|
So the last time I think I posted in this thread I was a 1L looking for a summer internship in 2010. Now I'm a public interest lawyer making less money than when I managed a walgreens. Law school was still a terrible decision. Plus side: my 200k in student loan debt only requires me to pay 26/month until I hut my 10year ibr repayment forgiveness.
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2014 20:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 15:15 |
|
|
I'm starting a jury trial tomorrow morning on a loving divorce where the only issue is child custody. And in Texas, the jury basically only decides who the kid lives with. Opposing counsel said today that his case in chief is four goddamn days long. Luckily, his client is insane and the judge granted all my motions in limine.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2014 02:53
|
|
|
gvibes posted:My child is 10 days old. Mine is 9 weeks old. I took 30 days off to stay at home when he was born. Public interest lyfe. Now I'm in day two of a jury trial. I haven't seen him awake in two weeks and I had to move into our guest room.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2014 12:21
|
|
|
Got petitioners evidence excluded on day two. Judge seemed offended that he didn't file a response to my brief. Settled case without jury. gently caress yeah, drank my lunch today and got to see my kid. Petitioners attorney got paid more on this case than I'll make in a year. Still poor, don't go, die alone.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2014 01:22
|
|
|
Every interview I had where I did dumb poo poo, I didn't get hired. Every interview I did where I didn't do dumb poo poo, I didn't get hired. Every interview I did where the interviewer was close friends with my references, I got hired. Do the math. Thank you notes don't matter.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2014 02:29
|
|
|
CaptainScraps posted:'How did these old men get so rich? I better be that rich if I'm old. This void dire is boring.' Young twink lawyers cle in Houston?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2014 20:34
|
|
|
MoFauxHawk posted:Hey, we got a Bojangles Racist Chicken and Biscuits franchise in NC to raise its workers' wages by like three bucks to avoid one of our strikes. I'm pretty sure a guy I went to grad school with (prior to me going to law school) earned his PhD, couldn't find a teaching job, and us now a cook at a no jangles.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2014 21:38
|
|
|
Falcon24 posted:Right now I represent insurance companies in insurance fraud work. In a nutshell my office investigates doctors who are engaging in fraudulent PIP billing and we sue them under the state's insurance fraud statute to recover the money. It's fairly interesting to me but I don't entirely enjoy the environment of private law practice (I'm no businessman - I don't want to seek out clients and I don't want to deal with billable hours). I also do all my office's arbitration work which basically involves struggling through kangaroo court proceedings without strangling everyone in the room. Legal aid sounds good for you. Clients find you; you help people. Dont worry about billables. Con: no money, crazy clients, hard to convince a private firm to hire you (some of the time at least). also, we get to experience the same joy a a public defender and be called "not real lawyers."
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2014 00:26
|
|
|
mastershakeman posted:I like imagining how poorly lawyers would attempt to unionize. The amount of unemployed ones willing to be scabs would be incredible. I'm actually a unionized lawyer. We have a cba that gives us no right to strike. Basically, we're toothless. Oh, and you don't have to pay dues to get the benefits. But we get to feel good when our benefits get trashed by management!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2014 23:56
|
|
|
woozle wuzzle posted:
After i took the bar, i did contract work for a ten year solo family law attorney. She also worked at Starbucks 3 nights a week to help pay her bills.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2014 14:01
|
|
|
MoFauxHawk posted:Would people who've already borrowed be grandfathered or not? It doesn't say. Haha if my wife finds out about these changes she will literally divorce me and take our child, leaving me to struggle to pay my debts with my lovely public interest salary. Thanks Obama! Edit: in hindsight that was an overreaction. There are plenty of reasons to leave me beyond my crushing school debt. Hot Dog Day #91 fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Mar 7, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2014 04:33
|
|
|
Ersatz posted:gently caress me - yes university spending is out of control, but making it possible for capable students to become scholars and professionals is not providing them with a "windfall"; it's enabling them to contribute to society instead of being locked into a lifetime of trivial bullshit labor. Was i really able to borrow unlimited money? I should have invested it all in bitcoin.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2014 05:30
|
|
|
Bro Enlai posted:Space lawyers, good news! NASA's Office of the Inspector General is hiring. I'm surprised one of the third tier schools in Houston doesn't advertise a certificate in space law yet.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2014 01:20
|
|
|
TheAwfulWaffle posted:The worst day I've ever had in court was on an afternoon where the Judge had skipped lunch and was hungry and cranky. I had a family law hearing yesterday where the judge rehabilitated the petitioners witness for the other attorney. He then denied our motion to dismiss. Its okay though, because i built a clean record and i was hoping to mandamus the judge anyway.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
CaptainScraps posted:Associate judge or district? District.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 23:11
|
|
|
woozle wuzzle posted:I've seen poo poo like that, and it's insane. A not retained attorney is just a bum on the street. Either the attorney is on the hook or they aren't. Maybe I'll just start hanging around the court house, jumping into cases where someone is about to be defaulted, then send them a bill under quantum meruit. If they don't pay I'll just withdraw!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 23:17
|
|
|
CaptainScraps posted:That's some bullshit. Associate judges can do whatever they want but that don't fly in the big courts. It was a standing issue too, and they clearly don't have standing under the statute. Despite briefing this issue for the judge a few times, he consistently gets it dead wrong. But this was the first time i built an absolutely clean record on it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 23:20
|
|
|
Jobs chat: Had four applicants we we're considering for a 2L clerkship (paid). emailed them back with follow up questions. One responded within hours but has a terrible resume, two didn't respond, one responded nine days later with typos and bad grammar and called me by ms instead of mr. The bad grammar candidate has a stellar resume, but if he can't compose a proper email.... I'm not sure if we still have law students in this thread, but take the time to proof your emails to employers.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2014 15:07
|
|
|
Elotana posted:Yeah. Were their responses to the questions acceptable? Is their resume terrible because it's just kind of empty and/or has poor grades? Might as well reward them for showing more initiative and promise than the other candidates. So, bad resume was bad gpa. I had a bad gpa, so i can over look that. Bad gpa had good answers and has asked me follow ups. She also had an enthusiastic cover letter. I think i argued that those don't matter a few pages back, so gently caress me i was wrong. Good resume has law review, moot court and mock trial, and other impressive things. But the emails were bad enough tht i think they either don't care about the job or are just generally sloppy. The responses really didn't matter, i was just checking continued interest. Its a low paying summer gig with my non profit, so we call them law clerks, not associates. There were 45 applications. We narrowed it down to 4 to follow up with. The sad part is, my firm is laying staff and attorneys off. We only get a paid clerk cause of the state bar. There's a zero percent chance we'll be hiring in the next
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2014 19:44
|
|
|
Zo posted:Google said a while back that gpa had zero (not low, zero) correlation with performance for their hires and I can't see that being different for law. I'm not sure about law. I think it depends on your school. Confidence and perception certainly has something to do with your presentation in litigation and appellate work. For instance, I never want anyone to read my written product because I'm sure it outs me as a mental defective. Then I read poo poo other lawyers file or serve in discovery and I realize I'm at least 25% competent. I'm sure it has something to do with my school having one of those 75% will get a b or lower curves. But I'm a beaten step child, whose drunken father of a legal education keeps coming back at me to take out its feelings of inadequacy and middle class ennui. I tell myself through the pain that if I just get that citation right, or snark on opposing counsel perfectly in my motion, one day, my step father will approve of me.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 01:43
|
|
|
Lote posted:Why even include her in the cut if you weren't going to consider hiring her under these circumstances with her bad GPA? Why waste both of your time and effort? I hired her.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 03:15
|
|
|
I'd just like to remind everyone that generally law school and being a lawyer is terrible, and Harvard or Cooley, 2.0 or 4.0.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 23:44
|
|
|
Nibbles141 posted:A few books on statutory interpretation would probably be a good start. This is a very fine suggestion. For instance, I'm guessing "statute as a whole" is relevant. Hot Dog Day #91 fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Mar 21, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2014 12:41
|
|
|
semicolonsrock posted:I think usually you have to have an apprenticeship? Maybe you've checked this already. The sad part is if he somehow managed to qualify to take the bar and get a license, his job would probably lay him off for being over qualified.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2014 13:56
|
|
|
Phil Moscowitz posted:No unless he takes the bar he won't know what is on it. Get out of here with your misleading nonsense. This is really sound advice from one of this thread's most successful and esteemed mentors. Most attorneys take the bar once as a "practice run," usually during their second year. Personally, i took it 4 times before taking it for real, to make sure i knew exactly what was going to be on it during my "licensing attempt." And who knows, you may pass it cold, like Elotana did with the ethics exam!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2014 15:23
|
|
|
themrguy posted:Sorry, early morning, lack of sleep. I'm not normally this dense at recognizing sarcasm, I swear. In all seriousness, the county would probably find a cause-related reason to let you go it change the statute as soon as you started asking about this raise. Especially since California requires at least 4 years of study if you're not at an aba accredited law school. Its a neat thought and a clever idea, which means the practice of law is definitely not for you.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2014 21:02
|
|
|
Tokelau All Star posted:Is there any reputable and non-scummy way to do foreclosure defense? In my jurisdiction, courts have held that failure to strictly comply with the non-judicial foreclosure statute is sufficient to enjoin the foreclosure. But all they have to do is fix the usually technical error, and take another bite at the apple. If the client can pay a lawyer for an injunction and post a bond, they probably should have paid the lender. Those middlemen companies are the most scummy scammers. I had a client who paid 5k to one to"stop foreclosure"after the drat house had already been sold.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2014 09:33
|
|
|
mastershakeman posted:I like the guys who just charge 1/3rd of the mortgage payment per month to stall as long as humanly possible. They use every excuse in the book in court to kick dates and even for someone on the plaintiff's side it's pretty funny. In Illinois you can stall a case for 7 years if you lose every motion, probably go over 10 if you get one of the Cook County judges who have 7 month briefing schedules. Oh man. In Illinois do you have to file a court action to foreclose? In Texas it can be accomplished in under two months.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2014 16:46
|
|
|
Chambers chat: I filed a no evidence motion for summary judgment (just an msj that says, show the court you have ANY evidence of this claim sufficient to raise a genuine issue of material fact). I gave proper notice and set the motion for hearing by submission only. The submission day came without the plaintiff filing any response, which should be a default, right? I sent the judge an order. Today, she (personally) called my secretary and asked her to forward her my discovery responses to the plaintiff requests for admissions. I was out, and she did it without asking me. I basically objected to most requests, because it's a bs debt collection case on its fourth debt servicer. I'm pretty sure I'll still get my motion granted, but what the gently caress judge? It's not your job to figure out a reason to deny my motion if the plaintiff can't even be bothered to send the court a copy of the contract that apparently exists but can't be produced. The whole thing has left me feeling scummy.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2014 02:11
|
|
|
Roger_Mudd posted:Isn't this a huge violation of ethics? Probably. In hindsight, I think she was going to construe the admissions as deemed if I hadn't answered, which would let her deny my motion. Maybe she just wanted verification that I had in fact answered. A letter to both attorneys would surely have been more appropriate. I'll check state judicial ethics rules and make any reports I feel are necessary, if any. I was just taken aback that she'd try to find a reason to gently caress my case.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2014 02:42
|
|
|
Solid Lizzie posted:I am normally a pretty sociable person but, for some reason, I was way off in Awkward Land at tonight's Young Lawyers event. I went to a bar lunch recently. I was three youngest lawyer in the room by 30 years. It was at a Lubys. I should have known.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2014 10:41
|
|
|
I'm just returning from a week of paid vacation. I turned my emails off and told my secretary to text me if anyone was looking for me. But this is dead time in all my litigation, so no one probably noticed.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2014 16:27
|
|
|
There is a large possibly that she will go to law school, incur massive debt, graduate, be unable to find work, be over qualified for her old paralegal job, and wind up earning less money as a solo family law attorney than she did as a paralegal. If that doesn't scare her, nothing will. Oh, and the transfer plan doesn't work for most people. I believe the op says don't plan to transfer unless you're 100 percent okay with your starter school. My transfer plan failed, but i liked my starter school anyway. Hot Dog Day #91 fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Apr 2, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2014 15:47
|
|
|
evilweasel posted:Alternatively, someone at the better school transferred to an even better school. I can see OCI now. The one firm that visits Cooley each year interviews their top choice. "so, tell me why you transferred from Yale to Cooley?" "i found the academic environment at Yale too stifling. I really want to pick a school where i won't be expected to be a good lawyer." Spouse chat: My wife has a phd in an arcane field of the humanities from a top tier school. I have a jd from a lovely top 50. I love my job, she hates hers. Whenever she talks about going to law school, i always tell her only if she gets into Yale with a good scholarship, and only if she then wants to teach law.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2014 17:25
|
|
|
Roger_Mudd posted:Posted a job for law clerk on school job system. Not a nibble at $12.00 an hour. Back when I was going, people would have jumped on that. Has the market turned? My post grad clerk job for a solo paid 15/hour in Texas.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2014 01:29
|
|
|
Jarmak posted:I don't want to be any of those things 1. Did you read the OP? It is old, but still very useful and informative. 2. In all seriousness, you seem like you're probably a veteran who wants to get a liberal arts degree and then be a lawyer. Why, specifically, do you want to be a lawyer?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2014 14:39
|
|
|
Just please, major in something that has other good employability. A STEM field, accounting, healthcare, anything but a liberal arts degree unless you want to teach middle school (and then, make sure you do the education prerequisites for certification). The worst case scenario is you have a degree that gives you some experience in a field for post law school employment. The best case is you have a fall back option if the only law school you can get into is northeastern or Suffolk or another TTT and you decide not to go to law school. Seriously, learn from our mistakes, or in 6 years you'll be looking at enlisting again. Don't loving major in criminal justice for the love of Christ. Edit: just read above. Go ahead and go wherever you want, you special snowflake you. Hot Dog Day #91 fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Apr 7, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2014 15:41
|
|
|
If you are not trolling and genuinely are already plotting your admission to Harvard, when your only record is a lovely high school GPA and some night classes, you're just loving delusional. All we're saying is please, have a viable back up plan. If you go to Harvard, fantastic. If you don't or decide it's not for you, enjoy working whatever else you do. You don't want to be looking for work when all you have is a philosophy degree.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2014 20:25
|
|
|
Phil Moscowitz posted:Do circus law we prefer to call it the outdoor amusement industry.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2014 22:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 15:15 |
|
|
Jarmak posted:This is pretty much my exact plan, with the caveat that by the time I would be goin to law school its possible $100k-150k will not be a significant burden. Good. Hope your spouse never leaves you ard you suddenly need to work.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2014 01:07
|
|