Advice needed, especially from Lawyers like Greybeard

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I'm a hs senior right now and next year I will be at Duke. My dillemma is whether I should try to apply to law school. Yes, I know that law school is in the FAR distant future right now but I'm still curious.</p>

<p>People have always told me that I should do law. Except for my father who is a lawyer.I like to debate (a LOT, I've often stayed up all night debating with random people). I also like poli sci, I am a highly partisan liberal and a card carrying ACLU member. When I am a member of a commitee or legislature or some other political body I like using Roberts Rules of Order to my advantage.</p>

<p>My favorite is when I managed to overrule the chair's decision by threatening to call for a motion to have every single bill on the consent calendar read by the clerk before a vote. I also caused somewhat of a "constitutional crisis" at the California Dem convention because I sponsored a motion to suspend the rules and allow for new nominations. In this way I was able to convince someone to take on the "establishment" candidate. Stumping parliamentarians is a favored hobby.</p>

<p>So, as you can tell, I LOVE this sort of stuff.</p>

<p>But, I also want a career in medicine and eventually politics. I know that in the end I'll be doing politics but I don't know whether I'll do the Bill Frist route or like most other congressman and senators who have law degrees. But a law degree is not necessary, heck Newt Gingrich was a history prof.</p>

<p>My dad's main assertion is that being a doctor offers job security which a lawyer does not have.</p>

<p>I'm split right now.</p>

<p>I like medicine and taking care of patients but I think I would also like pleading my case in front of a judge and/or jury. The only thing I cannot stand is sitting in an office and doing meaningless paperwork. In other words, if I'm going to be an attorney, I'll be a trial attorney.</p>

<p>Or I may decide to do in my opinion the ultimate trifecta
MBA, JD, MD</p>

<p>Any advice?</p>

2

<p>Yes, enjoy Duke and don't over-think this before you have even had your freshmen year under your belt.</p>

3

<p>Your dilemma is a common one for someone about to start college. Most make a career decision over the course of four years in college (typically by the end of the first or second year of college) as they take note of which subjects in school really interest them. </p>

<p>There were a couple of M.D.'s in my law school class; since then I've met a couple of other physicians who went on to be lawyers. Only once have I met a lawyer who returned to school to get an M.D. The J.D.-M.B.A. option is fairly common; you can get both degrees in a four-year program. (This usually means taking the brutal first year of law school followed by the tough first year of business school, and then taking a heavier-than-usual load of courses the next two years. Few courses count toward both degrees.)</p>

<p>I read once that a sizable majority of those who receive both an M.D. and a J.D. practice law rather than medicine. My impression is that the typical scenario is that a young physician has an epiphany, and realizes that he or she entered the profession for the wrong reasons (parental pressure, money, or a quest for the status physicians enjoy).</p>

<p>Going to law school after medical school, or medical school after law school, is usually seen as a decision to abandon a profession. Your professional training doesn't end for either profession with the conferral of a degree. Physicians enter residencies after medical school, typically hoping to become board-certified specialists. This essentially consists of becoming a low-paid apprentice. It's a long, expensive row to hoe under any circumstances, but entering it with the expectation of leaving the profession right away strikes me as misguided.</p>

<p>(Law students typically hope to become associates at big law firms, which essentially consists of becoming highly paid apprentices.)</p>

<p>Most business schools want you to have some full-time work experience before you enter, but even if you were admitted without that, pursuing all three degrees would probably keep you in school until your thirtieth birthday, and well beyond that if you want board certification in a medical specialty. At that point, it's more likely you'd be viewed as an academic dilettante who had spent half a million dollars preparing for three careers without becoming established in any of them, than as the winner of an academic trifecta. Assuming you would want to ply one of your trades for a few years before entering politics, you'd be getting a late start on that additional career.</p>

<p>For many years, I divided my time and energy between my legal career and a parallel career as a musician. (I peaked as an opening act for has-beens). I have no regrets with respect to the choices I made, but can assure you that the decision not to commit to a single path early in one's career does not come without cost.</p>

4

<p>You'll hate this advice, but here goes:</p>

<p>There are other professions in the world besides doctor, lawyer, and business/investment banking. There are other highly paid, intellectually-satisfying professions. </p>

<p>Don't think that "liking to debate" will translate well to the practice of law. Most lawyers don't debate anything - and litigators spend most of their time outside of court. </p>

<p>While a law degree is not necessary for politics, IMO, I think that politicians (Congressmen & Senators) should have one. Besides, things change. We are all looking at people on Capitol Hill who went to school in the 60s and 70s. A college degree and advanced degrees were less common back then. I would not recommend looking to people a generation or two older than yourself for educational models - too much has changed.</p>

<p>The only one of those degrees which I would recommend (with hesitation) about doing is an MBA. You can get the degree without being utterly certain of your career path. I don't think (other opinions welcome!) that business school locks you into a profession the same way that law school and med school do. Unless someone else pays for it, a JD or a MD are expensive degrees, and you'll end up having to be a lawyer or doctor. So - don't go in half-heartedly. </p>

<p>Med school is the only one of the three that has requirements (as in actual courses you have to take before entering). I would not say that medicine is a stable profession, though. Med school costs a fortune, and you don't start making a real salary until you are in your 30s. After that, malpractice insurance (at least now) will eat up most of your earnings, unless you go into a specialty with low premiums (the ROAD to happiness is radiology, opthamology, anaesthesiology, and dermatology). The hours are long, hospitals are losing money, and starting a practice of your own is expensive and time-consuming.</p>

5

<p>An additional note - trial lawyers generally spend considerably more time in the office drafting paperwork than they spend trying cases in the courtroom. The "discovery" part of litigation is extremely time-consuming, and much of it involves paperwork (e.g. preparing written responses to interrogatories, which detailed requests for information about a claim or defense to a claim, drafting responses to requests for admission).</p>