Law School

On May 23 2017 01:11 xDaunt wrote:
The hardest part about going to law school for most people is figuring out what they want to do when they graduate. As a result, a lot of law students flounder around a bit, wind up in a job that they don't like, hate themselves, and give up law altogether after a few years. If you already know what you want to do, then things get a lot easier. Other than good grades and contacts, the most valuable thing that you'll want to get before coming out of law school is practical experience. Firms and other entities have a strong preference for hiring people who require minimal training (everyone knows that first and second year graduates tend to be loss leaders). If you can show an employer that you can hit the ground running, you will automatically be a top candidate. Actively seek out externship and clerking opportunities (even if you do it for free) in the area that you want to practice during your 2L and 3L years. Be aggressive selling yourself to these prospective employers as this training and experience will likely be more valuable than anything else that you do in law school -- particularly if you're not graduating at the top of your class. Above all else, find a mentor who can train you and treat that person like gold. Law school teaches you dick about being an attorney. You're only going to learn from another attorney when you're actually practicing. And there is a lot more to learn than you can possibly fathom at this stage.

I graduated in 2008 and have been practicing continuously ever since. I started off doing only civil litigation (mostly Plaintiff's PI, employment, and commercial cases), but now do about 2/3 civil litigation and 1/3 outside general counsel work for businesses and high wealth individuals (this is the segment of my practice that I want to expand). During law school, I figured out early on that I wanted to litigate, so I did all of the stuff that I listed above to get as much experience as I could. I was lucky enough to meet a good attorney who basically trained me during my 3L year and my first couple of years out of law school such that I had a greatly accelerated development curve compared to my peers. This pretty much set me up to succeed and get to where I am today whereas a lot of my classmates washed out when the recession hit in 2008.