There was an article in the New York Times this weekend about how a large percentage of law schools are basically scams. As the article explains, these third and fourth tier private schools entice potential students with promises of large starting salaries, give the students large amounts of debt, and, at most, can get only a few students jobs with salaries sufficient to pay back those student loans.
The protagonist of the article, as many other people have pointed out, comes across like an entitled ass who didn't know why he went to law school and doesn't have enough drive to be employable after he graduated. My experience was that many people in law school have this issue. When I entered law school, I was shocked at how many students came in on day-one knowing that they never wanted to work as a lawyer. To them, law school was just a way to kill three years and stay and earn a somewhat prestigious degree.
Law is the only business like that. There are no chemical engineering PhDs who are only lukewarm on the prospect of becoming a chemical engineer. In the same vein, attorneys have an incredible attrition rate. Many many attorneys quit to go into other lines of work. You just don't see that in other careers that require so much education: if you are a dentist, you take that drill to the grave. No dentist quits after three years to go into marketing.
Maybe it's because the actual work of an attorney is so different than the experience in law school; no one does significant motion practice in law school. Maybe it's because they are doing the wrong kind of legal work. Transactional stuff gets really boring. Criminal, on the other hand, can be really fun.
When I worked at the PD's office in Baltimore, when I was in college, I didn't really like it, but now criminal law is much more fun. It is the only type of law where you frequently get to go to court and argue in front of a jury. You can do that in divorces too, but those clients are much less fun. A side benefit is that I know where to get all the best drugs and know the people if I ever want to have someone killed. I would, of course, never use those benefits, but they are still great insurance.
No comments:
Post a Comment