The Girl's Guide to Law School
Get In, Get Through, Stay You
As the school year winds down, a whispered question is floating in on the wind: “Should I drop out of law school?”
It’s coming from a few different directions:
If this is a question you’re debating (even secretly), here are my thoughts.
If you haven’t heard by now, the new U.S. News law school rankings have arrived, like a steaming turd on the front doorstep of certain law schools. Why? Because U.S. News incorporated more granular job data into the rankings, and — well — the picture’s not pretty.
I get a lot of emails from people who might want to be lawyers, asking if it’s the right move, and from current law students, asking whether they should continue. Today, I’ve called in a career expert, Lainee Beigel of Career Esquire, to offer her counsel.
Take it away!
Many law students question whether they really want to be lawyers at one point or another. I often found myself daydreaming about other careers when I was extremely stressed out.
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If you haven’t read it yet, take a few minutes to digest Law School is Worth the Money, written by the entirely non-self-interested dean of Case Western Reserve University’s law school. After you stop hyperventilating, please come back…
Okay, so where were we? Right. I don’t know about you, but I was silently yelling, “WTF?!? Are you kidding me?” and trying not to stab my eyes out.
Where to start? I’m tempted to go line-by-line, because basically every single sentence deserves a response (seriously, if this is the sort of unsupported argument they’re teaching at Case Western, God help us), but let’s just focus on the high points. (Most of which I’ve already covered in detail here: Law School Myths, Debunked.)
Today we have a very special guest, Bruce MacEwen, president of JD Match and Adam Smith, Esq. He’s at the leading edge of innovation in the legal profession, and routinely writes and speaks about the serious issues lawyers face in the current economy.
To say he’s got opinions about the value of law school is an understatement! Without further ado, here’s Bruce.
Do you really want to be a lawyer?
True story: Here’s what lawyers do.
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about whether law school is worth it. Join me — and tons of other great people — for a discussion tonight on Twitter!
Today, July 10th, at 8:00 pm (Eastern)/5:00 pm (Pacific), we’ll talk about everything from financial aid and student loans to more existential questions about whether law school’s a good idea in specific circumstances.
It’s a great group, including student debt experts @Heather_Jarvis and @EJW_Org (Equal Justice Works), what-do-I-do-next experts @JennAlvey, @LeaveLawBehind, and @CareerInfusion, and old friends @LawSchoolTools (the host), @HappyGoLegal, and @MsJDtweets.
We’d love to have you join us!
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Today I’m very excited to have Paula Davis-Laack here, to talk about how to figure out if you’ll thrive in the legal profession.
Paula’s got a great background for this, given that she was a commercial real estate attorney for seven years (in a large law firm and as in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 company) AND she’s one of the first 200 people in the world to have completed the master’s program in applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s also the founder of The Marie Elizabeth Company, which helps companies and individuals thrive and flourish.
Exciting stuff! Without further ado, here’s Paula.
Today I’m very excited to have Susan Smith Blakely, author of Best Friends at the Bar: What Women Need to Know about a Career in the Law, here to talk about the challenges women face in the legal profession, and how they can be overcome.
Susan has another book coming out soon, so keep an eye out for that! Now, without further ado…
Let me ask you a question:
Should you aim to make a career out of doing things you’re good at?
“Why, sure,” you say, “what else would I do?”
This is a question I’ve struggled with for a long time (see a three year detour into architecture school so I could try something “hard”), but I don’t think it’s so straightforward.
Today we’re talking with Jennifer Alvey, lawyer turned career coach (with a specialty in the “thwarted creative” lawyer type). She’s got great insight into the personality types likely to be miserable in the legal profession, and is hysterically funny, to boot.
Without further ado…here’s Jennifer!
