Top Law Schools

What are some of the most inspirational and educational law school and/or legal career success stories you've heard of/seen?

For example, do any of you know of people who overcame some great ostacles or maybe started off in a low-paying legal job and then ended up being extraordinarily successful later on?

Would love to hear and learn from these!

joe jamail getting shit-hammered the night before closing arguments in a $10 billion case, and winning

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/joe_jamail

There was a guy at my school last year who dropped out at the end of 1L after he ended up getting his dream job, which didn't require a JD at all.

My friend did two summers at a student practice org at law school and was jobless until 3L spring. Ended up getting a sweet law-related expert witness gig that pays substantially more than biglaw, has fewer hours, no face time requirement and no dress code.

Gary Spence has never lost a criminal case in his life. He went to University of Wyoming Law. Pretty badass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Spence

Joe Biden overcame serious academic misconduct charges at Syracuse Law School to become the Vice President.

Hattori Hanzo wrote:My friend did two summers at a student practice org at law school and was jobless until 3L spring. Ended up getting a sweet law-related expert witness gig that pays substantially more than biglaw, has fewer hours, no face time requirement and no dress code.

How in the hell did he get a job as "expert" witness out of law school? Don't expert witnesses have years of experience, hence, they are experts?

BarcaCrossesTheAlps wrote:

Hattori Hanzo wrote:My friend did two summers at a student practice org at law school and was jobless until 3L spring. Ended up getting a sweet law-related expert witness gig that pays substantially more than biglaw, has fewer hours, no face time requirement and no dress code.

How in the hell did he get a job as "expert" witness out of law school? Don't expert witnesses have years of experience, hence, they are experts?

He's not the expert witness. He writes the reports that the experts use to testify in court.

arizonairish wrote:Joe Biden overcame serious academic misconduct charges at Syracuse Law School to become the Vice President.

Probably the most inspirational story posted here.

Can anyone start more pointless threads than this guy?

cinephile wrote:There was a guy at my school last year who dropped out at the end of 1L after he ended up getting his dream job, which didn't require a JD at all.

Can you tell us more?

Also, was he strategically dropping out due to poor grades, in order to cut his losses? Or did he drop out even with decent to good grades to take on that dream job?

Hattori Hanzo wrote:

BarcaCrossesTheAlps wrote:

Hattori Hanzo wrote:My friend did two summers at a student practice org at law school and was jobless until 3L spring. Ended up getting a sweet law-related expert witness gig that pays substantially more than biglaw, has fewer hours, no face time requirement and no dress code.

How in the hell did he get a job as "expert" witness out of law school? Don't expert witnesses have years of experience, hence, they are experts?

He's not the expert witness. He writes the reports that the experts use to testify in court.

Are these jobs extremely rare? Who does a person go about getting one?

ndirish2010 wrote:Can anyone start more pointless threads than this guy?

Yes. But I don't feel like doing it.

scifiguy wrote:

cinephile wrote:There was a guy at my school last year who dropped out at the end of 1L after he ended up getting his dream job, which didn't require a JD at all.

Can you tell us more?

Also, was he strategically dropping out due to poor grades, in order to cut his losses? Or did he drop out even with decent to good grades to take on that dream job?

Know two guys like this, actually. One wanted to be a foreign service officer and was hoping that law school made him more competitive for that. He applied and got in, so he dropped out of law school because 1) they don't wait and 2) what's the point if you only did it to become more competitive?

The other guy wanted some kind of health care administrative position. He was concentrating in health law, but somehow found his dream job and they took him on, so he dropped out of law school. He too was only doing law school to be more competitive for this type of job, not because of any real desire to do law.

As far as I know, neither had poor grades, which is why people were surprised when they dropped out. The people who dropped out with poor grades did so at the end of first semester, which is the smart thing to do.

scifiguy wrote:

Hattori Hanzo wrote:

BarcaCrossesTheAlps wrote:

Hattori Hanzo wrote:My friend did two summers at a student practice org at law school and was jobless until 3L spring. Ended up getting a sweet law-related expert witness gig that pays substantially more than biglaw, has fewer hours, no face time requirement and no dress code.

How in the hell did he get a job as "expert" witness out of law school? Don't expert witnesses have years of experience, hence, they are experts?

He's not the expert witness. He writes the reports that the experts use to testify in court.

Are these jobs extremely rare? Who does a person go about getting one?

I have seen a couple posted on our careers website in the past two years (Charles River Associates) but I'd say these are pretty rare.

I'm sure a lot of us know the story of Andres Idarraga who went from jail to Yale Law School.

http://www.today.com/id/26661590/site/t ... SVRXVqlDqw

Great story.

jcccc wrote:I'm sure a lot of us know the story of Andres Idarraga who went from jail to Yale Law School.

http://www.today.com/id/26661590/site/t ... SVRXVqlDqw

Great story.

That's pretty amazing! Good for him for turning his life around.

Is this normal though ...for former criminals to attend top law schools? What about rapists, murderers, child molestors, etc.?

arizonairish wrote:Joe Biden overcame serious academic misconduct charges at Syracuse Law School to become the Vice President.

181

scifiguy wrote:

jcccc wrote:I'm sure a lot of us know the story of Andres Idarraga who went from jail to Yale Law School.

http://www.today.com/id/26661590/site/t ... SVRXVqlDqw

Great story.

That's pretty amazing! Good for him for turning his life around.

Is this normal though ...for former criminals to attend top law schools? What about rapists, murderers, child molestors, etc.?

Yes. Law schools are filled with rapists, murderers, and child molesters.

scifiguy wrote:What are some of the most inspirational and educational law school and/or legal career success stories you've heard of/seen?

For example, do any of you know of people who overcame some great ostacles or maybe started off in a low-paying legal job and then ended up being extraordinarily successful later on?

Would love to hear and learn from these!

Someone I know went from a junkie who'd sometimes be too poor to eat for a week to winning awards for XYZ financial product sales 3 years in a row (to the tune of 9 figures a year)

scifiguy wrote:

jcccc wrote:I'm sure a lot of us know the story of Andres Idarraga who went from jail to Yale Law School.

http://www.today.com/id/26661590/site/t ... SVRXVqlDqw

Great story.

That's pretty amazing! Good for him for turning his life around.

Is this normal though ...for former criminals to attend top law schools? What about rapists, murderers, child molestors, etc.?

A convicted murderer went to Tulane. With a scholarship.

http://nation.foxnews.com/columbia-univ ... cop-killer

Old news, but employed at Columbia school of social work and NYU law.

http://today.brown.edu/articles/2008/06/andres-idarraga

Today, Mr. Idarraga works for a V20.

http://www.bsfllp.com/lawyers/data/1838 ... tyle=print

http://www.vault.com/rankings-reviews/c ... w-100.aspx

http://www.ncbex.org/assets/media_files ... pGuide.pdf