<p>Is anyone who is currently in Law school happy with their decision to attend? Why or why not? Being a lawyer seems to be an unhappy career choice for many and i am considering this.</p>
<p>Well, the people who like law school and those who like practicing law are often different creatures. Yes, for many or most, it is an unhappy career choice; as someone told me recently, he's never met anyone who left law and was unhappy with the decision. There are also so many ways to practice law that you should really consider what you want to do. Very few people are happy in big firms; you are being paid to be utterly, completely miserable. </p>
<p>I've met many people who are happy with their decision to go to law school. Most of them have the attitude, though, "Well, what else would I have done with my [fill in the blank] degree?" </p>
<p>Law school can be a great experience - there's actually a lot that I LOVED, I mean absolutely LOVED, about it. I spend last semester swamped - tough classes with the best professors (Kingsfield types), journal, independent study, research for a prof, moot court. My big complaint was that I didn't have enough time to do everything that I wanted to do. I thoroughly enjoyed both of my summer jobs, which were in widely different areas (legal department of a corporation & gov't). </p>
<p>Nevetheless, I think that it's incredibly telling that many of the law firm associates that I meet do not understand me. Most of them have bluntly stated that I shouldn't be in law school because I had a lucrative, interesting job before I went. I can really understand personally not liking law school - there's a lot to not like - or to be disillusioned with the profession - but to not even understand why anyone would go aside from the desire to make money is a sad statement about the profession.</p>
<p>(Note that some of this is coastal. I've noticed - with a lot of sadness, because it's always going to be home to me - that East Coast people are a lot more stuffy and uptight about this. I also think that they make the practice of law a lot more miserable than it has to be.) </p>
<p>Consider as well where you want to go to law school. There are some with friendly campuses and a focus on the practice of law as an ethical and honourable profession; there are many schools with cutthroat students and an amoral approach to the legal profession.</p>
<p>Email or PM if you would like.</p>
<p>I loved law school and a truly enjoy being a practicing lawyer. There are plenty of people who feel this way. Unfortunately, though, I think that there are a lot of very disillusioned lawyers out there -- a mountain of student loan debt and working 80+ hour weeks for several years can do that to you. </p>
<p>I think that it is incredibly important to go into the practice of law with your eyes open. Know what it means to have well over $100,000 of student loan debt (I had payments of just under $1500/month due after my loans were consolidated). Know what effect on your life working 80+ hour work weeks will have on you. Really think it through. Keep in mind that jobs with the very noble goals of social change, making the world a better place, etc. may not be as clear cut or as attainable as you may think they are. Remember, too, that in order to have some of the options available to you that many take for granted means that you will have a much better chance coming out of a T14 law school with solid grades and activities (law review, moot court, etc.) at that law school. You need to be realistic about law school and your life/work after law school.</p>
<p>There are several currently and formerly practicing lawyers who visit this forum often. Take advantage and ask the questions that matter.</p>
<p>unhappiness with choosing law as a career is often something that doesn't arise until several years after law school graduation when you look around and see where you are and where you are likely to be and decide that its not just a matter of putting in the few years to reach a goal, but rather a matter of not liking the goals that are attainable for you in the practice of law. for a long while, i thought i just had to put in my time and find the "right" job, before i realized there the problems i had with the law were not going to go away -- and i know several other former lawyers who went through a similar process.</p>
<p>those who decide they are unhappy in law school are the lucky ones -- they can bail out before they incur all that debt and get stuck working in job they don't like.</p>
<p>the advice to really understand what it is you are getting yourself into is probably the best way to decide whether you realistically think you will be happy with a legal career. the key question you need to ask yourself is WHY are you considering being a lawyer -- and then consider whether those reasons will really be realized by becoming one.</p>
<p>i'll just also add - i enjoyed law school -- found it very challenging and interesting. but the practice of law is nothing like the study of law.</p>
<p>"the advice to really understand what it is you are getting yourself into"</p>
<p>what are you getting yourself into? nothing made me rethink my decision to go to law school like this forum</p>
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