California Southern University School of Law

[jonlevy]

All lawyers are not created equal and my experience is that you better be ready to start at the very bottom with a DL Degree - solo practice with very few lawyers willing to mentor till you prove yourself.  This involves taking cases others won't touch with a ten foot pole.  In California this means Social Security, Workers Comp, never ending cutody disputes, parole hearings and misdemeanors.

[cooley3L]

All lawyers are not created equal and my experience is that you better be ready to start at the very bottom with a DL Degree - solo practice with very few lawyers willing to mentor till you prove yourself.  This involves taking cases others won't touch with a ten foot pole.  In California this means Social Security, Workers Comp, never ending cutody disputes, parole hearings and misdemeanors.

so basicly the legal internships that the rest of us do while in law school.

[Maintain FL 350]

All lawyers are not created equal and my experience is that you better be ready to start at the very bottom with a DL Degree - solo practice with very few lawyers willing to mentor till you prove yourself.  This involves taking cases others won't touch with a ten foot pole.  In California this means Social Security, Workers Comp, never ending cutody disputes, parole hearings and misdemeanors.

so basicly the legal internships that the rest of us do while in law school.

Yeah, except that unlike a law school internship your ability to pay rent and buy food depends on getting paid from these cases. Not an easy task. 

[jonlevy]

Legal interns work under supervision and do some surprisingly good work but its not the same as being an attorney.  All those types of cases I mentioned do pay pretty well considering they are not all that complex.  The real issue is that you have to deal with a lot of upset people to earn your pay and not everyone is willing to do that.  Some solos do keep a loaded fire arm at hand just in case.  I've been punched, sued, threatened with death several times, and had a delusional client show up at my door with a loaded rifle.  Colleagues have been spit on and stabbed by their own clients.  I can't even remember half the stuff.

[cooley3L]

Legal interns work under supervision and do some surprisingly good work but its not the same as being an attorney.  All those types of cases I mentioned do pay pretty well considering they are not all that complex.  The real issue is that you have to deal with a lot of upset people to earn your pay and not everyone is willing to do that.  Some solos do keep a loaded fire arm at hand just in case.  I've been punched, sued, threatened with death several times, and had a delusional client show up at my door with a loaded rifle.  Colleagues have been spit on and stabbed by their own clients.  I can't even remember half the stuff.

Trust me legal interns at ABA schools get assigned those same crazy clients too. Even more than regular attorneys I suspect since most licensed attorneys get some control of who they pick.......try working for a term in a free legal aid office.........its all the fun of those crazy clients stories, plus crazy homelsess (or close to) people who expect ten tiems as much, and for free (and they have a whole lot less to lose by being stupid, and a whole lot more "street cred" to gain my flipping out violently for no reason and making sure everyone sees it).

I think we can all agree that the goal is to make good money and avoid crazy people. Even if that goal is easier to achieve some days than others.