So I've begun the quest to find my passion. Last night it manifested itself. Look how pretty. Oh, and it felt even better. Alas, the graduation money isn't quite making this a reality yet. And without any certain future income (sadly beer wenching seems to be off the table for the moment), I figured my money should be saved for now. Trust me, does not feel good man.
And something that happened today actually made it feel worse. An illegal job offer.
Backtracking for a second. Call me crazy, but I enjoy research. I was a history major, so I guess this shouldn't come as a shock to people who know me. Digging through old archives and newspapers and cartoons on Jack the Ripper? Staying at the library 24 hours straight with a stack of books so high you can build a fort (and enjoy your seventh latte of the day in private)? Yep, that's the stuff great college experiences are made of. Or at least mine was. Law school brought new research. I had to burn MLA and learn the dreaded Bluebook. That reminds me, I still need to send in a letter to the editor about those inconsistencies I found in the Bluebook. Silly Harvard kids and their nineteen editions and still not perfect. And who sends out email rejections? Sorry. I digress. Research. Ok, I'm the strange kid who likes being in the library. Yes, where the books are, NOT the computer lab. Books? Yes, legal research can still be conducted in books. I like to create fun Westlaw terms and connectors searches. That's right. Not Westlaw Next and not natural language. What can I say, I'm a purist (some might say stubborn or severely confused, maybe masochistic).
Research could be considered a 'law passion' of mine. With this background, I about jumped for joy when I saw a position on my school's job posting site for a part time research and writing position at a medium firm. The location was far away, but who doesn't love warm weather? After three years, I wanted to get back to living without four seasons. Anyway, I crafted a superb application and sent it in. This was Friday, right after graduation.
Today I get a phone call from the firm. OFFERING ME THE JOB! Yeah. Right? Never fear, it's only a part time position. Still not gainfully employed. I can still test out the less than stellar advice we've been getting about finding a full-time permanent position in the law where we won't lose our souls. So, I was excited. Part-time job. I can make some money. Hone my craft a little bit. And still make a fool of myself on the internet. But a question popped into the back of my head - what's their Westlaw plan? This is an important question to ask and understand the answer to if you want to keep a job.
"No plan. You have to provide your own resources for research." "Oh, ok. Well, I don't have a Westlaw account, but I can use the library. Books." "Yeah.... books aren't going to cut it. If you get access to Westlaw or a legal database let us know. But for now, thanks but no thanks. Bye now."
Wait. What just happened? I just had a job offer. I'd woken up at 11:00 and gotten a phone call with a job offer at 11:30. This was supposed to be a good day. I was getting ready to shkoff some cold pizza for brunch. Now they're taking the offer away? Because I can't pay for my own Westlaw account? Now I want to shkiaff the pizza. Shitty. (Sorry about the lingo, I'm upset and can't get Italian food out of my head. The French is appropriate).
Wait. This posting was for part-time work - - during the school year or post-grad. This got me thinking. No student has their own access to a legal database. I mean, maybe somewhere someone shelled out the money to have their own account, but that's ludicrous. And more to the point, none of us jobless J.D.'s are in the financial position to be pouring thousands of dollars to have our own Westlaw account just to do some part time work until the full time law job comes along.
Ok, so if we assume (which I think is safe here and should not result in being surrounded by asses) that no law student or recent law grad can afford to acquire their own Westlaw account, what are hirees expected to use for this firm? Oh. I used to have access to a Westlaw account. An academic Westlaw account. Are they expecting students to use their academic accounts? They'd have to, right? Either that or another firm or government entity's account where the student is also working part time. That's a whole other issue I'm not even going to touch. But the academic accounts?
Do they know we are training to be lawyers? Just to be clear, using an academic legal database account to conduct research for a law firm is a direct violation of the terms of use of that account. It's illegal and it's a violation of the professional code of ethics. So now I've not only lost the only semblance of a job offer I've had in the past nine months, but I've lost it because I could not and would not violate the law. Lovely. Hooray for my ethical decision (I did pass the MPRE). But now what? And what about current law students? I'm not sure that they would all be aware that accepting this type of position would be a violation of the law and ethics that could prevent them from being admitted to the bar. Call me crazy again, but that seems like a big shkiaffin' deal.
Has anyone else faced this problem? If you're a current law student, would you take the position? Or do you report them? This job was posted by your school for law students from your school. And accepting the position could render looking for a law-related passion moot.
At the end of the day, I didn't get my kicks. No new Les Paul to play with and no law job. I'll have to keep looking for my passion in another, legal (and law-related maybe) place. In the meantime, bar prep. Or Halo.
I had a similar situation applying for a part-time law clerk job summer after my 1l year. As part of the application process, the firm wanted me to write a memo they wanted to use for an actual case being litigated. I was told to use my student westlaw account for research. I passed on the position because it was shady.
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