jimbojones

Thank you to all who partook in this discussion. As an electrical engineer currently working for an aerospace corporation and in my first semester of part time law school, this thread has been thought-provoking and stimulating.

LaBarrister - if you ever see this, I would love to hear of your experience with the litigator this past summer.

alwaysamom

cbug, there are approximately 45,000 new lawyers every year. Every year! Do you really think that the three whom you know who have graduated in the past three years are a representative sample of job prospects? Of course, there are many law grads who find legal positions but there are also thousands and thousands who do not, and are either unemployed or underemployed. Many who are in that position have huge student loans and are in a terrible situation as a result. The stories about employment in the legal community are not fiction. Anyone contemplating law school would do well to take them seriously and make an informed decision.

LaBarrister

jimbojones,

Hey. Sorry. I probably haven't been on this Web site in many months.

So without reading through what I wrote already (which is surprisingly a lot—I must have had a lot of free time when I wrote all of that) what exactly would you like to know about my experience?

As of yet I have not received any type of legal job with the aid of my new friend Mr. Litigator (which I have found over the months to be a pre-eminent attorney and an even better friend—I say this because he gets inmates off death row and fights against insurance companies, which in my book means he is great. He is also on his way to the highest ranking in Martindale-Hubbell, if that makes any difference to you).

But...anyway he still says to this day (we run ~3 mornings a week) that he would have me in his firm in a heartbeat if he had any room for me. I would just be doing menial tasks, and maybe without pay, but I would be happy with that. But, I think because his firm is a stone's throw from the court, he doesn't have much need for an errand boy. Either way, I have nothing from him but great talks and insight into the life of a great lawyer. He doesn't have kids or a spouse, so he actually probably has a very enviable lifestyle (read Sallyawp's latest thread for some depressing attorney/parent lifestyles). I hope this helps. Again, it's been so long. So let me know if you have any questions.

cartera45

That doesn't make any difference to anyone.

alwaysamom

^^Haha, cartera, so true. So true.

zoosermom

Ha! You beat me to it.

JonLaw

I did patent prosecution and patent litigation. Not interesting enough and too stressful (billing hours) for me to do, so I went to non-billable world. My undergraduate degree was chemical engineering.

LaBarrister

Very cool, JonLaw. I will graduate with a Chem-E degree in 2015. In what part of the non-billable world do you now reside? I've often been a little mystified at the path that leads one to become a litigator. I fancy I will do some litigating in my time and like it for its financial rewards.

JonLaw

The exciting world of contingency fee disability law.

I feel like a social worker.

Which is better than the feeling of billing hours.