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Law School & Lawyer GAF

P

PBY

Banned
ZackieChan said:
I'm jelly. I'm a 2L and can't get a paying job...
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Sorry to hear that dude... I really don't have much in the way of helpful advice only as a 1L, but I really did hustle and network a ton- did lunches/informational interviews/the works. In the end, those didn't end up resulting in the job because something else sort of fell into my lap, but I've definitely built up helpful contacts for the future. Again, I'm sure you know this, just know that you're def not in the minority.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
YoungHav said:
Learned Hand is the most gangster name I've seen.
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He's got some pretty swag opinions also.


peterb0y said:
Yep, Congrats too!

Also, I'm super stoked because I HAVE A JOB! Its a paying 1L job no less, gonna be working in house doing transactional work for a corporation. So grateful.
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Congrats!!!

Still waiting to hear back from a couple interviews and still waiting to hear back to schedule some more. So hopefully those go well.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Doing collections for a homeowners association. Some guy who didn't pay and got sued called me and went on a 20 minute rant and ended it by saying he would send a check but he was going to piss on it first.

I kept listening because I was morbidly fascinated by how nuts he was. Plus at the start of the call he said that he could only talk for one minute because he had an international conference call about to start.
 
A

AndyD

aka andydumi
zmoney said:
Can we all agree that the best judge is Learned Hand?

Just came across his name during Torts readings, and was amazed that his named was actually "Learned Hand". Mind blowing.
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Haha. I just told the attorneys I work with about Learned Hand yesterday. They had never heard of him.

Also about the practice of opinions calling a lower court judge learned if they thought he did something wrong. Supreme court trolling! Although it is also used as a polite way to refer to a judge, so its subtle.

Guileless said:
Doing collections for a homeowners association. Some guy who didn't pay and got sued called me and went on a 20 minute rant and ended it by saying he would send a check but he was going to piss on it first.

I kept listening because I was morbidly fascinated by how nuts he was. Plus at the start of the call he said that he could only talk for one minute because he had an international conference call about to start.
Click to expand...

Someone who lives in the neighborhood did it for our homeowners association and I learned not to do it if ever asked by my association. When they find out you live in the same neighborhood they bother you late at night and egg your house. So the attorney had a car and boat impounded and sold where he was trying to work with the homeowner before.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
^^^congrats!

Have an interview with an appellate civil litigation firm next week. hopefully it goes well.

I was thinking, I haven't done a damn thing this semester so far (I mean yea I've done the average amount of work but no real reviewing or studying or anything). so I guess spring break is going to be "fun" catching up and reviewing.
 
B

brucewaynegretzky

Member
So I posted this in the unemployed thread but it is probably more applicable here:

So what percentage of everyone's job search is blindly sending applications and what percentage is "ground work" like contacting former employers, e-mailing coworkers, e-mailing people you can find a tangential connection with and asking about opportunities? I feel like I don't send out a ton of applications, but there are a SHITTON of people I have semi-regular contact with that know I'm looking.
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I have a pretty important meeting with my former boss tomorrow morning. There's an empty desk in the office that I think should have my ass in it. Going to talk to him about that and a few other applications that he may have some connections with. Fingers crossed!
 
Q

Quazar

Member
So I'm planning on getting my BBA in CIS here at GSU. I plan to go their business analyst route. I was interested in maybe combining it with Law that they offer their as well. I recently made a big contact within the CDC and he introduced me to everyone in IT department their. They said it'd be a good idea for contractual / patent work. Does anyone on GAF have any experience / thoughts on this?

I like it because I have the IT side and possible future internship/work-study, and the law part is something I'm interested intertwining with it. In this case does the the GSU bring problems or...just would like some more voices on all of this. Thanks.
 
M

mikeybwright

Banned
brucewaynegretzky said:
So I posted this in the unemployed thread but it is probably more applicable here:



I have a pretty important meeting with my former boss tomorrow morning. There's an empty desk in the office that I think should have my ass in it. Going to talk to him about that and a few other applications that he may have some connections with. Fingers crossed!
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Good luck!!! I have a big interview tomorrow as well, then Spring Break...I can't wait to sleep in during the week. :)
 
B

brucewaynegretzky

Member
mikeybwright said:
Good luck!!! I have a big interview tomorrow as well, then Spring Break...I can't wait to sleep in during the week. :)
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Thanks. It really isn't much of an interview. I'll be going in regular street clothes. I go into my old office enough that it would be weird if I didn't. But this is the first time I'll be able to sit down and talk to my boss about the position. There's a lot of other factors at play, but I'm trying to be hopeful.

Good luck to you too! Enjoy break! Don't spend it like I have doing work/applying to jobs.
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
welp, I'm at that point.

The point where I can look back on these three years and just hit the delete button without many regrets! It was dumb for me to stay after barely cutting by the first year, at a mid tier school. I made a pretty epic comeback, gpa-wise, but that took so much effort and broke me down a couple times. Then, all the job hunting and networking I'd have to do to land something just looked like an insurmountable task, doubly so since I'm an introvert. (A legit introvert, not an internet asperger's case who doesn't want to leave the house...i'm just conveying that it was very difficult to compete with extroverts at networking events who seemed born ready for this stuff and lets face it, just way more invested/motivated than me.)

Anyway, I was pretty much disqualified from this game after 1L. On top of that, I was not really willing to compromise to work at a sketchy firm or to work for free in hopes of adding a line to a resume. of course, you have to compete for the slave labor internships as well these days and I was pre-disqualified from most of them on GPA alone.

Trying to decide whether to spend the money finishing up my last classes this summer (just to put it on the resume) or just start over after this semester. It's money I can spend if I want, but my time might be better spent just moving on to the next thing.

for the record, I will not be suing my law school, because it was my own damn fault for ignoring a mountain of evidence that this will not be my life's work haha. On the plus side, my reading, writing, and argumentation skills really improved a hundred-fold at law school and it definitely changed how I look at the world. Which is nice.

Sometimes life is a blow up, so fuck it and move on to the next thing! Thankfully, the folks, friends, and other people around me are supportive because I was totally blaming myself for a while. Not to mention all the people at school in the same boat. It's a bloodbath out there.


Moral: don't go to law school unless you mean business. heed all the warnings, pre-law kids.
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I've loosely followed the rankings even though I'm now almost six years out. I like them quite fine in the abstract -- my only main issues with them being:
-The really extreme gaming that goes on like some schools putting all their crappy numbers students in night programs so they don't count against rankings but the school still gets to bilk them out of their loan money.
-The lies told in the average-salary and employment columns. Honestly feel these hurt a lot of people, caveat emptor or not.
 
B

brucewaynegretzky

Member
AstroLad said:
I've loosely followed the rankings even though I'm now almost six years out. I like them quite fine in the abstract -- my only main issues with them being:
-The really extreme gaming that goes on like some schools putting all their crappy numbers students in night programs so they don't count against rankings but the school still gets to bilk them out of their loan money.
-The lies told in the average-salary and employment columns. Honestly feel these hurt a lot of people, caveat emptor or not.
Click to expand...

The problem is that even caveat emptor doesn't adequately describe the loan burden. Especially on a 10 year schedule. I would have no problem taking a lot of these lower paying firm jobs if I could, you know... live. I have a preference for public interest though to IBR is pretty awesome. The prospect of being 35 with 10 years of gov't experience and no loan burden seems pretty awesome to me... Now how to do that...

In job related news (since this is one place where I feel like people get the context AND I don't feel like I'm being an inconsiderate ass talking about it): My old boss told me last week that I'm "at the top of the list" to replace a woman who recently left my old office. The position isn't "technically" a law position, but if I got my Bar passage I would likely be handling ULPs and potentially other Admin hearings not long after getting hired. Even if I'm not arguing them right away I'll definitely be in on the writing/drafting/strategizing for them which seems pretty awesome. The only problem is the government hiring process that may cause hurdles for me as someone who isn't quite graduated yet or turn up someone else in the competitive application process. I can say though that there is literally NO ONE else though who has actually done the job so I should win in the experience department, and I know my boss WANTS to bring me in. I'm not optimistic yet since there are a number of things that could go wrong still, but realistically I believe this is more likely to happen than not. The only problem is I feel wrong for having hope. I've been trained so well to just expect something to go wrong, so thinking about this actually makes me depressed because my mind defaults to "How can you fuck up something that should have been so simple?" and the job hasn't even been POSTED yet! So yeah..... fingers crossed lol.

How's everyone else doing?
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
Good Luck brucewaynegretzky! Stay positive man.

I have an interview for an internship on Friday, so hopefully that goes well.

On a side note, I'm doing some Torts reading and came across the BEST opinion I've ever read. Just the language used and flair with which the Justice writes is outstanding:

Cordas v. Peerless Transportation Co. -- 27 N.Y.S.2d 198 said:
This case presents the ordinary man—that problem child of the law—in a most bizarre setting. As a lowly chauffeur in defendant's employ he became in a trice the protagonist in a breach-bating drama with a denouement almost tragic. It appears that a man, whose identity it would be indelicate to divulge was feloniously relieved of his portable goods by two nondescript highwaymen in an alley near 26th Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan; they induced him to relinquish his possessions by a strong argument ad hominem couched in the convincing cant of the criminal and pressed at the point of a most persuasive pistol. Laden with their loot, but not thereby impeded, they took an abrupt departure and he, shuffling off the coil of that discretion which enmeshed him in the alley, quickly gave chase through 26th Street toward 2d Avenue, whither they were resorting ‘with expedition swift as thought’ for most obvious reasons. Somewhere on that thoroughfare of escape they indulged the stratagem of separation ostensibly to disconcert their pursuer and allay the ardor of his pursuit. He then centered on for capture the man with the pistol whom he saw board defendant's taxicab, which quickly veered south toward 25th Street on 2d Avenue where he saw the chauffeur jump out while the cab, still in motion, continued toward 24th Street; after the chauffeur relieved himself of the cumbersome burden of his fare the latter also is said to have similarly departed from the cab before it reached 24th Street.

The chauffeur's story is substantially the same except that he states that his uninvited guest boarded the cab at 25th Street while it was at a standstill waiting for a less colorful fare; that his ‘passenger’ immediately advised him ‘to stand not upon the order of his going but to go at once’ and added finality to his command by an appropriate gesture with a pistol addressed to his sacro iliac. The chauffeur in reluctant acquiescence proceeded about fifteen feet, when his hair, like unto the quills of the fretful porcupine, was made to stand on end by the hue and cry of the man despoiled accompanied by a clamourous concourse of the law-abiding which paced him as he ran; the concatenation of ‘stop thief’, to which the patter of persistent feet did maddingly beat time, rang in his ears as the pursuing posse all the while gained on the receding cab with its quarry therein contained. The hold-up man sensing his insecurity suggested to the chauffeur that in the event there was the slightest lapse in obedience to his curt command that he, the chauffeur, would suffer the loss of his brains, a prospect as horrible to an humble chauffeur as it undoubtedly would be to one of the intelligentsia.

The chauffeur apprehensive of certain dissolution from either Scylla, the pursuers, or Charybdis, the pursued, quickly threw his car out of first speed in which he was proceeding, pulled on the emergency, jammed on his brakes and, although he thinks the motor was still running, swung open the door to his left and jumped out of his car. He confesses that the only act that smacked of intelligence was that by which he jammed the brakes in order to throw off balance the hold-up man who was half-standing and half-sitting with his pistol menacingly poised. Thus abandoning his car and passenger the chauffeur sped toward 26th Street and then turned to look; he saw the cab proceeding south toward 24th Street where it mounted the sidewalk. The plaintiff-mother and her two infant children were there injured by the cab which, at the time, appeared to be also minus its passenger who, it appears, was apprehended in the cellar of a local hospital where he was pointed out to a police officer by a remnant of the posse, hereinbefore mentioned. He did not appear at the trial. The three aforesaid plaintiffs and the husband-father sue the defendant for damages predicating their respective causes of action upon the contention that the chauffeur was negligent in abandoning the cab under the aforesaid circumstances. Fortunately the injuries sustained were comparatively slight.
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M

mre

Golden Domers are chickenshit!!
zmoney said:
Good Luck brucewaynegretzky! Stay positive man.

I have an interview for an internship on Friday, so hopefully that goes well.

On a side note, I'm doing some Torts reading and came across the BEST opinion I've ever read. Just the language used and flair with which the Justice writes is outstanding:
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm cynical, but that reads as if he's trying way, way too hard.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
mre said:
Maybe I'm cynical, but that reads as if he's trying way, way too hard.
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that's the point...I was being very sarcastic with my BEST comment...

That opinion is like the Mortal Kombat movies. It's so bad it's good
 
R

RandomDancing

Member
Anyone else filling out these lovely bar exam applications this week? If the applications suck this much, I can't imagine how much I'm going to hate taking the actual test.

Not much news on the job front. Didn't get any of the few things I was waiting to hear back from, so I've tried to kick everything up a notch. Got only mildly discouraged when I mailed 30 judges my app packet, and received 15 rejections from them within 3 days. Got more discouraged when I reached out to three alumni who all basically said, "job market sucks. We have no jobs here. Just keep sending stuff out." Got yet even more discouraged when I found out my top 5% of the class, law review editor friend has nothing yet.

But I'm still plugging away at this. Obviously, it's going to a bitch soon with finals coming up relatively fast, but it's not like someone is just going to walk up and hand me a job.
 
P

PBY

Banned
Bay Maximus said:
Well, I have a plan B & C if I do crappy on the LSAT but law is my preferred choice by far. I hope 1L isn't as bad as you guys portray it.
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My advice as a lowly 1L- if you don't get into a top Lawschool (I have a very narrow definition of top- not to be snooty but just so you don't realize you just went 250k into debt for a desperate battle royale for work) DON'T GO.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
peterb0y said:
My advice as a lowly 1L- if you don't get into a top Lawschool (I have a very narrow definition of top- not to be snooty but just so you don't realize you just went 250k into debt for a desperate battle royale for work) DON'T GO.
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Unless it's free. And even then think twice.
 
B

Bay Maximus

Banned
peterb0y said:
My advice as a lowly 1L- if you don't get into a top Lawschool (I have a very narrow definition of top- not to be snooty but just so you don't realize you just went 250k into debt for a desperate battle royale for work) DON'T GO.
Click to expand...

What's your definition of top? I figured if I don't get into a top 50 school I would go with plan B.
 
C

Cagey

Banned
peterb0y said:
My advice as a lowly 1L- if you don't get into a top Lawschool (I have a very narrow definition of top- not to be snooty but just so you don't realize you just went 250k into debt for a desperate battle royale for work) DON'T GO.
Click to expand...

Unless you sincerely in your heart of hearts want to become a lawyer, or you honestly don't care what you must do if it entails pulling in a biglaw salary, I wouldn't advise going to the "top" schools either.
 
Q

Quazar

Member
Georgia State University - #58 $14,770 per year
University of Georgia - #34 $17,624 per year
Emory University - #24 $45,098 per year

Is Emory really even worth the extra money per year compared to these other choices?
 
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