I’m a lawyer!

[M'Sharak]

Well, today was the swearing-in. I am officially a lawyer.

Congratulations!

Who cannot give advice because I am not insured.

A mere technicality, I'm assuming

A professor at my school suggested I consider teaching, since I had helped so many pass law school. The profs are aware of this, had commented (positively) on it, and even sent some students to see me. My outlines are used or referenced by (I’m told) just about every student in the school. The outlines are all locked, though not pdf-ed, and identifiable even at a distance by their colors and really tiny font (size 8 in times new roman).

I think I’d like teaching. It’s what I’ve been doing for years--explaining things. Hell, I did that at City College for biology class, and the teacher said that semester’s average grade was the highest he’d ever had and that it was because of my explaining things to people outside of class. And I HATED biology!

So maybe I’m a teacher. Not a bad thing.

It's certainly worth giving a try. And if that turns out not to be quite the thing, it still may serve as an avenue to something even better-suited to your strengths in the law field.

So, how gruelling was it to be reahc this point?

You really haven't been following this at all, have you?

 

[Vulcan Princess]

Congratulations, propita! That's awesome! I hope I can start up a similar thread next year.

I want to be a law prof, so if you do manage to break into teaching, I would definitely be interested in knowing how you did it. (My professors are telling me to publish like mad. I've got two articles I'll be trying to find homes for in the next few months.)

 

[propita]

So, how gruelling was it to be reahc this point?

You really haven't been following this at all, have you?

Um...I’ve posted quite a bit over the last year or so of the Bar part and the last 5 years total. Posters here have been almost unbelievably supportive and wonderful.

Congratulations, propita! That's awesome! I hope I can start up a similar thread next year.

I want to be a law prof, so if you do manage to break into teaching, I would definitely be interested in knowing how you did it. (My professors are telling me to publish like mad. I've got two articles I'll be trying to find homes for in the next few months.)

Well, it would likely be at my school, which is a non-ABA but CA-accredited school near Fresno, CA. The full-time profs all know me, as they were my professors. And the Dean and Assistant Dean were teaching professors (wonderful at it, too). So if they were interested in me for teaching, a lot would be through what they already know of me, my writing, and my working with fellow students. I’m assuming.

I did publish in the school’s law review, and had an essay on the Grendel monster published in a school-associated group’s online journal.

But I will do my best to let you know. If you are a practicing attorney, you could always apply at my school as they’re often looking. But then you’d be in a non-big-name school and really not likely to move up to, say, USC or Berkeley or anything like that, from here. And you’d be in Fresno. Which isn’t always as bad as jokes make it out to be.

 

[Captain Ice]

^You're only what, two hours from LA?

 

[Crusher Disciple]

Congrats- go with your heart.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

As someone who gets a new law school student/intern every three months, I implore you: pleeeeease teach legal writing. Please?

I'm fortunate/tortured because I am in one of the toughest legal writing programs in the country. While many law schools only have it as pass fail 2 semesters, we have 4 semesters, so we're often considered ahead of the curve when we graduate (hints if you're looking for which school to hire from in three years ).

Propita, teaching LRWA seems like something you'd be great at. It's the one area of law where professors seem to emphasize being generally encouraging and helpful. Everywhere else, there seems to be a fear that teaching the law will lead to us becoming bad lawyers

 

[propita]

^You're only what, two hours from LA?

Fresno is about 3-4 hours from LA, depending on how fast you drive. And whether there are CHiPs on the road.

As someone who gets a new law school student/intern every three months, I implore you: pleeeeease teach legal writing. Please?

I'm fortunate/tortured because I am in one of the toughest legal writing programs in the country. While many law schools only have it as pass fail 2 semesters, we have 4 semesters, so we're often considered ahead of the curve when we graduate (hints if you're looking for which school to hire from in three years ).

Propita, teaching LRWA seems like something you'd be great at. It's the one area of law where professors seem to emphasize being generally encouraging and helpful. Everywhere else, there seems to be a fear that teaching the law will lead to us becoming bad lawyers

We’ve heard that non-ABA schools “teach to test,” but that’s not really true at my school. Yes, all subjects on the Bar are required courses, but there are other electives. Not as extensive or fancy as the big-schools, but not bad. The rule of law IS taught, but each student sinks or swims on his/her own--no grading on a curve. Almost every test is similar in style to the Bar, essays using IRAC.

The professors, particularly the full-time ones, are really good, though I had a clunker elective instructor (I won’t call him a professor, it was his first and last time “teaching”--he sucked big time but they didn’t know that when they hired him for the summer course). My Crim Proc/Law prof was a local judge. Judges have taught other courses, including civil trial practice, criminal trial practice, and evidence--that was after I graduated and I heard she was damned hard, but very good.

Because there’s no curve, there’s not really a cut-throat atmosphere. People help each other, but it’s not an ice cream social. It’s still law school, people are tense, and they don’t always mesh well.

 

[Gov Kodos]

So, how much did you get for the sale of your soul?

But seriously, congratulations.

 

[STR]

^Nothing. In fact, he's probably deep up the ### in debt.

 

[ancientone51]

Congrats!

I'd love to think you joined me in the ranks of teacher, you sound awesome at it.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

^Nothing. In fact, he's probably deep up the ### in debt.

Yeah, lawyers pay for the privilege to sell their soul

 

[propita]

^Nothing. In fact, he's probably deep up the ### in debt.

Because it’s a small, local school, the total tuition is a lot less than the big-name schools, plus books. Hubby had us borrowing only $3000 a semester (8 semesters). Since I accrued interest the whole time (I didn’t qualify for an interest deferred loan), we got disgusted with owing money. 5% on the loan, but only making 1% on our savings. So we paid the loan off a few months ago. All we owe on is our house--and it’s a max of 15 more years on that.

 

[Nociod]

I don't post much here in Miscellaneous, but congratulations! I've seen some of your other posts, and I'm glad that you made it.

Since the last posts have been about tests, and grading curves, I just have to ask. What kind of tests do you get? Multiple choice?, Writing with a legal method?

And how long does law school last in the United States?

 

[STR]

^Nothing. In fact, he's probably deep up the ### in debt.

Because it’s a small, local school, the total tuition is a lot less than the big-name schools, plus books. Hubby had us borrowing only $3000 a semester (8 semesters). Since I accrued interest the whole time (I didn’t qualify for an interest deferred loan), we got disgusted with owing money. 5% on the loan, but only making 1% on our savings. So we paid the loan off a few months ago. All we owe on is our house--and it’s a max of 15 more years on that.

Well, good to know you don't HAVE to sell your soul to a firm just to make loan payments.

As a finance person, though, I would have boosted my return on savings rather than buy out the loan. 5% is a really good rate. Not hard to beat that with even the most conservative of portfolios. Low-risk dividend stocks like public utilities, big-name, low growth companies like Coca Cola. 1% means that you're generally losing money to inflation.

 

[propita]

I don't post much here in Miscellaneous, but congratulations! I've seen some of your other posts, and I'm glad that you made it.

Since the last posts have been about tests, and grading curves, I just have to ask. What kind of tests do you get? Multiple choice?, Writing with a legal method?

And how long does law school last in the United States?

Law school in CA is usually 3 years. Smaller schools like mine offer 4 years, same courses just longer; many also offer 5 years, which is good for people with families and full-time jobs.

Tests vary. At my school almost every test in a non-legal writing class was essay; i.e., scenario and question, often with the usual “discuss” at the end. Much in the style of the Bar exam.

The CA Bar exam is a 3-day test. Tuesday and Thursday mornings are 3 approximately 1-hr essay questions. The afternoons are 1-hr performance tests (PTs), where a lot of information is given (usually including laws and cases) and the task is to produce the required output after sifting through all that material (which usually takes at least 45 minutes). Wednesday is Multistate Bar Exam questions (MBEs), multiple choice questions that usually hinge on some minute aspect of law. 100 questions in the morning and another 100 in the afternoon--3 hours to answer each time. I finished those with at least a half-hour to spare because I read fast; people who really don’t read fast may not even finish.

^Nothing. In fact, he's probably deep up the ### in debt.

Because it’s a small, local school, the total tuition is a lot less than the big-name schools, plus books. Hubby had us borrowing only $3000 a semester (8 semesters). Since I accrued interest the whole time (I didn’t qualify for an interest deferred loan), we got disgusted with owing money. 5% on the loan, but only making 1% on our savings. So we paid the loan off a few months ago. All we owe on is our house--and it’s a max of 15 more years on that.

Well, good to know you don't HAVE to sell your soul to a firm just to make loan payments.

As a finance person, though, I would have boosted my return on savings rather than buy out the loan. 5% is a really good rate. Not hard to beat that with even the most conservative of portfolios. Low-risk dividend stocks like public utilities, big-name, low growth companies like Coca Cola. 1% means that you're generally losing money to inflation.

The loan was at a 5.8% interest rate. Our savings account was 1% interest coming in. Seemed stupid to accrue the debt while our savings was, as you said, losing money sitting there.

I’m VERY happy that I don’t HAVE to work for a firm. Besides, there’s a bit of a glut of lawyers locally anyway and many going into solo practice.

I’m finding that, after relaxing so much, I’m not handling small things well, hair-trigger temper (at least to me). I’m told that’s how I’ve been, but it really seems different to how I’ve been so relaxed. Mom says I need to relax. Hubby says my body’s been riding cortisol/adrenalin for so long that it basically will take advantage of any excuse to produce some since I’m starving it by relaxing--that it’ll take time to switch over. Fine by me!

 

[SmoothieX]

Well, today was the swearing-in. I am officially a lawyer.

I'm so very sorry for you.

Good luck with the teaching prospects.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Congratulations! Good luck with whatever path you now follow. I'm so happy for you! What wonderful possibilities lie ahead of you. Just awesome!!

 

[Shikarnov]

Well, today was the swearing-in. I am officially a lawyer.

Congratulations! That's a fantastic achievement!

 

[F. King Daniel]

Congratulations, propita.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Pita, this is great news. This must also mean you passed the bar. I never saw a thread about that. I know how much weight you've been carrying in your shoulders with all of this and I'm elated for you that it is over. Congratulations!