A few months ago I wrote about the need to teach morality in law schools. Now according to the latest LSSSE survey, we see that more law students are shifting towards public interest work, and more importantly, they are learning more about “integrity in personal and professional settings.”
I don’t need to tell you that the economy stinks right now. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you’ve already shot out of bed a few nights from a, “I live at home with my parents again because I’m unemployable,” dream. Fret not, fellow 3L. Below are my four tips for coping with the stress of being not-yet-employed.
1. Relax.
Since starting law school, I’ve been frantically counting down the minutes until the start of my third year. I took a lot of stock in the old adage about the progression of law school: “In the first year, they scare you to death. The second year, they work you to death. And in the third, they bore you to death.”
After the predictions about the first two years came true, I was really excited to be bored.
Well, ye olde adage maker, you’re full of it. I’m nearing the halfway mark of my third year, and I’m busier than ever!
On Nov. 1 across the nation, 1Ls began the scary/stressful/exciting task of looking for a productive first-summer experience. Our career services representative started the process when she presented its support system — resume writing, networking events, a comprehensive online job database. All of these tools would help us to get hands-on legal experience while building our resumes. That is, if there were jobs.
There’s a whole lot of talk about law school inflation —of job placement statistics, that is.
The ABA Journal’s Web site lists an Indiana University law professor’s comments, urging law schools to publish statistics that make side-by-side comparisons easier for “naïve law students.” The same website is abuzz with comments about so-dubbed “bogus” job placement and income statistics put forth by law schools.
When I decided to attend law school, my family and friends were happy for me — they hoped the experience would make me respectable or wise or something like that (talk about wishful thinking). Attorneys, however, weren’t so excited. They listened politely, but then they told me how they really felt.
You should consider all your options, especially not going to law school . . . I’m sure you’d be a good doctor or dentist…or veterinarian…
The “laptop debate” in legal education — to allow or to ban — seems to resurface every so often. Professors who’ve banned laptops often cite their attempts to increase student engagement in the classroom and decrease non-course-related activities, such as surfing the Internet as reasons for the ban.
I’ve just completed my eighth week of my first semester of law school. Halfway done! There is something about that mid-way mark that lets me know I will make it. I’ve got as much behind me as ahead of me, and I can survive it.
That midway mark has another, less celebratory significance: midterms.
As a third-year law student who has given 15 hours of my life a week for the past two years to sitting in a classroom, I’m a little biased when it comes to evaluating online law schools. I can’t help but feel that actually being face-to-face with other students and professors is essential for the study of law, and moreover, for preparation to practice.
There is a profound lesson to be learned from last year’s financial meltdown that needs further discussion in the halls of our nation’s law schools.
While there were many factors that contributed to the economic crisis, at its heart it was fueled by greed. Bankers, accountants and, yes, lawyers, all contributed to the greed that swept through our country over the past decade.