Any Lawyers of TRP? Do you enjoy your career? Would you choose a different path?

KeyRepresentative · 2020-05-08T17:52:26+00:00

Do you love the idea of practicing law, or do you think it is just an easy way to make money?

I give this advice to people considering law school. Only go if you have two of the following three: A. It’s free or close to free. B. You have admission to a top school. C. You have a job waiting.

Being a lawyer is stressful. Your real job is to take other people’s big problems and make them your own. Your value is determined by the value of the problems you solve. Also be realistic about pay- each state bar publishes salary information. Lawyers in my state average about 75k a year.

High earning lawyers are good at the business side first- marketing, client management, firm operations.

Don’t think that the day you graduate someone hands you keys to a Porsche and a high rise condo.

Best of luck in whatever you do.

RedRiver0415 · 2020-05-08T17:36:13+00:00

I am not a lawyer, but my sister is. She majored in pre law and minored in poli sci in college. Like you she had a 4.0. She scored a couple good internships during school with big law firms. (Most likely because she is a looker)

She went to school in NY and passed the bar shortly after. The problem she has now, is that law is extremely competitive. She has considerable student debt, and even living near NYC is expensive. Her and many of her classmates had to get started as public defenders, which dont make much money for the first several years, and they usually work 12-14 hour days.She is trying to get into corporate trade law, which has a better schedule and better pay.

I am 2 years younger than her (31), with an MBA. I started working for an accounting firm out of college and now am part owner of a business that I started with 2 partners. I make more than her and have less debt. Point is, whatever you do, do it well and push yourself

ccl9318 · 2020-05-08T17:47:17+00:00

I have degree in management and the plan was to go to law school at 23 scored a 165 on my LSAT and had a deposit down at a t-14. The salary structure for new lawyers is bi-model heavily leaning toward the lower at at 65k. About 10% of new grads make 160 and most are from ivy leagues.

Unless you can get a full ride to an ivy league school and then beat half your class to get a big law position the cost benefit for years of earnings lost is not worth it.

I also have family friends who are attorneys and the begged me not to go. I still have no doubt id make an amazing white collar defense attorney, but at the end of the day it's about money.

Are you super passionate in a certain area of law or do you just want to go because it's prestigious and you can make good money(which is barely true now)?

I ended up going into sales made 40k my first year out and have almost quadrupled my income before 30. Oh and I work 30 hours a week.

My suggestion suck it up for a year in finance get some experience and see if you like it.

Edit: 75 applications is shit you need to have about 1k sent out it needs to be your full time job. I think you could make more than 30 right now.

AloofusMaximus · 2020-05-08T17:55:02+00:00

I went to grad school instead of law school. I took the LSAT once for 160, and that would have been fine to get into either of the law schools in my city.

Expecting to get a 6+point jump is quite a lot, and some schools will take your average (not best) score.

Here it was so oversaturated, JDs were taking paralegal jobs just to get in. Average pay was pretty terrible considering 60+ hour workweek, and obscene debt for law school. The ABA prohibits you from working if you're doing law school full time. And the working in law within a year of graduation was something like 58%.

Your area may be different, but do your research. Basically I was told "unless you have a connection to get you into a firm, do something else".

Title	Any Lawyers of TRP? Do you enjoy your career? Would you choose a different path?
Author	ccl9318
Upvotes	2
Comments	8
Date	May 8, 2020 5:25 PM UTC (6 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/gfxegd/any_lawyers_of_trp_do_you_enjoy_your_career_would/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/any-lawyers-of-trp-do-you-enjoy-your-career-would.661218 https://theredarchive.com/post/661218

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