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What have you learned from being in this career?
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Job’s Answer
The practice of law and law school are two different things. I was a top student in high school and college. I had almost perfect scores on the SAT as well the LSAT. Law school was the hardest schooling I have ever completed. I also have an MBA from Stanford in which I was the class valedictorian. Law school requires that you take many classes you have no interest in. I personally did not want to take criminal or constitutional law as I entered law school after being a broker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange making over $300,000.00 per year at 22. I hated New York and the culture of Wall Street. I applied to law school to study real estate, taxation and land use in order to enter the real estate development and investment industry. In law school you learn to think differently, it kinds of warps you reality when you start to understand the rules of law and how people fail to adhere to them. That is because few people understand the field of law.
Law school only prepares you to take the bar exam. The bar exam comprises 26 types of law that you need to know about to pass. Law school and the bar in no way prepare you to be a functioning attorney. You can get hired by a law firm where it takes years to move up the firm until you are a functioning attorney in what ever field they have you working in. I have many friends that entered law school to become one type of attorney only to get hired and placed in a group that does not practice what type of law you desired to practice. Once you start that track it is very hard to move to another type of law since you are now making money and do not have the time to learn a new field of law, it takes years to master each field of law due to all the laws, codes and minutia involved in each type of law. I wanted to be a trial attorney, and work on real estate, taxation and investments, they are al interconnected if done properly and are very valuable to investors and developers. If I had joined a firm I probably never would have become a trial attorney. Firms have you work for 5-10 years until they let you do a trial as they want seasoned attorneys who understand the minutia of the court rules and the field of law they are practicing. I feel that most attorneys are not that great at what they do. Probably 60-80% are not that functional.
I decided that a two friends and I from law school would open a small firm and practice real estate, land use, construction defect and taxation. At the same time as I graduated from law school I purchased 180 acres in a fact growing area and rezoned it for apartments and homes. I got approval for 250 homes and 980 apartment/condo unit on the property. I was the first person to move a wet land in Oregon for that purpose, which was a big deal. I also started building homes. I was on site almost every day to learn home to place utilities and build homes. This allowed my to get to know owners of heavy equipment and developers of land desiring zoning and permitting assistance since I have a very good reputation for accomplishing what others could not. The secret was to file law suits against the cities and counties that did not allow the land uses I was proposing. The government is fearful of lawsuits and would normally come to the bargaining table to make a deal acceptable to everyone and void loosing a case in court that would have been extremely expensive if the government lost.
I became one of the beast land use, taxation and real estate trial attorneys in the state within 2.5 years of passing the bar. I practiced law for 10 years and then retired as an attorney and entered real estate investing and consulting business, which has been vey profitable. I will work on a large project, a 1,000 acre mine, for 1-2 years, acquiring the needed property, zoning and permitting the mine, then take a year off. My services were desired by the mining, alternative energy, industrial use (cement facilities, iron smelters, coal plants and other undesirable facilities.
The practice of law made me aware of the many rules most people have no idea about, and gave me skills a very small percentage of the population know. It is not an easy profession. Long hours, start pay not that great, and you realize that law school in no way prepared you to be functional attorney. The work can be emotionally draining and people in law suits need a lot of support to understand what the law will and will not allow. Counseling your clients takes up 1/4 of your time. If you do not keep your clients in the know and explain how the process works and what can and can not be done.
This is not an easy profession, do not enter it to save that world, you will not achieve social justice as an attorney unless you are very driven, smart and get the right breaks. Additionally, there are too many attorneys in America and unless you driven, aggressive and very sharp you may not succeed inn the field and have large amounts of student debt.
Finally, my son who is very bright wanted to be an attorney. He was raised in a 8,000 square foot home with a pool and jacuzzi on 2 acres located on a large river. We had jet skies, a boat a private beach, went skiing 3-4 time a week and life was good. He thought he would be rick as soon as he became an attorney. I made him go to the best engineering school in the country. When he got out he started at 95,000.00 working for Intel. No law school, high salary. He not makes 150,000.00 per year, works four days a week from home and says he in overworked and underpaid, he is crazy.
I hope this is helpful, a little long, but I wanted to try to let you know a detailed overview. I am not trying to discourage you from law school, only warn you that the school is not easy, and the practice of law is not easy and very hard work and draining over time. I now build classic cars that are monsters, raise my four 100 lb dogs and blow glass. If you or anyone else desires more information on the subject please do not hesitate to contact me.
Law school only prepares you to take the bar exam. The bar exam comprises 26 types of law that you need to know about to pass. Law school and the bar in no way prepare you to be a functioning attorney. You can get hired by a law firm where it takes years to move up the firm until you are a functioning attorney in what ever field they have you working in. I have many friends that entered law school to become one type of attorney only to get hired and placed in a group that does not practice what type of law you desired to practice. Once you start that track it is very hard to move to another type of law since you are now making money and do not have the time to learn a new field of law, it takes years to master each field of law due to all the laws, codes and minutia involved in each type of law. I wanted to be a trial attorney, and work on real estate, taxation and investments, they are al interconnected if done properly and are very valuable to investors and developers. If I had joined a firm I probably never would have become a trial attorney. Firms have you work for 5-10 years until they let you do a trial as they want seasoned attorneys who understand the minutia of the court rules and the field of law they are practicing. I feel that most attorneys are not that great at what they do. Probably 60-80% are not that functional.
I decided that a two friends and I from law school would open a small firm and practice real estate, land use, construction defect and taxation. At the same time as I graduated from law school I purchased 180 acres in a fact growing area and rezoned it for apartments and homes. I got approval for 250 homes and 980 apartment/condo unit on the property. I was the first person to move a wet land in Oregon for that purpose, which was a big deal. I also started building homes. I was on site almost every day to learn home to place utilities and build homes. This allowed my to get to know owners of heavy equipment and developers of land desiring zoning and permitting assistance since I have a very good reputation for accomplishing what others could not. The secret was to file law suits against the cities and counties that did not allow the land uses I was proposing. The government is fearful of lawsuits and would normally come to the bargaining table to make a deal acceptable to everyone and void loosing a case in court that would have been extremely expensive if the government lost.
I became one of the beast land use, taxation and real estate trial attorneys in the state within 2.5 years of passing the bar. I practiced law for 10 years and then retired as an attorney and entered real estate investing and consulting business, which has been vey profitable. I will work on a large project, a 1,000 acre mine, for 1-2 years, acquiring the needed property, zoning and permitting the mine, then take a year off. My services were desired by the mining, alternative energy, industrial use (cement facilities, iron smelters, coal plants and other undesirable facilities.
The practice of law made me aware of the many rules most people have no idea about, and gave me skills a very small percentage of the population know. It is not an easy profession. Long hours, start pay not that great, and you realize that law school in no way prepared you to be functional attorney. The work can be emotionally draining and people in law suits need a lot of support to understand what the law will and will not allow. Counseling your clients takes up 1/4 of your time. If you do not keep your clients in the know and explain how the process works and what can and can not be done.
This is not an easy profession, do not enter it to save that world, you will not achieve social justice as an attorney unless you are very driven, smart and get the right breaks. Additionally, there are too many attorneys in America and unless you driven, aggressive and very sharp you may not succeed inn the field and have large amounts of student debt.
Finally, my son who is very bright wanted to be an attorney. He was raised in a 8,000 square foot home with a pool and jacuzzi on 2 acres located on a large river. We had jet skies, a boat a private beach, went skiing 3-4 time a week and life was good. He thought he would be rick as soon as he became an attorney. I made him go to the best engineering school in the country. When he got out he started at 95,000.00 working for Intel. No law school, high salary. He not makes 150,000.00 per year, works four days a week from home and says he in overworked and underpaid, he is crazy.
I hope this is helpful, a little long, but I wanted to try to let you know a detailed overview. I am not trying to discourage you from law school, only warn you that the school is not easy, and the practice of law is not easy and very hard work and draining over time. I now build classic cars that are monsters, raise my four 100 lb dogs and blow glass. If you or anyone else desires more information on the subject please do not hesitate to contact me.
Updated
Richard’s Answer
I've learned that there are many areas of law, and you can choose the type of field based on your strengths and personality. If you like to speak in front of people, you can be a litigator. If you like to write, you can write appeals. Try to pin point your goals. For instance, what is important to you: Do you want to make money or help people who can't afford a lawyer?
My wife is a bankruptcy attorney. I have learned that bad luck can happen to anyone. People have to file bankruptcy due to unforeseen reasons like medical issues, loss of job, or change in job status. Bankruptcy gives clients a fresh start. Chapter 13 allows individuals to give the government a set fee every month to pay back the debts they can afford to pay. It also can lower their car payments, delay their student loan repayments, and pay IRS debt in installments. I have also learned that pay day loans are the worst solution people can do for their debt! The interest rate is ridiculously high and people can rarely pay them back.
My wife is a bankruptcy attorney. I have learned that bad luck can happen to anyone. People have to file bankruptcy due to unforeseen reasons like medical issues, loss of job, or change in job status. Bankruptcy gives clients a fresh start. Chapter 13 allows individuals to give the government a set fee every month to pay back the debts they can afford to pay. It also can lower their car payments, delay their student loan repayments, and pay IRS debt in installments. I have also learned that pay day loans are the worst solution people can do for their debt! The interest rate is ridiculously high and people can rarely pay them back.
Updated
Fiona’s Answer
Having practiced in law for over 10 years, I have obviously learned a lot of technical skills in my area (banking and finance).
Transaction management is another key skill - how to manage large transactions with hundreds of documents to be negotiated and executed with multiple counterparties in multiple countries with different time zones. How to avoid errors. How to (force yourself to) be detailed oriented when you are not naturally so!
One thing that law school does train you well for is logical and methodical reasoning and this is important for any area of law you decide to practice in.
Ultimately I think it is important to understand yourself, what your interests, strengths and weaknesses are such that you can determine which area of law is suitable for you. This is an important foundation for your career as you would not want to waste too many years doing something you hate or you are not suited to.
Transaction management is another key skill - how to manage large transactions with hundreds of documents to be negotiated and executed with multiple counterparties in multiple countries with different time zones. How to avoid errors. How to (force yourself to) be detailed oriented when you are not naturally so!
One thing that law school does train you well for is logical and methodical reasoning and this is important for any area of law you decide to practice in.
Ultimately I think it is important to understand yourself, what your interests, strengths and weaknesses are such that you can determine which area of law is suitable for you. This is an important foundation for your career as you would not want to waste too many years doing something you hate or you are not suited to.
Updated
David’s Answer
What I have learned are the court system, jurisdiction, the law, my rights as well what I have gain from law school and helping out community, people around me and more. Because I believes and my own thinking is there is a lot of people who has a language barrier, not knowing the law, and etc. is being able target and with my assistance and giving them some legal advice so they won't be target and discriminate for not know some simple law. Plus, I am against a lot of people who thinks they know everything and pick on people who doesn't.