Should I go to law school?

Proto Attorney and Dinei and CM posted these "should I go to law school / why I went to law school" posts, and suggested that others do it so applicants can see a range of experiences.  Those three ladies are role models as far as knowing precisely what each was getting into, and what each wanted out of a legal career.  You should read their posts.  Also, you should read this post from Lag Liv on what it takes to steer your legal career toward your dream job.

Because I'm no role model.  I stumbled about blindly and found myself happy.  Unsustainably underpaid, yes.  But, for the time being, happy.

I had always wanted to go to law school, but even now I can't give you concrete reasons as to why.  I didn't know any lawyers growing up.  I never worked with or for a lawyer.  I definitely liked the idea of a profession where I'd get paid to think for a living... to problem-solve, but without the math.  I didn't think about the business of law, or what kinds of clients I'd like to serve, or what the day to day of lawyering looked like.  I just had this thought that I could go to law school, develop my skill set, and find a spot in the profession that worked for me.

When did I make the decision to apply?  When we first moved here from Texas, one of my criteria was local grad school / law school.  In my heart, I knew I was changing careers eventually, but wasn't sure what that would mean.  Eventually, I took some time off from full time teaching.  I gave birth to a Clownfish. I was working in the test prep industry and cobbling together a few part time jobs and tutoring.  I was teaching LSAT prep.  Learning how to teach LSAT prep was the most fun training I had done.  Teaching the classes and hearing from people talk about why they decided to go to law school made me say "what's it hurt to take the test ... for real?"  Next thing I knew, I was admitted to the only two schools in my market to which I applied, and the lower ranked school offered me a sweet scholarship.  

There is an old saw about people who love law school actually hate lawyering.  I loved law school.  I mean, sure I bitched a helluvalot on this blog... it was challenging, it was different, it was an intrusion on the life my husband and I had built, and we didn't always handle the hurdles well, which was stressful.  But I'd kind of love to have the chance to do it over, and enjoy it more ...  and skip Labor Law and take Crim Pro this time.

I spent a lot of my 2L fall on the expected treadmill, stumbling through OCI interviews at law firms, clueless and uncomfortable at callbacks.  (Many of those posts didn't survive the post-grad purge... sorry.)  It was like I was trying to (literally and figuratively) look good in an ill-fitting suit.  It didn't work.  But I didn't have a particular passion for, say, advocating for children or criminal prosecution or securities law or real estate transactions.  So I was the worst kind of job seeker... directionless, having some sense of what I didn't want and a vague sense of what I did. 

Again, read the posts by the other bloggers, because they went in with their eyes wide open, and had a very good sense of what they were looking for. 

I found the work that I do now almost totally by accident.  And it is a perfect fit for me, at least for the time being.  I'll write more about that in a separate post, to keep this from getting ridiculously long.  I'm very, very lucky.  But my advice to law school applicant is this:  do your homework, have a sense of purpose, and don't count on dumb luck.