Law School Peeps – The Reluctant Grownup

If any of the MILPs are reading (Mothers in the Legal Profession, a blog list to which I belong, yo) –

I’m leafing through registration materials for Fall 2010. I’m trying to decide the shape of my next two years in law school, which will include a light Fall 2010 term (coff, new baby, hack coff), possibly some summer school, and a huge interest in environmental law but a MUCH BIGGER interest in being a totally lucrative, eye-catching candidate for a great job that’s great for families and pays a decent amount and lets me possibly switch fields a bit in order to follow my much-harder-to-employ Professor of Something Weird and Unique husband.

Any tips? How important are these course choices? Because I know what I WANT to take, what I’m interested in, but at this point after having been beaten black and blue by a very scary recession, I’m terrified of coming out of law school with the equivalent of a Masters degree in Shakespeare (my other graduate degree, which I loved getting and which has advanced me exactly zero steps on the game of life, and added about $25k to my student loan debt load, oh delicious folly!)

Halp. I’m frozen in a sea of choice.

3 Comments

flurrious

April 5, 2010 at 2:18 pm

Hey, this is weird. I can comment now.

It doesn’t matter all that much what courses you take in law school because employers understand that recent graduates don’t actually know how to do anything. They’re looking for aptitude (in the form of grades and class rank) and interest, but you will learn the nuts and bolts on the job. That said, if you think you want to practice environmental law, you should at least take a course in it. But what will shape the initial stages of your career more than coursework is the summer job you take after your second year because that’s going to be the main thing on your resume in terms of experience when you start looking for for your first real job; thus you should try to get something that’s at least close to what you want to ultimately specialize in. So I guess I would advise against summer school after 2L, unless you otherwise won’t be able to finish your credits in three years. Also, and this might be difficult with a new baby, you should try for Law Review. I was one of the laziest law students in the history of ever (and had the solid B average to back that statement up), but because I was on Law Review, I could get an interview with firms who otherwise wouldn’t have looked at me.

Proto Attorney

April 5, 2010 at 2:27 pm

I would love a master’s degree in Shakespeare. Love me some Shakespeare. I have the complete works of Shakespeare app on my iPhone.

If you’re going for stuff that will make you more marketable, get out of the law school and do some externships, whatever’s available. Our school had judicial clerkships, prosecutorial internships, defense internships, a prison internship, one with the innocence project, and the legal clinic, that counted as credit. Having real experience puts you ahead of the other candidates. Especially if your state has some sort of program where 3L’s get limited practice license, you could graduate law school having done real legal work, not just “I worked at a law office and they had me do document review,” more like “I directed testimony” or “I drafted the judge’s opinions,” and that’s more impressive to an employer than “I took Secured Transactions.” Like, big deal, you’ll learn that during bar review. Also, the more internship opportunities you have, the more contacts you’ll make for jobs. It is not what you know, it is who you know, in this profession. For the 90% of us not in the top ten, or at a top ten school, we have to network desperately to get job leads. There will always be someone more qualified than you applying for that job, better grades, better school, but networking can get your resume put on the top of the pile.

Take the stuff you’re interested in and/or classes with professors you’re likely to get a good grade from. Take the skills classes, like lit skills, drafting, negotiations and ADR if they’re offered. Take the foundation courses, like Evidence, you need to build upon in other courses. If you’re trying for a certain area of law, then you should take those courses, certainly. Like if you want to do domestic relations, you probably want to take family law, etc.

If I had it to do over again, I never would have taken Tax or Business Associations or that damn Non-Profits class that killed my gpa. Pointless. I would have taken criminal trial process (criminal procedure Part 2), trusts & estates (because I do so much of that stuff now and totally don’t know what I’m doing), employment law and labor law (same reasons).

Definitely talk to your older students about their experiences, they will steer you away from the bad professors and the crappy courses. Avoid the Miss Mary Sunshines who thinks everyone’s swell. Go talk to students who have similar interests, and will give an honest evaluation. There’s always some idiot who thinks the 150 year old guy teaching Corporate Tax was fantastic and it was such a great course.

Play the new baby card whenever necessary. Occasionally pass out onto your textbook while drooling. Crying helps. It’ll ward off the professors from calling on you, because they’ll be frightened of you. That semester with the new baby was awesome, everyone left me alone, I loved it. 🙂

LC

April 13, 2010 at 11:33 am

I highly recommend taking bar courses and clinics. The bar courses will leave you a little less freaked out when you realize how much crap you have to learn for the bar. Clinics give you actual real-world experience, which can be tough to come by. And you’ll actually have a clue when you get your first job.

flurrious

April 5, 2010 at 2:18 pm

Hey, this is weird. I can comment now.

It doesn’t matter all that much what courses you take in law school because employers understand that recent graduates don’t actually know how to do anything. They’re looking for aptitude (in the form of grades and class rank) and interest, but you will learn the nuts and bolts on the job. That said, if you think you want to practice environmental law, you should at least take a course in it. But what will shape the initial stages of your career more than coursework is the summer job you take after your second year because that’s going to be the main thing on your resume in terms of experience when you start looking for for your first real job; thus you should try to get something that’s at least close to what you want to ultimately specialize in. So I guess I would advise against summer school after 2L, unless you otherwise won’t be able to finish your credits in three years. Also, and this might be difficult with a new baby, you should try for Law Review. I was one of the laziest law students in the history of ever (and had the solid B average to back that statement up), but because I was on Law Review, I could get an interview with firms who otherwise wouldn’t have looked at me.
Proto Attorney

April 5, 2010 at 2:27 pm

I would love a master’s degree in Shakespeare. Love me some Shakespeare. I have the complete works of Shakespeare app on my iPhone.

If you’re going for stuff that will make you more marketable, get out of the law school and do some externships, whatever’s available. Our school had judicial clerkships, prosecutorial internships, defense internships, a prison internship, one with the innocence project, and the legal clinic, that counted as credit. Having real experience puts you ahead of the other candidates. Especially if your state has some sort of program where 3L’s get limited practice license, you could graduate law school having done real legal work, not just “I worked at a law office and they had me do document review,” more like “I directed testimony” or “I drafted the judge’s opinions,” and that’s more impressive to an employer than “I took Secured Transactions.” Like, big deal, you’ll learn that during bar review. Also, the more internship opportunities you have, the more contacts you’ll make for jobs. It is not what you know, it is who you know, in this profession. For the 90% of us not in the top ten, or at a top ten school, we have to network desperately to get job leads. There will always be someone more qualified than you applying for that job, better grades, better school, but networking can get your resume put on the top of the pile.

Take the stuff you’re interested in and/or classes with professors you’re likely to get a good grade from. Take the skills classes, like lit skills, drafting, negotiations and ADR if they’re offered. Take the foundation courses, like Evidence, you need to build upon in other courses. If you’re trying for a certain area of law, then you should take those courses, certainly. Like if you want to do domestic relations, you probably want to take family law, etc.

If I had it to do over again, I never would have taken Tax or Business Associations or that damn Non-Profits class that killed my gpa. Pointless. I would have taken criminal trial process (criminal procedure Part 2), trusts & estates (because I do so much of that stuff now and totally don’t know what I’m doing), employment law and labor law (same reasons).

Definitely talk to your older students about their experiences, they will steer you away from the bad professors and the crappy courses. Avoid the Miss Mary Sunshines who thinks everyone’s swell. Go talk to students who have similar interests, and will give an honest evaluation. There’s always some idiot who thinks the 150 year old guy teaching Corporate Tax was fantastic and it was such a great course.

Play the new baby card whenever necessary. Occasionally pass out onto your textbook while drooling. Crying helps. It’ll ward off the professors from calling on you, because they’ll be frightened of you. That semester with the new baby was awesome, everyone left me alone, I loved it. 🙂
LC

April 13, 2010 at 11:33 am

I highly recommend taking bar courses and clinics. The bar courses will leave you a little less freaked out when you realize how much crap you have to learn for the bar. Clinics give you actual real-world experience, which can be tough to come by. And you’ll actually have a clue when you get your first job.