What are some good degrees for law school?

rscgrad
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 01:45:43 +0000

Pharmacy Student… He did not go to a Top 20 law school. However, he did graduate in the top 10% of his class, was on the editorial board of the Law Review and clerked for both a Federal and State judge and also for a small firm in our area. I think in hind sight, while it is important to go to a good school, it is EQUALLY, if not more imporant, to do the absolute best you can in school and be in the top 10% of your graduating class. My husband also is unique that his going to law school was delayed byt a significant amount of time. He has several years experience in the tech industry. He had a long successful career to back up his entry into law and in a field that was seeing a growth from a legal perspective. For him, it didn’t matter that he wasn’t going to HYS or a top 20 school (though he was accepted at other law schools that were “better” or ranked higher than where he graduated, we were established in the neighborhood of his Alma Mater & ultimately decided to not move across the country). So many of his colleagues are under- employed, but they are also not patent attorneys; this is I believe this to be the key difference. He initally was offered a job at the small firm he was a law clerk for his last year and starting salary was not that high- 80K. That being said, 3 years into it, he was picked up by a sizable firm in the MidWest and had a significant salary increase to boot.

Make no mistake, his job is difficult & he does put in A LOT of hours. He had also considered going to medical school at some point. I would HIGHLY recommend you not chose a career for the $$ aspect. You will likely be unfulfilled and miserable later in life. I recommend you spend some time talking to a few lawyers… They READ AND WRITE MORE THAN ANY OTHER PROFESSION I"VE EVER ENCOUNTERED!!! & That is an understatement. Courtroom battles are rare in his field, and even then, it is usually the litigators that manage that piece, not the Patent Attorneys.

The cost of law school is not for the faint of heart. This needs to be taken very seriously. Taking on law school debt is akin to a mortgage on a home. A friend of ours left the legal profession (and the US) because he couldn’t find enough work to live on and pay his student loans. He now lives in China (no joke) and teaches English in a Chinese boarding school!