<p>im a high school student whos been thinking about goin into law. However, my parents have advised me not to, because I am indian, and they feel that indians arent that succesful as lawyers. Therefore they want me to be a doctor (I know thats about as stereotypical as it gets lol). Do you agree? Is this really that important for me to take into account before I decide on my career?</p>
<p>It’s really your decision considering it will affect the rest of your life. You’ve got plenty of time to go to college and find out what you like and can do well in, whether it be social or hard sciences. Don’t let a stereotype decide how you decide to live but explore the many options you have in the four years before you go to a med or law school; you don’t need to make a decision anytime soon.</p>
<p>I assume you are a US citizen and by indian you mean from India. Note, if you are not a US citizen, and will not become one, then there may be issues of becoming a US lawyer. Other than that your ethnic origin should not be decisive. It is true that we do not find large numbers of those with Indian heritage in the law or in the large law firms and I suspect that is due at least partly to there being many Indian parents who express the same concerns as yours.</p>
<p>^What if you are a permanent resident?</p>
<p>thanks for the replies everyone…and just to clarify, i was born in america, and my parents have been here for more than 20 years</p>
<p>i’m brown too and want to be a lawyer lol</p>
<p>i see where your parents are coming from though because they have that sort of image of law where promotions and moving up may not be judged based solely on ability but appearance and who you know</p>
<p>kind of like a country club, “if you’re not with it, you’re not in it.” lol</p>
<p>idk if it’s true or not but regardless i’d rather do law because i couldn’t stand going through school to be a doctor, i hate science.</p>
<p>anyways i know that there are at least one or two pakistani law offices in the DC area cuz i’ve seen them advertising in the urdu newspaper… so it can’t be all that rare lol</p>
<p>EDIT: also now that i think about it my mom watches some indian show that comes on MHz once a week and they have two indian lawyers on there that have there own segment about immigration law. immigration law is probably the way to go!! lol</p>
<p>Where I practice – New York City – there are succesful lawyers of every race. For one thing, a lot of potential clients want an attorney of their own race. So if you intend to serve individual clients in an area with a large Indian population, I would think there will be plenty of potential clients who will not hold your ethnic background against you. And of course a lot of potential clients don’t care one way or another.</p>
<p>As far as BIGLAW goes, there is a lot more prejudice against attorneys from lower tier law schools than racial prejudice. </p>
<p>In my opinion, what’s most important is to follow your interests and abilities. If you are interested in law and have good verbal abilities, you will most likely do fine.</p>
<p>I would suggest you intern in a couple law offices so you get a better sense of what lawyers do and if it’s for you.</p>
<p>JMHO.</p>
<p>I’m curious, why do people frequently refer to big law by saying “BIGLAW”, all in caps. Is this an acronym?</p>
<p>It just means certain big law firms which, among other things, tend to pay a lot of money to associates straight out of law school. I have no idea why it’s capitalized.</p>
<p>Mmmm I’m Indian-American and want to be a lawer, too. None of that science crap, haha.</p>
<p>Hey, you’ll never know if you don’t pursue your dream, right?</p>
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<p>Hell yeah.</p>