I'm not one of those natural-born lawyers... Do I still have a chance?

[Lindbergh]

1.  Debate and politics are completely irrelevant to law.  Seriously.

2.  Most lawyers aren't gifted, let alone "genius" level.  Just take a look around this board. 

3.  If you're not flame, you're doing fine.  And stay with the liberal arts major.  Grades are all that matter for law school. 

[thorc954]

Do what you enjoy during undergrad and do it well.  B+'s happen.  My transcript had a few on it, and I still, despite a terrible LSAT score, managed to get into a top law school.

Something I do not think a lot of people realize is that practicing law is pretty easy.  The only way the ABA can keep more people from realizing it is by making the steps you have to go through before getting there really difficult (law school/bar exam/etc).  My advice to you would be to spend a summer interning for a lawyer.  It couldnt hurt to give you a better idea of what the practice entails.  Before I made the leap and went to law school, I had one of my Assistant District Attorney friends let me follow her around for a day and get to see a little of what it was like.

Also, I am far from gifted and have managed to do well in law school and have done well during both of my internships. 

Good luck to you.

oh, and another piece of advice, lawyers/law students are generally condescending jerks.  You are going to have to learn to take things less personally or you will have a very difficult time adjusting. 

[kennedyposter]

son, you need a girlfriend.

seriously.

This is the credited response.  I'd also recommend pornography and marijuana.  Then I would really research what a lawyers day really consists of... which is copying and pasting and digging through Lexus for applicable law.  If you do corporate law (which is I'd guess why you are shooting for T-14, the big money, bottles and models) you wont see a courtroom for a LONNNNG time.

Also, get rid of that ugly liberal arts major.  I'd rather have a 3.3 in biochem or economics then a 4.0 in english and philosophy.   I mean, theres always the chance you wont go to law school...

Really? Really? I was looking at the board to see what high school kids could possibly have to say about going to law school and this is the crap I certainly expected. First of all...what in the HELL will majoring in biochem do for  you if you want to go to law school? Law school is about reading A LOT and ad comms generally don't show preference to a kid who has taken the bare minimum for writing intensives and probably has only read three books that aren't full of chemical equations (or economic formulas for that matter). Philosophy (logic) is the basis for the whole LSAT. The OP is pretty dumb for asking this question on a high school forum though. I'm probably dumb for posting on one but I hate prententious 16 year olds.

[kennedyposter]

Oh and P.S. I guarantee at least 30% of LS matriculates were poli sci majors in undergrad.

[thorc954]

Oh and P.S. I guarantee at least 30% of LS matriculates were poli sci majors in undergrad.

first, OP is already in college, so your 16 year old comments dont make any sense.

second, although most are probably poli sci majors, actually getting a difficult degree such as bio chem definitely helps when it comes to getting into law school and getting jobs.  I have a technical sort of background and that, coupled with a good gpa, made up for my terrible lsat when I applied for law schools.  Also, it helped set me apart from other candidates during both 2L and 3L OCI and enabled me to get great jobs both times (even in this crap economy). 

While law school involves writing, legal writing is not difficult.  Those who arent trained in writing are some of the best legal writers, while english majors, etc, sometimes find it difficult to write simple sentences. 

[GG]

Astarael
I have been working as an attorney for almost 10 years now and let me tell you this. Your academic background becomes less and less important over the years and all that matter are your technical skills (which you will acquire on the job) and soft skills (ie. the ability to deal with people effectively and politely, which you can also acquire if you do not already have them). There is no such thing as a "natural born lawyer" so don't let the past stop you and push hard until you have achieved what you want.
Good luck!
Giuseppe
Attorney and author of Soft Skills for Lawyers (www.chelseapublishing.com)

[LALawyer]

Dear Astarael:

You're going to kick-ass in your career girlfriend, you're clearly hard-working and have a GPA that many of the lawyers and judges I know who went to the top law schools would die for. Plus, you seem like a kind person. 

I went to a top law school, even though I did not have the best grades - they weren't nearly as good as yours. I was a business major, which has absolutely no relevance to what I'm doing now.  (I'm a type of a low level judge and hear juvenile criminal matters). I had very good work experience, and many extra-curricular activities.   Most of the past 18 years have been spent in the courtroom, but remember not all law consists of litigation.  There are transactional lawyers who advise corporations/ businesses, help make deals so they don't have to go to court!  One of my friends is an in-house lawyer for a record company;  she handled a lot of their contracts and was involved in the deal making the record company made with the artists. The point is, if you aren't the type of person who is gifted in argumentation that's okay - there are many areas of the law where arguing in court isn't necessary.   

Even if you want to be a litigator, and don't feel comfortable public speaking that's okay.  I heard that the fear of public speaking was ranked higher than death.  I think being shot was third, or was it being set on fire....Anyway, I was never a stellar public speaker, not even now, but you get better and better as you do it. 

Being a hard-worker is much more important than natural talent - you might need that if you want to be a singer or basketball player perhaps, but not in the law.

I'm not sure how getting a girlfriend, porn and mj will help you in law school.  (My own relationship suffered in law school - he was more of a source of distraction; having porn (at least kiddie porn on one's home computer) got one Orange County judge kicked off the bench; and utilizing illegal substances will preclude you from employment with the DA, or U.S. Attorney.  You could still work at the public defender's office though).

I'd like to echo thorc954's most wonderful advice: "oh, and another piece of advice, lawyers/law students are generally condescending jerks"

Good luck to you. 

[Dustine1017]

I think you have still a chance... If you really like to become a lawyer, you will do everything to become one of those popular lawyers. There's no impossible on this life. Always think positive and believe on yourself. You can do it!




________________
California Criminal Defense Attorney

[Thistle]

way to bump a 7-month old thread