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WHY GO TO A TOP LAW SCHOOL?
—EXECUTIVE SUMMARY—
If you wish to go to law school, go to the very best one you can.
—The rewards of attending a top law school are compelling.
But do not go to law school until you have thoroughly analyzed:
—Yourself
—Law school
—Law as a profession
—Legal specialties and practice types that would fit you
Consider waiting to attend law school until you
have worked for several years.
—It is difficult to understand your fit with the world of work
absent full-time work experience.
Once upon a time, a high school diploma was a sufficient credential to get a good executive job. Then, as more and more people went to college, a high school diploma was no longer enough to land an executive position. A college degree sufficed for a time, but as more and more people got JDs and MBAs, even a college degree was no longer sufficient to get most high-powered jobs. That was the case in the 1970s. Since then, the number of people getting such degrees has increased to the point that simply having such a degree is insufficient to get plum jobs; the quality and reputation of the law program have become determinative.
If you decide law school is for you, you should go to the best school you can manage.
THE VALUE OF GOING TO A TOP SCHOOL
As the number of JD holders in the world increases, so does the importance of getting a top-quality JD, keyed to your needs, rather than just any law degree.
CAREER CHOICE
Some parts of the legal profession are virtually off limits to graduates of lesser law schools. These include the major corporate law firms and high-profile government jobs as well as public interest organizations. The most desirable employers to work for, such as the major firms, would no more think of recruiting at “Acme” Law School than they would of giving this year’s profits to the Flat Earth Society. These firms look to hire the best and the brightest and they know that the best and the brightest are to be found at the world’s leading law schools. The same is true in other legal fields, too. For instance, in a profession that is notorious for snobbery (regarding which law schools people attended), arguably the snobbiest employers of all are the public interest organizations.
STATUS
This category nearly speaks for itself. Whether for personal or business reasons, being a graduate of Harvard conjures up entirely different impressions and reactions among people you encounter than does being a graduate of Acme Law. Status is partially related to the other items listed here, such as salary, but it also reflects the fact that Harvard admits only people who are highly regarded to begin with.
CAREER FLEXIBILITY
The top law schools offer substantial geographic mobility to their graduates. Whereas lesser schools place few of their graduates outside their city or region, the top schools invariably send many of their graduates to firms across the country (and the world).
The benefits of going to a top school are not limited to your initial job upon graduation. If you decide to change employers, or even to change fields, the quality of your education will be one of the determining factors in your ability to make the switch successfully: It will determine how other people rate your chances (and whether they will risk hiring you). The alumni network, and your own personal network from law school, will also be important determinants of your ability to switch. With a strong network willing to help you, your chances are automatically better.
INCREASED PAY
The better the reputation of a school, the more its graduates earn. For example, the graduates of Harvard who enter the private sector will, in their first year, have median earnings exceeding $150,000. First-year graduates from the top dozen or two dozen schools can expect, on average, to earn 50 percent to 100 percent more than graduates from schools ranked nearer to number fifty. This pay gap increases dramatically as one goes further down the rankings to those schools near the bottom of the two hundred or so that grant law degrees in the United States.
It is important to note that the median salary of lawyers in the United States is approximately $120,000. Graduates of the top schools, however, earn more than that from the moment they start in private practice. In fact, lawyers at the leading firms have been making at least $140,000–$160,000 in their first year out of law school.
INTANGIBLES
Many of the benefits of attending a top law school are intangible. For example, you will be spending three years of your life interacting with faculty and fellow students; you might well value having the smartest, most motivated group of faculty and fellow students you can. Indeed, given that many of the friendships and professional relationships you form at law school will continue for many years after school, you will derive pleasure from attending a top school long after graduation. By the same token, you will have the opportunity to work with and compare yourself to some of the finest minds in the country.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Getting a law degree represents an extremely large investment of money, as well as time and effort. The tuition alone for a three-year program may be $150,000 or more, and your income forgone may be even greater. Books, computer, travel to and from the program, and other assorted expenses will add thousands more.
Is a law degree worth this large sum? Although not everyone will be financially better off from getting a JD, those attending the top programs are likely to be. The payoff to attending a top school is partly a matter of increased earnings. It is also a matter of increased career options, increased confidence that one can do a given job extremely well, increased security (no matter what happens, graduates of top schools tend to land jobs much more readily than do graduates from lesser schools), and increased status. It is therefore probably a mistake to view the decision to get a JD on a purely financial basis, despite the sums involved.
SHOULD YOU GO TO LAW SCHOOL?
This book is dedicated largely to the issues of helping you determine which schools would be best for you and showing you how to maximize your chances of gaining admission to them. A much more important question, however, is whether you should go to law school at all. The rest of this chapter is devoted to this issue.
Do not go to law school unless you are quite certain that you want to be a practicing lawyer (and you know the one or two fields that will best suit your needs) or you want to do something intimately related to legal practice, such as legal journalism.
A LAW DEGREE IS NOT A GENERAL PURPOSE DEGREE
A JD has long been considered the most flexible of degrees insofar as it will prepare you to do almost anything. This is utterly wrong. A law degree does nothing but teach you about practicing law. It does not teach you how to administer, nor does it teach you how to start a business (except in the narrow sense of how to file incorporation documents). The true multipurpose degree of today is the MBA, the skills from which would indeed help you in most fields.
IS LAW SCHOOL FOR YOU?
There is some correlation between those who most like law school and those who enjoy practicing law, just as there is between those who dislike law school and then dislike practicing law. The correlation, however, is not as strong as one might like. As a result, it makes sense to evaluate both law and law school independently.
Therefore, separate your decision into two parts: Consider first whether you are going to like law school. If you decide that the three years you will spend at law school will be the best three years of your life to date, then you need not have so high a degree of certainty that you will love the practice of law because at least the process of getting there will be enjoyable. On the other hand, if you determine that law school is likely to be a misery, you need to be dead certain that the practice of law is indeed right for you.
You can readily determine what law school will be like by spending time in law classes. You probably live near a law school. Approach the admissions department with a request to sit in on classes, or simply ask a professor for permission. Then follow one or two classes for an extended period. Do not just drop in once or twice. Instead, do the required reading and prepare for the class as if your grade (and life) depended upon it. Be sure to talk with other students about what they think of the process. (Note that the better the quality of the law school, the more representative and valuable this effort will be for someone who is potentially headed to a top school. Lower-tier law schools teach law in a different way, for a different purpose, and to a different group of students than do top schools.)
If you are unable to access an appropriate law school’s classes, try to follow the readings for two or three courses that interest you. Course syllabi are increasingly available on law school websites.
You might think you already have a fair idea of what law school will be like because you took political science or pre-law courses in college. Such courses, however, hardly resemble true law school courses, so do not take your enjoyment of these as a sign that you will like law school.
Do not rely, either, on what is written or filmed about law school. You need to investigate it for yourself. If you do not go to this small amount of effort because you deem it to be too much trouble, you will deserve whatever you encounter later on!
IS LAW FOR YOU?
Law is not a single, unitary field; there are many different specialties within it, just as there are many different employers. Although there are certain personality traits that seem to fit most comfortably within law, the range is substantial. How, then, you might ask, can you sensibly investigate the field? Note, first of all, that you need to do two things. You need to understand your own interests, skills, and needs. You also need to understand what is on offer in law, and see whether the two provide a suitable match.
This book is avowedly not a career planning manual. It is important to note, though, that you should put yourself through the exercises that such manuals—and sophisticated consultants—require. The following is meant simply to sketch out (albeit extremely briefly) what types of analysis you will need to do and to provide you with a guide to the resources likely to help you.
UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN INTERESTS, SKILLS, VALUES, AND GOALS
It is important that you choose a career that matches your needs as fully as possible. It may be that no job will be perfect for you—giving you everything you might wish for, and fulfilling you completely—but ending up with one that is not at least a close fit inevitably leads to trouble. The way to avoid feeling miserable in your career is to analyze your needs before you enter the field.
One starting point is to ask yourself and those who know you (family, friends, colleagues) what is likely to be most important to you in a career. What are your interests? Do you like to write, ride horses, travel, fiddle around in a laboratory? What do you have no interest in? You are, of course, most likely to enjoy a career that keeps you in touch with whatever areas or activities you enjoy.
What do you do well? Your inventory of skills is important for numerous reasons, one being that you will tend to enjoy whatever you do well, and vice versa, so entering a field that allows you to utilize what you do well is a good bet.
What are your values? At one level, this asks you to identify what causes you support—free speech, unfettered capitalism, environmentalism, and so on. At another level, this asks how you wish to live your life. Do you value time with your family more than being the highest-paid associate in the office, for example? Both types of values should have a major effect upon your choice of career (and how you pursue your career).
What are your goals? What do you hope to accomplish in life, whether in the short term or the long term?
The resources listed below will provide you with a starting point for your self-analysis. Do not overlook the possibility of using a professional career counselor, but make sure it is someone who has substantial experience dealing with lawyers or would-be lawyers.
IT TAKES MANY YEARS TO GET OUT OF LAW (ONCE YOU ARE IN)
Deciding to go to law school is a risky decision that is surprisingly hard to reverse. Many people attend law school for lack of anything better to do or despite major misgivings. They do not drop out at the top schools, despite the fact that a fair-sized minority dislike law school itself. (Harvard’s attrition rate is typically under 1 percent.) Those who dislike law school and those who are unsure of whether they are going to like practice (having not enjoyed their summer employment between years of law school) nonetheless enter practice. They console themselves in the first years of practice that the reason they dislike it is because they are simply at the bottom of the totem pole, learning necessary skills and establishing credibility. They assume that matters will improve. For those who find themselves still unhappy after three or more years, the natural instinct is to switch practice areas within the firm (if they enjoy their colleagues) or to switch firms (if they do not particularly care for their colleagues). This guarantees another few years of hoping that matters will improve.
Those who enter law are generally too goal-oriented to opt out; they will leave only when forced. It is only after half a dozen or more years that such lawyers will finally admit that they made the wrong career choice. Thus, law represents a decade’s commitment, or more. They tell themselves that a law degree has at least prepared them to do anything. Unfortunately, they discover how untrue that notion really is. They talk with friends in other fields, headhunters who help lawyers find other employment, and so on. They learn that they will have to cut their salaries by two-thirds and be willing to start at the bottom of another field, unless they find a job closely related to law. (If they take a job closely related to law, such as being the executive director of a public interest organization, they still have to accept a substantial salary cut.) Given that many lawyers will still owe $80,000–$130,000 in law school loans, changing professions may not be feasible. Even if they are willing and able to take the massive salary cut involved in starting over—that is, they can give up their long-held professional identity (and their pride can handle no longer being a “professional”), despite their friends’ and family’s comments that they are wasting their degree—they find that the barriers to doing so are massive.
Employers value legal training only in lawyers. High-tech firms, traditional companies, and everyone else in business (and in innumerable other areas as well) do not believe that lawyers, uniquely, have been “taught how to think.” Nor do they find that lawyers have necessarily acquired nonlegal skills worth paying for. Indeed, employers view lawyers as overly contentious, not very team-oriented, and very narrowly focused. Employers grant that lawyers (from top schools at least) are probably pretty smart and willing to work hard. However, they also consider them to be damaged goods. They figure that such lawyers are running away from law rather than toward something else in particular. They may also figure that because lawyers have so little background of relevance to choosing another field, they are likely to make another poor career decision the next time around, just as they did in entering law.
For those lawyers who wish finally to get the true multipurpose degree, an MBA, the outlook is also discouraging. The only lawyers able to get into top business schools are those who have had very substantial business experience along the way. Business schools value experience much more highly than do law schools, but they do not value a knowledge of product liability law, federal jurisdiction, or the like. Thus, lawyers with top GPAs and GMAT scores flop in the business school admissions game because they have wasted (by business school standards) their last eight or ten years.
This is not a pretty picture. The way to avoid it is simple: Learn in advance whether law and law school are for you.
AN M.A. IN LAW?
It is a pity that law schools do not do what doctoral programs in other fields have long done: give an intermediate degree along the way. If you wish to do a PhD in economics, for example, but stop before completing your thesis, you will still get a master’s degree. Law schools could do something similar, giving a master’s in law after one or one and a half years, which would be a good point at which you could assess whether law really made sense for you. Those who opted out of law would nonetheless have a fine-looking degree for their résumés, but would no doubt find it easier to leave at this point than to continue to invest heavily in a field that they might well already sense was not going to be what they had hoped.
CAREER SERVICES DEANS DISCUSS SELF-ASSESSMENT
It’s extremely beneficial if a person has made some sort of self-assessment, looked inward and self-assessed his or her skills, interests, and values. It is important that these three coalesce. Fred Thrasher, George Washington
Choose jobs, including part-time and summer jobs, as well as internships, to give you as much information as possible about yourself, the profession, or the world. Analyze important aspects, positive and negative, of all the experiences you’ve had. What did you like about being treasurer of a club, for example? Did you like preparing a financial statement each month, or analyzing the data, or did you just like the title? Irene Dorzback, NYU
Most of us old-timers were pretty pathetic in our own self-assessment and knowledge of careers, but we muddled through. Unfortunately, muddling through can be a painful experience, with lots of career frustrations, poor fits, and disappointment. The best way I know of to minimize this is to realize that finding a great career requires effort, and the effort will probably extend over years of your life. Students should definitely begin to assess their interests, goals, and skills, and gain knowledge of careers, in college, in summer jobs, in post-graduation employment, and in law school. Theresa J. Bryant, Yale
Ideally you should explore an area or type of job that interests you. If you’re interested in policy, for instance, work on Capitol Hill or in a think tank. See whether there is a career path that makes sense; then ask whether law school is necessary to do what you love. Susan Robinson, Stanford
Guidance programs in high school and college could do more to help students evaluate what they’ve done, what they’ve liked, and why certain activities appealed to them so that students have a frame of reference for determining their skills, interests, and values. Irene Dorzback, NYU
WITHOUT FULL-TIME WORK EXPERIENCE, YOU CANNOT PROPERLY ASSESS YOUR NEEDS
It is very difficult to get sufficient understanding of what you do and do not like, let alone what the world of work is all about, without substantial work experience. Although you can eliminate some fields of endeavor as possible choices on the basis of your college and part-time work experiences, you are unlikely to get very far toward making a final choice. (Knowing that you dislike science does eliminate medicine from your future, but it does not help you choose among journalism, investment banking, and law.) Your early to midtwenties are the ideal time to sample the world of work, so take advantage of the opportunity.
You (and/or your parents) may be unwilling to take the risk that you will be unable to get into a worthwhile, rewarding, or prestigious position. As a result, you (or they) may feel the need to get into law school as soon as possible. This is wrongheaded for two reasons. First, your chances of getting into a good law school increase with real-world experience. (This is explored in detail throughout the rest of this book.) Second, the greatest risk is that you will have entered the wrong field and be unable to get out of it successfully. Therefore, do not rush into law school. Work for at least two years, in one or more serious jobs, after college. Make sure law school is an affirmative rather than a default choice.
CAREER SERVICES AND ADMISSIONS DEANS DISCUSS THE VALUE OF LIFE AND WORK EXPERIENCE
THE VALUE OF WORK EXPERIENCE BEFORE LAW SCHOOL
Get a sense of what you like and dislike in a work environment—what you really need from a job. Do you need to be out and about? Do you like to write, including spending the hours alone in your office crafting your material? (Or do you agonize over your writing and hate to be isolated at your computer for long stretches?) Do you prefer team strategy sessions? Are you a last-minute adrenaline-driven person or someone who plans all the details in advance? Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
Work experience is the most valuable way to learn about yourself and a potential career. Students should definitely do all they can to get summer, term-time, and post-graduate employment (volunteer or paid) in fields that interest them so they can try out their tentative career plans. Theresa J. Bryant, Yale (Career Services) Having had real experience helps students make more informed career choices; they have more realistic expectations of what the world is like. Jane Heymann, Wisconsin (Career Services)
If all the top schools agreed not to accept applicants unless they had three-plus years of experience, it would probably work out better for everyone. The work experience would benefit applicants, who would better understand what they want with a law degree. As a result, it would really help career services directors, too. None of us wants to sit across from broken dreams, or a perception of law that was never checked out. Irene Dorzback, NYU (Career Services)
WAITING TO APPLY
Someone with a weak undergraduate record is well advised to wait to apply; the rule of thumb is about five years. Many require some time out to grow up as well as to accomplish something. They need to develop a sense of focus, time management skills. Elizabeth Rosselot, Boston College (Admissions)
Take the time to figure out what you want to do in life. The biggest mistake I see is people saying, “I’ll figure it out later.” The sooner you do so, the better. Going to law school is too often a means of apparently moving forward while still avoiding the self-assessment that is necessary to figure out where you should be headed. That postponement costs three years and $200,000 or more. Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
Whether or not any individual student should proceed directly to law school or take several years off to work really depends on them . . . their maturity, readiness, previous job experience, and confidence that law school is the right path to take. Theresa J. Bryant, Yale (Career Services)
It’s never a bad idea to take time off before law school. You might find something that’s your life’s work or a wonderful adjunct to a law career. Or it might function just as a necessary break. We’ll still be here, and a legal career lasts for a very long time, so there’s no need to rush. Rick Geiger, Cornell (Admissions)
From a purely career development standpoint, I don’t know anyone who should go straight from college to law school. I don’t know how it can hurt you to wait, but I do see many people who go straight through, and all they figure out in the process is that they don’t want to practice law. Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
There is absolutely not a “penalty” for waiting some years after graduating college to apply. A lot of students face wonderful internship or work opportunities at graduation, such as Teach for America. Being successful at any of them will only make their law school applications stronger when they do apply. Monica Ingram, Texas (Admissions)
Oftentimes, applicants will apply to law school because they’re just not sure about what to do next. Applicants should give themselves permission to go and do something else first if there is indeed something else they think they might want to do. Law schools will be around for a long time, but that other thing you’re thinking about might not. I’ve not heard from any student at SLS that they’ve regretted taking time off. Of course, if you are raring to go, then submit that application. Faye Deal, Stanford (Admissions)
There are many reasons that going straight to law school from college may not always be a good idea. First, you can actually become a better candidate for law school based on what you do after college—especially by showing that you can drive change, have an impact, be a leader. Additionally, you have the chance to figure out, “Why do I want to go to law school?” It’s three years of your life, a lot of money, and there’s a major opportunity cost associated with it. It’s a big decision, so you should test it out. Follow your passion, try something out, and see how far you can get before deciding to go back to school. You’ll get a good feel for a field and you’ll see whether going to law school will help you take the next step you want to take. Alternatively, pre-law experience could be an opportunity to try something new, something different, something you’ve always wanted to do: travel, learn a new language. Either approach will allow you to look at law school through a new lens. The best applicants we see, both experienced and not, are those who are passionate about something and who have explored it before deciding to apply to law school. Josh Rubenstein, Harvard (Admissions)
Anyone who has any reservations whatsoever about pursuing law or law school should definitely wait before starting the process—particularly if he or she is being pressured by someone else to attend law school but has his or her own reservations about doing so. Take the opportunity to gain professional experience while determining whether law and law school are good choices for you. Renée Post, Penn (Admissions)
It’s a very individual decision as to whether to work (or do something else) before law school. That said, those who have worked for a few years beforehand tend to be more committed to the law school enterprise because they know it’s right for them. In addition, they often have much to contribute to the classroom discussions by virtue of their experience. Todd Morton, Vanderbilt (Admissions)
Older, more experienced students seem to do better in class. They are often more dedicated and focused regarding why they are in law school. They have gained discipline and organizational ability, and are able to tackle school work more efficiently and well. William Hoye, Duke (Admissions)
Students who’ve taken a break often are more motivated to take on the rigors of studying. They’re usually excited about being back in an academic environment. Kenneth Kleinrock, NYU (Admissions)
Most people who go to law school after time out are glad they took time out. Senioritis at college can be a real problem. You don’t know what you want to do, which is frightening. You figure that you might as well hedge your bets, so you take the LSAT. If you do well, you apply to law school. If you get into a good school, you probably go. After all, it relieves the career uncertainty you’ve felt. Once you go, you commit yourself to finish. After you graduate—and almost everyone does—you’ll end up practicing law for the next fifty years. The consequences to having senioritis are pretty serious. Joyce Curll, Harvard (Admissions)
HOW MUCH WORK EXPERIENCE IS PREFERABLE?
There are a couple of reasons that work experience before law school is such a good thing. In terms of introspection and self-understanding, those with work experience are typically further along. Also, employers like to see a couple years of real-world experience. Jo-Ann Verrier, Penn (Career Services)
Employers look very favorably on work experience, especially if you’ve accomplished something. Three to four years is a good length of time between college and law school. It’s enough time that employers will really take the experience into account and assume that you’ve gotten to know an area well. In fact, you can have a lower GPA and still be very marketable to top firms if you have significant work experience. Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
THE EFFECT OF WORK EXPERIENCE ON YOUR MARKETABILITY
The average age of our entering students is going up, and those with real-work experience are at an advantage in the job search. Betsy Armour, Boston University (Career Services)
Interpersonal skills are crucial to success. Employers like to see that you’ve worked with a team, preferably in a professional setting. Susan Guindi, Michigan (Career Services)
POOR REASONS TO ENTER LAW
Your parents want you to be a lawyer. Live your own life. If you are still being influenced to this extent by your parents, you are by definition not yet mature enough to choose a career.
You like to argue. Get married instead.
You are afraid to enter the workforce. Get a grip. Starting a first job is not nearly so difficult as starting college was. In fact, the consequences of failure are much less, too.
If you are bounced by your first employer after a month, this need never even show up on your résumé.
You do not know what else to do. If you are still at college or recently graduated, look at the career literature, discuss matters with friends and a high-quality career counselor, and shadow people working in jobs that sound as if they might fit you. Do not worry that you might make a mistake. Your early twenties are made for sampling. If you are substantially older, do all of the above, but focus your efforts on some in-depth career counseling, starting with an assessment of your needs and interests.
In either case, do not feel you need to choose the exact right career immediately. Each job you have should allow you, with suitable reflection and analysis, to understand better how you fit into the world of work.
You want to help people. This is a fine starting point, but practicing law is hardly the only way to help others. You should still want to find a career that will fit you; you will not be much use to others if you hate your career, in spite of being of benefit to others. (As is discussed below, most of those who enter law school intending to pursue public interest law careers do not actually do so. Thus, you may find yourself going in a different direction from that which you intended; this is not a bad thing per se, but it does undercut the initial reason for going.)
You want to increase your options. Unfortunately, a law degree tends to close many nonlaw options rather than open them (see the discussion above).
You want a glamorous field. Law may sound glamorous to those who do not know much about it, but it is actually a matter of very hard work, attention to detail, and working at the behest of others (partners, clients, et al.).
You want to enter a genteel profession rather than a business. Law is no longer an exclusive club whose members are guaranteed a good living without having to jostle one another and outsiders, too. Instead, it has become a cutthroat business. Firms go out of business, partners (not just young associates) are fired for not producing enough revenue—just like in any business. And, as in any business environment, lawyers need to manage their careers actively. (Check with some lawyers to find out when they last revised their résumés in case they need to seek new employment.)
You want to make a lot of money. It is not terribly difficult to make money in law if you go to a top school and then enter a corporate practice. (Of course, it is not clear whether you are getting paid for one job or two, given the number of hours you will log.) Having said this, however, you risk failure if you find that you do not enjoy practicing law (or a type of law that pays particularly well). You also risk personal troubles if you force yourself to do something you dislike (especially for eighty hours a week). In addition, there are other ways to make a lot of money. In sum, this is a perfectly reasonable rationale for going to law school, but only if law will be a good fit for you in other regards.
You need another degree. There are some pretty interesting and valuable degrees other than JDs available.
GOOD REASONS TO AVOID LAW SCHOOL
You tend not to finish things. Dropping out in the middle of law school is likely to saddle you with $60,000 or more of debt (and no degree).
You don’t enjoying reading and writing. Reading and writing are the stuff of law school, and of most types of legal practice.
You dislike details. Law is one of the most fault-intolerant of all professions.
You are not the sort of person whose judgment is trusted by those who know you. Lawyers are first and foremost counselors to their clients, so if people are disinclined to look to you for advice you are in for a hard time.
You do not have a strong desire to counsel and aid the perplexed. In other words, you don’t readily understand and empathize with those less expert in law than yourself (who are otherwise known as clients).
You dislike having to present an argument in front of others. In law school and legal practice, you will constantly be presenting arguments in front of various people, some of whom will oppose you and all of whom will evaluate you.
You cannot analyze a situation dispassionately. Viewing a situation from more than one side, without letting your personal feelings overwhelm you, is one of a lawyer’s core responsibilities.
CAREER SERVICES DEANS DISCUSS POOR REASONS FOR ATTENDING LAW SCHOOL
Law school is the default option for those who are bright and don’t know what to do. Theresa Bryant, Yale
Law school is the refuge for the liberal arts majors. They don’t see a clear career path, so they opt for law school, believing that it will broaden their opportunities. That is definitely not the case. Susan Robinson, Stanford
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO WITH THREE YEARS AND $225,000?
Law school will take three years of your life and a lot of money. Before you commit to this, consider what else you might do. Here is just one possibility (there are an infinite number of others): Start by going to Central America to learn Spanish. If you live in a private home, take group classes each morning, and receive tutoring for another two hours a day, you should go from zero knowledge to absolute fluency in less than a year. (Price: about $2,000–$2,500 per month, including room, board, and tuition.) After that, do a three-month cooking course in Italy during the summer. (Price: about $12,000 for an expensive course, room and board included.) Then, do a master’s degree in economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. (Price: about $45,000, including room, board, and tuition.) Next, spend a summer as a tour guide cycling through France. (Price: you get paid for your effort.) Last, do another master’s degree, perhaps in environmental change and management at Oxford University or perhaps in international business at HEC, the leading French business school. (Price: Oxford, about $40,000; HEC, about $42,000.)
The net result of this odyssey: three years of exploring the physical world (Latin America, Italy, England, France) and three years of exploring the intellectual world (fluency in Spanish, knowledge of Italian cooking, an outstanding master’s degree in economics, and an outstanding master’s degree in environmental management or international business). The total price: about $125,000, minus any earnings along the way. Note the $100,000 savings this represents compared with the total tab for law school.
If your parents are going to sponsor your law school effort, by the way, perhaps you should have them read this and consider what they could buy you for a lot less than law school might cost them. Whoever pays, are you sure that going into law—and working hard for three years at law school as a preliminary to working very hard as a lawyer—is your only option?
UNDERSTAND WHAT IS ON OFFER IN LAW
You can start your research by talking with lawyers you know or by examining books, such as those listed later, that describe law as a career. Once you have an overview of the field, however, you need to get beneath the generalities.
First, you need to investigate legal specialties (insofar as virtually no one is a generalist in law anymore). After your initial research, focus on two to four practice areas that appeal to you. Learn what personality types fit best with each area, what skills (general, such as public speaking, and specific, such as an ability to draft complex debt covenants) are necessary, what types of work fill up the day, and what are considered the best (and worst) aspects of the field. Read several of the professional journals in the field, cover to cover, for several months at a time. Once you have narrowed your interests to one or two fields, talk with a number of practitioners in each. Ask for permission to spend several days “shadowing” them, literally spending full workdays at their side, to learn what their work life is truly like. Be sure to ask, too, whether what you have seen is typical of their practices.
Note how many legal fields require a facility with numbers. It is not just tax lawyers and the like who benefit from an understanding of accounting, finance, statistics, and so on.
Second, understand what employment possibilities there are in the field. Examine the different types of employers (large firms, small firms, government agencies—municipal, state, federal—nonprofit organizations, and so on) for lawyers in the one or two specialties you have chosen. Learn the basics about each type:
• The focus of the work (at each level)
• Where they are located
• What hours are worked, and when (five days per week vs. on call 24/7)
• What the pay is at each level
• What it takes to advance to each level, and what percentage make it
• What those who leave end up doing
• How risky the employment is
• What the work environment is like (competitive, stressful, relaxed, dynamic)
• The nature of one’s colleagues (age, interests, training, skills, values, goals)
• The clients or interests represented
Compare and contrast the different employer types for whichever field interests you.
By the time you have gone through this exercise, you should know, for example, that criminal defense trial work and criminal appellate work may look nearly identical from the outside but are virtually unrelated in real terms. For instance, different personality types are attracted to each: Criminal defense lawyers like the courtroom action and derive some pleasure from being in touch with the more sordid aspects of humanity, whereas criminal appellate lawyers relish the intellectual challenges of their work but like to avoid the hurly-burly of direct contact with clients and the messiness of trials. The differences in how they get clients, how they charge, their reputations in the legal community, and a whole host of other matters are just as great.
One way to learn about law, of course, is to work as a paralegal in a law firm or other legal environment. You get a close-up view of lawyers going about their daily business; you also may perform some tasks that involve learning about legal research, writing, courtroom performance, and the like. Note, however, that firms often assign paralegals highly repetitive tasks that do not necessarily expose them to much of the firm’s operations or let them see a variety of lawyers in action. If you choose to work as a paralegal, be sure that the firm you choose gives its paralegals a suitable exposure to the world of law (and then make sure you take full advantage of the opportunity).
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Once you have really explored one or two specialties and several employment options for each, compare the results with your analysis of your own skills, interests, values, and goals. Reconsider your options if the fit is not a close one.
FEW ENTERING LAW STUDENTS DO SUFFICIENT CAREER RESEARCH
It is often claimed that students entering law school now do a pretty fair job of evaluating themselves and their career options. A quick look at one piece of data should dispel this notion. One of the truisms of law school admissions at the top schools is that half of those entering believe they will enter a public interest field, yet not even 5 percent do so. In fact, at most top schools the percentage entering public interest law is well under 5 percent. This means that over 90 percent of those who figured they were going into public interest law had done insufficient research about themselves and their career choices.
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO IF YOU DO NOT ENTER LAW SCHOOL?
The career literature regarding what jobs are on offer is nothing if not voluminous. If you are smart enough, and hardworking enough, to get into a top law school, you also have what it takes to get a job in another field or in a related field, if it turns out law is not the right field for you.
Be an analyst at an investment bank or a research associate at a corporate strategy consulting firm. Be a reporter for a small-town newspaper. Choose something that appeals to you on its own, or because it will allow you to see close-up the legal field you might wish to enter. If you like the field, and like what lawyers do in it, you will have learned something very valuable. If you do antitrust consulting work as an economist, for example, you may prefer to do what the antitrust lawyers do. On the other hand, you may stay on the economics side, or move on to something else entirely.
CAREER DISSATISFACTION
Major surveys done of lawyers in recent years—whether by the American Bar Association, the University of Michigan Law School, California Lawyer magazine, or others—have revealed that a substantial minority are unhappy that they became lawyers. This is in stark contrast to the results of studies of all workers, such as one by Rutgers University and the University of Connecticut, which found that 91 percent were happy with their work. (What, one wonders, would the percentage have been had they not included lawyers?) In some cases, the most important reason for the dissatisfaction has been the lack of a suitable quality of life (long hours, the need to be available to clients year-round, and so on); in other cases, it has been the nature of the work itself (dull, overly detail-oriented).
An interesting feature of the legal scene of recent years has been the publication of literally dozens of books cautioning people about the true nature of legal practice and the development of a mini-industry that helps practicing lawyers determine what they really want to do in life and another that helps them transition to other fields. The following books will give you a taste of this work:
Deborah Arron, Running from the Law: Why Good Lawyers Are Getting Out of the Profession
Amiram Elwork, Stress Management for Lawyers: How to Increase Personal and Professional Satisfaction in the Law
CAREER SERVICE DEANS COMMENT ON LAWYER DISSATISFACTION
The number of websites, studies, and support groups regarding lawyer dissatisfaction is extraordinary. This is very predictable because many of those people did not know why they attended law school in the first place. They did not do, on the front end of the process, the kind of self-evaluation that was called for. Irene Dorzback, NYU
A person cannot survive in this stressful profession without having an enthusiasm for law. Susan Robinson, Stanford
CONCLUSION
Law is a fine field, but it is not for everyone. The cost of law school and the difficulty of getting out of the profession once you are in it should propel you to do substantial investigation before entering it. If you choose law as a default choice, because you lack the common sense to try something else or the nerve to enter the work world after college, you are setting yourself up for real trouble in the future.
If you do decide to enter law, learn as much as you can about the legal field you intend to enter. As other parts of the book explain, this will help you to determine which law schools will be best for you; it will also help you to get the most out of your law school experience, both in the classroom and outside. Last, make sure you get into the best-quality schools that you can. For help in that regard, read the rest of this book (or call for consulting assistance).
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTING AND WORKSHOPS
I routinely consult to clients who want the extra admissions edge that is possible through individualized assistance. I also help those who are trying to figure out whether law represents the right career path for them and, if so, which aspect of it would best suit them. Those desiring individual consulting are welcome to contact me at rmontauk@aol.com or (415) 273-1782.
I also offer small-group workshops that some readers will find to be attractive alternatives or supplements to individualized consulting. These are described briefly on page xviii.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CONTEMPLATING LAW AND LAW SCHOOL
Richard W. Moll, The Lure of the Law: Why People Become Lawyers and What the Profession Does to Them
Mark Byers et al., Lawyers in Transition: Planning a Life in the Law
Scott Turow, One L: An Inside Account of Life at Harvard Law School. Overblown and out of date, but still amusing.
Edward Levi, An Introduction to Legal Reasoning. Classic exploration of what it means to “think like a lawyer.”
EXPLORING SPECIFIC AREAS OF LAW
Lisa L. Abrams, Guide to Legal Specialties. Describes some thirty different legal fields.
American Bar Association Career Series: Includes books on Admiralty, Civil Litigation, Entertainment, Government Jobs for Lawyers, International, Labor, Sports, etc. (Note, however, that these tend to be rather rah-rah endorsements of their respective fields.)
Bradley M. Bittan, The Public Defender Experience
Steve Bogin, Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse
Gary Delsohn, The Prosecutors. A reporter’s behind-the-scenes look at what a prosecutor really does, based on a year’s close observation.
Clifford Ennico, Business Lawyer’s Handbook. Explains what business lawyers (i.e., those who do not litigate) actually do, as well as the skills required of them.
Ian Graham, Unbillable Hours. A revealing look at corporate law as practiced in a mega-firm.
Ronald Fox, Lawful Pursuit: Careers in Public Interest Law
The National Association for Public Interest Law (
www.napil.org). Good links to other public interest sites.
BEGINNING PRACTICE
Suzanne B. O’Neill and Catherine Gerhauser Sparkman, From Law School to Law Practice. A fine guide to what a new associate must do (well) in the first years of practice.
Mark Simenhoff, My First Year as a Lawyer. Lawyers in different types of law discuss their initial experience in practice.
Gary A. Munneke, The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer
Jeffrey R. Simmons, ed., Flying Solo: A Survival Guide for the Solo Lawyer
Carroll Seron, The Business of Practicing Law: The Work Lives of Solo and Small-Firm Attorneys
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM CAREER SERVICES AND ADMISSIONS DEANS
KNOWING WHY YOU WANT TO ATTEND LAW SCHOOL IS CRITICAL
You should enter law school not because you are fascinated with law, but with the practice of law. Gloria Pyszka, Stanford (Career Services)
Students are always stunned when they get to law school to learn that they need to think about how they want to practice law. They thought they had already made a career choice in coming to law school, and we inform them that choosing “law” was just the tip of the iceberg. Public interest, private sector, business, or academia? Litigation, transactional, negotiation, policy? Labor law, family law, corporate law, environmental law? Corporate clients, individual wealthy clients, needy clients, criminal clients, government clients? The decisions keep coming.... Knowing where you are heading allows a student to choose classes and summer jobs wisely, to further explore an area of tentative interest, and to prepare for it. This experience and education will help in their post-graduation job search. Theresa J. Bryant, Yale (Career Services)
I talk to a number of prospective students whose reasons for wanting to attend law school are so ethereal. I want to say, “Take a deferral. . . . Go and do something.” Gloria Pyszka, Stanford (Career Services)
Imagine what it’s like to feel stuck at the end of year one (of law school), knowing you’re so in debt that you have no way out except to finish and get the best-paying job you can. Irene Dorzback, NYU (Career Services)
People shouldn’t head to law school unless they like serving—being in a position working with and for others, not for themselves—and actually want to practice law. Steve Hopson, Virginia (Career Services)
We conduct a workshop at Admitted Students’ Day to help prospective students explore a career in the law. We discuss what a law career entails . . . and integrating one’s interests and passions into the decision to attend law school. We find that many don’t necessarily want to practice law, so we discuss deferring their attendance until they have had the opportunity to engage in a more thorough self-assessment. Irene Dorzback, NYU (Career Services)
WORKING AS A PARALEGAL
Those who work as a paralegal for a year or two often end up just as naive about the practice of law as those who’ve never been inside a law firm. Maybe they’re so convinced they want to go to law school that they’re blind to the realities of practice. As a result, they tend not to learn whether lawyering is right for them. Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
A paralegal position is not the job that will make you the most marketable to law firms as a law student. Often, major employers put more value on experience earned outside of the big law firms. For example, firms hiring intellectual property lawyers like to see that someone has worked in an engineering or science environment. It’s very helpful to see what is involved in actually developing an idea, something that is not readily captured in a book. Corporate departments like to see prior work in management consulting or banking. Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
Being a paralegal does not add much to your application—we see many, many applicants with the same experience. On the other hand, working as a paralegal can help the applicant decide whether law firm practice is the right field for him or her. Megan A. Barnett, Yale (Admissions)
Working as a paralegal can be very useful if you see law practice up close and personal, although for many the experience may include more time in the copy room than in the courtroom. Todd Morton, Vanderbilt (Admissions)
Many applicants are paralegals. Paralegal jobs are not designed to prepare one for law school—nor do these jobs give a student a tactical advantage in law school—sometimes, however, paralegal jobs give you the opportunity to observe firsthand the work of a lawyer in a specific area; similarly, you might get a sense of what is required of an associate in a law firm. Kenneth Kleinrock, NYU (Admissions)
EXPLORING LAW AS A CAREER
If you want to learn whether you should become a lawyer, it’s a good idea to do the research and find out all you can about what lawyering is all about. It’s not a bad idea to seek out some kind of employment in a law firm in order to see what firm lawyers do. You might also shadow a lawyer or volunteer at a legal clinic or government office. Take advantage of any resources on campus through your pre-law advisor or through the career counseling office. Sit in on law school courses. Go to panel discussions at law schools when alums speak about what they do. Talk with law school alumni who volunteer to help prospective lawyers or law students. Faye Deal, Stanford (Admissions)
Students should have more than an inkling that they actually want to practice law, if not, preferably, some real exposure to it. The student who comes by default may question his or her decision—if not during law school, then after. Attending law school is not a “career” decision. Fred Thrasher, George Washington (Career Services) The greatest problem I’ve seen is that students think, “I know that I’m only going to work in a big firm for a few years and then I’ll figure out what I really want to do.” That is the worst possible plan. Susan Robinson, Stanford (Career Services)
No conductor ever asks if you want to be on his train. Unless people step off, ask themselves questions, interact with alums, take stock of the field, see whether it fits their specific needs, and so on, they may not ever figure out whether it’s the right train to be on (or at least not for years and years). The first time people do this is when they go to work. Ten to twelve weeks of summer employment during law school, for example, is seldom sufficient. It takes time to sort out whether the source of dissatisfaction is the specific practice area, the city, the firm, the environment, or law as a profession. Irene Dorzback, NYU (Career Services)
I am a big believer in the humble job. Working as a secretary or a runner or a file clerk in a law office—whether at a thousand-person big law behemoth or a sole practitioner—is a great way to begin to develop a sense of the day-to-day life of lawyers, even though it’s not likely you’ll learn a lot about law itself. Volunteering for a legal services organization or a legal advocacy organization is also excellent exposure—in part because in those nonprofit settings, it’s often the case that the lawyers are more relaxed about taking the time to chat with you and talk to you about their perspective on their career. For me, even though I grew up in a family of lawyers, I was struck with indecision when I was about to graduate from college, and I decided to work as a paralegal for a sole practitioner. That turns out to have been the best possible decision I could have made; because of the size of the office, I was given a lot of responsibility and exposure to many areas; it made me a better, more confident law student. And now, an offbeat piece of advice: Read novels about lawyers. The fact that they’re fiction doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lot from them about the stresses and conflicts of practice. Sarah C. Zearfoss, Michigan (Admissions—and former Career Services director)
Try to take a job in the field, read the NALP Guide to Legal Specialties and other books on practicing law, and, most important, talk to lawyers. If you do not know any lawyers, you probably know someone who knows someone who is a lawyer. Your undergraduate career services office may be able to hook you up with attorney alumni, and may have further materials and self-assessment tools for you as well. It is very flattering to have someone come to you for advice, and with the slightest connection most lawyers would be happy to talk with you about their work. Theresa J. Bryant, Yale (Career Services)
