Archive for category post law school life
From Pre Law to the 1% – Interesting Statistics on Attorney Earning Prospects
Posted by Cory@manhattanlsat.com in post law school life on January 25th, 2012
It all started with a 180 on his LSAT
A serious motivational factor for many aspiring lawyers is the potential income that top attorneys earn. A recent New York Times article strives to deconstruct “the one percent”, and the folks at the Above The Law blog have pulled out the data from the article relevant to lawyers.
They point out, among other cool factoids, that only physicians, CEOs, and public administrators rank ahead of attorneys on the list of livelihoods represented among the 1%.
There are some truly compelling statistics in this article, and a very interesting interactive breakdown of earnings by career.
How many of you are going to law school with the hopes of joining the 1%?
Book Review: The Law School Decision Game by Ann Levine, Esq.
Posted by Cory@manhattanlsat.com in Admissions, Applications, Law School, post law school life on October 11th, 2011
The Law School Decision Game by Ann K. Levine
Ann K. Levine, aka The Law School Expert, has just released her newest book, The Law School Decision Game: A Playbook for Prospective Lawyers. I’ve had the opportunity to give it a once over, and I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who is thinking about law school, about to start law school, is currently in law school, or has recently graduated from (you guessed it) law school. In short, this is a fantastic read – well worth the $16 price tag!
Chock full of advice to help the aspiring attorney through the difficult maze of career decisions in front of them, this title is a straight-talk, easy-to-read guide that would make a welcome addition to any aspiring lawyers library. Aptly described in the title as “A playbook for perspective lawyers”, Ann draws upon years of experience working with prospective law students to identify and address the most transient questions that prospective law students have.
The Law School Decision Game is not about gaining admission to the JD program of your dreams. Instead, Ann provides expert perspective on the increasingly relevant decisions that need to be made before one even begins down the path to law school, such as:
- Is law school a wise decision?
- Considerations one should make in deciding what type of law to study/practice
- How much money do lawyers make?
- The business of law
- How to pick a law school
And much more.
Ann Levine has penned an incredibly helpful resource for any individual grappling with the decision as to whether or not law school (and thus a career in law) is in their future. “The Law School Decision Game” is a welcome injection of fresh, well informed perspective to the law school conversation.
Ann’s book is available on Amazon.com or her own website, LawSchoolExpert.com.
Paid Volunteers?
Posted by Cory@manhattanlsat.com in LSAT in LIfe, post law school life on April 13th, 2011
Let Them Eat Cake?
Oh oxymoron, how I love thee. Your beauty lies in your simplicity and the possibility for cheekyness in your ranks is infinite: legal brief, controlled chaos, common phenomenon, civil war, minor miracle, and of course my favorite, Microsoft Works, are all fine examples of the turns a phrase’s meaning can take when one simple word is added (Logical Reasoning, anyone?).
The need for you to pay close attention to words is not going to wane anytime soon. Why?
Because word interpretation is a central element in the comprehension and practice of law. In law school and in your law career, you will most likely be faced with situations where it will literally be your job to change the meaning (or perceived meaning) of a word or phrase. How a word or phrase is interpreted is often the deciding factor in the direction a case takes. Take for example the lawsuit against Arianna Huffington, Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief of HuffingtonPost.com. Ms. Huffington is currently being sued by Huffington Post “volunteer” bloggers who are arguing that they deserve to share some of the profits and value that they have created from their contributions to the site.
This case is not without precedent. Back in the nineties two volunteer chat room monitors – from the then super popular AOL – sued AOL for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act after successfully arguing that AOL exploited their contributions to the product. AOL ended up settling out of court for $15 million.
So while the intended outcome of this lawsuit is to prevent exploitative behaviors on the part of business owners, the effect it will have on the perceived meaning of words will certainly be a part of its legal fall out. Will the word “volunteer” no longer mean “to do for free” in the context of the law? These are the kind of questions that you – the future lawyers of America – will be helping to resolve someday soon.
Is It Worth Going to Law School?
Posted by noah@manhattanlsat.com in Admissions, post law school life on January 13th, 2011
Diddy said it was all about the Benjamins...
It turns out that going to law school does not guarantee you’ll get rich. Are you surprised? Are you putting down your pencil and throwing out your LSAT prep book? The New York Times published an article stating what anyone who has done their research knows: people come out of law school with lots and lots of debt, and the job market is far worse than what it was during better economic times. What was most disturbing was the reminder that law schools fib on their stats about how well their grads do. It’s all about the rankings – and we repeat our “yuck!”
We have an interesting window into the legal job world because of our audition process: We generally see the resumes of some former lawyers in our inbox, but a year ago we started seeing a small surge of resumes from recent law school grads. Sometimes that’s great – they finished law school and realized law is not for them, or want to practice government law or something that allows them to teach at night. Those are the candidates we love to see, people with a passion and perhaps a bit of outside-the-box thinking. But, we also saw folks who had been banking on their summer associate job, previously the doorway to a post-grad job, leading to just a line on a resume. These were not the candidates we wanted to see.
But, at least in NYC, the legal economic tide is turning. Summer associates are starting to make their way into actual law firm jobs. No doubt this will take some time to trickle over the Hudson River into New Jersey and beyond, but it will. Will the legal world return to its former glory? Maybe. But, with more of the document review work being shipped overseas, what will big law firms use to treat their first year lawyers like cannon fodder?
For us, we’re still focused on our mission – helping people get great scores. And this news doesn’t really change the situation of our corner of the LSAT prep world. We push people towards the scores that get them into top schools where the job prospects are best, or into a mid-tier school with a scholarship where the post-graduation debt isn’t so heavy.
If you’re considering whether to go to law school – definitely don’t assume it’s a ticket to riches. Go and talk to several lawyers. And that should include one who is horribly unhappy at year 4 or 5, one who is at about the same place and loving it, and then a couple of folks 10-15 years into their career.
While you hunt them down, go ahead and read some of the other buzz about this:
http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html#6796580884183909193
http://www.lawschoolpodcaster.com/2011/01/12/the-debate-over-the-value-of-law-school-goes-on/
Jury Duty and the LSAT
Posted by noah@manhattanlsat.com in LSAT in LIfe, post law school life on October 14th, 2010
Yeah, jury duty!
It happens to the best of us, and even to me: I was called for jury duty last week and I had already used my get-out-of-jury-duty-for-free passes. So, off I went to the New York County Courthouse to wait out my two days of not being called to a case (I’ve done this before). But it turns out I was actually selected! While almost everyone there complained, it was actually a fascinating experience, and, among other things, it reinforced for me why the LSAT is so predictive of one’s performance in law school: it actually tests many of the skills that lawyers use (though, it became clear, not all of them).
It all began with Voir Dire – and if you’re a true LSAT geek, you are thinking of that one RC passage about Voir Dire and exposure to the media. Voir Dire is a fancy way of saying jury selection. The lawyers asked us questions and flicked us off the jury depending on our answers, biases, etc. We were quickly informed that this would be a personal injury case. That immediately made me think of those commercials – like Saul in Breaking Bad. Or this commercial. We were asked whether we worked for the subway — ah, someone got hit by a subway?! – and whether we knew some guy. And have we been in a personal injury case before? Oh, your mother was? What part of her body was injured? Oh, her nose…
It started to become apparent – some guy broke his nose on the subway. Ouch.
The plaintiff’s lawyer was making his way down the line of jurors, and he finally got to me, juror #10. Did I feel I could rule fairly? Sure! Did I think I could come up with a decision that both the plaintiff and defendant would be happy with? Now think about that question for a second…No, I told him, I couldn’t – it’s a court case, not a mediation! I figured at that point I’d be dinged – I was poking fun at the plaintiff’s lawyer, and I told him I teach the LSAT. Shouldn’t that make him wary of me? Perhaps – as is true – I’d be thinking all the time about how the case relates to the LSAT.
Then it was time, as it often was, for a break. When we returned the lawyer asked me whether I had any new thoughts now that I had had a break and time to consider. I told him that I felt our society was too litigious – there are simply too many lawsuits. He agreed (probably he delights in the fact) and asked if you find that my client was harmed and you calculate a sum that he deserves and it turns out to be exorbitant, would you be OK making that decision – to decide that my client should receive that amount? Well, that’s a strange question! If the amount is exorbitant, why would I be OK with it? But, as I told him, if his client deserved a certain amount, I would give him that much.
I tried to tell the lawyer – “I hate the fact that people sue for minor injuries all the time – I think it’s a crime against society that you can sue for spilling hot coffee on your lap and I won’t award your client diddly-squat unless he clearly was hit by a subway driven by a drunken conductor” – but he didn’t seem to hear me. After another long break – actually it was a long period of us all waiting for the lawyers to return from who-knows-where – I found out that I had been selected.
What was interesting to me was that the lawyers were already trying their cases during Voir Dire. They were trying to make us like them (clearly the plaintiff’s lawyer wasn’t doing a great job). Also, they were already starting to argue with each other. When the plaintiff’s lawyer asked me if I’d be OK awarding money to his client, the defendant’s lawyer chimed in – “if the evidence suggests that it is warranted.” These lawyers were listening like hawks to each and every word the other said – similar to the way we have to read questions on the LSAT. This was something that became increasingly apparent as the case continued.
One last note about the beginning of this experience (and by the way, the case is already done – I wouldn’t blog about an ongoing trial). Right from the beginning, every single possible juror took the process seriously – from the goose-bump raising oath to the questions about our biases and injuries. Even though people didn’t necessarily want to be selected, they seemed to answer honestly. It made me proud to be part of this society.
What should I do with my JD and my life?
Posted by Caitlin in post law school life on July 21st, 2010
We recently took a poll on our Facebook fan page about what field of law our fans wanted to be. Responses ranged from Entertainment to Public Interest to Intellectual Property.
Going to law school is a big decision in and of itself, but figuring out what you want to do AFTER law school can also be a challenge. One decision to think about is whether you looking to work in a big firm or a smaller one. A recent article on Lawyerist.com laid out some important questions for lawyers to ask themselves when considering whether they would like to work for a big firm. It notes:
“For the most part, the bigger the firm, the farther away you are from being in a courtroom (or at least speaking in a courtroom). At the same time, when you do get the chance to talk, you will be extremely well prepared. If you are working in a small firm, or working with one other attorney, you are much more likely to get thrown into the fire quickly.”
So getting into a big firm is certainly a trade-off. Often it means a lot of money, but sometimes it means a year or two in the basement, looking for misplaced commas and other errors in endless pages of contracts. Yes, you’ll lose all color in your skin, but you’ll be able to pay for a great vacation to go tan it back!
If you’re unsure of where you want to land once you finish law school, you may want to consider environmental law. According to this article in the National Jurist, thanks to new EPA regulations and certain oil spills, there looks to be a big demand for environmental lawyers on both sides of the argument. Amber Maclver, an associate at Baker Botts, said “Environmental law attorneys are involved in every stage of a business’s life cycle. As a new attorney, there is a lot of potential to become an expert in a niche area of this practice. This is a great field to pursue with amazing opportunities.”
Whether it’s a big or a small firm, or whether you’re looking to help actors or oil-coated seagulls, there are definitely a lot of options for you and for many of us it’s worth thinking outside the box (or basement).
Getting A Great Job After Law School?
Posted by noah@manhattanlsat.com in Law School, post law school life on January 18th, 2010
This past weekend the New York Times had a sobering article explaining that law school is “No Longer the Golden Ticket.” Many people somehow assumed the the legal field was immune to the economic downturn. “Well, Wall Street is dead for now,” people thought, “so I’ll go for law school. Not as glamorous, but at least the money’s there.”
Turns out that big law firms are laying off big time and are not hiring many if any new lawyers. In fact, we’re seeing a lot of resumes of law school grads that are looking for something to do during their “gap year.” Overall, these folks are not making the Atlas cut, but many are quite bright. Interestingly, often they’ve been hired by some law firm and then told to not show up for a year and instead do something community-oriented (and these folks receive half their salaries, which is still a nice chunk of change). This sounds like a pretty good deal considering what many large law firms have young associates doing for the first couple of years (cue shot of Igor, the hunchback in old Frankenstein film creeping in the basement). As we see it, the problem is that when the economy picks up and folks start suing and merging with each other with gusto again, law firms will probably pick up their half-way house hires and hold off on taking new ones for a year or so. Basically, there’s a lawyer log jam. [Yes, that sounds like the end of a good lawyer joke.] Particularly since there’s been a 20% increase in LSAT test-takers this year!
So, what does this mean for you? Well, it truly does depend. If you are headed to law school because you really enjoy legal thinking, complex albeit sometimes boring puzzles, and technical reading and writing, then no worries. You’re probably where you should be. Perhaps you’ll have a tougher time getting a job out of the gate, but hang in there. There’s probably room for you, give or take a year of a job you’re not super-psyched about.
If you’re going to law school for a sure fire route to a quick $250K salary, then hold on a sec. Look around, talk to grads — both those who have landed jobs and those who have not — and consider holding off a year or so until the job market “normalizes.” Perhaps this is a good time to address some weaknesses in your application (like a weak LSAT score or a lack of community service, etc.).
P.S. And don’t forget that there is one more little (?) thing to keep in mind – law school debt.
