<p>"In any event, to the extent you can say you know me through this board, you now know one lawyer who doesn't think all lawyers are horrible people."</p>
<p>Well, I am very glad, because my d is considering law school, and I would certainly like to think she would have some colleagues she would enjoy! </p>
<p>Keep in mind that we are in a major metro area where it is all about making partner in a big firm. It is cutthroat, not because of the intrinsic nature of the work, but because of the enormous ambition that pervades that 80-hour workweek. </p>
<p>My d seems to think that starting out on that track would be a good way to meet very bright people, get a credential, and pay off loans, but she is very interested in alternative paths...I think her biggest concern -- and ours -- would be that people seem to get sucked into that life, no matter how well-intended they start out.</p>
<p>"I think her biggest concern -- and ours -- would be that people seem to get sucked into that life, no matter how well-intended they start out"</p>
<p>Amen to that - I knew plenty of people who started out at firms with the intention of working there a few years - but once they got used to the lifestyle and paycheck, it became really hard to make the decision to move on. Not to mention the emotional price to be paid by saying that you reject what all around you are claiming is the appropriate measure of success.</p>
<p>I was lucky - we never adopted a lifestyle that depended on my lawyer income - and I had a husband whose own career allowed me to make the career decisions I wanted to.</p>
<p>This is a fantastic thread to digest this early in my game.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if anyone knows of types of practice besides private firm or in-house that has proved fulfilling. I'm at least a year away from actually entering school and am weighing my concentration options. (I'm chiefly interested in international and humanitarian law - and no, I don't know exactly what that means just yet - and in an ideal world, I'd like to eventually work in diplomatic exchange.)</p>
<p>I keep hearing about limitless options but there are no road maps, are there?</p>
<p>Another question for you practicing attorneys - if one is not exactly absorbed with having the Ivy League stamp on one's degree and has a greater interest in learning among bright people who can help you later in your career (though not necessarily to a bigger paycheck), what should be one's focus in choosing a school?</p>
<p>It would be truly lovely to get into Cornell or Duke - but quite frankly, if it means that I'm among people from such upper echelons that I have nothing in common with them or that people are so absorbed with beating everyone out that I don't get much beyond all-consuming stress from my education, I don't want to go there.</p>