[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
So don’t sweat law school. As can be tough if not impossible, but depending on your school, Bs or Cs can be earned with essentially no effort. Forget the casebooks, and just buy yourself some nutshells or Emmanuels. And if some prof tries that Houseman BS on you, just tell him “pass.”
Of course, if you want the honor of making huge bucks working your ass off as a corporate whore in a big name law firm, by all means, bust your ass for the As and Law Review. I’m sure it will be all you might hope for.
[/QUOTE]
I think this is incredibly irresponsible advice for several reasons.
First, on a professional level, if a person intends to practice law and to do the best they can by their clients, then they owe it to themselves and those clients to learn the profession. If you’re not interested enough to learn the profession, then find something else to do. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and setting yourself up to fail at your chosen job.
Second, you might be able to bullshit your way through while learning the bare minimum and aiming for “Cs,” but you are paying a hell of a lot of money for an education, so it seems obvious why learning as little as you possibly can is self-defeating. It’s your money, and you pay the same whether you learn a little or a lot – assuming you pass, that is.
Third, first jobs out of law school depend to a great extent on law school performance. There are tons of new lawyers graduating every year, and competition for ALL jobs, not just “good” jobs, is keen. You don’t have to be on Law Review or graduate Top 5 in your class, but if you think you’re going to have a shot at a decent job with a “C” average and no actitivies, you’re nuts. Now, maybe what you’ve always wanted to do is DUI defense in a three-person firm in Assboink, Idaho, in which case – fine, sleep in. You can still make a very nice living that way, and it is a lot less work. But if you want better than that for yourself, you’ll have to work for it.
Dinsdale, you are IMO a good guy, but an unfortunate example of a person who neither likes nor respects the profession they work at. How you drag your ass to work every day, I don’t know. Why you drag your ass to work every day, instead of doing something else that you believe has meaning and relevance, I don’t know. I’m not trying to pick a fight, but it is important to me that these law students know that your cynicism and bitter opinion (“truth, accuracy, right and wrong are luxuries”) are neither universal nor necessarily correct.
I’m proud to be a lawyer. I’m good at it, and I like it. I didn’t sell my soul for my law degree and I didn’t drop my ethics at the door when I picked up my diploma.
No, not really. But any profession can be reduced down to “it’s just a job,” if that’s all you want it to be or let it be. And what’s wrong with a job anway? Why the “just”? Since we all are going to have to have a job for, oh, 40 years or so, why not take one in an area that interests you and where you believe you can do some good?
