For the older students, say 28+

[What are you planning to do with your JD?]

What are you planning to do with your JD?

Big Law firm

 28 (15.9%)

Mid size firm

 30 (17%)

Small Firm

 23 (13.1%)

Govt

 27 (15.3%)

In House Counsel

 30 (17%)

Acadamia

 14 (8%)

Other

 24 (13.6%)

Total Members Voted: 77

[->Soon]

what are your plans?

i should end up with my JD by 38, and i just dont see me in a Big Law firm...

lemme know if you need additional options added

[Jolie Was Here]

I'm fairly sure that the long-term goal is academia.  Finances may compel me to do a few biglaw years (aka I owe a metric assload in student loans!!)  That doesn't bother me much, since I've already had a career where I had to work biglaw intensity and biglaw hours for not-biglaw money.  Besides, I think a big firm can be excellent training grounds. 

[->Soon]

from everything ive been reading about biglaw, the only upsides are the $$$ and the potential for nookie.

and id rather make less $$$ if it was more reasonable hours.

[sck]

My ideal world is government or in-house. But I'm happy with pretty much everything but BigLaw. We want to have kids some day and I'll be 37 when I get out....

[queencruella]

I have a master's in education and would really do something related to education, but I don't really know how easy that is to break into because I don't want to teach. I will probably be satisfied working anywhere outside of biglaw or criminal law.

[slacker]

I'd like to be in a mid-sized firm. I have loans to support, and want to get rid of those as soon as possible without killing myself. As someone who's entering 3L without having had a biglaw summer associateship, biglaw is not realistic for several reasons, even if I'd been interested. I'm also interested in in-house, but that's not a common "just graduated" option.

[check01]

I chose the cheap school specifically so I wouldn't need to do Biglaw to pay off my loans. I wanted to go into academia, but after learning more about the process I decided I just couldn't put my family through it.  My dream job now is working for the AG doing consumer protection.

[ADL]

I'm not sure yet.  I'm really interested in criminal law, I hear that it's never gets dull but the money isn't great b/c most of the people you rep don't have the money to pay.  I wouldn't even mind being a public defender, but again, the money isn't good.  It's not like i'm going to law school just to make a sh*tload of money, but i have to do something that will allow me to pay my loans.  I'll be 40 when i'm done & i don't want to be worried about paying back loans well into my 50's.

[Stacie]

I'm not sure...I'm interested in elder law, which in this area generally means small firm, but you never know.

[MrSmittie]

I hope to strike out on my own. I may work for a small-mid firm or perhaps a DA or PD, but my ultimate goal is to have my own gig. I'd love to meet a few other non-trads in school that are interested in doing something similar.