Anyone here with a Law Degree?

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Reverend JC

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Heres the scoop. I am 30, about to get my ass back to school to finish my bach degree in Business admin. My grades were good, and i imagine will remain good for the year or so of school I have left.

My question is for the lawyers among us.

i am thinking about trying to get into law school once the bach degree is finished.
Lawyers out there:

Do you enjoy your jobs?
What was school like?
Is school from sun up to sun down (like my bros dental school)?
Is the money made worth the student loans i would have to take to maintain the lifestyle my family is in right now?


Those are a few of my intial questions. I am not a freedom fighter, that is not what draws me to that profession. Estate planning sounds interesting, and i am certainly interested in contract law due to some crap my old man has gone thru in his life as a fleet vehicle salesman and the compaines he has worked for constantly changing what they think he should get paid.


Any insight into your profession and what it takes to get there would be appreciated!

thanks

Rev
 
Well, from your user title I'd say it's a good fit. :D

Just kidding, I always thought I'd make a good laywer too. I know my kids certainly would. They can justify anything with an accompanying arguement.

The thing I'm wondering about your American system, can you actually GET loans sufficient to maintain your standard of living? Here in Canada we get less than it actually takes to live. You have to make up the difference with work, family, etc.

Good luck if that's the way you're going to go. I'll be watching your thread with interest.
 
Fingers said:
The thing I'm wondering about your American system, can you actually GET loans sufficient to maintain your standard of living? Here in Canada we get less than it actually takes to live. You have to make up the difference with work, family, etc.

The answer is: not really. It's certainly possible to work hard and get through school on loans, limited grants and money you can cook up during the summer months but it's not really practical for most people to just be a full time student as your sole occupation without some sort of external support system (family sponsorship/assistance).

And by all accounts, acquistion of loadns and grants is much harder these days than 20 years ago. We're just not funding 2ndary education the way we used to.
 
I know my bro was able to take up to 45k a year in loans to cover the cost of living. His school was all paid for (really smart kid) but he ended up with a ton of loans that he used for the cost of living. I suppose I will cross that bridge when i get there.
 
I work in a law office, but I don't want to be a lawyer, so I am trying to get my ass into business school to get an MBA. That has little bearing on this post except for this, if you are finishing up your bachelor's in business admin, it is kind of a natural flow to continue with an MBA, and a lot of schools offer the option of nailing an MBA and a JD at the same time. provided you can handle that kind of workload, and are ambitious, I think that would be good for you because that way if you get into the law and decide you hate it (this happens a lot, lawyering is a tough career, and it definitely takes a certain personality), you are not stuck, you can use both the business degree, and to some extent the law degree, in other fields. There are some guys here that only have law degrees, and they hate it, but they can't switch careers because they can't put their degrees to use in other industries.
 
not a lawyer so I can't give you a ton of insight but as far as the interest in contracts goes--my dad has a law degree but has never been a lawyer, he worked for a lot of years in the aerospace industry doing contracts management and it seems like contracts management is a fairly big thing nowadays in a lot of of industries.
 
Most of my family members are attorneys. When I said I wanted to go to law school they all had the same reaction, "DON'T!!!" They like what they do for the most part but you can make the same amount of money in business without having to deal with law school and all the debt that comes with it.

My brother had about 200k in loans by the time he graduated law school, he found a law firm that made the loan payments for him but the hours were unbearable and he had to do just as much sales work as legal work. He quit that place and now works as an assistant attorney general for the state, less pay(and the loan payments are back) but he's doing what he went to school for(contract and anti-trust litigation), he works fewer hours and if it even smells like a holiday he gets it off

I guess you need to ask yourself why you want to be an attorney. You said that you're not looking to save the world, so if it's for the money, there are easier ways.

And, don't forget, you have to take the BAR exam... which has nothing to do with drinking at the bar:(
 
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