SECOND - SUCK IT HARD!

No one responded to my previous question:

Can someone elaborate further on this?

3-When called upon, turn the situation around and use leading questions with the prof to establish the point you want to make. He or she has likely never actually practiced law and will be uncomfortable with your technique. That should keep them at bay from calling upon you later in the semester. It also entertains your fellow classmates - and that's what's most important.

3 - that is a joke. Don't do it. Just answer the question as best you can.

2 - WELL SAID (#1)

Make and keep some friends who don't go to law school. It will give you necessary perspective and a way to keep sane when your classmates are unbearable.

6: That's terrible advice. Your law school peers comprise the professional network of a lifetime. Branch out and find as many fellow students to befriend as possible.

Also: the law is your family now.

Wear low cut shirts. Sincerely, Hope Winters.

Leave your computer at home, and actually pay attention to class.

I guess I'm a little supersticious, but the morning before a big exam, I'd go out and kill a hobo with a hammer.

LAW SCHOOL *Secrets* . . .

Number one advice:

You are there to get a job. Everything is geared toward getting a job. Never forget that you want a job. This is professional school and you should be employed -- that is, you have a job -- at graduation.

Leave your computer at home??? Uh, no thanks. How else do I pass the time?? I'm at a top 20 firm now and I never paid attention in class.

Just write down the rules you have to know and get ready to apply them to some random facts your prof makes up. That's it. Not very hard.

10, Sound advice, but before you know it you end up killing hobos every week just to get back to "normal."

6- Yes. *DO* keep some friends that are not in law school. Of course, make friends in law school too. Just don't isolate yourself too much.

10 - Every time a see the hobo joke, I laugh out loud. I don't know why, but I find it funny.

12: No way it's that simple. I'm going to memorize the facts of Pennoyer vs. Neff like my professor asked. Next stop: Law Review!

"Never pay for your own lunch. There is always free pizza to be had at lunch time if you look hard enough."

Well, that's ok if you a) either exercise like mad, b) have a super!metabolism, or c) don't care about weight/fitness.

Make a CD of the Rocky Soundtrack and listen to it during the exam study period. But the key is to listen to "eye of the tiger" before you sit to take the exam.

Good advice, ignore the countless number of people who advised to get out of the law now. By all means -- why listen to the people who are actually practicing in this shit profession.

and be sure to have some 'other activity' you enjoy outside of class as a go to answer during OCIs.

1. who enjoy's class?
2. are you serious??? what kind of loser are you that the only thing in your life is class?

Law Review is the biggest scam since communism.

7 - you had no friends until law school, did you?

So who do you propose I have sex with during my first year Kash? Are you available?

Law school really isn't that hard (top 10 firm, top 5 law school). That said, everyone freaks out their first semester, so you should too. Don't do anything but study your first semester, and then you can pretty much coast the rest of the time (ok, that's going a little overboard, because you have SO much free time in law school - oh, I miss those days so much).

22: Friends back at home and friends in the city in which your law school is located are two different things. I don't know how you can find friends when you're away from home and stuck with neurotic law students for all of your waking hours.

Prepare to go long and strong, because you have to roll full models and bottles!

"Accidentally" bump up against the professor from time to time. wink wink wink. Hope Winters.

24: that's terrible advice. Stay calm and collected, collect rules, and take practice exams, and first semester is your chance to rock the house. Afterward, people will catch on and the quality of the exams will improve, stifling all but the future federal court geniuses.

1. Eat Well
2. Sleep Well
3. Live Well

And I virtually guarantee median or higher. You'll be amazed by how many people fail all three of those tests.

1. get a diesel outline from an upperclass student and follow along as the class goes along.
2. do exactly what the profesor prefers, if they want majority/minority rules, you do that on exam. Most professors are egotistical enough that they just want to hear back exactly what they told you.
3. study groups are great for practice exams, because there will always be one issue you didn't see right away, just be careful not to study with morons. If you are the smartest person in your study group, move on.
4. practice exams suck, but you MUST do them.
5. definitely have sex with classmates first year. It relieves the stress of realizing this one year determines your entire future. Once you're blurry-eyed from being in the library till 1am, even law students looks pretty good.

1. get a diesel outline from an upperclass student and follow along as the class goes along.
2. do exactly what the profesor prefers, if they want majority/minority rules, you do that on exam. Most professors are egotistical enough that they just want to hear back exactly what they told you.
3. study groups are great for practice exams, because there will always be one issue you didn't see right away, just be careful not to study with morons. If you are the smartest person in your study group, move on.
4. practice exams suck, but you MUST do them.
5. definitely have sex with classmates first year. It relieves the stress of realizing this one year determines your entire future. Once you're blurry-eyed from being in the library till 1am, even law students looks pretty good.

The book recommendations must be for second tier schools. Glannon is a joke in Procedure. No one buys a writing book. Chemerensky is an easy read but lightweight. Chirelstein is actually pretty good and would work at any level of school. From this and lots of other recent posts I get the sense that smart people don't read this blog anymore. It is now in the hands of the "gooseshitters." See JBAWP.

ok serious post time:

my property prof says "don't worry about the rules, by the time the test comes by you will all know them from hearing them so often. worry about 'thinking like a lawyer'"

is she right? if not, and just learning the rules gets me by, how do i make my exam stand out?

i got to school early, finished all of tomorrow's readings, used study aids and took notes. should i just call it a day at 5pm? so far I have been doing the 7:30-6 routine and leaving law school in the building, is this ok? or should i alter my work habits, despite being only 2 weeks into class?

not sure who to ask at school, i do not want to get the gunner tag, so i come to you ATL.

If you want friends outside of law school, find the business school on campus and make friends with them. They'll be the ones hiring lawyers in a few years.

33: You've doing well.

Thinking like a lawyer means applying those rules to new hypothetical situations. Let's say you're discussing strict liability in Torts and somebody brings up a domesticated monkey. Or a dog with rabies? Should strict liability apply to the dog with rabies (it's a feral animal, no?)? What about the domesticated monkey? What about an elephant? Should you be liable if your elephant gets loose?

That's it. Thinking like a lawyer can be taught in ten minutes, or twenty if you want to be ambitious and cover policy as well. It's partially arguing semantics, partially arguing policy, and partially arguing which rules apply where.

Your study regimen is fine. You shouldn't be working much more than that until Finals.

What do others think of my advice?

Make time for exercise. While it's tempting to make it the first sacrifice when you are stressed for time, at least one hour will help clear your head and distill what you are studying. It will also keep you healty and control your sleep cycle. Best of all, you won't balloon up like some of your classmates.

33 - stay for a few more hours at least.

35 nailed it. and oh yeah, pay no attn when anyone other then the prof speaks. that's when you give the pen/keyboard a rest

- my property prof says "don't worry about the rules, by the time the test comes by you will all know them from hearing them so often. worry about 'thinking like a lawyer'" -

Law professors tend to give the worst advice.

35 knows what a feral animal is, but doesn't know how to do a closing or draft his own will

co-sign 39.

Law professor advice: "Worry most about your legal writing work."

Yeah, okay. You mean that class that isn't even graded? And that has no effect on the GPA that will decide my future?

The common "Law Review sucks" comment is misleading. Yes, Law Review is tedious and is tough to balance with other obligations. That said, employers value it precisely because it is a tough balance that you are showing you have the skills to achieve.

Went to T10 - virtually everyone on my Law Review got at least one of their top two firms. Part of that has to do with grades, but interviewers went on and on about Law Review.

First and foremost, do what works for you. If you are the kind of person who does well in study groups, join one. If not, don't. Do not feel pressured to do things just because everyone else in your class is doing them (ie, the study groups, buying hornbooks, reviewing 15 different outlines). Don't be afraid to strike out against the grain and cut your own path.

For me, I showed up to every class, took notes by hand, made my own outlines and took practice tests. I had about a 3.96 from a top 10 school after my first year. I never joined a study group, never cracked a hornbook and never used someone else's outline, but I had lots of friends who did it that way and did just as well.

The only quibble I have is with "-"Don't have sex with classmates until your second year."

I say, only have sex with law school classmates.

They are too uptight and freaked out for things to lead to a distraction (i.e. actual romance).

After 1 semester worth of a monk's existence (up before dawn, class, study until sleep) all of my law books were stolen (along with my car) throwing me off my routine.

I promptly ran into an incredibly beautiful woman non-student who I have met as an undergrad but was now between BF's.

Passion and love ensued. (Think Barry White 8 hours a day.)

We moved in together.

I managed to pull out of the dive 6 weeks before second semester finals, and don't get me wrong, she "got me through LS".

But I had to break it off to focus for the bar exam, and there was lots of drama involved.

All in all, my advice would be to avoid serious romantic entanglements until after the bar results come out.

Stick with law students.

Its like eating food you really don't like--you wll never get fat.

Don't be afraid to make up your own exams and take them. You'll learn a lot about how professors think, and how legal reasoning operates.

For instance, in the vein of my strict liability:

Ms. Jane, an affectionate widow, lived in a country house that was high up in the mountains. Seeking companionship, she took in a mountain lion that she thought was a simple house cat. The mountain lion was young and affectionate as well. She generally confined him to a pen that was, according to its manufacturer's promise, "unbreakable. Pen strong."

One night, the mountain lion had a bad dream and, thrust forward by a sudden power move, broke the pen and escaped through a window that Jane had left open. Although they were up in the mountains, he mauled a lost hiker and the hospital bill came to 100k.

Analyze claims and damages.

See how you start to think about manufacturing liability, strict liability, and negligence? See how they're complicated by the fact that a) they're up in the mountains . . . the hiker is a fluke b) the pen c) she doesn't even know it's not a cat [or does she because she puts him in a pen?]

That's it. Good luck in LS.

Do not have sex with your classmates.
Do have sex with your professors.

Chirelstein taught my Contracts class, wow was that class miserable. But, his book is hands down the best book you'll use for contracts. Also, I personally think "The Glannon Guide" was helpful for Civ Pro -- probably not as your only resource, but it gives you a good leaping off point.

Check to see your professors' recent articles and read them.

Read "Elements of Style" three times.

Learn quickly what not to read when reading a case. Real lawyers can read a case in 5 minutes. Don't waste your time reading every word. Read the case for a purpose.

Think Syllogistically.

44 -

Although an interesting saga, I think you are wrong in your analysis outside of maybe T14 law schools (which I did not attend).

You see, most people are dumb (like me) and did not attend a T14 law school. Yes, you can make a great career out of the law going to a <T14 but it is difficult (I am living proof). How is this applicable?

Well, in <T14, you have people that are only in law school because they don't know what else to do with their lives. Too afraid to get a real job, don't want to rest on an undergraduate degree. You also have the females who went to undergrad to get a 'Mrs.' degree and failed. These women may be homely, dorky, or hot and just crazy (or hot and got absolutely shit on by the man they thought would grant the Mrs. at their undergraduate institution, freaked out, and went to law school so that they 'would never have to rely on a man again').

So, when you hook up with the Mrs. candidate, you get the girl who wasn't good enough to complete this degree in undergrad and thinks, "Hey, why not hitch my cart to the successful lawyer."

What she, and you, and everyone else at <T14 doesn't realize...there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for these law graduates. And you may have just saddled yourself with law school baggage for three years (not that you continue to date, but she is routinely around and you have to deal with her crushed expectations...unless she can find another bachelor to fulfill her Mrs. degree).

Beware <T14 males students!

48: What don't you read?

I just focus on the holding and a few facts. Anything else?

Don't let law school take you over. Study 10 hours per day and you will be fine.

I neglected my body for the entire year. I only took one day off (including Sat. and Sun.) both semester combined. I ended up #2 in my class. The summer after my first year, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and some of my doctors think it was because my immune system was operating at such a low level because of lack of sleep/exercise.

My situation may be a coincidence, but take care of your body--your career needs it later.

Don't let law school take you over. Study 10 hours per day and you will be fine.

I neglected my body for the entire year. I only took one day off (including Sat. and Sun.) both semester combined. I ended up #2 in my class. The summer after my first year, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and some of my doctors think it was because my immune system was operating at such a low level because of lack of sleep/exercise.

My situation may be a coincidence, but take care of your body--your career needs it later.

Bust your ass first year.
Pay attention second year.
Never go third year.

Most Underrated Advice: "Don't join a study group. They are time wasters."

The "never go third year" advice is really stupid. A lot of people slack off third year. It is a perfect time to make up some ground in class rank in case you want to apply to hard-to-get clerkships a few years after graduation.

@43 - "about a 3.96"? Tool.

A former HS classmate--who was a legacy student at another LS--told me that he was in a study group first year, that the guy who outlined contracts had his outline stolen from the copy room, and that he kicked in the front apartment door of the guy who he thought did it, assaulted the suspect, got arrested, and kicked out of school.

Never found out if the door-kicker was admitted to the bar somewhere.

Could have saved himself the trouble by Xeroxing a BAR-BRI contracts outline.

He may have had a 3.9644358393823. He also may be an idiot or a liar or both.

Masturbate furiously. In Civil Procedure.

1) Identify the gunners and time-wasters (easy to do: they always have their hand up and spew out worthless comments) - don't get to know them, however;
2) Identify those of your fellow students who look like they have a personality, preferably sarcastic (harder to do by scanning the lecture hall) - get to know these students well;
3) Form a posse with those in group 2 to make fun of those in group 1 (trust me group 1 will provide plenty of stories for you to chuckle over).

Do this for three years and your law school experience will actually be fun. Further, you'll have many stories that you can post on blogs such as ATL!

Ha, I had Chirelstein for Contracts too. Wow, was that man phoning it in. BLECH.

And even though I went to the school that employs Chirelstein (ahem, 32) I still recommend Glannon's.

And the Volokh book too: it spells out how to write a note and get it published, and that is valuable info. So its more of a 2L book than 1L.

I heard that sending $200 to UNICEF is more important than anything you could ever do as a lawyer. It's all based on a statue in Harvard Square that depicts some rich dude kicking dirt on some poor woman and her kids. I guess the woman needed $200 to live and the dude was like "No way, I'm not going to give you $200 to let you live 'cause I'm rich and you're not." And so the sign on the statute says something like "If you give $200 to poor people no one will ever starve again." And I guess that statue is like right next to Harvard Law School and no one at that school even paid attention to it until some guy wrote a law review article that told us about the $200 to the UNICEF thing. But I think people are still starving and I know people are still going to Harvard Law School, so I guess no one really paid attention to the law review article.

But you should. Send the $200 to the UNICEF and then you can go be whatever you ever wanted to be and you'd have done better than if you spent the rest of your life as an attorney. Even if it's like a pole dancer or a garbage man. But you'll probably earn a lot less doing that. Maybe not as a pole dancer, though.

55: TOTALLY agree. You will have to send out your transcript again if you lateral. You want it to be full of A-s you got without breaking a sweat, or with crap grades that tell the firm you like to slack off majorly? Further advice: if there are any courses chock full of 3ls, TAKE THEM. The curve will be very favorable.

Raise your hand in class a lot and vehemently express your liberal political views. They are so obviously correct and anyone who disagrees is a fool.

59 just brought the house down. Well played, sir, well played.

56 & 58: I honestly didn't remember what my GPA was, only that I was slightly below 4.0 because I had all As and two A- and two A+, but one A- was in a class that was worth one additional hour (maybe Civ Pro -- which sucked anyway and I could have cared less about since I was going into a transactional practice), so I thought the average was about 3.96. But now that you mention it, maybe it was 3.97, or even 3.98.

In any event, the GPA (combined with my effusive personality and rapier wit) was enough to get me callbacks and offers from every firm I interviewed with, in addition to all the summer program and recruiting frills such as a weekend in Vegas, courtside seats to NBA games, bottles of Krug and a very nice, small, hand-carved box that I keep on my desk to put your nuts in when I give you assignments at 5 pm on Friday as I am on the way out the door to meet my friends for drinks.

use your time to rethink your life and get out of the profession before you dot another i.

Fatboy

The most important thing to remember is this:

Law professors waste lives.

55 is right.

Don't underestimate the potential value of 2L and 3L grades. You may find your self re-recruiting 3L year or lateraling early in your career. And a lot of the best students are watsing their time blubooking articles 2L year, and half of the rest have given up, so you can use that time to make up a lot of ground.

It is possible to go from middle of the pack to cum laude between 1L year and graduation.

Here's a good tip for 1Ls at American --

Act like a far-left, Obama supporting, socialist. That way all of the professors will like and give you good grades. Oh, and also you will become very popular with your classmates.

I think Obama is way too conservative for the average AU law professor.

For those 1Ls who have dismissed the naysayers, we'd advise reading through the comments, and ignoring all the "run for your life" stuff.

Seriously... quit now. A law degree isn't flexible. People consider it an over-glorified masters degree. Why do you think employers ask for a writing sample. It's because a law degree is useless.

If you persist in going through law school and you end up in the bottom half of the class after the first year, you might as well quit and cut your losses. You never hear people making it into Big Law if you are in bottom half of the class unless you are at a top 10 school. And if you graduate, you can expect to do personal injury or working for government at less than half the salary of your peers or some other crappy job you don't want. Seriously, dockworkers with high school degrees get paid better than a government lawyer. Quit while your ahead. If you want to make money, get an MBA. Even bad jobs pay better than lawyers.

Most professors are idiots. Those that can't do, teach. Use your brain and figure it out yourself. I skipped half my classes and still ended up cum laude.

Get an engineering degree.

Get an engineering degree.

Although I am a GIRL and disagree somewhat with 49's characterization, I can't agree more with the message overall. Dating your 1L section mates is about the worst thing you can do ever. When you break up (because inevitably one of you is a crazy person) you will have to see this person every single day for the rest of your 1L. If you are the crazy one, this will suck. If you are not the crazy one, this will suck.

Just don't do it. Sleep with townies if you need to relieve stress.

Here's my advice: Study your butt off so you can get really good grades. Then go back to long island, visit your dad at his dentist office and allow him to show you off to all of his bratty friends. Then go back to that private school you went to and show off to your old high school government teacher.

Then get a job at a "big law" firm so you can toil away for the next two years before you realize you never really wanted to be a lawyer and you just went to law school because it sounded good.

I love breasts

The best thing I did was to stop listening to my profs. Don't ask them how to do well on their exams - they couldn't care less how you did. No matter how well you as students do on the exams, the grades will all be the same. In fact, the worse students do, the easier it is for the professor to grade.

Get study guides, learn the rules and don't buy any BS such as "you'll learn it by the end"/

Use your computer for notes only--not games; not internet. Also, the best way to study (in my experience) is to read your notes, condense your notes, and do a few practice exams.

Third -- there is no replacement for Law Review, no matter what anyone tells you.

There is a replacement for the law review...the editorial board of the law review.

Senior Managing Editor on one of the other journals isn't bad if your school is T1.

Get to know 2Ls and 3Ls. Get their notes on the professor's exams. Some student organizations keep files on professors and their exams. Stress out competition by talking about red herrings and things that won't be on the exam. Give notes with mistakes to people you don't like so they study the wrong thing for the exam.

If you do well academically (ie, just miss law review) and are at a legit law school, don't bother with a journal or moot court if you are not interested. You'll get offers at everywhere except Wachtell anyway.

I LIKE TURTLES

I am a law professor. My advice- Don't read this blog in my class because I can see what you are doing and I will call on you. I'm told that I'm pretty good at this. Also, don't think you have to master everything immediately. This isn't college.

86 - You may see us and call us out in class, but that's the beauty of a blind grading system.

test

What do you think made the difference between the top and bottom of the class? Intelligence? Passion? Work ethic?

Also, is 45's advice correct? Should I write my own exams? Is that what they look like?

BEST ADVISE FOR LAW SCHOOL STUDENTS IS TO FIND 1 OR 2 (PREFERABLY JUST 1) EXCELLENT OUTLINES FOR EACH CLASS FROM PREVIOUS TOP STUDENTS AND STUDY OFF OF THEM.

If you have the above, I would suggest bringing them to class and tracking the outline as the lecture is going on. A good outline will track the important points of the lectures to the dot and if anyhthing changes, you can mark it up in class (professors dont change their lectures very often). IT IS STUPID AND A WASTE OF RESOURCES to exert yourself otherwise.

Making you own outline is STUPID (unless there just is no outline available for that class already - very rare).

Also, find and review old exams for that professor - again, professor dont change their materials very often.

Being a dumbass that join study groups, read every friggin case to the last word, buyes bucketful of horn books and generally lives in the library is not the best expenditure of your time. Law school is littered with people who studied their assess off and got nowhere.

I am at a top 15 law firm and speak from experience folks.

Best advice - don't be afraid to pass when the professor calls on you....

Join student organizations. Those organizations will have outlines availble to members. Law Review has the best outlines, so sleep with a 2L who is on Law Review

Even better than 92:
Find the Law Review's fall issue and look at the editorial board and staff. Copy every name and look at FB in order to figure out who they are.
Befriend them. Profit.

93 -- True advice. I'd add that you try to get the outlines from the upperclassmen that did well in each class they had with the same professor you have and memorize them like mad the week before the exam, then promptly brain-dump afterwards and move on to the next one. If they did well, they obviously were in tune or focused on what the professor wanted -- so why try to figure it out, just borrow their wisdom/luck by using their outlines.

Also, some schools keep old exams (usually a decade or so old) available in the library. If not, maybe the professor would be willing to share old ones? If you can pull a handful of those by one professor, even if they are old, you'll see a pattern of what concepts he likes to test and make sure you're familiar with those.

Also, in certain classes, you know the professor is going to test certain concepts so you can take with you a list in your head of those concepts -- use a pneumonic device to remember them and write them out before you even open up your test booklet. It's like doing a word search puzzle with or without a list of words you're searching for -- it's easier with a list written out and once you brain-dump the list onto the paper, you don't have to keep that in your head. Then, when you're going through the fact patterns, you have a list of concepts to check off and in the end, if you have concepts you have not identified in any fact pattern, you can go back through and see if the remaining concepts do apply somewhere you didn't see the first go-round.

I think this is my first ever serious comment on here....

As a 1L, it is better not to sleep with other 1Ls because you will have to see him/her on a regular basis for the next three years. Stick to undergrads. They will be very impressed that you are in law school and will not pick up on how clueless you are.

The time for sleeping with 1Ls is when you are a 2L...and a 3L.

95: you're being ridiculous. No undergraduate has ever been impressed by a law student because he or she is a law student. It's usually some combination of looks and prestige.

And undergraduates at places like Columbia, Chicago, and Harvard could *care less* about law students. They have enough prestigious peers already.

Best advice for law students?

Don't go to law school.

Seriously.

Thanks to the ABA's accreditation policies, there are more law schools and more laywers chasing the available jobs out there. If you think that busting your ass in your first year in a Tier 10 school will guarantee you a BIGLAW job, well, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Oh, definitely have sex in law school. Nothing like doing the doggy while reviewing civ pro.

97: that's precisely why it's so valuable to go to a *decent* law school and do well there. Otherwise, the silent hand of the marketplace stuffs you like Mutumbo.

The problem is law school is that few people are actually made for the law. You need someone who is:

1. interpersonally savvy. he could be a used car salesman if he wanted to. he could host a party and be engaging.
2. exceptionally articulate, both with the written and oral word. give me a poet, a historical scholar, an orator. someone who's studied Obama, Kennedy, Lincoln.
3. quick-witted thinker. solve a crossword puzzle. devise a way out of this box. quick.
4. detail-orientated. someone who is passionate about details, sections, codes.
5. hard worker. 10 hour days. 11 hour days. all-nighters. this hypothetical person doesn't mind, as long as the job gets done.

This is an calling, all right? Not another liberal arts degree, not escapism from economic penury, not an all-purpose degree to impress clients. There are so few people who match all of these criteria, and most of them are at T10 schools.

98, are you calling the denizens of T10 schools the equivalent of used car salesmen?

Unfortunately, even in T10 schools, too many people are into it for the money and not for the sake of love of the law.

And too many people mortgage themselves with $100,000 plus student loans to even conceive of anything other than a BIGLAW salary which is only possible if you're in the top ten schools, top ten in terms of grades, and social skills one step above that of an used car salesman, and even then, as the OCI stories tell you, it's a crapshoot.

The odds are long and in the end, the house, i.e., law firms, always win.

Work-study at the library!

It's all about getting paid to sit at a desk because hardly anyone checks out books in law school. You can get some great studying done and get paid to do it.

(That is unless helping people with Lexis/Westlaw stuff goes with the job - then avoid that work-study at all costs!)

You know, law firms could cut costs by assigning summer associates that got an offer with an ongoing project during the school year that requires a lot of Lexis/Westlaw research.

The research, obviously, would be paid for by the law schools. A win-win-win for everyone except maybe for the law library.

99: you're being ridiculous. T10 people do not need to be top ten in terms of grades. They can be median and above and that's fine. Sometimes, they can be below median and still find lower-ranked firms to hire them.

I can agree with your other point. Either go Big or don't go at all, unless you're confident that your brilliance, work ethic, and social skills aren't fully reflected by your LSAT and GPA.

102,

I don't know about you -- unless, of course, you're a GULC alum or Penn State grad -- but everyone I know in law school is brilliant, has a strong work ethic, and impeccable social skills. And killer LSAT and GPAs.

And they're still struggling to find jobs.

And this is T10, by the way. And, no, neither GULC nor Penn State are, by definition, part of the top ten. Perhaps top 50.

103: This has to be flame. Harvard has like 100% BigLaw placement rate, and schools like Columbia and Chicago aren't far behind. Even at schools like Michigan, the overwhelming number of students find firms.

104

There is a big difference between "overwhelming," and 100 percent placement.

It's not happening. That is, the 100 percent placement.

105: Yes, it is. Do I need to quote some statistics? Anyone at HLS can get BigLaw. The omissions are either PI people or Clerkships.

I"ve noticed more of my compatriots bypassing BIGLAW to go directly to government. At least, there'll be jobs there to ride out the economic storm that's brewing overhead.

three more law schools to open in ny

http://endofesq.com/?p=127

Obama, Kennedy, Lincoln...

Geez, give me a break!

I love lawyers.
Judges - not so much.