loans, law school rankings, and layoffs, oh my!

due to the unreliable nature of my last computer, i haven't been able to blog as much as i wanted over the last two months. also, i've been doing a lot of thinking on a number of subjects, and wanted to take a break from writing until i had some clearer ideas.

This post from abovethelaw.com* regarding citi's sale of its student loan division seemed to be the perfect subject to get me back on the blog as it touches on issues of which those applying to law school need to be aware (student loans, law school rankings, and the dearth of the 160k job).

i feel that i need to be honest here and note that i am incredibly lucky and did not have to finance my legal education through loans, so i have no personal experience on this issue. however, through my friends and co-workers, i've seen the effect that the staggering debt loan can have on your career and life choices.

so, for those not in the know, there's a maxim that applies with respect to choosing where to matriculate for your J.D. -- go to the best school you get accepted to, regardless of the cost. makes sense, as the legal profession is all about rankings and image (and snootiness), right? well, the problem is that the overwhelming majority of the "best" schools are private ($$$$) and even the highly-ranked public schools, like the University of Texas, are incredibly expensive. of course, there are scholarships and other non-loan aid available, but, as you can imagine, the competition for scholarships at the top-ranked schools is insane.

now, if you have the grades/LSAT to be accepted to a top-ranked (tier 1) school, it's also quite possible that you could be a strong competitor for scholarships/grants in the schools in the lower tiers and thus come out with no (or less) debt. but, here's the kicker -- the chances of obtaining the coveted biglaw job decrease dramatically the lower down the tiers you go. now, it is possible to work at a biglaw firm from a lower ranked school but you have to be at the absolute top of your class (it's also possible that you don't care about biglaw, want to be a PI attorney, DA, public interest lawyer, etc., so this isn't an issue to consider).

take charlie** for example -- very smart guy, did well at kansas and the LSAT, and was accepted to two law schools, northwestern and new york law school. to attend northwestern, he'd have to take out substantial loans, but had a full scholarship to nyls. following the maxim stated above, he obviously chose northwestern. guess what? ten years later, he is depressed, absolutely hates being a litigator in a large firm, but can't really afford not to do it, because of the 100K+ debt load he had to take on to attend northwestern. so the decision that he made when he was 21 and graduating from college will now control him for a majority of his life.

now here's the thing -- what happens to the student loan payments when charlie loses his job? or what about leslie, who just graduated from vanderbilt law and has to start making loan payments, but can't find a job in the legal profession, even in public interest work? losing your job/not being able to find a job is incredibly stressful, but to add a 100K+ debt loan? it's no shock that depression and substance abuse are rampant in the legal profession.

jobs are still very hard to come by in law. again, for those not in the know, like many professions, the legal profession was substantially altered by the economic crash. in the years leading up to the recession/depression/end of time, biglaw firms had become amazingly bloated, particularly in the transactional arena, as there was lots of work and plently of people wanting to make that biglaw salary (myself included). and then there were the salary wars of 2007 -- basically, the way that biglaw works is that a new york firm will raise starting salaries and all other biglaw firms eventually follow suit, because they don't want to lose out on the best "talent" (read: cog) to a rival firm, which they will certainly do if they pay less. the problem is, as in all things in life, not all biglaw firms are equal nor should they all have been paying starting attorneys $160,000.

fast forward to 2008, and there's NO transactional work available, because if no one's buying/selling/lending, there's nothing for these lawyers to do (or if there was work, it was getting captured at the partner level, but that's a subject for a different post). and then the (stealth) layoffs started occurring and summer programs shrank, and the salad days of the mid-2000s came to an end. now it's incredibly difficult (and it wasn't easy in the first place) to get a biglaw job.

but, if you lost your biglaw job, how can you make the payments for the loans that you took out in order to get that job? and don't even get me started about the lost generation. those kids were screwed before they even had a chance.

* if you don't know what abovethelaw.com is (although i can't imagine there are more than two other people reading this, both of whom know atl), it's a (tabloid-esq) website on the legal profession, and is credited in part to causing the salary wars of 2007. it was super fun to read atl in 2008, where the posts everyday were about layoffs. it was also super fun to wake up on a thursday morning with a horrific hangover from a wednesday night event, check atl, and find out your firm is firing people that day. particularly when you work right next door to the MP. but enough about that.

** obviously i'm not using my friends' real names here or personal details. duh.

GREETINGS: YOU HAVE BEEN SUED.

one main problem i have had with law is the fact that, if i open my mouth, i could be sued for whatever comes out. so, for me, the fear of being sued for malpractice -- and, let me make clear, in today’s world, you can be sued and never have done anything wrong -- caused (and still causes) great anxiety in me. the law is all about “being right” – at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. when asking other lawyers how they dealt with this stress, of always making sure that they had the “right” answer, i always received advice along the lines of just do your best and that’s all you can do. but for some reason, my best wasn’t good enough for me. because, what if, one day, my “best” effort didn’t yield the “right” result? This fear ate away at me for years and led to what I now call “law stomach” – a tight painful clenching in my entire stomach that strikes with no warning. fun.

the pressure i placed on myself with respect to being “right” wasn’t just about being sued; it was also about the recognition that clients deserve the best legal representation from every practicing attorney, and i always wanted to make sure that i delivered to the best of my ability on that front. if you’ve ever had to pay an attorney (i have in my personal life), then you know how important it is that your attorney gives you the right answer…otherwise, you feel frustrated and helpless and angry for paying for bad advice.

i wish that i had thought (or known) more about this aspect of “right” before going to law school. i was used to a liberal arts education, where discussion was encouraged, as was different viewpoints and creative arguments. law school is the same way (hence the abundance of liberal arts majors) – please, think about the ridiculous hypos that first years come up with in order to impress the professor with their potential legal reasoning (i can’t remember where i heard this, but i do remember a torts hypo involving a star wars force field. seriously). and yet, the second that law school ends and it’s time to study for the bar, that’s when the whole aspect of “right” really kicks in and you can say bye-bye to creativity. busy partners and senior associates don’t have the time or the inclination to listen to your opinions (remember, they’re paying you, unlike law school, where you’re paying the school) or crazy legal theories; rather, they’re focused on their own hours and their own quest to be “right.”

i wish i had known that the practice of law is far, far different than the study of law. i loved the study of law and the practice, well not so much.

the backstory

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).

getting the law out of my facespace.

so, rather than bore my all my Facebook friends with my musings on the law and my life afterwards, i thought i'd jump on the blogging bandwagon (although i would like to note, this is my second blog. i had one when i was a solo practitioner and made all of one post).

after spending over twelve years of my life trying to find a happy place in practicing law and one last disastrous attempt to make it work, i'm now trying to figure out what on earth i'm going to do when i grow up.

but, the point for this blog is for me to have a place to express some thoughts i have on the legal profession as a whole, as well as share and discuss other articles and books on the subject. this is something i've been wanting to do for quite a while. also, due to the market freefall of 2008, the legal profession is going through a massive change right now, the total impact of which has yet to be seen.

so that's it, we'll see where this goes.