Straight Dope Legal Eagles

I understand that there are quite a few legal practitioners on the Straight Dope, and was interested in hearing about your background. I apologise if there is an Aus bias in my terms - feel free to substitute your own terms and add any further questions.

  1. What type of legal practitioner are you?
  2. Educational background?
  3. Would you consider further study?
  4. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?
  5. Did you have another career before entering the Law?
  6. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?
  7. Why law?

Here’s mine :

  1. What type of legal practitioner are you?
    ** Solicitor - In Queensland, there is still a deliniation between solicitors and barristers. **
  2. Educational background?
    ** LLB at Queensland University of Technology, 2 year Articles of Clerkship **
  3. Would you consider further study?
    ** It is not really an objective at the moment, but I may look at doing my Masters in a few years - perhaps overseas. **
  4. How long have you been admitted to practice,and how old are you?
    ** I was admitted in July this year after my mandatory 2 years of Articles. I am 25 years old. **
  5. Did you have another career before entering the Law?
    ** No **
  6. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in?
    ** I am at a fairly specialised firm that practices in Estate Planning and Taxation. I had never really considered this area at uni, but once I began here, I have really enjoyed the area. **
  7. Why law?
    ** I have always been fairly argumentative, and was encouraged by many teachers to look at law from a youg age. I got pretty good results in high school, and had no interest in science/medicine, so law was my only desire.**
  • Bubba.
  1. What type of legal practitioner are you?

Attorney for the government, practicing environmental law - specifically, nuclear and radio-law.

  1. Educational background?

Degrees in Biology, Theology, Philosophy. JD (law degree). Studied at Harvard School of Public Health as well.

  1. Would you consider further study?

Yes.

  1. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?

Sworn in almost exactly 2 years ago. I am 29.

  1. Did you have another career before entering the Law?

Worked as an investment banker.

  1. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?

Environmental. Yes, I enjoy it though I see myself taking the bar exam some time in the next year and going into Patent Law. (Saving for the damn review course is a bitch.)

  1. Why law?

I love the philosophy of it.

Tibs.

Tiburon, what’s the deal with not taking the bar? I’m a 3L, and everyone tells me that I really should take the bar, even though I’m not planning on practicing law per se. But I haven’t talked to anyone who seems to know what they’re talking about. Also, you seem to indicate that you were formally admitted to the bar - how does that happen without passing the exam?

Chula, I took (and passed, thank God) the bar exam for the state of Illinois. To practice Patent Law, however, you need to take an additional bar exam - the Patent Bar. I didn’t realize until just now that I said “I see myself taking the bar exam some time in the next year”…I meant that taking the Patent Bar exam. heh. Sorry about the confusion. :slight_smile:

Tibs.

It is interesting to note the difference in requirements to practice between the Australian/Commonwealth jurisdictions and the US system.

In Australia, law is a 4 year undergraduate degree, and generally students do a period of articles, after which they are admitted before their State’s Supreme Court. In Qld and NSW (I am not too sure of the other states), you can do a Legal Practice Course after the LLB, however, which allows you to practice without articles. More and more people are taking this route, as it can be completed in six months, and the hellish two years of articles can be avoided. There is no statewide exam that needs to be passed.

I can see in the not too distant future the abolition of articles altogether.

Potential lawyers can also do a five year articles of clerkship without a degree, although I believe that there are very few people who undertake this process.

Barristers are admitted under a different set of requirements. Often they will spend a year as an associate to a judge, and then complete the Bar Association’s Bar Practice Course.

I think that they should streamline the process.

  • Bubba.

Damn. I was hoping I had found someone who would give me some advice that would justify avoiding all that time, money, and anguish.

I don’t know what you intend on doing with your law education but practicing law is a fantastic back-up and there will be no easier time than now (with your classmates and when things are semi-fresh in your mind) to take the bar exam. I’m sorry I can’t help you out - I’m with the rest - take it and have it as a back-up plan! :slight_smile:

Tibs.

I am a labor attorney working for a union–I do mainly arbitrations of discipline cases or contract interpretation, and unfair labor practices, plus some internal union stuff.

I have a J.D. from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark (Portland, Or) and a B.A in philosophy.

Every case I take is further education in some way or another. But other than my CLE requirements, I don’t see doing much more legal schooling. On the other hand, every chance I get I sign up for classes at the local community college or what not–everything from tai chi to art history to acting.

I was first admitted to the Bar in 1996 at the grand age of 36, but I then took a non-legal job for 5 years, so I’ve been practicing for a little over a year.

I was a high school teacher prior to returning to law school. But I began to feel badly about encouraging my students to follow their dreams when I’d put mine aside, so it was off to law school for me.

i love what I do. I picked law because I love the philosophy behind it, and the practicality of its practice. I’m helping real people through an often confusing, usually stressful period of their lives, and even when we don’t win, they have at least had their day in court (well, a day in arbitration, at least). I had wanted to be a lawyer since I realized the Inherit the Wind was based on real events and then read a biography of Clarance Darrow. and I’ve wanted to be a labor lawyer for almost as long. So I’m a happy camper.
Although, I’ve always wanted a wig like Rumpole’s.

Oh, and chula, just take the exam, it’s not that difficult, it’s mostly an endurance test. I’ve taken and passed three–including a three-day all essay one almost 4 years after I got out of law school in a state I didn’t study in. On the multistate, just do as many multiply choice questions as you can stomach every day–the patterns will emerge and the rest is just reading speed and short-term memory. the essay are all issue spotting and the review classes do a good job of boiling the sujects into easily disgested chunks. Yes, it takes time and a bit of money, but once you’ve passed the bar, you’ve got a lot more options. You can go inactive, usually for several years and so pay less Bar dues, and then easily get readmitted if you take a law job.

And no, I’m not a masochist. I took three because I moved a lot, and Oregon and Washington didn’t have reciprocity at that time.

Yeah, I’m going to take the stupid thing. I’m not really worried about passing - I think my school has a pass rate of something like 99%, and there’s no way I’m in the bottom 1% of my class. It’s another stupid, painful hoop you have to jump through in order to be a lawyer.

A couple of firms in Western Australian run Practical Legal Training (PLT) courses than lead to admission in six months. WA still has the articles system, but the PLT firms simply apply to have their kids admitted in NSW (from there they get mutual recognition in WA).

Oh, the articles program here is typically closer to one year rather than two.

Over here, law is typically a four year Bachelors degree for postgraduates (although it can be squeezed into three years). Many people, however, transfer into law after completing a year of more of another degree. Some people (me for one) go straight from high school into a five year double law degree (eg, LLB/BCom; LLB/BA; LLB/BEcons).

FWIW, I opted out of doing articles next year. I’m gonna be a economic policy analyst instead. I may go into legal practice at some stage in my life, but possibly not.

Oh, and I’m 22.

1. What type of legal practitioner are you?
Barrister & solicitor - in Canada the bar is combined (except in the civil law province of Quebec), but I do both court work (mainly appellate/judicial review) and a lot of opinion work.

2. Educational background?
B.A.(Hons.), LL.B. (common law), LL.B. (civil law), LL.M. (comparative constitutional law).

3.(a) Would you consider further study?
Not likely at this stage; I’m sort of full up (see 2, supra).

3.(b) How long have you been admitted to practise, and how old are you?
13 and 42

4. Did you have another career before entering the Law?
Professional student, according to my father (see 2, supra).

5. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?
Constitutional law, human rights law

6. Why law?
(a) The recession of 1982, when I graduated with my B.A.
(b) Long time interest, supplemented by the fact that I’ve been having fun at it for 13 years and expect to keep having fun for the foreseeable future. There is nothing like a good courtroom debate with an experienced judge and well-briefed opposing counsel.

  1. What type of legal practitioner are you?
    Intellectual Property Attorney in Minneapolis, MN.

  2. Educational background?
    BS in Mechanical Engineering

3.(a) Would you consider further study?
Yes. I am contemplating a Masters in Technology Management at the Carlson School of Business at the U of Minn. Money is an issue now though and it might have to wait a while.

3.(b) How long have you been admitted to practise, and how old are you?
5 years and 33 years.

  1. Did you have another career before entering the Law?
    Brief stints in the Peace Corps (Ecuador) and as a maintenance/house keeper/T-shirt vendor in Crested Butte, Colorado.
  2. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?
    I work with patents primarily, but do a fair amount of trademark work as well.
  3. Why law?
    I had no mentoring during my undergrad years, decided engineering lacked a certain something, and felt that law school would be the way to go. I make a good living and the work isn’t bad, but given the debt I’ve amassed (thus guaranteeing my continuing IP practice), I might have chosen night school over the traditional three year grind.

1. What type of legal practitioner are you?

Attorney. In the States the bar has been merged for so long that we don’t have any solicitor/barrister distinctions.

2. Educational background?

4-year A.B. (same as a B.A.) in Philosophy; J.D. (magna cum laude) from Georgetown Universtiy Law Center, Washington, D.C.

3. Would you consider further study?

Someday I hope to teach; while I don’t need additional degrees to do so, I might pursue them at some point. (What I’d really love to do is teach philosophy, which requires two more degrees than I’ve got.)

3. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?

I’ve been admitted almost exactly one year. I’m 29, which is about two years older than most lawyers of the same vintage, as I took two years off between undergrad and law school.

4. Did you have another career before entering the Law?

Not really.

5. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?

General litigation, especially complex commercial litigation (products liability, breach of contracts, occasional white collar). Of all the areas of law to practice, it is probably the most closely related to what you actually learned in law school.

6. Why law?

Because my philosophy degree wasn’t opening too many doors, and I knew that I could do well in law school if I took it more seriously than I had college. I love the study of the law and the philosophy of it, and practicing ain’t so bad (although I do get a little stressed from time to time).

–Cliffy

  1. What type of legal practitioner are you?

(based in the U.S.A.- so lawyers are lawyers here) Corporate Attorney- did 4 years for private practice prior to joining a educational institution to help with contract and IP issues. Next job will be a GC-ish sort of role.

  1. Educational background?

BS (major - environmental policy and law) from Berkeley, JD from the University of Virginia School of Law (Go Hoos!).

  1. Would you consider further study?

Yes, but only to get my Ph.D, probably in History. Will have to wait for now, but I will do it. The practice of law, of course, is a constant learning process if you are doing it right. An MBA might be cool to have though. Hmmm. . . .

  1. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?

Coming up on 5 years now. 35.

  1. Did you have another career before entering the Law?

Navy vet (4 years), plus 2 years of crap jobs.

  1. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?

Corporate, contracts and IP. Transactional sort of practice. And yes I do.

  1. Why law?

I am bad at math (goodbye engineering type job), dislike whiney sick people and hospitals (goodbye doctor type job), and did not want to work for 3 years and then apply for MBA school (plus I still suck at math). Plus the topic was interesting.
:slight_smile:

Here’s mine :
1. What type of legal practitioner are you?
I’m no longer much of a practitioner: after 7 years of practicing as a corporate/securaties attorney (in common-law jurisdictions, I’d be closer to a solicitor), I’m now a writer/editor at a small legal publishing company.
**2. Educational background? **
BA in political science from Carleton College; J.D. from N.Y.U.
**3. Would you consider further study? **
Possibly, but only for a career change.
**3. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you? **
Graduated 1994, admitted in New York in 1995; I’m 34.
**4. Did you have another career before entering the Law? **
No. I taught English for a year in Japan on the JET program, but that’s it.
5. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in?
Although I still follow securities-law and corporate issues, the publication I write is on education law.
**6. Why law? **
The usual: I had a liberal arts degree and wanted to eat. :wink: Seriously, law is the default option when your undergraduate degree isn’t in a technical field and you’re not interested in teaching, academic research or working in a bookstore.

1. What type of legal practitioner are you?

Defense litigator, now doing mostly construction defect defense, insurance defense, and maritime defense.

2. Educational background?

BA in English Literature and JD.

**3. Would you consider further study? **

Yes. I’d actually like to get an LLM in maritime law, which is what I’m finding myself most interested in (by far) these days.

4. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?

I’ve been admitted to practice for seven years and I’m 33.

4. Did you have another career before entering the Law?

No. High school to college, college to law school.

5. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?

See above. I really love the maritime work I’m getting to do since I’ve moved to Seattle, and while I can’t claim to specialize in it, I’d like to.

6. Why law?

I don’t know. Lots of reasons, I suppose. My father is a lawyer, my grandfather was a lawyer and state supreme court chief justice, my great-grandfather was a lawyer and judge, my great-great-grandfather was a lawyer. I majored in English Literature, which is not the most useless degree (“major in philosophy and contemplate why you don’t have a job”), but certainly is right up there. I like to argue. I like to write.

And I love the law. Love it. I believe in the idea (and the ideal) of the rule of law, and I am proud to be an officer of the court. I sort of fell into being a lawyer due to the example before my eyes (my dad) and the lack of anything better to do, but I’m glad I did because I do enjoy it and I think I’m good at it.

1. What type of legal practitioner are you?

Commercial lawyer in New York City

2. Educational background?

Dual Bachelors in Business and Enginering. JD.

3. Would you consider further study?

Unlikely.

3. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?

Admitted to the bar in '94. 35 years old.

4. Did you have another career before entering the Law?

I was an accountant for two years between college and law school.

5. What area do you specialise in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?

Real Estate, Commercial Litigation and Corporate.

6. Why law?

I got a fortune cookie that said: “You would be a good lawyer.”

1. What type of legal practitioner are you?

Law clerk to a federal judge.

2. Educational background?

BA, Anthropology, University of North Texas
JD, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Summa Cum Laude, Salutatorian

3. Would you consider further study?

I’ve daydreamed about getting an LLM, maybe in Constitutional Law, Federal Jurisdiction, or Comparative Legal Studies.

4. How long have you been admitted to practice, and how old are you?

I just passed the bar last week. I still have to be sworn in and get my license in the mail. I’m 32.

5. Did you have another career before entering law?

I was a musician and a body piercer. No, really.

6. What area do you specialize in/mostly practice in? Do you enjoy it?

I get to see and work on pretty much everything that comes into federal courts. I love it; the experience and exposure you get is incredible. It’s only for a year long term, though.

7. Why law?

Several reasons. I love the intellectual challenge. It’s like getting paid to sit around and solve intricate logic problems (I know logicians will balk at this, but legal reasoning is a unique kind of bird). Plus, Papa pravnik is a lawyer, so I grew up around it like Jodi.

Plus, as someone once said, “A law degree is like a bottle of ketchup in a restaurant that specializes in bad steaks. It will cover a multitude of sins.” :wink:

I am a rural county seat general practioner with some amount of trial practice, some real estate stuff and some bank representation and a sprinkling of the usual divorces and criminal representation and miscellaneous cases of greed, ignorance and lust. My education was at the University of Iowa. My undergrad degree was in art history (for Pete’s sake) with minors in studio and European history. I thought I could go off and be a museum curator. That was a wildly optimistic ambition. An uncle talked me into trying law school I fell in love with the intellectual rigor of the study and the challenge and competition of the practice. I found that lawyers, as a general rule, were the best companions and adversaries. Since I had a ROTC commission and good luck I ended up serving as a judge advocate in the Army for five years before I came back to Iowa and joined an active trial practice for eleven years. When my partner had a manic depressive outbreak and a psychotic break down I struck out on my own. I have been in solo practice for twenty years. I’m 60 now and have been in this racket for 35 years. I’m having way too much fun to even think about retirement. At my age further education is pretty well out of the question.