LOR NIGHTMARE

[swifty]

Okay, my attorney recommender finally got back to me, and asked me what I would like to see on the LOR.(sigh)  I told him he should know more about it than me.  I had read the Montauk chapter, on LOR's and PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, but it appears LOR's are used to show why you would be an ideal candidate for their law school,NOT WHY I WOULD BE A GREAT LAWYER!  He did say he would write it, (which is good) but he doesn't care about my resume, and doesn't care about my grades because he has no idea how good a student I am.  True.  But, he asked me to send him an outline illustrating why I would be a great attorney, not a great candidate for law school.  He actully has requested that I write him a short autobiography, and in his words "Tell me what qualities you have that would make for a "good" attorney, and the importance of these qualifications."  *&^%.  That's his job.  How in the hell do I know if I am going to be a great attorney?  Can any of you say that?  If so, you are one up on me!   

IF any of you can come up with some of your ideas as to why you think you would be a great attorney, please share.  I will gladly steal them if applicable.  I mentioned ethics and integrity and he said that is what he wants to see more of.  Please help if you can.  I'm not the only one who is going to run in this problem, and I can't tell him I will become a great attorney because I know I can make a cop wet himslef on the stand as I question him/her.  (although i am still tempted)

I would appreciate any advice, you guys/gals have all been great, and I need some help.

Thanks in advance,

The swift one

P.S.  While writing my message it just occurred to me that this anal attorney is not such a bad thing, he seems to be placing his perfectionist attributes to make sure he does a great job.  That's pretty cool, at least Montauk says so. 

[lime]

Ethics and integrity are a good start. Add work ethic and intellectual curiosity, and you have all of the right reasons. Demonstrate all of these traits with a couple of stories -- preferably either ones that involve your work interactions with him, or ones that highlight big parts of your resume -- and you've hit a grand slam.

As for this:

I had read the Montauk chapter, on LOR's and PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, but it appears LOR's are used to show why you would be an ideal candidate for their law school,NOT WHY I WOULD BE A GREAT LAWYER! 

Depends on who the recommender is. In my opinion, the best LORs speculate little, and attest a lot. LORs are evidence, and the adcomm weighs (or I guess speculates on) the evidence. That's why a great LOR from a past employer/colleague will talk a lot of work ethic, on-the-job problem solving, curiosity, team-building/player qualities, etc. Therefore, your recommender is doing you a huge favor by talking about only the stuff he knows. Similarly, that's why a great LOR from a past professor will spend a lot of time talking about your academic ability, and not much time on your professor's belief that you will be a good lawyer. I think that was Montauk's point; I'm thinking he's talking about recommenders from academia, who are qualified to talk about your academic abilities.

[swifty]

Ethics and integrity are a good start. Add work ethic and intellectual curiosity, and you have all of the right reasons. Demonstrate all of these traits with a couple of stories -- preferably either ones that involve your work interactions with him, or ones that highlight big parts of your resume -- and you've hit a grand slam.

As for this:

I had read the Montauk chapter, on LOR's and PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, but it appears LOR's are used to show why you would be an ideal candidate for their law school,NOT WHY I WOULD BE A GREAT LAWYER! 

Depends on who the recommender is. In my opinion, the best LORs speculate little, and attest a lot. LORs are evidence, and the adcomm weighs (or I guess speculates on) the evidence. That's why a great LOR from a past employer/colleague will talk a lot of work ethic, on-the-job problem solving, curiosity, team-building/player qualities, etc. Therefore, your recommender is doing you a huge favor by talking about only the stuff he knows. Similarly, that's why a great LOR from a past professor will spend a lot of time talking about your academic ability, and not much time on your professor's belief that you will be a good lawyer. I think that was Montauk's point; I'm thinking he's talking about recommenders from academia, who are qualified to talk about your academic abilities.

Interesting on Montauk.  He never really did talk about lawyer Rec's, so yeah, what you say makes perfect sense. 

Care to share what qualifications you have that will make you a great attorney?  Trust me, I know, it's a hard question.

[casino]

yo swifty, i just got that montauk book today.  did you see the length of that one recommendation that he qualifies as stellar??  that *&^% would have been like six pages long, double-spaced.  i highly doubt more than a handful of all applicants have recs like that.

casino

[lime]

Interesting on Montauk.  He never really did talk about lawyer Rec's, so yeah, what you say makes perfect sense. 

Care to share what qualifications you have that will make you a great attorney?  Trust me, I know, it's a hard question.

Ethics, integrity, work ethic, intellectual curiosity. Having those qualities makes you competent. Having them to a high degree might make you "great." Oh, and being able to hang with fine purveyors of bull...

[swifty]

yo swifty, i just got that montauk book today.  did you see the length of that one recommendation that he qualifies as stellar??  that *&^% would have been like six pages long, double-spaced.  i highly doubt more than a handful of all applicants have recs like that.

casino

I noticed it was lengthy, but also noticed it was from a professor, so I didn't read the whole thing.  But I agree with you, too long IMHO.  He also mentioned somethng about different schools wanting different questions addressed in an LOR.  I need to look further into that part. Never heard of that before, and I'm not having a recommendor write more than one for each school I apply to! 

[swifty]

Interesting on Montauk.  He never really did talk about lawyer Rec's, so yeah, what you say makes perfect sense. 

Care to share what qualifications you have that will make you a great attorney?  Trust me, I know, it's a hard question.

Ethics, integrity, work ethic, intellectual curiosity. Having those qualities makes you competent. Having them to a high degree might make you "great." Oh, and being able to hang with fine purveyors of bull...

I think I mislead people.  I never worked for this attorney.  He is an older guy (yeah even older than me) who handled a tenant landlord dispute for me.  Once that process got in motion, it dragged on for a couple years and we have been friends for over 10 years now.  However, he does know about my 16 hour days, 7 days a week work effort when self wmployed.  I will remind him of that. 

[inthesun]

Did you break down and buy Montauk, Swifty?  Mine is still MIA and I haven't made it to the book store.

[swifty]

Did you break down and buy Montauk, Swifty?  Mine is still MIA and I haven't made it to the book store.

Si, Senorita.  I pm'd you. 

[inthesun]

Oh, duh, I read that, but thought you said you were going to buy it.  My bad.