Fair warning, this is easily the lengthiest video and request I've received. It's 1 hour and 40 minutes long, but that's a mere fraction of the time you'll waste if you decide to go to law school without thoroughly thinking it through and researching all your options.
This is ABSOLUTELY A MUST VIEW for all young people considering attending law school. Share it with any young man or woman who is contemplating spending $100,000 and three years of their lives pursuing a law degree.
5 comments:
Regarding paralegals:
"Paralegal" is a non-regulated profession. Thus, what a "paralegal" actually does depends on where they work. In some firms, they may do legal research and interview clients, but this is rare. In most places, they mostly do docketing, assist with discovery and prepare documents for submission to a court and/or government agency.
Holding a paralegal certificate may help if one is applying for a job that requires doing legal research, but usually any college graduate OR legal secretary can learn the job.
Note: firms bill the client at the paralegal rate--typically $60-$120 per hour. Thus, paralegals (like attorneys) are revenue generators for the business/firm, whereas secretaries are overhead. Since firms can't bill the client for work the secretary does, they call them "paralegals" and charge the client accordingly.
Regarding their salary:
In my last job (a small firm), the highest paid associate made $120K, and our paralegal made about $80K (she did have a certificate and college degree). If it's a department with 5 or more paralegals, it's not unusual for the senior paralegal to make over $100K. Thus, as with attorneys, the salary for paralegals can vary quite a bit.
Still, one usually does NOT go into debt to become a paralegal, and it's easy to switch-out of it in mid-career. Thus, it's a good job to build some experience (without investing in an overpriced law degree), before moving into something else. It's also a good job for people entering the workforce in mid-life.
My special snowflakes going to Alabama law on a full ride after going 4.0 in an engineering degree. Going into IP and has already landed summer internship at $3500 week for the summer. Choices are always choices, choose wisely.
Spin Drift
Anyone considering it MUST look through the history on Instapundit. For those that don't know it, it is a conservative-leaning libertarian site aggregating mostly political and internet news. However it is run by Professor Glenn Reynolds, a highly-articulate professor or law at the University of Tennessee, so he also puts up law education news. Despite any incentive he has, he never over-sells the course, and his view of tertiary education and beyond is pretty close to the Captain's.
No mention of the long-term viability of the entire field. US-law-certified lawyers are of no use if the government falls apart. Do you really think it will last 60 more years at this rate?
Your advice about accounting / CPA + JD is exactly backwards
An aspiring lawyer should get a bachelors in accounting -- a CPA certification, even better -- *before* applying to law school
This plus great LSAT score will greatly improve your chances of getting into a T14 or Tier-One school and will put you on the fast-track to getting hired by a top white-shoe
corporate finance / tax law firm like Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton or Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
On another note, my own divorce lawyer's law firm is looking for a new associate: contact Ditcher, Quicke & Hyde
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