How directionless can I be going to a T6? Forum

[sjwoods]

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[brotherdarkness]

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[pom fig]

What field was your undergrad major in? Perhaps you could find work in a related field, improving your knowledge, experience, and connections within it, and it can help you later in the job search and your career even if you ultimately choose law.

Law schools and particularly T6 schools will be able to provide you with a lot of resources, and you might be able to take better advantage of them by having a more focused idea of what you want to ultimately do or what you know you DON'T want to do, rather than going in "directionless."

I agree with the suggestion that a law job would help you make sure this is what you want to do.
Also, meet lawyers of various backgrounds so that you can see if any particular area or lifestyle appeals to you more than others.

On a side note, if you don't have a clue what you want to do with this degree, why are you going? Have you articulated to yourself what your reason is for going to law school? (Not a challenge; just genuinely curious.)

[sjwoods]

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[03152016]

Definitely seconding the suggestion to work in a firm. I did that a few years back; it was such a great experience and gave me a much clearer picture of a lawyer's day-to-day. It was a super small firm (under ten lawyers) which seemed to work to my advantage; the lawyer I worked under was fantastic and let me accompany her to some depositions and trials to see the process up close.

[bropulous]

I definitely wouldn't go to law school unless you think you want go into law or another career for which a law degree is directly relevant (I'm not sure how many of these there are). Take as much time off as you need -- don't feel like you have to go back to school in two years or before your LSAT score expires or whatever. Even if you end up going to law school, having a decent idea of your career goals will help a lot in terms of choosing classes, clinics, summer jobs, etc. There's no reason to rush into it.

I was in a very similar position a few years ago. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life, and I had a great LSAT score and GPA. I ended up deciding that law was a better alternative than the other options I was considering and went to one of HYS. I had an amazing experience there and graduated a year ago. However, I've had a much less positive experience working as a lawyer and am actually considering changing careers.

Would I do it again? Probably, but I'm not sure. My situation is a little unusual because I was in the military before law school, so I paid for law school with the GI Bill and didn't come out in debt, plus I went to a school where everyone who wants biglaw gets it. I'm pretty sure I would regret it if I had more debt than I could pay off in a couple of years.

Looking back on it, my best advice about choosing careers is to think about the features you want your career to have and the skills you want to use, not the subjects that interest you. Interests can change, but your personality and strengths don't, at least not to the same degree. What appeals to you about law besides the fact that you did well on the LSAT? A lot of smart people can do well on the LSAT, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll like working as a lawyer or be good at it.

One last point for what's already a long post: Don't rule out other fields just because you studied philosophy in college. Regardless of which field you choose, you'll likely have to spend several years getting into it. I didn't really think about some other fields that might be a good fit for me (engineering, for instance), because I didn't have the required background, but I could have acquired that background in the same amount of time I spent going to law school. It's better to do that in your 20s than in your 30s, like I might end up doing.

[esther0123]

I definitely wouldn't go to law school unless you think you want go into law or another career for which a law degree is directly relevant (I'm not sure how many of these there are). Take as much time off as you need -- don't feel like you have to go back to school in two years or before your LSAT score expires or whatever. Even if you end up going to law school, having a decent idea of your career goals will help a lot in terms of choosing classes, clinics, summer jobs, etc. There's no reason to rush into it.

I was in a very similar position a few years ago. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life, and I had a great LSAT score and GPA. I ended up deciding that law was a better alternative than the other options I was considering and went to one of HYS. I had an amazing experience there and graduated a year ago. However, I've had a much less positive experience working as a lawyer and am actually considering changing careers.

Would I do it again? Probably, but I'm not sure. My situation is a little unusual because I was in the military before law school, so I paid for law school with the GI Bill and didn't come out in debt, plus I went to a school where everyone who wants biglaw gets it. I'm pretty sure I would regret it if I had more debt than I could pay off in a couple of years.

Looking back on it, my best advice about choosing careers is to think about the features you want your career to have and the skills you want to use, not the subjects that interest you. Interests can change, but your personality and strengths don't, at least not to the same degree. What appeals to you about law besides the fact that you did well on the LSAT? A lot of smart people can do well on the LSAT, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll like working as a lawyer or be good at it.

One last point for what's already a long post: Don't rule out other fields just because you studied philosophy in college. Regardless of which field you choose, you'll likely have to spend several years getting into it. I didn't really think about some other fields that might be a good fit for me (engineering, for instance), because I didn't have the required background, but I could have acquired that background in the same amount of time I spent going to law school. It's better to do that in your 20s than in your 30s, like I might end up doing.

What about law school vs. actual legal practice was so different that you don't enjoy your job as a lawyer?

[sundontshine]

What about law school vs. actual legal practice was so different that you don't enjoy your job as a lawyer?

Law school is a joke once you get settled in, while being a practicing attorney is miserably boring.

[FlanAl]

This website is a good place to start to figure out what sort of lawyer you want to be. If you want to argue in court you will probably want to check out the prosecution and public defender threads. It would also be good for you to try and tag along with a prosecutor or a pd so that you can see what their day is like.

If you want to go T6 to go big law you should do your best to hunt down as many big law attorneys you can and try to figure out exactly what it is that they do. Its convoluted and probably hard for them to explain but really try to pin them down and get it explained in layman's terms. I still don't really understand what the day to day of a big law lawyer is even though its what a lot of my friends do now. There are a bunch of threads on here about what the lifestyle and work are like. From what I can tell there aren't very many people that would opt to do big law work if the pay was less.

If you think you may want to be a lawyer to help effect some kind of social change go to as many legal non-profits as you can and talk to lawyers about what they do. I would also look at what the other staff at these NGO's do and see if that would be enjoyable to you.

there are obviously other law options but these are the general ones that people look at from a T6.

[Nomo]

Law school and legal practice aren't very similar. In law school you read abbreviated case that provide relatively simple facts and then you see how the judge applies those facts under the precedent he or she is working with. You learn all the legal rules and then on exam day you read a 3 page list of fairly simply facts and try to catch and analyze each legal issue in a 4 hour time block.

In the practice of law you are normally consumed by a mountain of facts and potential facts. It doesn't matter if you're doing securities litigation, medical malpractice, or mergers and acquisitions. There will be thousands of pages of documents and it is your job to both help create the thousands of pages of documents, to understand them, to sort through them, organize them, and then figure out how to present them. So that's your number 1 job, developing, understanding, and presenting a factual record. You're collecting facts with an eye towards the law, but the law is not your primary concern. You're secondary job is to conduct legal research in whatever areas you've spotted an issue - and then to analyze and write about the issues you've found, weaving in the appropriate facts as necessary. Sometimes the legal research and writing won't even be that important because there just aren't any serious legal issues. If you're on the transactional side there will probably be even less legal research, depending on your exact practice area.

[bropulous]

What about law school vs. actual legal practice was so different that you don't enjoy your job as a lawyer?

There are two main things I don't like about legal practice:

1. It's hard to see the social impact of my work. Lawyers don't design products, expand scientific knowledge, treat patients, etc. Sure, having an effective legal system enables those things to happen, but I've realized that it really bothers me that what I'm doing doesn't have a more direct impact.

2. Having strong social skills is very important for moving up in the legal world. As a junior lawyer, I spend much of my time working alone on discovery and research, but senior lawyers are often on phone calls or in meetings. I'm a pretty introverted person and think this could be a big obstacle to advancing in the field.

There are definitely some things I like about law. I enjoy research and writing, like working with smart people, and still find law interesting as a subject. However, I think I could get these things in other fields too.

[Power_of_Facing]

What about law school vs. actual legal practice was so different that you don't enjoy your job as a lawyer?

There are two main things I don't like about legal practice:

1. It's hard to see the social impact of my work. Lawyers don't design products, expand scientific knowledge, treat patients, etc. Sure, having an effective legal system enables those things to happen, but I've realized that it really bothers me that what I'm doing doesn't have a more direct impact.

2. Having strong social skills is very important for moving up in the legal world. As a junior lawyer, I spend much of my time working alone on discovery and research, but senior lawyers are often on phone calls or in meetings. I'm a pretty introverted person and think this could be a big obstacle to advancing in the field.

There are definitely some things I like about law. I enjoy research and writing, like working with smart people, and still find law interesting as a subject. However, I think I could get these things in other fields too.

This is a fear I have as a 0L. Anyone have relevant thoughts or insights on the subject?

[ph14]

What about law school vs. actual legal practice was so different that you don't enjoy your job as a lawyer?

There are two main things I don't like about legal practice:

1. It's hard to see the social impact of my work. Lawyers don't design products, expand scientific knowledge, treat patients, etc. Sure, having an effective legal system enables those things to happen, but I've realized that it really bothers me that what I'm doing doesn't have a more direct impact.

2. Having strong social skills is very important for moving up in the legal world. As a junior lawyer, I spend much of my time working alone on discovery and research, but senior lawyers are often on phone calls or in meetings. I'm a pretty introverted person and think this could be a big obstacle to advancing in the field.

There are definitely some things I like about law. I enjoy research and writing, like working with smart people, and still find law interesting as a subject. However, I think I could get these things in other fields too.

This is a fear I have as a 0L. Anyone have relevant thoughts or insights on the subject?

Do direct impact work or get over your hang-up.

[jk148706]

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[ph14]

Since when did " T6" become a thing ? I'm seeing it a lot

Since a long time ago.

[jk148706]

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[BruceWayne]

Yeah it has .. But is it really a thing? Like NYU >Penn all factors equal?

Since Penn and NYU are in the same region then probably yeah. But law is INSANELY regional in a lot of ways. If you're comparing different schools for different markets, and you aren't talking HYS (and really I'm starting to learn that even then, especially when you aren't talking Harvard, it's more regional than you probably realize) it's very hard to make blanket statements like that. I can tell you right now for example, that down here in the South NO ONE will give a damn that you went to NYU over Duke/UVA. Hell they don't really care that you went to UVA/Duke over Vandy. That mindset applies in a lot of places with strong local schools.

[Crowing]

Since when did " T6" become a thing ? I'm seeing it a lot

It's been around for a while but that doesn't mean the term carries any real meaning