that specialize in C&F issues. It may be worthwhile to to consult with one. It stands to reason that you'll need to demonstrate to the C&F committee that you've "righted the ship" and you will not have any lingering issues that can effect your ability to represent clients. The above mentioned resources can help you with that stuff.