. Forum

[spinsrap]

Retaking is worthless. NU is your best shot at something worthwhile. UVA/GULC are huge longshots but are worth taking. No CA school worth going to would accept you. Outside of that you should aim for schools that tend to give splitters money such as WUSTL/UIUC/IUB/etc. All in all, apply very broadly since a 2.3 is going to sink you at most places and will make your cycle insanely hard to predict (Princeton might bump you a bit). I'd actually hazard that you might not actually get accepted to any law school worth going to for a reasonable price. If that happens I'd honestly consider doing something else.

Hmm... thanks, that's helpful. I'm definitely going to law school, so it may be the case that I have to retool, improve my case, and wait for next cycle. It really wouldn't matter if I retook and got a >177 or something?

Also, I'm new to this forum, but are T2 schools really that unacceptable? There's no such thing as working your ass off at a 50th or 60th ranked school to get a fulfilling job? I understand that I'm not going to be having firms throw money at me when I near graduation, but that's not the motivation here. It's entering a field that I'm far more suited to than the one I'm currently in and providing useful services in said field to people who could use them.

Lewis and Clark, for example, has a killer Animal Law program (I realize most posters here could care less about the program, and that's fine). When I heard the dean speak a few years back, he was glowing about a huge donation they had just received specifically for AL. Is it really the case that at a place like L&C, it's just "not top tier". I find that hard to believe/stomach... hah.

Anyhow, amazing and helpful, cheers!

Lewis & Clark is a good school, with good programs. (Although "specialty" programs are largely useless in terms of getting jobs.) The problem is that they basically ONLY place in Portland, and the Portland legal market is tiny. L&C grads are competing with Oregon and Willamette grads, plus a non-zero number of locals who went to higher-ranked schools elsewhere and are bringing their JDs from Michigan/NYU/Georgetown home.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 grads of the three Oregon law schools combined get NALP firm jobs in Portland each year.
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p4944091

<= is from Portland, will be attending Northwestern

Gold! Thanks and congrats on NU.

[crumpetsandtea]

I sense this might be sarcastic, but can't tell, so here goes: Animal Law is something that's been virtually ignored, but deals with animal welfare, anti-cruelty laws, & c. It's considered an "emerging" field and is basically like environmental law was a few decades back. We here in the U.S. are WAY behind many other countries (many in Europe) in terms of our laws dealing with non-human animals and their standing for moral consideration.

Hardly a thorough explication, but is that helpful?

Again, y'all are awesome, thanks for posting.

I think Grizz said that because you can probably count the # of 'animal law' jobs available in the US on your fingers. And you can bet those jobs are going to people from T14 schools who are interested in animal law, not people from tiny local/regional schools who happen to 'specialize' in animal law. Specialties, if anything, are tricks schools use to sucker people into attending, with no real guarantee that they'll ever work in anything remotely similar to those fields.

When I first started looking into law school, I was looking at schools like Northeastern, which is 'known' for its public interest work (I wanted to do PI work). Then as I started researching schools I soon realized that unless I wanted to be doing practically pro bono document review "PI" work in some shit farm town in the middle of nowhere, I would have to go to a top school to succeed in such a small field. Basically, like 'animal law', PI jobs are far and few between, and the prestigious or rewarding positions (ie, working for the ACLU) go to T10 grads who are at the top of their class. 'Animal Law' is even more like this, because it...well...doesn't really exist. That's what it means when people say it's "virtually ignored" and "an emerging field." Basically, no one knows about it and there are no jobs in that field yet.

Find me 5 reputable 'animal law' firms, 5 midlaw 'animal law' firms, and 5 shitlaw 'animal law' firms, and I'll recant, but I'm pretty sure finding even 15 firms that focus on this (especially ones that have offices in Portland, where you will be FORCED to work if you attend Lewis and Clark) will be impossible.

[Grizz]

Protection of animal rights in the abstract? Basically no one does that.

Want to do dogbites, animal custody, etc. and stuff like that? You can do that.

See, e.g., http://animallawpractice.com/; http://www.animallawnc.com/; http://www.oregonanimallawattorney.com/

There's actually a whole jurisprudence surrounding dog bites. Most states have a form of strict liability. Then insurance pays. Thrilling stuff.

[lsatcrazy]

I thought Animal Law was the LS at Faber College...

[CanadianWolf]

A 2.3 Princeton GPA may help distinguish you as an applicant from other applicants with a similiar GPA, but it will not give you any help otherwise; in fact, it is likely to hurt as it suggests laziness from one given an outstanding opportunity versus low GPA applicants who endured significant family, health &/or work issues. Regardless, the six year separation from your undergraduate years & significant work experience diminishes the significance of your undergraduate GPA. The primary concern of adcomms may focus on maturity issues. These concerns may be alleviated by your letters of recommendation & your essays.

[sunynp]

Dude- don't give up and accept a school just because that is the only place you think you can get in. Play up work experience and life experience. Also the general advice is to go to the "best" school you can get into and don't look for specific programs. Please don't go to law school without focusing on employment- ESP. If you are giving up a decent job to go to school.

As for animal law- some friends of mine are very active in the animal rights movement in Connecticut , however, their organization pays a lobbyist a monthly stipend ( substantial) but they dont have any real need for a lawyer to help them with animal rights. Most of that action seems to be legislative at the moment. I thunk thee is a tiny amount of work with universities and animal testing conditions- but that is very limited.

[spinsrap]

Dude- don't give up and accept a school just because that is the only place you think you can get in. Play up work experience and life experience. Also the general advice is to go to the "best" school you can get into and don't look for specific programs. Please don't go to law school without focusing on employment- ESP. If you are giving up a decent job to go to school.

As for animal law- some friends of mine are very active in the animal rights movement in Connecticut , however, their organization pays a lobbyist a monthly stipend ( substantial) but they dont have any real need for a lawyer to help them with animal rights. Most of that action seems to be legislative at the moment. I thunk thee is a tiny amount of work with universities and animal testing conditions- but that is very limited.

No worries there, I'm certainly not going to give up on finding the best school that I can. I'm fine with all dings as long as I've got the right acceptance. I'm just trying to gather as much intel. before I submit. I know my cycle will be a bit strange, so I wanted to get all the help I could up front.

Thanks as well for the AL pointers.

[Samara]

Dude- don't give up and accept a school just because that is the only place you think you can get in. Play up work experience and life experience. Also the general advice is to go to the "best" school you can get into and don't look for specific programs. Please don't go to law school without focusing on employment- ESP. If you are giving up a decent job to go to school.

As for animal law- some friends of mine are very active in the animal rights movement in Connecticut , however, their organization pays a lobbyist a monthly stipend ( substantial) but they dont have any real need for a lawyer to help them with animal rights. Most of that action seems to be legislative at the moment. I thunk thee is a tiny amount of work with universities and animal testing conditions- but that is very limited.

No worries there, I'm certainly not going to give up on finding the best school that I can. I'm fine with all dings as long as I've got the right acceptance. I'm just trying to gather as much intel. before I submit. I know my cycle will be a bit strange, so I wanted to get all the help I could up front.

Thanks as well for the AL pointers.

I know someone who is trying to break into the field of "animal law" with several years of lobbying experience (in a different field and no JD, but still) and is discovering that the number of jobs that aren't running an animal shelter for next to no pay is incredibly small. She has networked well with people from ASPCA and HSUS and has been dismayed to find how little work there is in the field and how difficult it is to acquire.

I'd echo what everyone else is saying ITT. You have an interesting back story and this is one case where your personal statement can make all the difference, so put a lot of work into that.

If you want more general information on being a splitter, I compiled some here: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 2&t=162680 Welcome to the splitters friends! You are a worthy addition.

[spinsrap]

Dude- don't give up and accept a school just because that is the only place you think you can get in. Play up work experience and life experience. Also the general advice is to go to the "best" school you can get into and don't look for specific programs. Please don't go to law school without focusing on employment- ESP. If you are giving up a decent job to go to school.

As for animal law- some friends of mine are very active in the animal rights movement in Connecticut , however, their organization pays a lobbyist a monthly stipend ( substantial) but they dont have any real need for a lawyer to help them with animal rights. Most of that action seems to be legislative at the moment. I thunk thee is a tiny amount of work with universities and animal testing conditions- but that is very limited.

No worries there, I'm certainly not going to give up on finding the best school that I can. I'm fine with all dings as long as I've got the right acceptance. I'm just trying to gather as much intel. before I submit. I know my cycle will be a bit strange, so I wanted to get all the help I could up front.

Thanks as well for the AL pointers.

I know someone who is trying to break into the field of "animal law" with several years of lobbying experience (in a different field and no JD, but still) and is discovering that the number of jobs that aren't running an animal shelter for next to no pay is incredibly small. She has networked well with people from ASPCA and HSUS and has been dismayed to find how little work there is in the field and how difficult it is to acquire.

I'd echo what everyone else is saying ITT. You have an interesting back story and this is one case where your personal statement can make all the difference, so put a lot of work into that.

If you want more general information on being a splitter, I compiled some here: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 2&t=162680 Welcome to the splitters friends! You are a worthy addition.

I found that thread yesterday and it's my new bible. Thanks so much for taking the time to put together that chart.

[lucifr]

We have a somewhat similar story, I forgot to mention in my thread that my GPA per semester went through the roof after I stopped running varsity xc and track in college. Let me know how things go and check out my thread
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9&t=173748

[mattviphky]

You should apply to Northwestern and WUSTL...like now.

[spinsrap]

You should apply to Northwestern and WUSTL...like now.

Thanks for the advice and I'm trying! Gotta love those delayed reccs...

[bracton]

I have a good friend who was in a situation similar to yours. Got a low GPA from a very good undergrad because she spent her whole time doing extracurricular activities. Got a lot of very interesting work experience, then decided she wanted to be a lawyer. She got a high LSAT and then went to a low-ranked T14. Transferred to HYS after 1L. Now sitting pretty.

A bit stressful, but you can still do very well, with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck.

[charliep]

you probably know this already, but Lewis and Clark offers a special scholarship to vegans in the animal law program

[spinsrap]

I have a good friend who was in a situation similar to yours. Got a low GPA from a very good undergrad because she spent her whole time doing extracurricular activities. Got a lot of very interesting work experience, then decided she wanted to be a lawyer. She got a high LSAT and then went to a low-ranked T14. Transferred to HYS after 1L. Now sitting pretty.

A bit stressful, but you can still do very well, with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck.

I appreciate the encouragement... thanks for sharing her story!

[spinsrap]

you probably know this already, but Lewis and Clark offers a special scholarship to vegans in the animal law program

I do! Gotta love it. I will certainly be applying if L&C is where I end up.