2school

You better think twice

So you are out of school, or about to graduate, and it suddenly dawns on you: I have no real skills!; So you take what seems like the path of least resistance: you take the LSAT and apply to Law School. And by the way, for some reason, it is important for you to be rich." If it wasn't you probably wouldn't be thinking of law school.

Of course, some people really should be lawyers: these are the people who want to be politicians, judges, prosecutors, and litigators. They were born to do it. But many enter law school who are not sure they really want to be a lawyer, they just want some marketable skills. Don't do this!

Because here is the second big lie: "Don't worry about it -- you don't have to practice law. Lots of successful people are lawyers who don't practice law. It's a really useful skill no matter what you do".

It is true that there a lot of lawyers that don't practice law. Here's why: they couldn't stand it any longer. Lots of people know that being a lawyer is a grind. But what people don't tell you is: Law School is a trap, and you actually won't get any truly useful skills until you actually practicing.

Law School purports to teach you two basic things. The first is a lot of case law and precedent that has no relevance to the actual practice of law. You will learn absolutely nothing about how to negotiate a contract in Contracts, and very little about to read a real estate lease in Property. Instead you will learn a lot of mind numbing facts and law that you will likely forget. You are somehow supposed to remember the law and forget the facts, but long term memory doesn't work that way...it tends to be the facts that the brain remembers: it is far easy to remember the exploding packages on the train in Palsgraff, than the legal principles of causation. So in fact you will lose almost all of it, and only remember bits and pieces. Law school is literally like trying to drink from a fire hose. This is contrary, say, to Medical School where at least the facts and skills you learn are pretty important, and you graduate with some meaningful skills.

Source: Andrew Boer