Career Advice Request

[Anonymous]

Sure. My law school usually ranks at around #15 depending on whose survey you are reading. I’m in a firm with around 100 lawyers locally and several hundred nationally. FYI, very few firms would expect you to bill 2400 hours as an associate. If you bill 2100 (or even 2000 depending on the firm), and do excellent work, that’s usually plenty of hours to advance within the firm. You can typically bill 80%-90% of your hours. So if you are in the office for 10 hours, you should be able to bill at least 8-9 hours of that (with the rest consisting of your lunch break, time goofing off, doing administrative tasks, attending meetings, etc.). If you are assigned to write a law review article for a partner to sign his/her name to, that’s non-billable and you would not get credit for it (so you might have to do that over a weekend, for example). If you treat law school like a job, i.e., work at it consistently during working hours, you should be able to manage even with a wife and child. I was single, but I had several friends with families who took it seriously and did extremely well in law school.

[bjensen]

Unfortunately, unless I change religions, drinking heavily is out of the question! 🙂

I am glad to hear from an attorney that there is a question in his mind about the oft heard glut of lawyers.

It seems like the generally accepted paradigm.

I have been daydreaming about law for the last 8 years but have ignored the urge to go to school because I have been told by people like Loyola2L on the blogs and the WSJ that there is no future in it.

Like I said, I’m just glad to hear a practitioner question validity of the claim.

I seem to think of my wife and baby as good motivation to excel in school. While some kids are 22,out partying, and not real sure why they ever went to law school, I will be trying my best to get ahead. I just hope the wife will be as supportive as she says she will be being a “single mom.”

[bjensen]

Unfortunately, unless I change religions, drinking heavily is out of the question! 🙂

I am glad to hear from an attorney that there is a question in his mind about the oft heard glut of lawyers.

It seems like the generally accepted paradigm.

I have been daydreaming about law for the last 8 years but have ignored the urge to go to school because I have been told by people like Loyola2L on the blogs and the WSJ that there is no future in it.

Like I said, I’m just glad to hear a practitioner question validity of the claim.

I seem to think of my wife and baby as good motivation to excel in school. While some kids are 22,out partying, and not real sure why they ever went to law school, I will be trying my best to get ahead. I just hope the wife will be as supportive as she says she will be being a “single mom.”

[bjensen]

Unfortunately, unless I change religions, drinking heavily is out of the question! 🙂

I am glad to hear from an attorney that there is a question in his mind about the oft heard glut of lawyers.

It seems like the generally accepted paradigm.

I have been daydreaming about law for the last 8 years but have ignored the urge to go to school because I have been told by people like Loyola2L on the blogs and the WSJ that there is no future in it.

Like I said, I’m just glad to hear a practitioner question validity of the claim.

I seem to think of my wife and baby as good motivation to excel in school. While some kids are 22,out partying, and not real sure why they ever went to law school, I will be trying my best to get ahead. I just hope the wife will be as supportive as she says she will be being a “single mom.”

[bjensen]

Unfortunately, unless I change religions, drinking heavily is out of the question! 🙂

I am glad to hear from an attorney that there is a question in his mind about the oft heard glut of lawyers.

It seems like the generally accepted paradigm.

I have been daydreaming about law for the last 8 years but have ignored the urge to go to school because I have been told by people like Loyola2L on the blogs and the WSJ that there is no future in it.

Like I said, I’m just glad to hear a practitioner question validity of the claim.

I seem to think of my wife and baby as good motivation to excel in school. While some kids are 22,out partying, and not real sure why they ever went to law school, I will be trying my best to get ahead. I just hope the wife will be as supportive as she says she will be being a “single mom.”

[bjensen]

Unfortunately, unless I change religions, drinking heavily is out of the question! 🙂

I am glad to hear from an attorney that there is a question in his mind about the oft heard glut of lawyers.

It seems like the generally accepted paradigm.

I have been daydreaming about law for the last 8 years but have ignored the urge to go to school because I have been told by people like Loyola2L on the blogs and the WSJ that there is no future in it.

Like I said, I’m just glad to hear a practitioner question validity of the claim.

I seem to think of my wife and baby as good motivation to excel in school. While some kids are 22,out partying, and not real sure why they ever went to law school, I will be trying my best to get ahead. I just hope the wife will be as supportive as she says she will be being a “single mom.”

[heavyd]

My 2c worth, which echoes what others have said:

1) I don’t get a sense from the job seeker’s comments that he is actually interested in the law; if you’re not interested in the law itself, putting in the required hours in law school and as a young associate will be excruciating, even if you end up with a reasonably fat salary and a measure of job stability.

2) I studied 3 years of Mandarin Chinese at a very good school and have lived and worked in China, HK, and Taiwan for a combined 7-8 years. Speaking Chinese well got me in the door at a couple of jobs, but once I was in the door it ultimately had little to do with my job. As someone else here pointed out, there are millions upon millions of ethnic Chinese on either side of the Pacific who speak Chinese fluently and English quite well.

3) I ended up in finance and like it reasonably well. But as a group the people I see with the most $$ and the best attitudes towards work are entrepreneurs and small business owners. As someone else here mentioned, figure out what it is you are good at, and what you like to do, and at least give some thought to making a living that way. That might end up being a much more attractive option than spending 3 years and $100K+ on law school.

D

[heavyd]

My 2c worth, which echoes what others have said:

1) I don’t get a sense from the job seeker’s comments that he is actually interested in the law; if you’re not interested in the law itself, putting in the required hours in law school and as a young associate will be excruciating, even if you end up with a reasonably fat salary and a measure of job stability.

2) I studied 3 years of Mandarin Chinese at a very good school and have lived and worked in China, HK, and Taiwan for a combined 7-8 years. Speaking Chinese well got me in the door at a couple of jobs, but once I was in the door it ultimately had little to do with my job. As someone else here pointed out, there are millions upon millions of ethnic Chinese on either side of the Pacific who speak Chinese fluently and English quite well.

3) I ended up in finance and like it reasonably well. But as a group the people I see with the most $$ and the best attitudes towards work are entrepreneurs and small business owners. As someone else here mentioned, figure out what it is you are good at, and what you like to do, and at least give some thought to making a living that way. That might end up being a much more attractive option than spending 3 years and $100K+ on law school.

D

[heavyd]

My 2c worth, which echoes what others have said:

1) I don’t get a sense from the job seeker’s comments that he is actually interested in the law; if you’re not interested in the law itself, putting in the required hours in law school and as a young associate will be excruciating, even if you end up with a reasonably fat salary and a measure of job stability.

2) I studied 3 years of Mandarin Chinese at a very good school and have lived and worked in China, HK, and Taiwan for a combined 7-8 years. Speaking Chinese well got me in the door at a couple of jobs, but once I was in the door it ultimately had little to do with my job. As someone else here pointed out, there are millions upon millions of ethnic Chinese on either side of the Pacific who speak Chinese fluently and English quite well.

3) I ended up in finance and like it reasonably well. But as a group the people I see with the most $$ and the best attitudes towards work are entrepreneurs and small business owners. As someone else here mentioned, figure out what it is you are good at, and what you like to do, and at least give some thought to making a living that way. That might end up being a much more attractive option than spending 3 years and $100K+ on law school.

D

[heavyd]

My 2c worth, which echoes what others have said:

1) I don’t get a sense from the job seeker’s comments that he is actually interested in the law; if you’re not interested in the law itself, putting in the required hours in law school and as a young associate will be excruciating, even if you end up with a reasonably fat salary and a measure of job stability.

2) I studied 3 years of Mandarin Chinese at a very good school and have lived and worked in China, HK, and Taiwan for a combined 7-8 years. Speaking Chinese well got me in the door at a couple of jobs, but once I was in the door it ultimately had little to do with my job. As someone else here pointed out, there are millions upon millions of ethnic Chinese on either side of the Pacific who speak Chinese fluently and English quite well.

3) I ended up in finance and like it reasonably well. But as a group the people I see with the most $$ and the best attitudes towards work are entrepreneurs and small business owners. As someone else here mentioned, figure out what it is you are good at, and what you like to do, and at least give some thought to making a living that way. That might end up being a much more attractive option than spending 3 years and $100K+ on law school.

D

[heavyd]

My 2c worth, which echoes what others have said:

1) I don’t get a sense from the job seeker’s comments that he is actually interested in the law; if you’re not interested in the law itself, putting in the required hours in law school and as a young associate will be excruciating, even if you end up with a reasonably fat salary and a measure of job stability.

2) I studied 3 years of Mandarin Chinese at a very good school and have lived and worked in China, HK, and Taiwan for a combined 7-8 years. Speaking Chinese well got me in the door at a couple of jobs, but once I was in the door it ultimately had little to do with my job. As someone else here pointed out, there are millions upon millions of ethnic Chinese on either side of the Pacific who speak Chinese fluently and English quite well.

3) I ended up in finance and like it reasonably well. But as a group the people I see with the most $$ and the best attitudes towards work are entrepreneurs and small business owners. As someone else here mentioned, figure out what it is you are good at, and what you like to do, and at least give some thought to making a living that way. That might end up being a much more attractive option than spending 3 years and $100K+ on law school.

D

[bjensen]

heavyd —

I am extremely interested in the law. I took a variety of law classes undergrad and was even pre-law for some time. Heck, I keep up with business law like most guys follow sports. Other than snow skiing I really couldn’t care less.

My desire has always been to go, but I have always feared not being able to support my myself and family, under a heavy debt load. It seems to be what makes many young lawyers unhappy. If I do it, I am going to DO it. No looking back and wondering if I made the right decision. I did that with sales.

While I am very good at what I do, I am miserable. 99% of the work is brainless. 1% of it is great. I love to present and close a big deal, but sorting through the chaff is pure drudgery. Once I have someone with a pulse and the authority to pull the trigger I love to turn it on. I have no illusions that doc review will be pure stimulation, but I don’t think it will be 95% of my day if I can help it… and even if it was, I get into that sort of stuff anyway.

Sorry to give the impression that it was a fleeting thought. At this point I really want to be an attorney, but am looking at it logically before I make a 100k education purchase.

My attempt here was to get a very pragmatic view of of the legal market because there is so much contradictory information out there. My desire has always been there, I just wanted to know if anyone here held the opinion that the legal sky was falling.

I figured there would no better place than among the piggs to get well thought out advice.

I have definitely gotten it! Thanks everyone.

[bjensen]

heavyd —

I am extremely interested in the law. I took a variety of law classes undergrad and was even pre-law for some time. Heck, I keep up with business law like most guys follow sports. Other than snow skiing I really couldn’t care less.

My desire has always been to go, but I have always feared not being able to support my myself and family, under a heavy debt load. It seems to be what makes many young lawyers unhappy. If I do it, I am going to DO it. No looking back and wondering if I made the right decision. I did that with sales.

While I am very good at what I do, I am miserable. 99% of the work is brainless. 1% of it is great. I love to present and close a big deal, but sorting through the chaff is pure drudgery. Once I have someone with a pulse and the authority to pull the trigger I love to turn it on. I have no illusions that doc review will be pure stimulation, but I don’t think it will be 95% of my day if I can help it… and even if it was, I get into that sort of stuff anyway.

Sorry to give the impression that it was a fleeting thought. At this point I really want to be an attorney, but am looking at it logically before I make a 100k education purchase.

My attempt here was to get a very pragmatic view of of the legal market because there is so much contradictory information out there. My desire has always been there, I just wanted to know if anyone here held the opinion that the legal sky was falling.

I figured there would no better place than among the piggs to get well thought out advice.

I have definitely gotten it! Thanks everyone.

[bjensen]

heavyd —

I am extremely interested in the law. I took a variety of law classes undergrad and was even pre-law for some time. Heck, I keep up with business law like most guys follow sports. Other than snow skiing I really couldn’t care less.

My desire has always been to go, but I have always feared not being able to support my myself and family, under a heavy debt load. It seems to be what makes many young lawyers unhappy. If I do it, I am going to DO it. No looking back and wondering if I made the right decision. I did that with sales.

While I am very good at what I do, I am miserable. 99% of the work is brainless. 1% of it is great. I love to present and close a big deal, but sorting through the chaff is pure drudgery. Once I have someone with a pulse and the authority to pull the trigger I love to turn it on. I have no illusions that doc review will be pure stimulation, but I don’t think it will be 95% of my day if I can help it… and even if it was, I get into that sort of stuff anyway.

Sorry to give the impression that it was a fleeting thought. At this point I really want to be an attorney, but am looking at it logically before I make a 100k education purchase.

My attempt here was to get a very pragmatic view of of the legal market because there is so much contradictory information out there. My desire has always been there, I just wanted to know if anyone here held the opinion that the legal sky was falling.

I figured there would no better place than among the piggs to get well thought out advice.

I have definitely gotten it! Thanks everyone.

[bjensen]

heavyd —

I am extremely interested in the law. I took a variety of law classes undergrad and was even pre-law for some time. Heck, I keep up with business law like most guys follow sports. Other than snow skiing I really couldn’t care less.

My desire has always been to go, but I have always feared not being able to support my myself and family, under a heavy debt load. It seems to be what makes many young lawyers unhappy. If I do it, I am going to DO it. No looking back and wondering if I made the right decision. I did that with sales.

While I am very good at what I do, I am miserable. 99% of the work is brainless. 1% of it is great. I love to present and close a big deal, but sorting through the chaff is pure drudgery. Once I have someone with a pulse and the authority to pull the trigger I love to turn it on. I have no illusions that doc review will be pure stimulation, but I don’t think it will be 95% of my day if I can help it… and even if it was, I get into that sort of stuff anyway.

Sorry to give the impression that it was a fleeting thought. At this point I really want to be an attorney, but am looking at it logically before I make a 100k education purchase.

My attempt here was to get a very pragmatic view of of the legal market because there is so much contradictory information out there. My desire has always been there, I just wanted to know if anyone here held the opinion that the legal sky was falling.

I figured there would no better place than among the piggs to get well thought out advice.

I have definitely gotten it! Thanks everyone.

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