LAW SCHOOL IS BORINGOr so I've heard. Chris' law school doodles originally inspired this post, but they're no longer online, so do what you will.
17 comments | Googling the words "'law school' boring" brought me to this point. I was looking for a hope that practice is more interesting than training, but these doodles were certainly amusing enough. I guess I will have to make my own fun. And, by "my own fun," I mean "thermos full of vodka tonics." | | |
hey school fucks!!!!!!!!
Darkman_6@hotmail.com | | |
Insofar as I know, I am the only person who a) found law school intolerably boring *and* b) found law practice worse. That, I think, is the dirty little secret nobody dares reveal. During my time in law school, in the early 1990s, massive amounts of caffeine, sugar and bright light were of no avail. I kept falling asleep in the library anyway. Then, when I actually had to *work* as a lawyer, all I could think was, "My God, this is like doing fifty dull homework assignments every day, and my reward for it is to get up tomorrow and do even more. There is no escape, no light at the end of the tunnel." Nothing, I repeat, nothing about law practice is even remotely rewarding, stimulating or interesting. It's like doing your taxes, all day, every day. Lawyers are just kidding themselves about the so-called nobility of the profession. It's strictly a job, a way to make money. When lawyers aren't busy bullying opponents in depositions or in court, or bribing judges, or haranguing on the telephone, or filing dilatory, superfluous motions, they are shuffling endless piles of paperwork--interrogatories, depositions, motions, pleadings, letters, copies of letters, judgments, notices of appeal, orders to show cause, copies and printouts of statutes and cases, financial statements. . .ad infinitum.
Look at a typical courtroom during a trial. Nobody wants to be there. The judge resents having to do his job--he treats the lawyers like scum, because they are cluttering up his docket with some piece of shit. (Of course, everything on the docket is a piece of shit--I have never seen a judge who was glad to be presiding over a given case.) The jurors certainly don't want to be there. The defendant does not. Maybe, if it's a criminal case, the D.A. does, but a wounded plaintiff doesn't want to be there, because his being there is proof that his lawyer failed to get a good settlement, and he will probably lose at trial. The witnesses sure don't want to be there.
Even when a lawyer wins, it's largely pointless, because he often can't collect. Or it's just a case between two corporate behemoths and doesn't make much difference anyway. The fact is, a lawyer's life consists of little more than an endless series of frustrations, aggravations, disappointments and bickering over money. Most lawyers are hapless one-time liberal arts graduates who went to law school because they couldn't do math and couldn't think of anything better to do. Going in, all but a few law students have any idea as to what the day-to-day practice of law is actually all about. If they did, law school enrollment would probably plummet by 70%. Digging ditches--which I've done, despite having both a J.D. and an LL.M.--is more rewarding. | | |
| Damn! Why didn't I know this sooner??! | | |
| Finallly, an accurate account of the practice of law. There are so many misconceptions about law school because the practice of marketing rarely leaves room for the truth. | | |
| Jesus, I was thinking about attending law school, but thankfully I ran across thıs. | | |
Being a lawyer (especially a corporate lawyer) is a lot like any other desk job: filling in forms, preparing reports, etc. Some people find it particularly dull because the job is usually to nitpick (i.e., making sure that no one is getting out of their promises to your employer in the fine print, or making sure that your employer can get out of its obligations in the fine print), but that's just a matter of degree.
But most people don't mind having a dull job that pays well. But it's the hours at corporate law firms that make some lawyers really unhappy. Law firm partners charge their customers by the hour for their employees' work, but they pay their employees a fixed salary. So a partner's profits depend solely on how many hours he can get his employees to work.
The only way an employee can become a partner (the only promotion a lawyer at a firm gets in his entire career) is if the existing partners allow it, which is entirely at their discretion. All together, those two forces encourage partners to expect their employees to work hundreds of hours of free overtime per year. Anybody who works lots of hours of unpaid overtime will be unhappy, obviously. (Long hours exist in other professions, too, but these are often tempered by overtime pay or some other factor that affects the bottom line aside from how many hours employees work.)
Of course, once you have been a partner for twenty years, things are different: you probably still work long hours, but it's no longer filling in forms and writing reports-- it's getting your employees to work long hours and convincing your customers to use your firm's services. So you are stern jerk to your young employees, play golf with your clients, and make lots of money (ie., you become the corporate lawyer of the public imagination.) But for the first thirty years of work, you work 12 hour days plus weekends doing a dull desk job.
But don't forget that there are plenty of different types of lawyers out there, doing all sorts of interesting things; don't be afraid of going to law school just because you don't want to work at a corporate firm.
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My dad opened his own small law office with 1 other partner, shortly after graduating, and they ran it for 20+ years.
Resist your corporate overlords! | | |
"Insofar as I know, I am the only person who a) found law school intolerably boring *and* b) found law practice worse."
No, you are not the only one. I am articling now and can't WAIT until this shit is over and done with. After this year, I never intend to be in a law office again. Law school was pretty bad, but this is so much more terrible. | | |
Senorita, sweetheart.
I am a HUMAN!!! This is bullshit. I am not a spammer!!! | | |
| is this realy completely true? or are you exagerating | | |
| No, he wasn't exaggerating. Most of it is really boring. Some people might find law school really interesting but that is surely the minority. Try borrowing a law book from the library and seeing if you can stand reading it for an hour before you commit to four years and tens of thousands of dollars worth of law school. | | |
My new favorite lawyer joke -- wish I knew who authored this: "If there weren't so many lawyers, we wouldn't need so many."
I graduated with an IT degree and was working for about 10 years before going to law school. I got through it, but man was it boring. I took a break before attempting the bar exam, but eventually (yes more than one attempt) I got through that too.
But the thing about law jobs is your corporate employers won't hire somebody that doesn't have law firm experience. So you can either take one of those law firm jobs that another poster described as a fixed paycheck for as many hours as you can possibly bill (for the betterment of your "partners"), or a government job that doesn't pay half what I was earning in my IT job.
So I would caution anybody who thinks they will make good money with a law degree to make sure they figure in a good number of years starting out as a lower-paid law-firm associate. If you can get through that, then yes, you can probably get a decent paying, lower stress law job that's tolerable, if not slightly interesting, but you're gonna have to pay some dues.
I never did that myself -- I went back to my old job, and got out of IT but not into the practice of law. I don't regret the law degree -- it's cool to be able to say to people that you have one, but I'm not sure it was worth what I spent on it.
One final thought -- maybe because I'm an IT nerd, but for the most part, I find that I just don't care for lawyers... There are a few that I like and get along well with, but a lot of the ones I meet I'm just as happy to never see again. Nothing malicious - just a personal preference I guess. | | |
| Yeah buddy, Well I finished Law school, hated everyday but now reaping the benefits ... 125K a yr 2 weeks vacation. Company credit card, Free flight miles, and.... out of work at 6pm and 4pm on friday's have yet to work a weekend. | | |
| what kind of lawyer do you work as? you're the only person here who seems to enjoy it. im in highschool trying to figure out what to do and i was thinking about law but after reading all these articles... i dont know anymore | | |
| I was thinking about attending law school. I am currently in 12th grade. Don't lambast a career that benefits society. You should be grateful you were able to earn those prestiegious degrees. Think about the smarts, money, time(not to mention patience) needed to pass law school. Its not easy. Count your blessings, pal! | | |
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