Why does everyone want to go to law school? Ctd

The Lawyer Magazine wrote here:

"With 14,000 students chasing 5,000 places, recruiters are rethinking the selection routine. Anyone hunting a training contract should note the endless queue. University graduates see law as a relatively safe option in a rocky jobs market, but in 2009/10 there were 11,370 full-time and 3,140 part-time LPC places compared with just 4,874 newly registered training contracts."

Why Law School? Ctd Move on if no job after 2 years post-TC

@rachel_1709 #AskaTrainee if you haven't got a TC offer in 2 years I would move on
— Charlotte Brinsley (@cbrinsley) September 29, 2013

Why Law School? Ctd, Lorin Stein

When all else fails, go to law school. A pretty standard drag and drop career move written into the cultural script. Even the editor of The Paris Review, Lorin Stein nearly took the route. That was until at the last moment his big literary break broke. It was explained in an interview with The Financial Times. It was said:

"In 1998, just at the point where he [Lorin Stein] was about to give up and go to law school, he got a call. Jonathan Galassi, FSG president and publisher, needed an assistant. He was in."

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd

Law school has about as much to do with being a lawyer as farting.
— Grad School Elitist (@GradElitism) August 13, 2013

Legally Blonde - Why everyone wants to go to Law School

 

The cultural myth endures. Andrew Sullivan provides the analysis here. Girl says her law mentor went to law school after being inspired by Legally Blonde. The same happened with a girl in Belfast here. Here's what some of Andrew Sullivan's commenters have said: 

"I agree that students need more practical experience. The ABA is definitely run by people with some old-fashioned thinking, so that organization needs a shake-up. The number of people who go to law school who really shouldn’t is also a problem... The bar exam is just institutionalized hazing and in no way reflects whether someone is qualified to practice law."

A commenter from an earlier Dish post here: 

"But it’s long been a byword among young lawyers that an extraordinarily high percentage of instruction has been irrelevant to the actual practice of law, unless you take very seriously such chestnuts as the critical importance of learning to “think like a lawyer.” For one thing, an awful lot of law students, in my experience, have been “thinking like a lawyer” since about the third grade, which made them very unpopular children. More importantly, the cult of legal education seems to depend on the perpetuation of what amounts to an intellectual hazing system, where the student’s tolerance for tedious content, arbitrary testing, and self-imposed pressure is presumably preparation for the agonies of being on the low end of the professional totem pole for years."

Why law school? Ctd Maria Doran Chooses Law School

Rumpole and the Bailey, Suits, John Grisham, Lincoln Lawyer, The Good Wife, Silk, Legally Blonde - just some among the very many vague reasons why young people go to law school.

Why does everyone want to go to Law School?, Ctd 'best [Wall Street]cover letter ever' student wants to go to law school

The Business Insider and Forbes magazine featured what was labelled as the 'best cover letter ever': a direct communication from a student to a big Wall Street exec for a summer internship.

The situation of the student was that he/she wants to be an investment banker. At time of sending the person was an undergraduate finance student planning to do a masters in accounting. 

And get this, and I quote: 

"I am currently awaiting admission results for (BLOCKED) Masters of Science in Accountancy program, which I would begin this fall if admitted. I am also planning on attending law school after my master’s program, which we spoke about in New York."

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd craven self-interest and student loans

Andy Mergendahl, writing in the lawyerist.com said something that brings a lot to the debate on why the hell everyone wants to go to law school, and importantly, why law schools enlists students knowing employment prospects are as bleak as a ducks arse.

Andy said that so long as the federal student loan system persists and the money flows, the law school over subscription problem will exist. 

See, it's all craven-self interest. Here's Andy:

"It’s tempting to conclude, given the legal job market and the intense criticism the schools have endured, that they must be changing a lot, and quickly. 

I disagree. As long as federal student loan money continues to flow like a river, nothing significant will change. Money drives everything in the law: legislation, the executive branch, judicial elections, law firms big and small. Only money (or the lack of it) will change the law schools."

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd It's all your fault

That's what the President of the American Bar Association, William Robinson thinks:

"It’s inconceivable to me that someone with a college education, or a graduate-level education, would not know before deciding to go to law school that the economy has declined over the last several years and that the job market out there is not as opportune as it might have been five, six, seven, eight years ago."

See more on his take on the situation here. Lexis Nexis shares the sentiment to a lesser extent:

@brianjohnspencr @Charlie_Ware 1/2 self interest yes BUT students need to take some responsibility for own decisions as probs well known
— LexisNexis LawCampus (@lawcampus) June 27, 2013

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd Legal Education andTraining Review

After 30 months, it's out. Legal Cheek has produced a good summation of the 335 page document.

10 tweets that help you understand the Legal Education & Training Review without having to read the thing http://t.co/n1bTIVCHO4 #LETR
— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) June 25, 2013

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd, 'Glut of graduates threatens hope of career in law' reports Sian Griffiths

From Sunday 23 2013 in the Sunday Times, a must read: 'Glut of graduates threatens hope of career in law.'

In short: young people are not being warned about the shortage of legal jobs according to the Law Society of England and Wales.

The warning from the Law Society certainly gives force to the article, 'It Is Now Completely Clear to Everyone That Law School Is for Suckers.'

Why does everyone want to go to law school? Ctd with Alex Aldridge

Alex Aldridge of Legal Cheek talks about going to law school from 13 minutes of his Law Tour podcast series interview with Charon QC.

Listen to podcast in full here.

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd

I think the former barrister Harry Mount writing in the Spectator is onto something:

"There’s no reason why they should be paid any more than other graduates in less overrated jobs. But their high prices, and their dashing reputation, stoked up by Charles Dickens, John Mortimer and a million courtroom dramas, have conspired to produce this delusion of brilliance. It is a delusion many of them fall for themselves."

He's referring to the shrieks and wails of horror being emitted by the legal profession as the Lord Chancellor and non-lawyer, Chris Grayling implements swinging cuts to the legal aid bill.

But it still has resonance with the question of why everyone wants to go to Law School?

Because, as he suggested, Dickens, Mortimer and TV court room dramas have conspired to create a delusion of brilliance. On that is a fiction and but a grotesque characters that does nothing but lead young people up the garden path.

Harry tears into the legal profession, which he calls a "overcharging charade" and the "last unreformed profession", a little more which provides some interesting reading:

"A few specialist areas — banking law, trust law, intellectual property — require brainiacs with Oxbridge firsts, who deserve to be well paid. Most of the rest of it is child’s play. Divorce, death and housebuying are straightforward enough — lots of us manage them with little difficulty — and so is the law associated with them. But over the centuries we’ve let a small group of not particularly gifted people monopolise the legal control of these routine, if crucial, acts."

A little more:

"Most things barristers do for hundreds of pounds an hour could be done as well not just by solicitors but by any intelligent person. Many of the things high-street solicitors do, too — conveyancing, divorces and wills among them — are a doddle, especially in the age of the internet."

Read Harry Mount's piece in the Spectator in full here: http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8927101/take-it-from-a-former-barrister-chris-grayling-is-right-to-reform-legal-aid/

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd

This is an open discussion with my last post here. I want to pick the debate up on the blog post by Max Tucker who wrote an essay for the Huffington Post entitled, 'Why You Should Not Go To Law School.'

He backs up my thinking that everyone wants to go to Law School and that it's the default career choice. He said:

"At some point in their life, everyone thinks they should go to law school. You may in fact think you want to go to law school now."

The rest of his essay is great and deserves a read and attention, which you can do here. But I want to leaves things on an interesting comment that was made in response to the post by a practicising attorney. Lara Gardner said:

I'm an attorney and I could have written this, word for word. It is dead on. I wish I had read it before going to law school and getting a degree that ensures I'll have an impossible time ever finding a job that isn't law-related or free of massive student loans. I have virtually no regrets except for attending law school. It was the biggest mistake of my life. Don't do it! Believe what he says here. He's right!

Why does everyone want to go to Law School? Ctd

OK, so in the Huffington Post I explored how pretty much everyone goes to law school or is encouraged to go to law school. Pretty messed up. I explored this under the title of 'Law School: the Default Career Choice'.

The post stirred up some action and got a few response from some big names.

Including Above the Law:

MT @brianjohnspencr: 'Law School: the default career choice' - my blog post on @huffpostuk: huff.to/ZPi1Ck
— Above the Law (@atlblog) May 8, 2013

Lee Pacchia of Bloomberg Law:

Big part of the problem. RT @brianjohnspencr: 'Law School: the default career choice' @huffpostuk @davidlat huffingtonpost.co.uk/mobileweb/bria…
— Lee Pacchia (@leepacchia) May 8, 2013