Law Dopers: a brief survey

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

There seem to be more than a few Dopers who practice law. I’m interested - please tell me:

  1. From what law school you graduated
  2. In what state(s) you’re admitted
  3. What your current job is
  4. In what city you practice
  5. How many years you’ve been at it, and what led you there
  6. What you like best about your work
  7. What you like least

I’ll start:

  1. Case Western Reserve U., Cleveland, Ohio
  2. Ohio only
  3. Magistrate, Cleveland Municipal Court
  4. Cleveland
  5. Four. Before that, I was an assistant county prosecutor for six years; before that, served with a branch of Legal Aid for two and a half years; and before that, a half-year in private practice.
  6. Presiding at trial; handling criminal dockets; legal research
  7. Special projects on very short deadlines; bureaucratic tangles with the Clerk of Court; humdrum cases.

Thanks!

2
  1. From what law school you graduated - Univ. of San Diego
  2. In what state(s) you’re admitted - CA
  3. What your current job is - Solo Practitioner
  4. In what city you practice - Sacramento
  5. How many years you’ve been at it, and what led you there - 7 with prior firm experience in business and insurance litigation
  6. What you like best about your work - Autonomy
  7. What you like least - Long hours & wasting time on non-billable admin
3

Thanks, Bearflag70!

::Crickets chirp::

Um… anyone else?

4

Awesome thread!

I think I’ll read it again.

5

I’m a 2L. I hope to be licensed and practicing in Tennessee in a couple years, but right now I’m more focused on passing my Tax exam in a few weeks.

6

I hated law school, drifted through being a practicing lawyer for the last year and a half, and realized I was making a HUGE mistake with my life. I’m going back to school in January to get a Masters in Library and Information Science, and still may end up as a law librarian. In any case, I think I’m on my way to a much better career and life path.

7

  1. Graduate from Georgia State University

  2. Admitted in Georgia

  3. Currently a Public Defender

  4. Practice in Winder, Georgia

  5. Been a PD for 18 years, since graduating from GSU. I went to law school becasue I wanted to be a public defender.

  6. What I like best: mixing it up in the courtroom

  7. What I like least: LONG hours, people who think I’m either not a “real lawyer” or somehow less than competent becasue I’m a PD

8
  1. Harvard
  2. Minnesota
  3. not employed; about to start grad school
  4. did practice in Minneapolis
  5. did two years, then quit
  6. writing legal briefs
  7. bullshit firm politics
9

Preach it, brother!

10

May I ask what you’re going to grad school for, if it is my business? I’m fascinated by any lawyers who decide to reinvent themselves, or get out of the business because they don’t like it.

11

Preparing for the appeal?

12
  1. From what law school you graduated - University of Florida
  2. In what state(s) you’re admitted - Georgia
  3. What your current job is - Corporate & Bankruptcy Litigation, Restructuring
  4. In what city you practice - Atlanta
  5. How many years you’ve been at it, and what led you there - 6, when I was little I wanted to be Atticus Finch – now I keep doing it because I owe Uncle Same fifty large and it’s the best way for me to make the most money
  6. What you like best about your work - money/intellectual stimulation
  7. What you like least - billing time
13

Clinical psychology. I’m interested both in forensic psychology (I was a litigator) and also counseling lawyers (huge mental illness and all around unhappiness problems in the profession). I will probably have an eclectic practice.

14

Sister. :slight_smile:

15
  1. Harvard
  2. Massachusetts; sitting for the Washington bar in February
  3. Patent attorney
  4. Bellevue, WA
  5. I practiced as a patent agent before going to law school. I’ve been doing that since I finished grad school in 1997. I graduated from law school in 2002. I started working for a law firm because I was totally disillusioned with academia and the business of scientific research after a long and difficult road to my Ph.D.
  6. Working with some inventors
  7. Working with other inventors
16

that sounds fascinating

17
  1. University of Illinois
  2. Don’t know yet
  3. Federal attorney on an honors fellowship-executive agency (sorry, don’t want to say which one)
  4. L.A.
  5. months, dude, months and as far as what led me here…whimsy (pretty much the same thing that landed me into law school)
  6. Being in charge of lots of money
  7. Being in charge of lots of money
18
  1. From what law school you graduated - Columbia
  2. In what state(s) you’re admitted - Ohio (Inactive); Wyoming
  3. What your current job is - Felony Prosecutor
  4. In what city you practice - Small town in Wyoming no one probably ever heard of.
  5. How many years you’ve been at it, and what led you there - seven years -because I was disillusioned with my old job as a school teacher.
  6. What you like best about your work - the people I work with and against, the variety, being “in the know” of the happenings around town.
  7. What you like least - Not much in this job. I used to work in a big soul-sucking law firm in Ohio. It is hard to say what I liked there (except for the paycheck.)
19

I think I’ve met you. Is that declaration contempt of court?

20
  1. From what law school you graduated – University of Iowa
  2. In what state(s) you’re admitted – Iowa and the federal courts sitting in the state and the Court of Military Appeals
  3. What your current job is– rural county seat general practice
  4. In what city you practice – don’t worry, you’ve never heard of it
  5. How many years you’ve been at it, and what led you there – 38 years including five years as an Army Judge Advocate – and I’m having too much fun to even think about retirement
  6. What you like best about your work – answering to no one but myself, my clients and the courts
  7. What you like least – collecting the bills and dealing with big firm, bill padding, know-it-alls