Lawyer & Law School Megathread #12: Started Out Barrister, Ended Up Barista

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Lawyer & Law School Megathread #12: Started Out Barrister, Ended Up Barista

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Solid Lizzie: Sep 26, 2011; Forbes or GTFO

Arcturas posted:

Ugh I've posted more on SA in the past 24 hours than in any 24 hour period I can remember, all because I don't want to study for my final. It's my only final this semester, I should be able to study for it and do decently, but I just can't bring myself to focus.

Fake edit: The class is "Nineteenth Century Disadvantaged Groups" too, which is both my favorite class and the second least useful class I've taken in school

I feel this. I only have two finals and have a week or more to study for both. This would have been a gift from god last year. Today I was all....maybe I'll take a nap.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 02:54

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 05:30

insanityv2: May 15, 2011; I'm gay

Real question: Why do people pull all-nighters to review for tests?

It makes your thinking foggier during the test and you probably know the stuff already, making the less-than-ideal choice between sleeping and reviewing and obvious one.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 02:58

NewtGoongrich: Jan 21, 2012; I am a shit stain on the face of humanity, I have no compassion, only hatred, bile and lust.

PROUD SHIT STAIN

insanityv2 posted:

Real question: Why do people pull all-nighters to review for tests?

It makes your thinking foggier during the test and you probably know the stuff already, making the less-than-ideal choice between sleeping and reviewing and obvious one.

Personally, I'm not reviewing. I'm cramming. It worked fine in first year and in undergrad so I see no reason to stop.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 03:00

terrorist ambulance: Nov 5, 2009

Is there a way to do law school that isn't 72 hour last minute binges of sugar and caffeine.

Saying it's counter productive or ineffective is like saying backing a deer into a corne makes it a worse fighter cause it can't move around so much

# ? Dec 14, 2012 03:45

Zenostein: Aug 16, 2008; Alhamdulillah-chan

Sometimes you have papers that require a bit more than 72 hours of thought.

Those papers are awful.

For exams, though, learning the last two weeks of material in a few hours works pretty well, though.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 03:47

NewtGoongrich: Jan 21, 2012; I am a shit stain on the face of humanity, I have no compassion, only hatred, bile and lust.

PROUD SHIT STAIN

terrorist ambulance posted:

Saying it's counter productive or ineffective is like saying backing a deer into a corner makes it a worse fighter cause it can't move around so much

I'm going to quote this always.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 03:56

wacko_-: Mar 29, 2004

Hi law-goons. Its been a while.

I left the government (USPTO) about 6 months ago and started at a firm doing patent prosecution. As one of the people who decided it was a good idea to graduate in 2009, this was my first entry into a life where 1950 billable hours were required of me. Its not far from the Patent Office, so my commute is the exact same. I even see some of my friends on the train. But they turn right when getting off the train while I turn left. Poetic.

Well here's the real question for those of you who've been practicing for a while. I've recently started getting grey hair. I'm 32 and the greys are invading. I already cut my hair very short, which hid it somewhat initially. Now its becoming noticeable. Dying my hair seems wrong, but is this what I'm reduced to? The girlfriend has already noticed but that's a different thread.

Help me law-goons.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 04:35

HolySwissCheese: Mar 26, 2005

wacko_- posted:

Hi law-goons. Its been a while.

I left the government (USPTO) about 6 months ago and started at a firm doing patent prosecution. As one of the people who decided it was a good idea to graduate in 2009, this was my first entry into a life where 1950 billable hours were required of me. Its not far from the Patent Office, so my commute is the exact same. I even see some of my friends on the train. But they turn right when getting off the train while I turn left. Poetic.

Well here's the real question for those of you who've been practicing for a while. I've recently started getting grey hair. I'm 32 and the greys are invading. I already cut my hair very short, which hid it somewhat initially. Now its becoming noticeable. Dying my hair seems wrong, but is this what I'm reduced to? The girlfriend has already noticed but that's a different thread.

Help me law-goons.

Just go grey. Who cares?

# ? Dec 14, 2012 04:41

mastershakeman: Oct 28, 2008; by vyelkin

Grow a beard so the grey hair is even more noticeable.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 05:03

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Feces Starship posted:

So today i open up a brief I'm writing, responding and urging the court to reject opponent's argument over a complicated issue. I'm tired as hell because I worked very long hours yesterday. As a result i'm crawling. Gotta keep going so i work through lunch. Sometimes it seems like the screen is melting. I write, revise, erase, rewrite. In the end I noticed I'd billed 8.4 hours.

Do you guys discount time in instances like this? I didn't bill time where I was walking around, bullshitting, on the phone with my girlfriend or on the can. But i feel like it might be unethical to bill 8.4 hours when i was so inefficient. Should i discount it? But even if i do, by how much?

Serious question. Billing by time is so stupid.

I wouldn't discount unless I was so worthless that I couldn't put together a true billing entry that made some sense.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 05:38

A Game of Chess: Nov 6, 2004; not as good as Turgenev

wacko_- posted:

Now its becoming noticeable. Dying my hair seems wrong, but is this what I'm reduced to? The girlfriend has already noticed but that's a different thread.

Help me law-goons.

Accept your grey hair and stop being a baby. Or start drinking, since that seems to be the other one size fits all solution.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 06:11

Bold Robot: Jan 6, 2009; Be brave.

wacko_- posted:

Hi law-goons. Its been a while.

I left the government (USPTO) about 6 months ago and started at a firm doing patent prosecution. As one of the people who decided it was a good idea to graduate in 2009, this was my first entry into a life where 1950 billable hours were required of me. Its not far from the Patent Office, so my commute is the exact same. I even see some of my friends on the train. But they turn right when getting off the train while I turn left. Poetic.

Well here's the real question for those of you who've been practicing for a while. I've recently started getting grey hair. I'm 32 and the greys are invading. I already cut my hair very short, which hid it somewhat initially. Now its becoming noticeable. Dying my hair seems wrong, but is this what I'm reduced to? The girlfriend has already noticed but that's a different thread.

Help me law-goons.

Could be worse, you could be going bald.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 06:44

BigHead: Jul 25, 2003; Huh?; Nap Ghost

wacko_- posted:

Hi law-goons. Its been a while.

I left the government (USPTO) about 6 months ago and started at a firm doing patent prosecution. As one of the people who decided it was a good idea to graduate in 2009, this was my first entry into a life where 1950 billable hours were required of me. Its not far from the Patent Office, so my commute is the exact same. I even see some of my friends on the train. But they turn right when getting off the train while I turn left. Poetic.

Well here's the real question for those of you who've been practicing for a while. I've recently started getting grey hair. I'm 32 and the greys are invading. I already cut my hair very short, which hid it somewhat initially. Now its becoming noticeable. Dying my hair seems wrong, but is this what I'm reduced to? The girlfriend has already noticed but that's a different thread.

Help me law-goons.

I started going bald at 18, when I first decided I wanted to be a lawyer. I wish I had hair to go grey you jerk :mad:

insanityv2 posted:

Real question: Why do people pull all-nighters to review for tests?

It makes your thinking foggier during the test and you probably know the stuff already, making the less-than-ideal choice between sleeping and reviewing and obvious one.

I know some people who pull all nighters from time to time just to prove they can still do it. The concept is some sort of challenge to them. That being said, pulling an all nighter for a lark is one thing, but doing it before a test is downright dumb.

Well, to be fair, doing it before a test in any other sector of education besides law school would be dumb. We are quite unique in that we don't actually require any cognitive or reason-based skill to do well on law school exams. Rather, we only require rote memorization of antiquated poo poo from 1856 Supreme Court opinions and very very simple memorization of some outlines.

But in any event, feel free to pull an all nighter if you don't give a poo poo and want a B (everyone), or avoid the all nighter and actually learn things if you strive for an A but you will probably get a B (gunners).

# ? Dec 14, 2012 07:31

Solid Lizzie: Sep 26, 2011; Forbes or GTFO

I usually try to start studying at least three days ahead of the exam schedule permits it, but I inevitably do that night before panic where I probably get my 'best' studying in, regardless of how much I studied beforehand.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 08:07

NewtGoongrich: Jan 21, 2012; I am a shit stain on the face of humanity, I have no compassion, only hatred, bile and lust.

PROUD SHIT STAIN

Tonight I've gone through a month of material for secured transactions in two hours. In the past two days I only managed to get half that done. Almost ready to get yet another B :getin:

# ? Dec 14, 2012 08:28

Alaemon: Jan 4, 2009; Proctors are guardians of the sanctity and integrity of legal education, therefore they are responsible for the nourishment of the soul.

insanityv2 posted:

I thought I knew one but when I googled it, it was made up and from Arrested Development.

You can always tell a Milford man.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 08:38

Zarkov Cortez: Aug 18, 2007; Alas, our kitten class attack ships were no match for their mighty chairs

NewtGoongrich posted:

I'll get to that after I win my first Nobel prize for saving the whales (or the pandas, I can't decide which) but before I'm appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada

Hey guys I want to go to law school to become a judge.

Thoughts?

e:

Isentropy posted:

Current final year engineering student here.

Now I read the OP and I understand that I would probably have a better career in engineering (starting at about 50k and moving to a ceiling of maybe 80k if lucky) but I'm not really interested in the money per se. I believe that if I wanted to I could go to law school: I have a 90% average in engineering and I'm Black.

I'd be going with the end goal of becoming a superior court judge and probably applying to U of T or McGill. Is this as stupid of an idea as it sounds? I don't have "connections" (here, anyway) and I went to public school. What does it take to get to that level in Canada?

Zarkov Cortez fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Dec 14, 2012

# ? Dec 14, 2012 08:41

NewtGoongrich: Jan 21, 2012; I am a shit stain on the face of humanity, I have no compassion, only hatred, bile and lust.

PROUD SHIT STAIN

It's really hard to decide what the best part of that Isentropy's post is. It's too perfect. It's almost as though he's trolling.

e: I have an acquaintance who won't give up on the law school "dream". He has a 2.0 GPA and an LSAT in the mid 150s (after months of studying and going through one of those 2000 dollar LSAT prep scams). After being rejected everywhere he applied twice he's now thinking of going to Australia, the UK, or some 4th tier US school ("but their library is ranked third nationally and their animal law specialization is rated first" :smug:

). When faced with the reality that he will never article in Canada if he goes to any of those places and thus never be a lawyer, he says he'll easily secure an articling position because he'll be in the top 10% of the class ("probably not the top student though, that's just not realistic").

But you know what's the best part? I asked him what he would do if he went to the States and couldn't secure an articling position in Canada. How would he pay off his 200k in law school tuition debt alone? His response: "I'll stay in the States. Worst case scenario I'll be working at big firm in State X. Best case scenario: Wall Street."

NewtGoongrich fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Dec 14, 2012

# ? Dec 14, 2012 09:04

IrritationX: May 5, 2004; Bitch, what you don't know about me I can just about squeeze in the Grand fucking Canyon.

See if you can get him in somewhere doing something remotely like legal work* and he'll probably run away screaming.

* if lawyers didn't take all the jobs

# ? Dec 14, 2012 09:30

bub spank: Feb 1, 2005; the THRILL

BigHead posted:

I know some people who pull all nighters from time to time just to prove they can still do it. The concept is some sort of challenge to them. That being said, pulling an all nighter for a lark is one thing, but doing it before a test is downright dumb.

Well, to be fair, doing it before a test in any other sector of education besides law school would be dumb. We are quite unique in that we don't actually require any cognitive or reason-based skill to do well on law school exams. Rather, we only require rote memorization of antiquated poo poo from 1856 Supreme Court opinions and very very simple memorization of some outlines.

But in any event, feel free to pull an all nighter if you don't give a poo poo and want a B (everyone), or avoid the all nighter and actually learn things if you strive for an A but you will probably get a B (gunners).

I've never NOT pulled an all nighter before a law school exam. It stems from me never doing readings until the last 2 weeks of classes, and then frantically trying to make my own CANs in the 3 days before the final. And running out of time to do practice tests.

Though if I stay up all night tonight, I may be able to finish my tax notes before tomorrow, meaning I might actually be able to get a full nights sleep before the exam on Saturday morning, meaning I'm totally going to get an B instead of my usual B-. (we have a C+ curve)

# ? Dec 14, 2012 10:29

mongeese: Mar 30, 2003; If you think in fractals...

wacko_- posted:

Hi law-goons. Its been a while.

I left the government (USPTO) about 6 months ago and started at a firm doing patent prosecution. As one of the people who decided it was a good idea to graduate in 2009, this was my first entry into a life where 1950 billable hours were required of me.

Man, 1950 billable hour requirement as a patent prosecutor sounds horrible. I'm already balding and buzz everything down, but that would finish the rest of my hair off.

Every day I thank god that I'm in an area where there are a ton of smaller and mid-size IP firms with reasonable requirements and nice salaries and a ton of in-house opportunities.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 10:38

wacko_-: Mar 29, 2004

HolySwissCheese posted:

Just go grey. Who cares?

My thoughts exactly but WHAT IF IT COMES IN PATCHY?!?!?

A Game of Chess posted:

Accept your grey hair and stop being a baby. Or start drinking, since that seems to be the other one size fits all solution.

Yes, drinking does help.

Bold Robot posted:

Could be worse, you could be going bald.

Nature is working on that for me too

mongeese posted:

Man, 1950 billable hour requirement as a patent prosecutor sounds horrible. I'm already balding and buzz everything down, but that would finish the rest of my hair off.

It is pretty tough I admit. Tougher than I thought it would be. My regular docket is ok, I usually have enough advance notice that I can make things work. Its the other projects, like reexaminations, that cause me the problems. But reexaminations are at least mountains of billable hours.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 13:05

A Game of Chess: Nov 6, 2004; not as good as Turgenev

wacko_- posted:

My thoughts exactly but WHAT IF IT COMES IN PATCHY?!?!?

It's fine. No one will care, especially if you're a man. My little brother started going gray at 24 and no one's ever said anything to him about it except some girls who are really into it for some reason.

On another note I have a huge interview today. I am feeling about 80% "I GOT THIS" and 20% sheer, pants-pissing terror. I really, really want this job.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 14:07

TenementFunster: Feb 20, 2003; The Cooler King

My temples are starting to go grey. As a white male over 6 feet tall, see you suckers in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary!

# ? Dec 14, 2012 17:15

Huxian: Nov 12, 2008; "It's not just the swearing either. She's got quick fists too."

I've been going grey since I was in sixth grade. You'll be fine.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 17:36

insanityv2: May 15, 2011; I'm gay

First set of finals done. When grades come back, I'll let you guys know if signs point to biglaw or my family's firm in the 909. Or you know, something in between.

insanityv2 fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Dec 14, 2012

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:08

FrozenVent: May 1, 2009; The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

Hey lawgoons, I just opened a fortune cookie that said "you should be a lawyer".

I have work experience and I speak two languages, so my 3.2 undergrad GPA isn't an issue right? Fortune cookies have never steered me wrong!

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:10

Mattavist: May 24, 2003

A Game of Chess posted:

It's fine. No one will care, especially if you're a man. My little brother started going gray at 24 and no one's ever said anything to him about it except some girls who are really into it for some reason.

Daddy issues!

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:12

Roger_Mudd: Jul 18, 2003; Buglord

wacko_- posted:

Nature is working on that for me too

Bald goon lawyers club!

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:21

woozle wuzzle: Mar 10, 2012

I wanna go grey

I could probably charge more.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:30

Colorblind Pilot: Dec 29, 2006; Enageg!1

FrozenVent posted:

Hey lawgoons, I just opened a fortune cookie that said "you should be a lawyer".

I have work experience and I speak two languages, so my 3.2 undergrad GPA isn't an issue right? Fortune cookies have never steered me wrong!

That's a good of a reason as any to go to law school.

There's really no difference between "I've always been a good arguer!" or "My fortune cookie told me to do it."

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:37

Bro Enlai: Nov 9, 2008

FrozenVent posted:

Hey lawgoons, I just opened a fortune cookie that said "you should be a lawyer".

I have work experience and I speak two languages, so my 3.2 undergrad GPA isn't an issue right? Fortune cookies have never steered me wrong!

Get a job stuffing fortune cookies, it'll be more intellectually fulfilling and financially sustainable

# ? Dec 14, 2012 19:47

It's weird seeing a classmate share a link on Facebook to a post on Sam Glover's blog. Good on you for getting that blog so popular.

# ? Dec 14, 2012 23:29

Solid Lizzie: Sep 26, 2011; Forbes or GTFO

burf posted:

Though if I stay up all night tonight, I may be able to finish my tax notes before tomorrow, meaning I might actually be able to get a full nights sleep before the exam on Saturday morning, meaning I'm totally going to get an B instead of my usual B-. (we have a C+ curve)

Ouch, I thought our curve sucked. Godspeed.

# ? Dec 15, 2012 02:41

terrorist ambulance: Nov 5, 2009

TenementFunster posted:

My temples are starting to go grey. As a white male over 6 feet tall, see you suckers in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary!

aren't you also six feet around

# ? Dec 15, 2012 03:47

Meatbag Esq.: May 3, 2006; Hmm which internet meme should go here again?

I'm done until January after finishing my evidence exam, negotiations paper (3k+words), and election law paper (5k+words) today.

This semester can go to hell.

edit: yeah I'm doing 3L wrong.

# ? Dec 15, 2012 04:00

A Game of Chess: Nov 6, 2004; not as good as Turgenev

Interview was a mixed bag. I know the interviewer liked me, but loving confidence issues, again. I think there is a chance of a second interview, but a small one.

diospadre posted:

Daddy issues!

Also, gross.

I hadn't thought of this and now I can't unsee it...

A Game of Chess fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Dec 15, 2012

# ? Dec 15, 2012 04:10

Zarkov Cortez: Aug 18, 2007; Alas, our kitten class attack ships were no match for their mighty chairs

Meatbag Esq. posted:

election law paper (5k+words)

That sounds like a terrible elective.

# ? Dec 15, 2012 04:14

Tetrix: Aug 24, 2002

Meatbag Esq. posted:

I'm done until January after finishing my evidence exam, negotiations paper (3k+words), and election law paper (5k+words) today.

This semester can go to hell.

edit: yeah I'm doing 3L wrong.

Yeah honestly lots of people in here seem to rave about classes with papers but I'd much rather attend most sessions of a class, make an outline for a couple days, and then have 3 hours to analyze some poo poo. Way easier than writing 15 or 25 pages of crap.

# ? Dec 15, 2012 04:34

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 05:30

Lawdog69: Nov 2, 2010

Law school is such bullshit, like, a pound of flesh for an ounce of gold. gently caress.

# ? Dec 15, 2012 05:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Lawyer & Law School Megathread #12: Started Out Barrister, Ended Up Barista

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