Any updates on summer associate offer rates?

Debevoise and Davis Polk near 100%.

You're missing perhaps the most famous of prodigy lawyers -- Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy -- volokh.com.

The winner of the Fay Diploma at HLS 2 years ago, who graduated summa cum laude (very rare), started law school as a teenager.

Well, it's good to go to law school, you know, just to have something to fall back on in case the science fiction writer thing doesn't work out.

Though, I guess she could always mix her passions and combine the two. Esquires in Space? Or perhaps JAG in Space. Space JAG!! If she's super-liberal and dislikes the military, I guess she could always have her main character randomly court martial starship captains for excessive use of force when dealing with aliens?

Kathleen Holtz looks like she's at least 30.

I went to law school at 21 and graduated at 24. I wish I had waited. Why are people so quick to rush through some of the most entertaining and carefree years of their lives???

Holtz went to Cal State La. CAL STATE. UCLA is so TTT for admitting anyone from a Cal State!

Hilary Duff. Very Nice!

If Hillary Duff was my secretary, I would allow her the privilege of me pounding her in the ass.

Skadden Secure

Wait, she got a 174 and decided only to go to Northwestern? Maybe she isn't so bright after all. Hope the science fiction works out for her b/c the idea that there will be any jobs for law students graduating in the next three years is pretty much science fiction anyway.

Marvelous. Because a 19-year-old has so much to teach the world.

I can't wait for her to encounter civ pro, property, and the other drudgery of 1L year and get beat down like most bleeding-hearts when they encounter the harsh, cold reality that is actual law.

Also: Northwestern Law? Not so much a prodigy.

I am a 2L at GULC, interning at PE's firm, and dating Pepin Tuma. I was planning on spending next semester in NY taking Ms. Thio's 'Joy of Straw Smuggling', but now Lat has caught my eye....Oh, I am 12.

If this girl is already depressed, she really should consider something else for the sake of her health.

FIRST!!!!!!

3 - What is the source of your information?

Given that Northwestern has an older student body, most of whom have had work experience, this seems like perhaps the worst place for a 19 year old to go to law school.

If she's so smart, why'd it take her 5 years to graduate from college?

Debevoise has the nicest offices in NYC. Without a doubt.

Little known fact: Verne Troyer, who is the size of a small child, went to law school.

"feminism, combatting racism, equal rights for gays and lesbians, and international humanitarianism."

Christ. The liberal indoctrination sure took hold!

I think she needs to put those missing years towards learning the other side of the argument.

Agree with #1. Not rare. Chicago, for example, has a rising 2L who is 19.

Eh, big deal. Five or six people in my 1L section at a t14 were under 21.

I was 21 years old during my first year of law school, and I did relatively well, though I wasn't passionate about the law by any means. I then got an LL.M. because I figured that I graduating from college early sort of entitled my to spend an extra year avoiding the real world. Afterward, I tried pursuing a professional acting career. With these experiences in mind, I would advise any young man or woman to take off several years time before going straight into law school.

FICTION WRITER?

Since she's interested in the fiction of "international law" she'll have plenty of make-believe to write about.

3 weeks of hot yoga at Equinox and I can now suck my own phallus.

This is a dumb story. There was a person who just turned 18 in my 1L section at a T10.

I just got an email from a few rising 2Ls asking for advice for their callback interviews.

I guess this means my firm is hiring and not cancelling its summer program....

Could things be turning around?

I am 14 and I will be a GULC 3rd year. Summering at Williams&Connoly and already am an alternate on their squash team.

Exactly.

"According to the Register, only one class in her entire academic career has been challenging, she says – Calculus II, at age 13."

Calculus II was easy. This chick is a fraud.

I would let Hillary Duff shit in my mouth.\

Boston 3L

Rushing through college and law school before turning 22 is like skipping the orgasim and going straight to the changing of diapers.

Orgasim.

I hear they are fun. Stay in Boston, sharter.

As expected, she's faTTT and busTTTed

I agree with previous comments. It is hardly an accomplishment to start law school at 19 as I had the option too, but chose to defer for a year until I was 20 to get real world experience. It is common for every class to have at least one 19 or 20 year old.

@36,
You think one year of work qualifies as real-world experience? haha what a twat. All you young little shits...

FWIW Nicole Matisse made law review.

Her decision to go to law school shows that even though she is a genious, she still has the common sense of a 19 yr old. What was the name of the prodigy geek-kid from revenge of the nerds?

Wormser.

Technically speaking we all bleed blue.

She should have spent another few years doing something else and improving her ability of getting into an elite school instead. No "prodigy" goes to northwestern.

Although this news is interesting that someone, at 19 years of age, has already finished undergrad, it's not really news. (well, other than her 174 on the LSAT).

There was a 19 year old 1L in my class in 2004, she dropped out in the middle of our second semester. At the same school this past year, there is a 2L that just turned 20, meaning she was another 19 year old 1L - and I hear she's doing well.

NYU: I had a kid in our 1L section who was 19.

She skipped right over the part of her development where all the "bleed blue" idealists like her go to college and get porked by most of the baseball team guys who feign an interest in the humanitarian crisis in Xzakistan for the 20 minutes it takes to get into the girls' panties.

It'll be interesting to see if that particular train wreck goes down 1L year.

Guys at my high school used to go to law school all the time. It's no big deal.

I will be 21 when I enter since I took a year off. I think that makes me a normal person.

http://evilprodigy.livejournal.com/

She named her blog "evilprodigy."

~Harvard Law Secure

"She named her blog "evilprodigy."

Well, if there are two things that have been known to go fantastic together, they are "youth" and "arrogance" . . .

Kathleen has crazy eyes.

One of my friends got with her, and hearing the stories has scarred me for life.

I started law school at 18. Kids at my high school didn't do it all the time or anything, but its definitely no big deal.

Former Thelen and current Orrick partner The Glass Cock here, thinking about glory days...

I didn't start law school until I was 34. At 18, it was the mid 80s and the Soviet Union was occupying Afghanistan. I hopped on the first plane out of Duluth, made my way to Kabul and began the long task of proving my worth to the mujahadeen. I spent the next 4 years rotating as the camp follower for various resistance groups, included a stint as young Osama Bin Laden's favorite nighttime companion. I finally was allowed to go into battle after the four year sex slave internship was finished and I proved myself as a fearless fighting machine. After being captured by the Soviets, tortured on a bed spring hooked up to a generator and then escaping into the jungles of Kabul, I came back to the United States, shaved, had my rectum surgically repaired and began my JD studies at Howard.

I am a far better lawyer today for my life experiences and I urge all young folk to follow my path.

not rare at all. there was a kid in my class who was exactly 20 when she started.

holy shit, that livejournal is mindblowingly terrible.

this girl sounds like a grade A moron.

Where is the real pic? I got all excited when I saw Hilary Duff. This post disappointed...

Law school? Unsafe at any age.

45 = dead on.

All you people out there who call yourself "democrats" are simply people who didn't fit in as kids. You were mocked for being ugly, un-athletic, gay, foreign, etc. and your parents constantly told you "wait until you grow up and you are their boss." Yep, you were smarter than all of the rest of your high school class, so eventually you would grow up to be "the future" while us jocks and "cool" kids sat around getting drunk and smoking weed all day. To a certain extent, your parents were right. On the other hand, they were completely off base and simply used that as an excuse for you to continue to be anti-social miscreants who had no friends and were labeled as tools by their peers. Fast forward 5+ years and you have yourself a nice shiny HYS diploma and a mission. What do you do? Do you go work for the "man" and allow corporate America to continue to dominate everything? No, you get a job in the "public interest" and protest all societal norms that have existed for the past hundred+ years. Kudos to all of you. You really showed us (your former tormentors). Please, just keep doing what you are doing as if it makes a lick of difference. You can preach feminism and your LGBT stuff until you're blue and the face and those of us who are in the know will just sit back and laugh under our breath at you.

57 = epic fail.

dude, you seem much more bitter than the uncool democrats. i bet sean hannity was not one of the cool kids. i can assure you that i am a democrat and i was always cool. definitely cooler than you.

Every T10 has a few of these. At mine I had at least two classmates under 21 that I recall. I also recall that they did not adapt particularly well socially and neither distinguished themselves in the class (although, neither did I).

Given that the practice of law is a about a hell of a lot more than just the ability to ace the LSAT or data-dump from an outline, I would tell young geniuses to find other outlets for a few years. It will be much more meaningful when you have a few years of life experience under your belt and can relate to your classmates. Law school is such an important time of your life that I don't see a need to rush it.

58=EPIC fail. only douches say they are "definitely cooler than you."

-not 57.

Only douches talk about how cool they are.

You're either laid back, aren't an ass, and have a bit of social skill or not. If you care about appearing cool, especially if you're an adult who cares about appearing cool, much less brags about being cool, you're a complete douche.

-Not 57 either

Thank you, 60.

58,

Call me bitter if you like, that is fine. I could give a rat's ass how I come across. And, as an FYI, I did realize my typo - "you're blue and the face" should be "you're blue in the face." I guess my Biglaw training did teach me something.

I am just glad that I am allowed to comment again - Lat and FatAss banned me a few months ago so it is nice to be able to post again (not sure how I got back on their good side).

I am just so sick of hearing liberal propoganda on this site without anybody being able to refute it and speak the other side. I stand behind everything I said above.

I concede that I may not be the "coolest" guy in the world, but I can say that I've had more sets of lips on me than I can count with 58, 60, and my digits. Be that as it may, it doesn't change who I am today - a lawyer. Some days I wish I had studied harder like all of you "dems" so that I could have been what I wanted (tight-rope walker, bull-rider, etc.) instead of a lowly Biglaw lawyer. GD this IQ of mine.

20 -- only if you really, REALLY LOVE walls made entirely out of glass

When I started at HLS in 2002, there was a Chinese girl in my section who had started her BA at Cal State LA when she was 13 and made the transfer Cal Berkeley as a junior. CSLA has a special program for genius kids who skip high school. The year we started, HLS instituted a policy requiring new students to be 18 on their first day as 1Ls (I think in response to the Camara rascism flap). This student turned 18 the week before we started law school.

Anyone with a bone of creativity in their body that goes to law school is a fool. Including me. But please spare me the utopian fool liberal do-gooders, who think a worthy pro bono case is saving some illegal immigrant drug dealer thug from deportation proceedings.

Why not go to U of C, where her liberal ideals will actually be challenged because there is diversity of thought, not just skin color diversity? Oops, typical trust fund liberal, loves "diversity" but doesn't want to actually spend any time around black people. See you at 63rd and Cottage Grove baby, when you're ready to hang with the working class....

This woman is doomed. Key quotes from the article:

"The most frustrated I get is when I explain something to people and they don't get it," she said. "Sometimes I'm just like, 'Get it through your head! How difficult is this to understand?' That's what I struggle with a lot."

I feel this way all the time talking with senior associates and partners and clients. However if I ever said to them "how difficult is this to understand" they would not take that well. But it is my job to explain things concisely and clearly. Although it's frustrating to find out that many partners are ding dongs, it's ultimately out job to dumb it down for them and not yell at them for not getting it.

--

"I'm worried I'll hate law school because it will take up too much of my time on things I'm not interested in," said McLaughlin, who scored 174 out of 180 on her Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, with minimal preparation.

Yes she will hate law school because it will take up a lot of time. OR she will get bad grades (see below).

After community college, she transferred to UCSD, a campus she'd fallen in love with. She lived in a college dorm, had her first boyfriend by age 16 and graduated with an English degree and a 3.5 GPA.

"I'm incredibly lazy, amazingly lazy," she said, explaining her less-than-perfect GPA. "I'm a very good procrastinator. My best paper has been written in about 30 minutes. I learn to do the things I don't love very quickly."

I have a feeling she'll be that 1L who didn't keep up with the reading during the semester and attempts a pathetic cram session during finals.

64 - that is incorrect. I started at HLS in 2003, and I was under 18 for the first several months of my 1L year. (the Admissions Office couldn't have missed it - my personal statement was about the pros and cons of being a young student)

UGH

- Northwestern 3L

She looks like I would expect a chick that says things like "LGBT issues are big for me" to look like.

I said it earlier to be sarcastic, but after reading 67-

Kate, on the off-chance you're reading this, I don't mean what I'm about to say as an insult--I mean this as genuine advice and something that will help you if you internalize it.

Tone down the arrogance. Seriously. You appear to be a pretty bright woman. You're not a genius. Only a handful law students are. The good majority of HYS students don't qualify as such. You are smarter than the average person; however, truly smart and mature people develop a level of humility. You're going to find it much more difficult to distinguish who those people are vs. the average person than you think.

There's a segment of people who (after being told repeatedly they're pretty bright) come to the conclusion that everyone who doesn't immediately brag about their intelligence has trouble deducing the answer to 2+2. These people make fools of themselves on a regular basis, often without even knowing it.

You appear to be headed in that direction.

Don't be that person.

Good luck at Northwestern and I sincerely hope you have a great career.

67:

You're right. I am a serial procrastinator also, and it took me 'til my third year to learn the discipline to get good grades. Looking back at my lack of preparation and my mediocre grades, I'm guessing the only reason I didn't do worse my first semester was because no one else actually knew how to prepare for a law school final either.

Regardless, even if she screws up in law school she's plenty young enough to go do something else the correct way.

As a self-described moderate with liberal leanings, even I must say that this girl is an absolute twit. Transferring to UC San Diego? Are you fucking serious? She couldn't get the 3.7 at a CC that would have gotten her into UCLA or Berkeley?

What?? No Pic?? Why did I waste my time reading this post??

If she isn't hot, who the F cares?? Sheesh...

I can't wait until she wakes up and realize that she has been brain washed by liberals. She'll start doing research and realize almost everything she has been told is a gimmic or some half-truth. Here comes the next Ann Coulter.

75: your comment makes no sense. Obviously, everything Ann Coulter says is a gimmick and/or half-truth, with the full intention of distorting facts or inflaming passions. Only a fucking idiot would deny that.

-73

74: see: http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v230/1889/26/n3318759_9124.jpg

Anonymous delivers.

Her mom is a MILF!

Everyone's so annoying. Anytime someone accomplishes something that isn't on *their* resume, the comments section jumps all over same. I mean, if it was soooooooooooooo common for 1Ls to be under the age of 19 (or 19), then I'd be working with a bunch of 22 year old know-nothings as opposed to the 26 year old variety.

That girl is a P I G

I pity any kid whose parents force them to go to law school (or any school for that matter) even before they are old enough to know it is like to really fuck their brains out. To successfully practice law, one needs many of the attributes that can only be learned by being a punk on the street. Forcing a child to read the books before his or her character properly congeals only deforms what might have been. In its place is a stunted crookedness, like a bonsai, bent and pretty to behold, but a tragedy when you consider the person who was lost.

BTW, elsewhere in the world people start law school when they are typically 18 or 19. That is what they do at Oxford and Cambridge so it is really no big deal for teenagers to go to law school. But it is something of a sad waste of the best years of any life.

Sounds like she would be horrible to work with. Closed-minded? Check. Impatient? Check. Arrogant? Check. Procrastinator? Check.

Never refer to yourself as a prodigy. Let other people say it (3.5 at UCSD?) but don't say it about yourself.

Never say your only challenging course was calc at 13- even if it is 100% true you are coming off as a huge douche.

FIRST!

Good for her?

What a waste of an exceptionally bright mind...

Hilary Duff would have been the hottest girl in my law school class. How sad.

There was a gal who was 19 when the class of '97 started at U Chicago. She's turned out alright, far as I know.

60-62= same person=unemployed republicans posting annonymously on a blog. This will be the highlight of their day till Anne Coulter's next televised appearance which they will watch while desperately performing their shag of the week.

In a few days the cycle will repeat itself during the Hannity show, but true climax will only be achieved during Bobby (I am too ashamed to say my name-Piyush- because my "cool" support base does not like the sound of it) Jindal's next speech dissing Obama.

This girl is smart, and an excellent writer. Extremely creative. And very naive. Lots of growing up to do.

This girl is smart, and an excellent writer. Extremely creative. And very naive. Lots of growing up to do.

great another liberal lawyer...when do these people get free healthcare so they can hopefully die of a disease sooner...

This post just made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

Her blog postings paint an interesting picture of her strong interest in fantasy and dislike of non-fiction.

I was also struck by her taste in literature..

Her blog postings paint an interesting picture of her strong interest in fantasy and dislike of non-fiction.

I was also struck by her taste in literature..

I took a class this past semester with a 21 y/o who already had her MBA. She'll have her JD before she turns 22. This chick is naturally gifted and book smart, but those traits, however, do not equal a good law student or lawyer. It sounds like she has a lot of growing up to do.

88 = correct

I think she probably will turn out okay. Reason being that the moment she walks into law school, she's going to realize that she's surrounded by people who can knock her off her high horse at any moment.

Going to realize that these people have (especially with all the oldies at Northwestern) an absolute wealth of knowledge and life experience that she just hasn't been able to pick up yet, because her life has been entrenched in books her whole life.

She'll get knocked around a bit, her sassy little teenager comments will be blown out of the water for a while, and then she'll come back down to earth.

I agree, though, it's a shame to waste such great years on something so depressing (even if interesting) as law school. And yes, Northwestern is for complete yuppies.

Come visit us down on the southside, where there are actually some poor people that you have to see and deal with on a daily basis, and then call yourself a blue-blooded liberal as you walk by the beggars on the street day after day without giving them a single dime.

Do I smell judgment and arrogance? No, no. It's not coming from Kate...it's... YOU!

Why are lawyers so opinionated about everything and everybody and their mothers? The girl is ONLY 19. Give me a f-ing break, people. Of course she is still immature and naive. Is that so surprising? She may be smart and but she is still a TEENAGER. Quit judging her. Your attempts at constructive criticism only highlight your own insecurity, ignorance and unsatisfaction of your own decision to pursue a career in law. Stop projecting your assumptions and subjective experiences onto Kate's life and give her advice on how she should expect to handle law school or act as a 19 year old. She has come this far, I am confident that she will be fine.

Kate claims to be an idealist and "bleed blue", -- it sure beats being grumpy, bitter and defeated, which is how some of you come off. It's pathetic. Grow up and go do something with your miserable life.

Liberals are hypocritical bastards. Why doesn't this chick go and volunteer at a homeless shelter for a couple of years?

Ughh...

Of course, she wouldn't want to have to touch the filthy people, or be anywhere near them.

I'm wondering if someone knows of anyone else who is 19 and in law school.

Can someone help me out here?

And please add whether this person is at a "T14" or a "T10". Because that's equally, if not more, important.

it is okay for this younge genuis to go to law school, just as long as she does something meaningful with her law degree. God gave her the talent to do what most people cannot do at a tender age. She was probably on multi-variable calculus when i was still memorizing my multiplication table. Fine if she wants to change the world, go ahead. Whether you start law school at age 19 or 49, just do something useful with your degree.

73 = a full-blown liberal. You are right to be ashamed but don't compound things by lying about it. You are entitled to like high taxes and a weak military.

NBC's doing a show called "Barely Legal"?! Are they going for the pedophile demographic?

Yeah, not a huge deal: I started CLS at 20, and was only the 4th youngest or so in my class (2009). It happens.

grumpy...haha. that word kills me.

grumpy.

Reading her story brings back awful memories, because I, too, was in her position a few years ago at a T14 school. I graduated from college at age 18 and started law school at age 20. I remember being almost as smug, thanks to grade inflation at the UG level and UG professors who thought that I was more talented than I was.

Sadly, I speak from experience when I tell young and gifted students to hold off on Law School for a few years. In fact, I would recommend a mandatory age of 25 for entering students. So many legal issues and fact patterns implicate real-life experience that neither I, nor any other precocious law student, had. How much do we know about takings? Have we ever owned property? Do we know what it's like to be attached to it, or sell it at fair market value? What about contracts and substantial performance? Have we ever worked with general contractors?

These are adult themes, which require adult interests and experiences. Thinking like a lawyer -- that amorphous quality that splits the stacks of exams -- requires a few years of experience.

Now, as for my own experiences, I:

-- Failed to enjoy it as much as I could have, had I started much later

-- Failed to distinguish myself, whether among peers or faculty

-- Failed to do as well as I would have liked

It was an all around bad move. In this economy, it's an even worse one, especially at a school like Northwestern where BigLaw is far from assured (YLS isn't any insurance policy against unemployment, either).

I graduated HLS magna cum laude when I was 13, and the hardest class I took there was calculus IV. What was so hard about it? trying to explain the material to the teacher because he didn't get it. I was just like "it's not that hard, get it through your thick skull" and then I saw that everyone was getting invited to parties except me. so I decided to live in a fantasy world of equality. Someday I might write books about that world. Books with blue covers.

107 is grumpy.

Christ, this girl sounds like she's better suited for Lilith Fair than law school. She's funna redefine "gunner."

Congratualtions, NU! She's all yours.

I would love to give Hillary Duff a pearl necklace. it would go great with that outfit.

Her rationalizations of her choice to attend law school reveal that she lacks creativity, which makes me wonder how successful of a fiction writer she could possibly be.

I think 106 is correct. I probably would have done better at my school if I went when I was older, and not just because of intellectual development. That said, unless I fail at interviews, I have a pretty good shot at getting a job. However, I'm never clerking for a circuit court or becoming a law professor. It's not a huge swathe of jobs that I've cut myself off from by coming to law school early and a) doing more poorly than I would have later and b) picking my law school based on factors that wouldn't have mattered to me later in life. But I have certainly lost some options that I might have been interested in otherwise, and I regret that.
--#1

As someone who entered law school at age 11, I can tell you all are incredibly jealous of this bright girl's resume. It’s hard to enter law school at such a young age and she will struggle to beat her mature peers, even though she’s genetically superior to them. What is this “real world” BS you speak of? There’s nothing more to your “experience” than being told what to do and getting wasted after work. Get real. lol

62 - Just about the only thing douchier than saying you're "definitely cooler" than someone is responding to such a remark by claiming to have slept with a lot of people. I imagine you must have as low standards for your partners as you do for your politics.

111,
She will be writing fiction when she completes her time sheets at a firm.

WTF.. this isn't rare at all. I graduated from a top tier law school at 21. Started at 19, but finished a semester early.
On top of that, I'm not a fat chick. And I was banging tons of undergrads when I was in law school

115 nailed it.

Not only will she be the youngest 1L at NU this fall, she will also be the ugliest.

She should read post #71, and then read it again and again.

McLaughlin became reclusive and sank into depression, experiencing what she described as a "fairly serious loss of confidence."

It's good that she isn't headed into a profession that has serious issues with depression.

A woman not old enough to know how to give a decent blow job should not be in law school. A guy who isn't even eligible to go to the senior prom also shouldn't be in law school. On some level I feel sorry for these prodigies. Some of them seem to have surfaced on this board and seem regretful of the life experiences that such preciousness brought with it. As several in this thread have stated, it's a shame to skip the best and most carefree formative years where all the fun stuff tends to happen. Why in such a hurry to grow up? I realize these kids need intellectual stimulation, but they also need to learn how to get along in the real world with mere mortals, lest they be destined for the scrap heap of what could have been.

I started law school at 19.

Good luck socializing, future bargain bin sci-fi writer.

I could have started law school at 19 but I took seven years off to get experience. I spent three years drinking myself into unconsciousness every night and banging undergrads while working as a bartender, one year bumming around Europe, and then did actual work for the last three years.

I'll be a little older than most at my school when I graduate, but I already look like a seasoned lawyer due to my yellow eyes (cirrhosis) and chain smoking.

#106, i agree.

Law school is based on fact patterns, real-life scenarios that only older people could have lived through. I entered law school 25, and I was taken aback by some fact patterns I read and if at age 25, I had not lived through scenarios, maybe i could have entered Law school at a later age. The people consistently at the top of my class were older people because they have seen more stuff and can relate to those fact patterns. Torts is actually one class that really threw me off not only because it was a whole new way of thinking (coming from a science background), it was based on a lot of a real-life scenarios I simply did not live through.

106 and 124: Your logic is truly preposterous. The older people did better (a generalization I don't quite buy, but whatever) because they are either more intelligent than you are or because they are more effective studiers or exam-takers than you are. Torts cases are often completely outlandish scenarios that NOBODY has experienced or ever will experience. You don't need to live through an experience to understand it legally.

125: That is BULLSHIT and you know it. I present a few famous 1L fact patterns for your reading pleasure:

Allegheny College v. National Chautauqua County Bank (Cardozo) --

Crazy old woman promises to give the college $5,000. She gives $1,000 at one point, but later says, "Ugh . . . scratch that." Had you life experience, you would have been privy to many of these charitable transactions.

Palsgraf v. Long Island RR (Cardozo) --

Crazy old woman gets hit by scales at the other end of a train platform, after a pyro loses some explosives while boarding the train. Had you life experience, you would have known what it's like to have freak accidents occur to you at a train station -- not that I would ever wish these upon anyone.

Kelo v. New London (Souter) --

Libertarian old woman wants to keep her house against the onslaught of commercial development in ConneticuTTT.

you get the idea . . . .

That's nothin!!! I was up for partner at Cravath at the age of 16!!!!

#5 = Eugene--if so famous wouldn't he not need
to be mentioned?

funny he also went to UCLA Law as Holtz

126 seems to be asserting s/he's experienced a scenario as peculiar as Palsgraf. I can only assume they live a bizarre life of 1L law freed from the page, hunting foxes with guns clutched in their hairy hands as, in the distance, a hundred locomotives pillage the countryside, burning and dismembering at will like hideous war machines. Insure your children! Hide the dog! Move your stacks of flax further from the railroad tracks!

But let's be serious - 1L contains almost no fact patterns that seem day-to-day, because the emphasis is on teaching points of law. New principles and categories do not blossom in the standard, day-to-day practice of the law, but in the strange cases that push boundaries.

Anyone going to Law School is a usually dull, ugly and unlettered--present company excluded.

And intelligent people--really intelligent ones--realize the gross inadequacy of an IQ score.

There is also something called emotional intelligence, and social intelligence et aliae.

When I took the LSAT--anyone in the top 6% of the LSAT
qualified automatically for mensa; I do not know what it is now. So virtually everyone at my school was mensa level.

And for many, if not most this was an arrant handicap.

As Groucho said any club that would have me as a member I don't want to join.

Recovering lawyer--

I graduated from law school at 20, have been practicing for several years, and...

- Don't regret going to law school;
- Don't regret going as young as I did;
- Have enjoyed both clerking and (litigation) practice;
- Believe it's very likely that I will practice law (or go into legal academia) for the next decades of my life;
- Don't feel that I wasted the best years of my life;
- Was not coerced by my parents into attending law school (they would have preferred that I study science or medicine, anyway...);
Etc...

1. As for life/social experience - yes, it's important. Yes, it makes you a better attorney. Yes, young law students have less of it. However, a decently adjusted young law student will acquire life experience in spades in law school - e.g. I was helping domestic violence victims obtain restraining orders when I was 19. If I'd been 25 years old and had years of experience working for DV shelters, or had been through an abusive relationship myself and survived, sure I'd have brought a different (richer) experience to my clinical law school experiences. However, the family law experience I gained in law school was itself a form of life experience that helped me to grow as a person and as attorney. We all have to start somewhere in terms of life experience - I don't think law school is a worse place for a young student to acquire experience than (for instance) doing Peace Corps or Teach for America after college.

2. As for how emotionally/socially clueless/awkward a young student is: simply put, we're all different. I don't *think* that too many of my law school classmates would say I was horribly immature or socially clueless; I'm sure there were areas I could've improved, and I'm sure that would have been true even if I was 23 (or 33) when I started.

3. I don't agree with 106 that young students should hold off on attending law school because we haven't dealt with certain "adult" issues yet. For instance, I've always said that a great irony of my law school experience was that I received an A in my contracts course 1L year ... when I was 17, too young to be contractually bound in most jurisdictions. And this worked out well for me in multiple senses. On a personal level: once I turned 18, I was far more mature about entering into contracts than I might have been if I had not already studied the law of contracts in detail. And on a professional level, I'd learned that I enjoyed reading and proposing constructions of contracts ... a skill that proved useful as a summer associate/associate quickly down the line.

In essence: we "young students" are all different. For some, it will be the wrong choice to start law school young. For others, it'll be an excellent choice they (we) will never regret. Even if it is a "mistake" for a given young student to go to law school, it is their mistake to make -- a comparatively harmless mistake relative to those that some of their peers are making (e.g. drug/alcohol addiction, unwanted pregnancy, unprotected sex/STD transmission, violence, etc.) Indeed, a young law student who decides they don't want to use their JD will often be better situated to pursue a second graduate degree/different career path than their older law school classmates. And certainly, law school is not a mistake for ALL of us who began young. I'm quite happy with my decision, and am reaping the benefits of being an early 20something with graduate school done, loans substantially paid off, and an exciting range of professional choices in the public and private sectors. (at least once the economy recovers...)

Nicole Matisse is working for Dickinson Wright as a summer in their Detroit office. She did make law review, but everyone at Wayne has to write on so there is no way of knowing if she graded on. Its a shared sentiment at Wayne that she is a showboater, and that she generally sucks as a person. Maybe 2 more years of college would have sharpened those interpersonal skills. Dickinson can have her.

And she went to Wayne State, like the rest of us who went to Michigan undergrad and graduated with 4.0's, because she bombed the LSAT. Not a huge mystery--75% of Wayne State Law is made up of U of M grads. However, because Michigan Law grads mostly leave Michigan after law school, Wayne State grads dominate the Detroit legal market. That is, before the auto industry imploded and Detroit firms actually had clients to represent in areas other than bankruptcy. Thus, for most of us, it made sense to still go to law school with our crappy scores because there was a promise of a job in Michigan with a Wayne Law degree.

How about the real world experience in owning toys
as a child. Just apply to the adult world of law.

What a leap--huh?

How about the real world experience in owning toys
as a child. Just apply to the adult world of law.

What a leap--huh?

Weird: on her website there is a cartoon saying
something to the effect of dry-raping adult brains for
knowledge.

Precocious yes--but maybe some issues.

To add a couple more facts to 132 - Nicole Matisse received the "Bronze Key Certificate" at Wayne, which means she got between a 3.5 and 3.67 in her first year. Probably good enough for top 15-20% but she was not in the top 5%.

She interviewed with multiple Detroit firms before first semester finals and had a job offer from Dickinson Wright a couple weeks into the second semester. She has now summered at Dickinson twice.

The astounding number of envious children on this board does not bode well for the state and future of the legal profession.

The girl is clearly more articulate, mature and secure in her self-image than the overwhelming majority who post on this forum.

And for those that were going for "clever barbed wit" all I can say is... You didn't achieve clever or wit.

lol @ 137...i see kate has discovered atl

To 137:

Hi Kate! Lose some weight chubby.

To 137:

Hi Kate! Lose some weight chubby.

"I'm an idealist; I want to change the world," she said. "I bleed blue; I'm a Democrat. I'm an ardent feminist. I'm big on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights - Prop. 8 was a big issue for me."

Vomit.

YLS at 19.

Just so you know, this is not unusual in Australia and New Zealand (where law can be studied as an undergraduate degree). I was admitted at 21 and working in a Magic Circle firm in Dubai at 23. Where's the story?