I'll be starting part time law school in August and will also be working full time. I almost went back in 2010, but changed my mind at that time. It was the highest number of applications on record, and I didn't get great results. This time around I got into a better school, because there's less applicants and it's a little easier to get in. I'd like to practice in cybersecurity/info gov/records management, ideally.

Any tips from TL law students would be appreciated

. What are your practice areas and how did you get there? Was the same practice you were looking into as you started law school?

xDaunt

United States17988 Posts

May 22 2017 16:11 GMT

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.

JimmyJRaynor

Canada16664 Posts

May 22 2017 18:24 GMT

good luck!

btw, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld are real life super heroes. These are 2 great men.

Doodsmack

United States7224 Posts

May 22 2017 22:50 GMT

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.

Thanks for the solid advice...wonder if it'll be tough to find substantive internships given that I'll have a full time job. Maybe there's something out there for the evenings...

farvacola

United States18821 Posts

May 23 2017 01:02 GMT

I'll say a bit about my experience, but I doubt much will be of use to you given our different circumstances. I just graduated and my career focus is on the government side of bankruptcy, administrative law, and public finance/regulation relative to education and healthcare. I clocked in over 1200 hours of for-free internship work with both state and federal government agencies and consider that time more valuable than 60% of my classes or so. The remaining 40% were taught by unusually good professors given the caliber of my school and I relatedly highly recommend that you develop a personal rapport with at least a few of your academic superiors. I'm now studying for both the New York and Michigan Bar Exams and will decide on which one once I hear back on a bankruptcy court clerkship.

Advice-wise and particularly given your practice interests, be open to what piques your interest while taking law school classes. Records keeping, FOIA and PII-type stuff, and other related practice areas were the sorts of things I worked with as an intern for SSA's OGC and I'm not sure one can focus purely on them without some sort of technological or niche approach. In any case, I can't imagine getting through this with a full time job, so best of luck!