Is law school possible at 62?

[louiebstef]

LadyJ,

CONGRATS!

Remember, we non-trad 0Ls are looking to you as an inspiration.  Please hang around and share your experiences with us.

[Duncanjp]

Congratulations, LadyJ!

[Thane Messinger]

Thank you!!! In my excitement I used poor grammar!  Make that I "passed" the bar exam.  :-)

Passing the bar exam gets you a Free Grammarian's Pass!  ["Get out of English purgatory or our names is not Big G!!!"]

Congratulations!

= :   )

[LadyJ]

Thanks everyone.  It has been a very difficult, long, painful, stressful and rewarding experience.  I started my first class of part-time law school in August 2004 and passing the bar exam in July 2010, almost six years later has been an experience I will never forget.  Getting my letter from the Supreme Court that I passed the bar exam, taking the Oath of Attorney and mailing it to the Florida Board of Bar Governors is a surreal experience.  After failing the February exam, I was exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally.  I lost confidence in myself.  I cried for a week.  I didn't know how I would find the strength to start studying all over again and take this difficult exam again.  I almost gave up.  But I didn't thank God.  I had sacrificed too much, so I gathered whatever strength I had left, gathered together more money I didn't have to reapply to take the bar exam again in July and while working full-time started studying again for July's exam.  When I received the passing letter, I broke down in tears.  Being a non-traditional law student is very difficult, stressful, painful and challenging but in the end, very rewarding.  As I reflect back on all those years now, I don't regret a moment of it.  Passing the bar and becoming an Attorney makes all that suffering I experienced well worth the pain I went through to achieve this goal.  On to bigger and better things. 

[louiebstef]

I'm doing the <WAVE> for Lady J, ESQUIRE

 

LadyJ, where are you practicing?  I am in Clearwater finishing up my 0L year,LOL

[LadyJ]

Thanks!  LOL  I'm in Fort Lauderdale.  I lived in the Tampa Bay area for a while.  Good luck in law school.  It's a lot of hard work but I learned so much.  It was never boring. 

[john4040]

Thanks!  LOL  I'm in Fort Lauderdale.  I lived in the Tampa Bay area for a while.  Good luck in law school.  It's a lot of hard work but I learned so much.  It was never boring.

Do you have a legal job lined up?  What do you plan to do with your degree?

[louiebstef]

John,

After you converse with LadyJ, I'd like to know if I can ask you a few offline questions about the clerkship experience...

[jchristin]

I deeply appreciate your concerns starting a legal career during middle age. From the sounds of a couple responders, they made you sound as if you already have one foot in the grave and the other one soon to follow. Anyone who would dare to rape me of the hope to fulfill my aspirations will never succeed. I'm in my early fifties and gave up my desire to attend law school when I married as an undergraduate in my early thirties and became the instant full-time mother of two boys, then ages 4 and 5. Once they moved on to college and a divorce followed the hope of moving forward with law school was delayed again when a drunk driver rammed into the back-end of my car, resulting with head injuries. Never thought I would do law school, all my friends tried to talk me out of it, but that 'fire' that lives with me to fulfill this desire is far too great to allow others the opportunity to steal hope away from me.

As a young girl I use to figure skate. Every weekend, a nice gray hair elderly lady (must have been no less than 75 years old) would ice skate to the middle of the rink, sit down on the ice and do the splits, lean over and touch her toes with her fingers and then gracefully pull her truck up and bend over touch the other toes. When finished, she skated around the rink with Olympic style jumps and then off the ice. As a college freshman, there was a tall, stately and elderly lady (at least 80) who moved across campus very gingerly by lifting and moving her walker a half-foot at a time to her classes. These women taught me by their own example to never stop, never give up, fulfill my desires, and to never stop, never, never, never.

As older yet new attorneys, clients will not necessarily become aware of this, at least not as aware as if we were some fresh out of law school attorney who still appears young enough to be in high school. Maturity seasoned with work experience coupled with a J.D. degree, we will have experience those younger and new attorneys lack. So, I would encourage you to move forward, to keep your eyes on the prize, remembering it is about the adventure and that the destination will take care of itself in the final analysis. Your post inspired hope, so....thank you!

[john4040]

John,

After you converse with LadyJ, I'd like to know if I can ask you a few offline questions about the clerkship experience...

Sure.  Do you want to private msg me on the board or e-mail me off of the board?