Read the full article here. There are a lot of lessons to be learned here, for those of you thinking

Read the full article here. There are a lot of lessons to be learned here, for those of you thinking about law school & looking for legal jobs.1. Do your research on the school you choose.I know not everyone can afford to go to a good law school. I know not everyone can do as well as they hoped on the LSAT or graduate with a high undergrad GPA. But if a school ranked as lowly (actually, I don’t believe it’s currently ranked, at all) as TJ charges as much as it does? Also, can she really blame the school’s representations about employment stats, when she presumably began law school in 2005, when we had, I don’t know, the Internet? Do your research. Look at multiple sources. Did it seriously sound like a school that the employers in your area would think highly of? TJ is in fucking CALIFORNIA, which has more law schools and therefore unemployed law students than basically any other state.DO YOUR RESEARCH. Rankings are not everything - local opinions count, too. TJ had neither.2. Be realistic about your job expectations.The article says that shortly after she graduated from law school, she was offered a $60K job with a law firm. Now, I do not want to represent that you should take any legal job you are offered. You shouldn’t take a job you will be very unhappy at. It seems the non-legal jobs she was offered were better.But here it is: SHE TOOK THE OTHER NON-LEGAL JOBS BECAUSE THEY WERE BETTER. Taking a non-legal job that paid better was her fucking choice. No law school can guarantee you a legal job that YOU will be happy with, and having graduated from TJ? $60K right out of a bottom tier law school? That’s pretty much as good as it’s going to get nowadays, and it’s not even 2009 anymore. By the way, even in San Diego, $60K is not such a low salary that you wouldn’t be able to “afford” to accept in lieu of much higher paying non-legal jobs. It certainly isn’t a great salary in light of student loans and potential family obligations, but I wonder just what sort of other non-law jobs she was offered. It kind of sounds like she turned it down because she thought she could do better (having graduated top of her class, etc.), which brings us to…3. Be proactive and aggressive about your job search.She graduated in 2008. It is now 2016. It is of course true that she filed in 2011, but I hope working on this lawsuit wasn’t the only thing she did for the past five years.The more time it passes without you having gained experience, the harder it gets to get a job. Especially if your school doesn’t have the brand name appeal of the top schools, all you can really bank on after the first year out is NOT how you did in law school: it’s your experience. Volunteer at a legal aid organization, even if it’s once a week or for few hours. The short doc review projects and other short projects you might do on your own? Sell them as well as you can. There are also organizations out there that help young lawyers start their own practices at relatively low cost.And keep networking. It can be completely humiliating to go to networking events while unemployed, I know. But people understand, and it often takes at least 2-3 years for you to start seeing benefits of this. 4. Realize that becoming a working lawyer costs more than just law school tuition.Of course, not everyone can afford to volunteer while working other jobs to make ends meet. Costs of going to networking events also can add up.The law profession is sadly still a very privileged one. Despite what some very lucky people will make it seem, becoming a well-paid lawyer involves a LOT of privilege. Think about it. Wealthier people can afford to go to the fancier undergrad schools, take LSAT prep courses, afford the better law schools, take bar prep courses…and do all of this while not having to work at the same time to make ends meet. We are all accepting of this. It’s unfair but it’s how it is.What we often forget about is that this also extends BEYOND law school and the bar. Some people can afford to live at home and take a low-paying legal job for the resume. Some people can afford to volunteer for the experience instead of having to support others, working non-legal jobs. Some people don’t even think about the costs of attending networking events.These are, unfortunately, costs that you need to take into account, up there with the law school tuition. Ms. Alaburda, if her mistakes above rose solely out of financial troubles, didn’t adequately calculate the real costs. I can’t really blame her: a lot of people are not able to. I didn’t calculate these costs, and the only reason I’m fine is because I’m privileged in so many ways.It SEEMS like all it takes is a student loan which they are sure they can pay back with a cushy legal job straight out of law school. No. It often takes a lot more privilege than that, and being aware of this is important before you jump into this crazy train. -- source link
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