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Look, unless you're gonna take us on a magical ride that tops Toona's then what are you even doing?
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May 22, 2020 05:11
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The reason I'm going to law school is this: I've always been interested in politics and law and the application of public policy in everyday life. Essentially for a few years during undergrad I was addicted to drugs to the point where I almost died dozens of times, and while I wasn't involved in the legal system (no possession charges, no jail etc.) after I got sober I became more interested in the possibility of law for people with humanities degrees. I was pretty shaken by some of the stories of the people I went to rehab with and I thought that since I could still finish college and pay for law school I could go and study the legal system more. I sobered up two years ago, graduated college this semester with a decent GPA, and have a couple professors that will write me letters of recommendation. I thought why not give law school a shot and hopefully do something meaningful with my life and have a positive impact on the criminal justice system somehow.
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May 22, 2020 05:17
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Genuine advice (that comes with the disclaimer that I'm in Australia not the US): if you're interested in that, study public policy instead of law and go work in government. It sounds like a much better fit for you. Signed, Someone who studied law and is now working in government in a policy-adjacent area
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May 22, 2020 05:21
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Whitlam those are eucalyptus trees right? That’s a very nice tree picture.
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May 22, 2020 05:33
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Chuka Umana posted:The reason I'm going to law school is this: I've always been interested in politics and law and the application of public policy in everyday life. Essentially for a few years during undergrad I was addicted to drugs to the point where I almost died dozens of times, and while I wasn't involved in the legal system (no possession charges, no jail etc.) after I got sober I became more interested in the possibility of law for people with humanities degrees. I was pretty shaken by some of the stories of the people I went to rehab with and I thought that since I could still finish college and pay for law school I could go and study the legal system more. I sobered up two years ago, graduated college this semester with a decent GPA, and have a couple professors that will write me letters of recommendation. I thought why not give law school a shot and hopefully do something meaningful with my life and have a positive impact on the criminal justice system somehow. Take at least one (preferably two) gap years For real. You can probably find a way to get into that work without going to law school. Even if you don't, you can take a chance on finding an alternative course/job/life that isn't "well I've got a humanities degree, now what?" AND you won't be a dipshit straight out of undergrad without real world experience when you're navigating the world after law school. You want to make a difference for drug addicts who pick up criminal charges? Work in a shelter, or organize in your local community. And you said the equivalent that money doesn't matter, are you aware what the typical pay is for a lawyer who works in criminal justice? Look, you're going to make this decision on your own one way or the other. I also get the feeling that you won't listen to anyone here who tells you that this doesn't sound like the right move for you. I'm of the mind that going to law school MIGHT be the right move. But the way you talk about it, it's not the right move right now. Take the LSAT (you might as well at this point). But I'd strongly suggest you don't apply to anywhere and try and plan a life outside of school for a while. Even if you go back, those years will be invaluable for who you may become and bear minimum will be a building block in an interview because you'll know what it means to pay rent.
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May 22, 2020 05:36
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I've been feeling discouraged lately because I saw in the last few semesters just how far people would go to prepare for the LSAT and law school. Freshmen at my university would start with LSAT tutoring as soon as they got to college, and now I feel like a few months wasn't a sufficient amount of time to get to their level. Due to my life experiences I don't literally have a perfect resume where I became the head of multiple NGOs, got elected student body president and did liberal student political work with the school administrators.
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May 22, 2020 05:39
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Chuka Umana posted:I've been feeling discouraged lately because I saw in the last few semesters just how far people would go to prepare for the LSAT and law school. Freshmen at my university would start with LSAT tutoring as soon as they got to college, and now I feel like a few months wasn't a sufficient amount of time to get to their level. Due to my life experiences I don't literally have a perfect resume where I became the head of multiple NGOs, got elected student body president and did liberal student political work with the school administrators. First of all, gently caress people studying for the bar when they're freshman, see my advice above. Also, don't be discouraged your aren't a lace-curtain blue-blood. You had to work/struggle/actually try in life, and that's OK. Does being able to get private tutoring and go to boarding school help with law careers? Frankly, yes, but typically only for the most haughty of firms and certain clerkships where having your roommate's Daddy make a phone call makes the difference. But if you want to go into criminal law in any way, that stuff is almost certainly a hinderance because those loving people don't understand the first thing about the reality of the criminal justice system, and certainly don't understand drug addiction (at least not the way the small-time criminal charged with possession does). Those people "know" they're going to law school. They aren't you. The more you talk, the more I think you are at heart a decent person. Please, take a year or two off, understand what you're getting into. Volunteer at a local PD's office or get a job at a local small firm that churns drunk driving charges. Just don't rush into law school without taking a year or two off between Kindergarten and your "career."
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May 22, 2020 05:46
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thehoodie posted:My bet is that OP has some sort of humanities degree and now thinks they "have to" go to law school because they think there are no other career options. Chuka Umana posted:The reason I'm going to law school is this: I've always been interested in politics and law and the application of public policy in everyday life. Essentially for a few years during undergrad I was addicted to drugs to the point where I almost died dozens of times, and while I wasn't involved in the legal system (no possession charges, no jail etc.) after I got sober I became more interested in the possibility of law for people with humanities degrees. I was pretty shaken by some of the stories of the people I went to rehab with and I thought that since I could still finish college and pay for law school I could go and study the legal system more. I sobered up two years ago, graduated college this semester with a decent GPA, and have a couple professors that will write me letters of recommendation. I thought why not give law school a shot and hopefully do something meaningful with my life and have a positive impact on the criminal justice system somehow. fuckin nailed it
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May 22, 2020 05:49
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Phil Moscowitz posted:Whitlam those are eucalyptus trees right? That’s a very nice tree picture. They are! I would definitely be interested in seeing pictures of trees near where people live.
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May 22, 2020 05:52
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Vox Nihili posted:I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad. This is the worst reason to go to law school that I think we've ever had.  You know what's difficult and challenging and helps people? Running a nonprofit, or writing grants for one. That's what I wish I were doing instead of touching computers.
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May 22, 2020 06:32
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Chuka Umana posted:It's about personally challenging myself. Quitting after undergrad and accepting an easy life is indulgent. I want to be miserable and working long hours, spending my entire life reading law books and working on cases. Life is not about fun and happiness it's about personal improvement. if you dont get in somewhere good and do well there you will be poor when you get out, especially bc we're headed into a depression with 30%+ unemployment being poor just 100% sucks, it erodes your ability to improve yourself, it isn't noble struggle, it's mere immiseration and you will gain nothing from this, you will be eaten away by it, you will become less of a person than when you started
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May 22, 2020 07:15
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PurpleButterfly posted:
oh my loving god this Get some grant writing chops if you want to help people. But also echoing the above, outside of certain areas of law (I'm in one by sheer loving luck) you might not land where you're aiming. Especially because covid just gutshot the economy. Definitely take a year and go volunteer somewhere to get a taste of nothing else.
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May 22, 2020 09:14
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Chuka Umana posted:It's about personally challenging myself. Quitting after undergrad and accepting an easy life is indulgent. I want to be miserable and working long hours, spending my entire life reading law books and working on cases. Life is not about fun and happiness it's about personal improvement. 
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May 22, 2020 12:23
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Chuka Umana posted:I thought why not give law school a shot and hopefully do something meaningful with my life and have a positive impact on the criminal justice system somehow. Echoing what literally everyone else has said. There's a reason almost every lawyer in this thread tells almost anyone asking to not be a lawyer. Also, if you specifically want to effect change on the criminal justice system, you don't want to be a lawyer in it. That's not the right place to hold a lever that can actually move poo poo. Look into public policy, or social work to keep people out of the system, or public health if you specifically want to work on addiction. Lawyers work within systems more than we change them; to strain a metaphor, we're the lubricant in an engine, not the engineer that designed it.
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May 22, 2020 13:21
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The intersection of capitalism and protestantism that results in American grind culture is death cult loving psychosis Makes calvinism look fun. You're weird and stupid enough to probably do well in law so yeah, go to law school be miserable and make everyone on every file you work with miserable too, you'll fit right in
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May 22, 2020 13:32
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Also credentialism is hilarious. Never tire of people wandering in and being like well, I'm a rootless piece of poo poo with no commitments other than a vague idea of Doing Good and no idea what that looks like, will a degree fix me? Yeah sure pal meaning is just over that hill, pay 100k and 3 years to be trapped in a rat's cage with the highest concentration of insufferable ambitious grasping climbers outside of an MBA program. The life of meaningful work doing good things is right after that
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May 22, 2020 13:37
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PurpleButterfly posted:
I worked at a legal nonprofit for over ten years. I basically was a social worker and got paid like a social worker, but it was a pleasant working environment and maybe once a month I had a chance to help an actual person solve an actual problem, not just a legal problem. We also did systemic work and even class action cases but that was largely an exercise in long-form frustration. Now I'm a public defender. It's great work and, again, all my coworkers are great people, but I'm definitely on the underside of Injustice Mountain trying to push up, not the other way around. The problem with most of the law alternatives (social work, teaching, etc.) is that they're paid *even less* than public-sector law. I'd be a teacher in a heartbeat if I could make even public-defender-parity salary doing it, but nope. Anyway, the real way to achieve change in modern America is to first find several million dollars *then* use that money to buy the reforms you want. But that won't work either because even more money is buying in the other direction already.
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May 22, 2020 13:48
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Chuka Umana posted:The reason I'm going to law school is this: I've always been interested in politics and law and the application of public policy in everyday life. Essentially for a few years during undergrad I was addicted to drugs to the point where I almost died dozens of times, and while I wasn't involved in the legal system (no possession charges, no jail etc.) after I got sober I became more interested in the possibility of law for people with humanities degrees. I was pretty shaken by some of the stories of the people I went to rehab with and I thought that since I could still finish college and pay for law school I could go and study the legal system more. I sobered up two years ago, graduated college this semester with a decent GPA, and have a couple professors that will write me letters of recommendation. I thought why not give law school a shot and hopefully do something meaningful with my life and have a positive impact on the criminal justice system somehow. Seconding others who said take some gap years. That’s even more important if you have a substance abuse tendency. You need to make absolutely sure that’s handled or law school will drive you back to it. Also seconding that law school isn’t the best way to do what you want. Get a Masters in public policy is just one of the better options.
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May 22, 2020 13:48
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If I could do it over I'd get a masters in data science and maybe a PhD in bio informatics or machine learning and then go to work for a Healthcare company choosing who gets to die and make tons of money. I help dictate the course of hundreds of lives on an extremely personal basis a year right now and it's just loving brutal. G-Mawwwwwww fucked around with this message at 14:11 on May 22, 2020 |
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May 22, 2020 14:01
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Honestly I would examine and try to seriously address whatever impulse makes you say you want to be unhappy and busy as a life goal. I missed the substance abuse thing, sounds like dry drunk poo poo to me with that added in
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May 22, 2020 14:09
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Most of my law school classmates who wanted to be lawyers to do ~*policy change!*~ ended up eventually going and getting a master's degree in the policy field they cared about. The ones who are actually making an impact as lawyers all brought at least 5-10 years relevant experience in their policy field before law school. That gave them the knowledge and the networking to land good internships and the right jobs after. If you're really concerned about outcompeting people.whove been studying for the LSAT since high school don't try to go head to head, go make yourself stand out by getting actual real world experience.
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May 22, 2020 14:17
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terrorist ambulance posted:Also credentialism is hilarious. Never tire of people wandering in and being like well, I'm a rootless piece of poo poo with no commitments other than a vague idea of Doing Good and no idea what that looks like, will a degree fix me? lol fuckin rack em
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May 22, 2020 14:35
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terrorist ambulance posted:Also credentialism is hilarious. Never tire of people wandering in and being like well, I'm a rootless piece of poo poo with no commitments other than a vague idea of Doing Good and no idea what that looks like, will a degree fix me? yeah it's important to go into law school with at least the vague idea of doing evil, or at least doing neutral for big bucks
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May 22, 2020 14:47
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Holy gently caress at thinking practicing law is a good idea for a recovered addict.
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May 22, 2020 14:55
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blarzgh posted:Holy gently caress at thinking practicing law is a good idea for a recovering addict. Find an area of public service that the feds hire in routinely and get a degree in that
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May 22, 2020 14:58
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terrorist ambulance posted:The intersection of capitalism and protestantism that results in American grind culture is death cult loving psychosis Law thread, where "you're weird and stupid" is somehow still dangerously optimistic.
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May 22, 2020 15:24
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Discendo Vox posted:Find an area of public service that the feds hire in routinely and get a degree in that What if he doesn't want to be a military lawyer
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May 22, 2020 15:28
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blarzgh posted:Holy gently caress at thinking practicing law is a good idea for a recovered addict. This was my though. Lawyers have one of the highest rates per capita of substance abuse problems. Law school is one of the most likely things to cause you to relapse.
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May 22, 2020 15:29
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I knew a guy in law school who estimated that a 1/3rd of students had an adderal scrip, another 1/3rd bought theirs off of them, 2/3rds of the class smoked weed, 1/3rd of them did either coke on the weekends and took xanax throughout the week, 95% of them drank, and another 10% were into even harder poo poo. He did all of it, lol.
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May 22, 2020 15:56
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I've been thinking a gap year in new Zealand would absolutely rule. Go chill in quarantine then go around doing awesome stuff and come back to a brand new world. Every kid graduating high school that has rich parents should be doing this
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May 22, 2020 16:09
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Vox Nihili posted:I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad. This is the worst reason to go to law school that I think we've ever had. lmao Mr. Nice! posted:This was my though. Lawyers have one of the highest rates per capita of substance abuse problems. Law school is one of the most likely things to cause you to relapse. Yeah I'm just catching up but op should understand that part of the price of law school and legal practice will be sobriety, and if you've already almost died a bunch… well, feeling lucky?
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May 22, 2020 17:09
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Lawyers do occasionally affect (and even effect) public policy changes, but this is done via strategic lawsuits, and these strategic lawsuits are often planned and orchestrated by the public policy people above the lawyers working the case. For the sake of your future self, volunteer or work with an organization that works for the reform you feel most passionately about, and have lunch with every attorney and strategist there. Talk to them about what they love about their job and what they dread, and what they would do differently/do if they were you. Pay special attention to the opinions of people who love what you love and hate doing what you hate doing. But seriously, talk to people about it. Law school is absolutely not what you think it is. It might be better (it was for me), but it's probably worse, and might actually kill you.
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May 22, 2020 17:55
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mastershakeman posted:I've been thinking a gap year in new Zealand would absolutely rule. Go chill in quarantine then go around doing awesome stuff and come back to a brand new world. Every kid graduating high school that has rich parents should be doing this You can do something like this even if you're poor, like the Grizzly Man did, or the other guy who froze to death in Alaska.
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May 22, 2020 18:30
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blarzgh posted:I knew a guy in law school who estimated that a 1/3rd of students had an adderal scrip, another 1/3rd bought theirs off of them, 2/3rds of the class smoked weed, 1/3rd of them did either coke on the weekends and took xanax throughout the week, 95% of them drank, and another 10% were into even harder poo poo. Everyone in my class drank heavily except for the one honest to god mormon. Multiple folks brought booze into class. I'd say about 3/4ths did weed and a smaller fraction did various drug cocktails. One of my classmates worked through handles of jim bean and boxed wine on a daily basis along with I think a heroin habit. Law school is godawful if you're trying to stay sober because you're gonna be That Person.
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May 22, 2020 18:36
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Nonexistence posted:2nd year associate at a small PI firm today due to nobody playing bumper cars out on the road due to COVID-19. I've got about 40 cases I'll be leaving with ... I think I'm choosing between sharing office space with one of my solo pals to get these cases wrapped up (none should go longer than a couple months) or doing some fly-by-night sole practitioner set up. Your parenthetical seems optimistic. Forty of the kind of cases a small PI firm gives someone relatively new, and they all settle out that quick? Surely there’s at least one with a problem client, evasive defendant, or that you might need to take to trial.
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May 22, 2020 18:45
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Do weed and cigarettes count as a drug cocktail?
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May 22, 2020 19:28
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:What if he doesn't want to be a military lawyer tough poo poo
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May 22, 2020 20:03
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Hoshi posted:Do weed and cigarettes count as a drug cocktail?  at best
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May 22, 2020 20:06
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Seconding that every single school sponsored event had booze and other drugs at it and like 1/3rd of the class discovered that they had ADHD after the first semester. If you can't help but compare yourself to the individuals best situated to apply / maneuver through law school you're in for a pretty disappointing time as well.
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May 22, 2020 20:12
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Chuka Umana posted:It's about personally challenging myself. Quitting after undergrad and accepting an easy life is indulgent. I want to be miserable and working long hours, spending my entire life reading law books and working on cases. Life is not about fun and happiness it's about personal improvement. Don't listen to the nattering nabobs of negativism in this thread. Go to law school. Get laid. Get paid. Drink up. Chase that Esquire title.
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May 22, 2020 20:39
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