 The Real Dope on Law School
Get Into a Top Law School and Become a Lawyer
 Get Into Law School
Law School is a three-year program of full-time, concentrated study that leads to the JD degree The first step is to take the Law School Admissions Test, affectionately known as the LSAT. It focuses, not on law or legal concepts, but on logic problems and puzzles, which test your logical reasoning skills.
When you review law school catalogs and web sites, keep in mind that they are sales tools. The people in your classes won’t be so fascinating and the professors won’t be so good looking. Come up with a list of schools you want to apply to, the dream school, which gets the cream of the candidates, the reasonable target school, more affordable and more convenient. and the safety school, which will be happy to admit someone of your caliber.
Decide which law school you can afford, and where you want to live. Ask your college professors for letters of recommendation. Your application to law school will ask for a personal statement, what you’ve done and what you hope to do. You’ll probably fill out a financial aid application.
The Top Law Schools
Preparing for law school involves more than watching the movie Paper Chase. The U.S. News & World Report has the most respected ranking of law schools. Yale is likely to be at the top, with Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, New York University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Berkeley, University of Michigan and University of Virginia in the top ten tier. Perhaps you have a strong school preference. You know that, if they accept you, you would definitely enroll. This makes you a good candidate for the early decision program, so apply. If you do well, the school will send you a letter of congratulations: “We are happy to welcome you into the Law School Class.” You’ve been accepted.
Choose Your Specialty as a Lawyer
You have another major career decision to make. Will you concentrate on public interest law, leading to a job in the public defenders office or a non-profit organization like Legal Aid? Or will you shoot for a large law firm, concentrating your studies in another direction? Is your destination investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, insurance defense, environmental, antitrust, or securities law, litigation practice, or real estate. Do you see yourself as a litigator? At many firms, cases are settled long before they reach the courts. As you begin law school, consider the opportunities open to you as a criminal lawyer, divorce lawyer, immigration lawyer, bankruptcy lawyer, employment lawyer, adoption lawyer, real estate lawyer, maritime lawyer, estate planning lawyer, entertainment lawyer, trademark lawyer, personal injury lawyer, disability lawyer, medical malpractice lawyer or corporate lawyer. Which interests you most? And in what state will you practice?
This career decision involves more than your personal inclination. It determines whether you can pay off the mountain of student loan debt that you’re piling up in law school. Financial Aid is not just arranging the loan, they expect you to pay it back. If you expect to work for non-profits, ask your school if they have a loan forgiveness program for people doing public interest work.
Law School Classes
First year at law school is about the basics. Later on in second or third year you can take clinical classes and do pro bono work. Law professors teach with case studies. Cases are judicial opinions, each the story of a real life or imaginary legal situation, that you are expected to unravel, form an opinion and defend your opinion. In many classes the goal of the professor is to teach you to think like a lawyer, rather than to teach you the law. Socrates had a theory of teaching that asked students a series of questions that would force them to arrive at their own answers by building a chain of reasoning. It used to be a popular teaching posture in some schools.
Tools and Torts for Would-Be Lawyers
You’ll take classes in Civil Procedure, learn about due process, along with hot shot students who seem to know every answer ahead of time. You’ll become part of the cutthroat student competition for grades. You’ll collect hornbooks and outlines, the Cliff’s Notes of law school, to make sense of your textbooks. For each case you study, you’ll prepare a brief which typically summarizes the facts of the case, sets forth the procedural background, identifies the specific issue and explains the reasoning behind the court’s decision. Did a contract even exist? If so, was the contract breached? Did the plaintiff lack standing to sue? You’ll learn about mutuality as to collateral estoppel, the test for justiciability, the sequence of pleadings in a civil case and the defenses to formation of a contract, just for starters. If you come across an unfamiliar word or two, Black’s Law Dictionary will define it for you. You’ll have computerized research services available, like Westlaw and Lexis.
You’ll study torts, which are civil wrongs that people commit against each other, actions that are negligent or stupid, but not criminal. You’ll learn about civil procedures, the rules governing when, where and how you can sue people. You’ll learn a lot of Latin, even if it is a dead language. Quasi in rem and res judicata, and all that.
More Law School Classes to Prepare a Lawyer
Depending on the law school, you’ll take classes in Criminal Law, Property, Constitutional Law, Perspectives on Legal Thought, or Foundations of the Regulatory State. You can choose classes in Criminal Investigations, Copyright Law, Human Rights Law, Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy, Administrative Law, Financial Statement Analysis, Welfare and Poverty Law or Criminal Adjudication. You’ll take part in Moot Court, a pretend court which gives you a chance to research and write yet another brief, and to think on your feet.
Summer Jobs for an Ambitious Lawyer
There are no classes during summer term, but Career Services will help you find a summer job related to your studies. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to clerk for a judge one summer and to review motions on various cases. And be sure to ask for a letter of recommendation from the judge. You can use it on the next round of employment. Your job the second summer could be as a summer associate at a prestigious law firm, which often leads to an offer employment after graduation. In this case, it’s up to you to choose the firms you prefer to work for. You might rank them on size, prestige, practice area, and so on. After graduation, the law firm of your choice will be pay you a six-figure salary and lots of perks, in exchange for 60, 70 or 80 billable hours of work each week.
Extracurricular Activities in Law School
Among the many student-run academic journals, Law Review is the premier. A position on Law Review is sought after, not because you want to work even harder, but because it pimps up your resume. It is the single measure of success in Law School, and opens a lot of doors in the career world.
Somewhere in your schedule, you’ll find time for the mandatory pro bono work
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. – Aristotle
After Law School, the State Bar Exam
Finally, you’ll march onstage stage in a fancy cap and gown to receive your diploma, written entirely in Latin, the hard won award of years of work. You’ve been awarded the JD, Juris Doctor, means Teacher of Law, and is the degree required for admission to the bar.
But don’t start celebrating yet. There’s still the State Bar Exam to get through. You can prep for it with a Professional Bar Review Course, or you can take your chances with the 70-30 average pass-fail rate. But know this: the 70% of the candidates who do pass probably took a Bar Review Course first. Somewhere in that momentous two-day exam you’ll be tested on contracts, torts, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, evidence and real property. You’ll begin work with the firm of your choice, and eventually, many months later, you’ll get the exam results. Good luck, all the way.
I hope life brings you much success. I wish you a very happy day.
----- Surfer Sam
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