My law school endeavor has been like this. I chose to go to law school in a state in which I thought I would want to practice but quickly realized that I was better off in my home town. I was one of the lucky ones to actually get to transfer to my home town law school. Although I went to law school to do patent law, at this point, I probably wont be practicing in that area. A combination of factors including poor economy, and personal interests have led me on a different course into litigation work. I entered law school with hopes of being that top 10% and law review guy etc. For the first few years of law school I felt like a complete failure because I missed grading on to the journals by .05 GPA and I missed the mark as far as writing on. I am now in the top 15-20% but early on I was a little bit lower. For a while it felt like I was failing at everything I tried to do including finding a good internship etc. But I did a little soul searching after first year and decided that I only wanted the big firm job because of the guaranteed money it offered and the prestige factor. I really never considered whether I would actually be happy in the job itself. Now that I have heard stories of other students who have worked in biglaw and been a little closer to people that experienced the life, I now realize that I would not be happy in such an environment. I got a job with a small firm and realized that you can still make good money in a small firm. The lawyer I work for right now started his own firm a few months after he graduated. Within 2-3 years he had his first $1,000,000 settlement check (he copied and framed it lol). Just last year, he settled a case and netted himself over $800,000 in fees. These are just two cases, among many other cases. After experiencing this, I now plan to one day open my own firm doing litigation.
So knowing what I know now I would not have gone to engineering school and would have probably picked another UG major and applied to law school straight out of UG. I would have started studying for the LSAT while I was in college for maybe the last two years. Then I would take the high LSAT and get a scholarship to a good school.
In my case, I really had not planned on going to law school until a year before I applied. I spent that year working full time and studying for the LSAT. I had already been working as an engineer for 1.5 years then decided to go to law school for patent. Then a year later I applied. So really the only thing I can think of that I am glad I did before law school was taking an LSAT prep course. The prep course really helped me in guiding me on what to do for the test. Other than that, there is really not much you can do to prepare for law school short of taking an UG major like philosophy that includes a lot of writing and debating etc. Coming from an engineering background, first year of law school I had no idea what an outline was and what you were suppose to put in them. I had to get one from another student and see what they had done to see how to do one.
I forget the name, but the law school admission counselor that wrote a book on how to get admitted to law school, was a good purchase that I think helped a ton in getting the acceptances I did. Trying to study for classes before you get to law school is not going to help. The book, getting to maybe, is a good read but I dont feel that it helped me any on my exams.
You should really think about going to law school part time as well. I went part time and was able to work for law firms the entire time. I will graduate with 2.5 years of experience now. Because I worked for smaller firms I was entrusted with doing actual legal work. At this point I have drafted petitions, summary judgment motions, discovery, motions to appoint auditor, motion for entry upon land, motion to compel, motion for new trial, motion to substitute counsel, motion for sanctions, motion to remove lien, bill of exceptions, notice of appeals, two appellate briefs, TONS of legal research, witnessed multiple hearings and trials, talked with clients, drafted subpoenas, and the list goes on and on... I am miles ahead of most law school graduates in terms of experience. I feel like I am paying my dues right now while im in school instead of paying my dues after I graduate. I can now graduate and hit the ground running. I feel confident enough to open my own firm as soon as a graduate and will do so if I need to.
I say all of this so others can start to think about this stuff before they go to law school. That way they can mold their experience in law school to what will make them truly the happiest. If you guys have any other questions then let me know i'm happy to help. Wish I had been told all of this before I started myself.
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