so I can’t really remember why I chose to go to law school. at the time I took the LSAT, I was 20 years old, and had decided to graduate early from my college. i did relatively well on the SAT and decided that based upon that, i would do well on the LSAT and chose not to do any studying at all. likely not the best choice, as these scores stay with you forever (and are a mark of competition in law school). when i got my score, i was disappointed, because i knew that i could have done much better, but i only planned to attend one law school (Memphis) and my score was enough to get me in there. this should have been my first sign to myself – in considering your future career, it’s probably a good idea to actually care about the standardized test you’re going to take which will consider your future and not just see how it goes. but, like many others, i considered law school a fallback, or a way to ward off the real world for another three years.
looking back, i should have quit after first year. i did well that year, and although i liked certain areas (yay, rule against perpetuities), i knew I lacked those “gunner” qualities to make it to the top of the class. But again, i was young, and not terribly concerned about the future. and, after a visit to my sister in nyc spring break of my first year, i knew that i had to move there and transferring law schools was the only way that was going to happen.
here’s the highlight of my whole time in law – transferring to brooklyn law school. i loved that school, loved my classes, and loved, more than anything, my amazing friends. it’s difficult, because although i somewhat regret my career choice, moving to ny played such a large part in who I am now (and also resulted in me reuniting with my-now husband) , that it’s hard to regret going to law school, or bls in particular.
flash forward to august 2001. i had taken the ny bar, somehow packed up an entire apartment in boxes and shipped them without a car (thanks linda!), said a very tearful goodbye to my then-boyfriend/now husband, and settled into the flight home. I remember thinking to myself, “well that was the end of an adventure.” again, a warning sign. law school does not equal a life adventure; law school equals a career.
arriving in dallas was somewhat of a shock for many reasons. despite the kind words of advice from my sister (a seasoned in-house law recruiter), i had done nothing to find a job except one mass mailing with no follow-up, and, looking back, i’m not sure what i was thinking. apparently i expected a good law job to fall out of the sky. a large part of my jobless status was due to transferring -- i missed OCI/was ineligible at brooklyn, which meant that a large/bigtex law firm job was out of the question, as i was not a summer associate and had no experience except working for a judge one summer. BUT, i had a plan to ward off real life for a few months – i still needed to take the texas bar in February 2002. the optimal solution would have been that i found a job upon moving home and took a break to study for the bar, but after 9/11 and the economic downturn, it became clear to me that my chances in getting a legal job without being licensed in tx were slim to none. so, I studied for the texas bar, passed it, and here’s where the craziness starts…
In the 8+ years since I took the texas bar, i have worked as a personal injury defense attorney, solo practitioner in estate planning, corporate and tax attorney with a large firm, and, most recently, as a freelance research and writing attorney, and all of these different methods of practicing law have stressed me out in the same way, leading me to the conclusion that it i will never be happy in the practice of law in a private setting .
i guess my whole point of this blog is to try and figure out a lot of the problems that i (along with others, who will remain nameless) have with practicing law and to try and share those stories, so as to stop the flow of college graduates attending law school because they think they’ll like being a lawyer or because they can’t think of anything else to do.
i also want to note that i know there are some very happy lawyers in the private sector (and particularly happy ones in government, more on that later), so it’s not that the profession is so terrible that no one likes it; rather, it’s that not as many people are suited to law as think that they might be (if that makes sense).
No comments:
Post a Comment