Comments on: Getting into law school

By: jeremy hunsinger

jeremy hunsinger — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

hmm, I think that before anyone goes to law school they should intern for a public defender or for the most jr. associates in a law firm. it seems to me, and i’m dating myself, that the perception of law and legal careers after the rise of “L.A. Law” and the entertainment perspective is different from the actual practice of law.

like graduate school, law school is not something that i encourage, its as good to go to architecture school instead or maybe get an m.f.a. the only difference that i see that people think you can make more money in law, which actually isn’t necessarily the case, though perhaps more lawyers become wealthier on average than poets, but i wonder if anyone has real stats on that perception.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leaving all else aside, the money is much better for lawyers than it is for most other professional graduates. The average starting salary for law graduates in 2002 was $72,308. The starting salary at large and "mega" firms is significantly higher than that. At that average, it is nearly 3 times that of a starting architect and more than first year assistant profs in most fields and at most universities or colleges. (Er, more than me, anyhow. :) Moreover, unlike the MFA (or Ph.D.), most law grads get jobs in their field. I mean it's worse than it has been in previous years--employers are no longer giving BMWs as signing bonuses--but a good student at a decent school can still get multiple offers. It used to be that the bad students at 2nd or 3rd tier schools also got multiple offers, but that's no longer the case. If anything, I have a feeling that the views of law school are less skewed than most graduate paths. Think about depictions of professors in popular media. Few of my undergraduate, or even graduate, students recognize that as an asst. prof. without large external funding and with sizable loans to repay, I am living basically from paycheck to paycheck. And I am the only one in my cohort that has a tenure-track job at a "Research I" school (so far), and one of the few that has a tenure-track job at all.

By: jeremy hunsinger

jeremy hunsinger — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m unsure about whether most law students get jobs in their fields. of course, ‘good student’, ‘decent school’ are constructs of an ideality. just how many practicing lawyers are there in the u.s. these days anyway? I know i have an aunt and a ex-uncle that were both lawyers, and now one is a librarian and the other teaches russian languages or the like. of course they may be exceptions, however, i think that like most jobs, as you rise up the ladder the ranks get thinner, but luckily the lower ranks are replenished at a very high rate.

yeah, the academic job hunt is not pretty. i’m in it now. hopefully it will work out, i think i have a few more years here if i need them. I have about 5 more years to pay off my student loans, and i have to get a newer car this month(unless i get an offer to go overseas), but financial issues and such are universal problems in the u.s. except for some of the capital elite. but I do think that in general terms encouraging someone to pursue a graduate degree in these united states is not necessarily having that persons best interests in mind…

anyway, i’ve rambled enough