1 year later....still glad u went to law school?

[Mookie]

You want to talk about miserable? 

Try working for 3 years as a television journalist for 19,000/year for a monster-corporation that treats its employees like dirt.  Then you'll appreciate the chance to get your J.D. 

What's to complain about?  After all, at the very least, you could hang out your own shingle, make no money - but at least do your own thing and make your own hours.  And as for the colossal debt: nobody forced you to go to Harvard for one-gazillion dollars/semester.  There are such things as in-state public universities.

And one more thing - have a little perspective here: we all have a helluva lot to be thankful for - there are worse things than complaining about making 90,000 instead of 100,000...

[T. Durden]

i have zero regrets - this degree is a means of empowerment... i worked for 3 years after finishing UG - i came to realize during my limited time spent in the rat race that your career success, advancement, etc. isn't necessarily linked nor dependent in any functional way upon how smart you think you are (i.e. how well you perform your particular role / delegation of duties withinin the corporate scheme) but more related to how smart you have *proven* yourself to be - which means, in terms of a modern-day work force translation, that you: you better have a professional degree (and if you do, it better be from a good school). this is all that matters. this is how johnny Q moron ends up running company X. he has the degree, smart guy doesn't - johnny Q gets the job. this time last year i was playing my part in a very tidy hierarchy of subservience. 1L is finished and out of the way and i'm now i'm writing minute entries on summary judgment motions for a judge - he gives me the briefs, etc. and i decide the issue. granted, i'm getting paid zero (1L summer judicial internship position) but the power being placed in my hands is semi-scary ...

and i like it it's a step in teh right direction - last year just another automaton in a collared shirt, this year i'm deciding actual issues that actively effect people's lives ...

no - regrets - whatsoever

this time next year 2L SA position with that very handy salary of several g per week ...

yeah, i'm crying a river

[DutchessA]

No regrets...I enjoyed my first year of law school about ten times more than I enjoyed undergraduate.  Perhaps that is because I enjoyed what I was learning...

[noregrets]

[sine qua non]

I don't love or hate law school. It is simply what it is. professional education is not easy. working as a professional is not easy. I agree that attitude determines everything. Find an area of law that you love, but don't expect it to be a trip to Disney World. Try to have fun. for christ's sake, have fun with it if you can.

[NotReally]

I just finished my first year.  I am working as a summer associate in a secondary market.  The hours are much shorter than on the coasts.  Most people leave by 6 and don't come in before 8, but they still make way above the median salary for the area.  The new associates have houses and nice cars.  They all seem happy.  I think you have to decide what is important to you and seek a career in the law based on that.  I guess I am strange, but I like to read, research, and learn about new things so the study of law fits me just fine.  I also think lawyers are generally intelligent, well spoken, and interesting people to spend time with.

I don't agree

[...] there's not that difficult to figure out what is it about law that makes some (or should I say most) people hate it ..

1. Law school engenders greed and intellectual myopia.
2. Law school breaks people. It is experienced as a trauma, an assault. If law school changes people, it is rarely for the better.
3. Law leads to self-loathing, mental illness and substance abuse.
4. Law uses fear and shame as a motivating force.
5. With the help of the bar exam, the law school graduate is nothing but a licensed fraud.
6. Law is crowded and full of despair.

I disagree.  I don't think it is law school that engenders greed, but the law firms recruiting law students or the massive student debt.  Nothing about the school, career services activities excepted, has anything to do with being greedy that I have seen.  I have not been assaulted at law school, but pleasently surprised by the collegiality of the professors and other students. 
I don't think the law leads to self-loathing, mental illness or substance abuse.  I think those things come from compromising yourself.  Nothing inherently present in the practice of law causes any of those things.  I doubt lawyers who practice honest and upright law practices loath themselves.
I guess some might say that criminal law uses fear and shame for deterrence and the risk of liability creates a lot of work  for lawyers,but I think of those things not as bad but as good things

Licensed fraud?  give me a break

Law is somewhat crowded and in some this does create despair.  This may sound elitist, but 4th tier private law schools generally put many of their graduates in despairing situations where they cannot pass the bar or get a job or both, but they are still saddled with loads of debt from paying 25k+ per year in tuition. 

[supposedly-a-tier-issue]

1. Law school engenders greed and intellectual myopia.
2. Law school breaks people. It is experienced as a trauma, an assault. If law school changes people, it is rarely for the better.
3. Law leads to self-loathing, mental illness and substance abuse.
4. Law uses fear and shame as a motivating force.
5. With the help of the bar exam, the law school graduate is nothing but a licensed fraud.
6. Law is crowded and full of despair.

This may sound elitist, but 4th tier private law schools generally put many of their graduates in despairing situations where they cannot pass the bar or get a job or both, but they are still saddled with loads of debt from paying 25k+ per year in tuition.
 

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/students/index.php/topic,2385.msg28310.html#msg28310

[creditor harassment]

1. Law school engenders greed and intellectual myopia.
2. Law school breaks people. It is experienced as a trauma, an assault. If law school changes people, it is rarely for the better.
3. Law leads to self-loathing, mental illness and substance abuse.
4. Law uses fear and shame as a motivating force.
5. With the help of the bar exam, the law school graduate is nothing but a licensed fraud.
6. Law is crowded and full of despair.

This may sound elitist, but 4th tier private law schools generally put many of their graduates in despairing situations where they cannot pass the bar or get a job or both, but they are still saddled with loads of debt from paying 25k+ per year in tuition.
 

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/students/index.php/topic,2385.msg28310.html#msg28310

Good job, supposedly. Here it is another one,

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/students/index.php/topic,3243.msg23671.html#msg23671

[Budlaw]

I'd have to say that after my first year, I'm definately glad that I went to lawschool. It's the best job that I've ever had. (that's right.."job") I've been in the Marines, I've worked Construction, and I've worked as a legal assistant at a law firm. I actually like getting up and going to lawschool, wheras everything else I've done as far as work (including undergrad) I hated getting up in the morning and going to. 

I find the material extremely interesting and I like my professors and most of my classmates. I can't say that about anything else up to this point. The last time I truely enjoyed what I was doing with my life was when I was in High School (which was 10 years ago).

So for now there have been no regrets. Sure Lawschool's a lot of work, but then again so is life. At least this is enjoyable and mentally stimulating work.

So everyone else can complain about school, but when these people complain about lawschool odds are that most of them haven't really had to work for a living in a rough job. I for one am glad that I chose to do what I am doing because I know how it is to have to do something that you hate.

Just my two cents.

[mommy can i eat a gallup]

I'd have to say that after my first year, I'm definately glad that I went to lawschool. It's the best job that I've ever had. (that's right.."job") I've been in the Marines, I've worked Construction, and I've worked as a legal assistant at a law firm. I actually like getting up and going to lawschool, wheras everything else I've done as far as work (including undergrad) I hated getting up in the morning and going to. 

I find the material extremely interesting and I like my professors and most of my classmates. I can't say that about anything else up to this point. The last time I truely enjoyed what I was doing with my life was when I was in High School (which was 10 years ago).

So for now there have been no regrets. Sure Lawschool's a lot of work, but then again so is life. At least this is enjoyable and mentally stimulating work.

So everyone else can complain about school, but when these people complain about lawschool odds are that most of them haven't really had to work for a living in a rough job. I for one am glad that I chose to do what I am doing because I know how it is to have to do something that you hate.

Just my two cents.

LOL Budlaw!