<p>Recently, I have started considered attending law school for a multitude of reasons, mainly the weight my school has with law school admissions (the number of graduates I've seen going to Harvard law is ridiculous) and the fact that I want a writing-based day job that won't bore me to to tears. Mainly, I am a writer who is looking for a means of supporting herself that is intellectually stimulating, a source of inspiration for new material, and a means of giving her current education some purpose. Though I loathe my current institution, I cannot deny that it has strong pull in a law admissions office, and I'd like to do something that would make it a bit more satisfying.
Additionally, I've sampled two other areas in which writers support themselves, PR and teaching. PR wasn't very challenging and teaching did not satisfy me as much as I thought it would. It occurred to me to try law after thinking about its basis in writing, my 12-year love affair with United States history (and lifelong love of history, period), and one of my favorite high school projects, an in-depth study of constitutional trials. Should I go into law, I know for a fact that I would want to be a litigator. Specialization is something I would decide closer to, since I'm fascinated by multiple areas.
I fear that my rationale for considering a career as a lawyer is not the correct one, and I want to get the opinions of people who are going through the process. Is it worth becoming a lawyer if my main purpose is to find an intellectual job that will pay the bills and let me write stories? Or should my focus be practicing law alone?</p>
<p>Legal writing is NOT what I would call interesting writing. It is dry and boring to read. It you want to be a writer, write plays, tv shows, books,but don’t go into law.</p>
<p>Novelnova, you also hit me as someone who would be a good academic. If you like history that much, maybe getting a PHD in it would be more fullfilling. Spending 180K to go to law school because you think you will like legal writing would appear to be a big mistake.</p>
<p>I actually think your reason is good minus the story writing part. Yes you will write a lot, a lot of it might be intellectual, but a lot of what you will write might be the opposite of what appears to interest you.</p>
<p>You could be paid to write by being a great researcher. Pursue a phd program in something that interests you and something that you’re great at. The phd program may end up being subsidized and thus “free” vs you having to pay or take out loans for law school.</p>
<p>There is another reason I just thought of to attend law school. Taxguy, you’re right about writing plays, novels, and TV shows if you want to be a writer. I’ve written several books (and am working on another) and have been turning over a TV series idea for the past few years. There’s no question I want to write, which is why I’ve been intense about it since I was a teenager. However, a career in law may come in handy while conducting the agent and publisher search too. Would another good reason to pursue law be having a leg up while reading contracts and making sure that I do not get scammed or shortchanged in a book deal?</p>
<p>Trust me on this, NovelNova, you will not learn enough in law school about dealing with agents and negotiating book deals. You might learn something, however, about negotiations. Law school is about passing the bar exam with a few other courses thrown in. You generally don’t learn job specific skills there. Either way, I can assure you that it is MUCH< MUCH, cheaper and much better to hire a professional to read over contracts than to go to law school.</p>
<p>Just as an aside, I have written two books and am working on my third. The cost for hiring a professional who deals with literary contracts might be $2,000. If you do this a few times, you will get as knowledable as they and won’t waste 180K on law school ,where they won’t teach you about specfic book contracts anyway.</p>
<p>These do not seem like good reasons to go to law school. Much of legal writing would win an award in the “boring one to tears” category. You could learn as much about the practical side of agency law and contract writing by doing a thorough Google search and reading a couple of books. Law school really doesn’t teach you to do anything practical. Go to law school for one reason - to practice law - that’s it. </p>
<p>Get a job you like and freelance the writing part.</p>
<p>Based on OP’s post history it looks like she attends either a top 30 USN university or LAC as a creative writing major. Those who attend a top uni or LAC often did and can do extremely well on standardized tests. If many alums from OP’s school have gone onto stats-driven HLS, it likely has more to do with high LSAT scores than anything else. </p>
<p>Creative writing is as far as you can get from legal writing. Both are kinds of writing. The similarities end there. </p>
<p>In addition, it’s horrible advice to say to go into academia/pursue a history PhD just because one “loves history” and especially when OP has emphasized she does not like to teach. The job market for humanities PhDs (esp in history or English) is terrible. If someone goes into academia for history they better look forward to teaching lots of undergrads, which OP has already emphasized she does not want to do. Sure, maybe getting funded for a PhD program sounds much better than having to pay for law school, but it’s a commitment of several years and not a path you should choose just because you don’t know what else to do. </p>
<p>A suggestion: journalism. Not sure if that’s the same as PR, but someone who enjoys writing for its own sake would likely enjoy being a journalist more than being a lawyer.</p>
<p>What school do you go to? There is no such thing as a school with a “strong law school admissions” pull. There just must be a number of grads who happen to have Harvard Law numbers. Unless you have the GPA and LSAT to compete, your “institution” is meaningless.</p>
<p>High paying legal jobs require a significant number of hours on the job. If your passion is writing, a legal career would be in conflict with that pursuit. Now if you decide you’d like to give up writing for a legal career, that’s another question completely.</p>
<p>I disagree. There are schools–think Williams–which do extraordinarily well in the law school admissions game.</p>
<p>But going to law school because you happen to attend a LAC or other school that does well in the LS admissions game is a really, really dumb idea. Would you suddenly decide to become a doctor because your college does well in med school admissions? Would you decide to become an actor because the “alumni network” for actors is strong?</p>
<p>Of course, but then Williams – and other highly selective schools – screens for excellent test-takers (using SAT/ACT for admissions), so their grads are able to score well on the LSAT.</p>
<p>My husband has been a lawyer for 30 years. He loves what he does. He didn’t go to a top school. He got a masters. LLM in taxation. Never practiced it but had the knowledge. Our daughter is now a freshman in business school and we hope going to law school. Just another opinion to add here.</p>
<p>Maybe if the legal market wasn’t so saturated these days… but honestly, probably not even then. It’s kind of like deciding to become a dentist to have something to do while you work on your singing career. Writing is your passion and it should come first; throwing in a time- and money-sink like law school won’t really help.</p>
<p>Novelnova – would you find the right “mix” by being a literary agent or lawyer at a publishing house? There is nothing wrong with mixing a law degree with a creative career. Maybe that would meet your needs.</p>
<p>Have you had any exposure or internships at places where people write for a living? Maybe this would open up some ideas.</p>
<p>It’s so easy when one’s interests and career goals fit into a nice neat graduate school box (i.e., I want to practice law therefore I should apply to law school). It’s much harder when you try to fit who you are and what you like to do into the pre-set box.</p>