Do I Go To Law School?

[jreyez]

Hey guys,

It's my first time posting here after reading the forums pretty much at home, at work, at lunch.

I have graduated high school with low marks therefore I couldn't get into uni straight away.

I took a cert 3 tafe course because I had no idea what to do at the time. Fast forward, I'm now working as an office junior for a barrister's chambers and I just turned 20.

Working with legal professionals has sort of influenced me to become a lawyer but I'm not sure if that's what I really want to do.

It's boring at work because there isn't much task to do even if I ask the boss, he repliez with "nothing at the moment".

I always feel like I can spend my time wiser than sitting on a desk doing nothing. I've thought about Law School but I gotta do the pre requisites before going to uni.

I am at the moment scoping our work to see if I can create value by fixing a problem or just by making their lives easier.

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

 

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[AubreyJ]

Welcome to the forum- if you had bad grades, why didn't you just go to Community College?

A lawyer is a good job, but don't forget that it is a slowlane job- For some people, that is perfectly fine. But if you are wanting to go to law school get prepared to be in a massive about of student loan debt- my sister is currently in law school and she recently has been regretting her decision because the debt is ridiculous. You also have to go to school for a long time (which is something I know I would hate), and to get accepted in a good law school your university grades have to be great

 

[jreyez]

Hi AubreyJ,

Thanks for your response. I know that Law School will be hard like everyone says and I'm not even sure if I should go and do it myself. I'm having a battle on my mind and it goes something like this:

"You should go to community college so you can be admitted to Uni and then study Law!"
"Are you sure you want to study law? or do you just feel pressured to because your environment are full of lawyers"

I also did Cert 3 in business admin in a community college (TAFE) and I didn't continue to Cert 4 because it was too easy and I found out that when I got my first job, they didn't even ask me about my certificate, they were just impressed by my writing and initiative to follow up with the interviews etc.

I also feel jealous of my friends who are all in Uni and have almost finished their bachelors while I still have to do certificate 4, diploma, advanced diploma THEN 5 years University (So alot of pre-requisites) and it makes me feel gloomy and unmotivated but I'm sure when I get there, it won't be as bad as I think.

Also, since working here, my family and relatives overseas always say "Ooh you're gonna be a lawyer" "You're gonna study law, you'll be rich!"etc. and I feel the need to live up to their expectation, should I change my mindset first?

I'll admit, I know what I need to do, just don't know what I want to do though.

 

[JulianCarax]

Don't do it man! If you are in doubt, then don't go that miserable path. Only if you truly love the law and know that you definitely want to become an attorney, judge etc. go for it. Otherwise there are so many better ways of building a foundation for your fastlane success. I'm one year from finishing law school and even though I like law and the legal professions, I would give everything for the possibility to start all over again with a more practical college path or with not going to college at all.

Inside the matrix you are often times deluded into thinking that becoming a lawyer is great and that you will become rich. While there are some lawyers that make a lot of money, you would have to study and work around at least ten years before becoming partner of a good law firm and earning big bucks. If you find a job at all, competing with the massive number of law graduates. It is true there are law firms that pay their first-year-associates a ton ($ 160.000+), but there you trade your life for the salary. It is a job after all and nearly no hope of becoming a fastlane business.

There are definitely some pros for studying law. It will provide you with a great method to approach problems and knowing the law will help you as an enterpreneur. Your rhetorical skills will improve. But you will also sit in the library all day studying old cases.

In my oppionion, your goal should be to have those tremendous lawyers of magic circle firms working for you and your company. That is my dream, actually.

 

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[BJBossman]

Don't do it man! If you are in doubt, then don't go that miserable path. Only if you truly love the law and know that you definitely want to become an attorney, judge etc. go for it. Otherwise there are so many better ways of building a foundation for your fastlane success. I'm one year from finishing law school and even though I like law and the legal professions, I would give everything for the possibility to start all over again with a more practical college path or with not going to college at all.

Inside the matrix you are often times deluded into thinking that becoming a lawyer is great and that you will become rich. While there are some lawyers that make a lot of money, you would have to study and work around at least ten years before becoming partner of a good law firm and earning big bucks. If you find a job at all, competing with the massive number of law graduates. It is true there are law firms that pay their first-year-associates a ton ($ 160.000+), but there you trade your life for the salary. It is a job after all and nearly no hope of becoming a fastlane business.

There are definitely some pros for studying law. It will provide you with a great method to approach problems and knowing the law will help you as an enterpreneur. Your rhetorical skills will improve. But you will also sit in the library all day studying old cases.

In my oppionion, your goal should be to have those tremendous lawyers of magic circle firms working for you and your company. That is my dream, actually.

This is money.

I fell for that BS when i was 20 that law school would unlock a path to becoming rich...it's complete BS.

A very small percentage make 6 figues, but a very large percentage work 70-80 hours per week.

Most of my classmates tell me how much they hate their big firm jobs, but the laughably outrageous amount of debt keeps them chained to that desk.

I've done a lot of dumb things, but I can say, without question, that law school was the biggest mistake of my life so far (I'm 29).

 

[liquidglass]

Coming from someone who's life plan was to complete law school and become a corporate attorney my advice is: Don't do it.

I got good grades in HS, went to college (an expensive one, which was a mistake) got my BA and my MBA, then I stopped to go into the fastlane. I was diluted by the same stars you have in your eyes right now. I LOVED law, I did trial court, teen court, you name it I did it, and I was damn good. (just for reference those are actual trials where you are an acting attorney and you have a real attorney beside you to advise you during the trial, so the verdicts were actual punishments and they people on trial had committed some low level crime)

But as I went through college I looked at what my life was going to equal, 40+ years of work to retire and die. That equation just didn't make sense to me, and I couldn't explain to my parents because they were in that situation themselves. And I was looked down on for not continuing through law school. (Thank God I didn't accumulate more debt)

Through law school and being a lawyer you're going to work 70-80 hours a week. Being a corporate attorney, assuming I found a job, I would have been guaranteed 6 figures my first year. But if you invested that kind of time into a business you can make that in a month!

My advice if you love law. Bootstrap yourself and start your own law firm. Hire those that went to law school to work for you. Pick a niche and stick with it.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Just when I thought we saw the end of "do i go to college" threads.

You've gotten some great advice here from those with law backgrounds. Hope ya choose wisely.

 

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