Stop eating the young

Homework: Pass this on to anyone you've met who is considering law school. 

Ok, so we are in this situation of studying for the bar without a job. Which means we are paying for our bar prep course (more loan money). It means we are working a full-time job studying for the bar and at least a part-time job of looking for a job - a post-grad law job, a temporary doc review job, an $8.00/hour food service job. Not to mention we have lives to live, mouths to feed, and feet to put nice shoes on. We all are aware that this situation sucks.  

These posts are meant to be helpful in allowing you to more effectively use your time to get that post-grad law job. I try to add some humor to detract fromt the dire situation we are in. Because nobody wants to be depressed all the time. And humor allows us to look at difficult truths. For this post, though, I'm at a loss for humor, so I'm just going to lay it out there. Don't worry, I'll be back to my usual special blogger self next week to talk about resumes. It's got Thanksgiving preparation and sex in it. I know you're intrigued.

Alright, let's go below the surface and deal with something. We need to look at the situation we are in (whether you accept fault for it or not) and help those younger than us. Younger in the sense that they have not taken the LSAT, or they haven't actually started 1L, or they are ten years of age walking around with a briefcase yelling, "I object!" 

Show them this (maybe wait a couple years for the ten year old, but only a couple years):

It is rare in my experience to find a law professor who is willing to talk about these things. To be honest about the situation. If you're looking for a different medium, check out Inside the Law School Scam.

So let's look at the reality. Law school is not a wise investment for the vast majority of people who go to law school. It is not a low risk investment. It is three years of heavy tuition and living expense loans piled on top of undergrad debt. The jobs we get out of law school will not be enough to pay back our loans before we die for many of us. There are few jobs that pay enough to make the amount of money we invested worthwhile. 

This reality is starting to sink in. Law schools are reacting by admitting smaller classes. Their tuition hasn't and likely won't go down, but this is a step in the right direction. Applicants to law school are down 25%, which shows that those younger than us are starting to realize this. These are good signs. Of course, it doesn't change where we are. We have to keep making our own progress on that front. But at least this is something we can show our friends and family and customers at Starbucks to help stop them from being in the same situation.

I'm not saying we should get rid of all the lawyers. I only wish I had someone who had been candid with me about law school. I was told it was a versatile degree. That it was a perfect fit (there's a difference between being perfect for law school and being a good fit for a lawyer). That the economy would recover by the time I graduated. My gyno told me he was thinking about going back to school to be a lawyer, that he was jealous of the vast array of opportunities I would have upon graduating. Law? You can do anything with law. Sure. Ok. Anything but practice law. Anything but live without 100K+ in debt.  

Do your younger self a favor. We didn't get told or we didn't figure it out. Tell the younger you, that you see in your cousin, in your uncle, in your grande nonfat double espresso two pumps raspberry iced latte: is this really something you want to do? Have you seen this, or read this? Is this something you can actually turn into an investment that will pay off? If so, awesome. If not, think about other things you would enjoy that do not require you to become an indentured servant to the federal government. Trust me, there are way better gigs out there.