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Law School Success Stories: High Risk, High Reward

When it comes to law school, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Sometimes you need to take a risk in order to reap the rewards.

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One nice thing about law school is that it can be the salvation for people who, for whatever reason, did not excel academically during their undergraduate years. People who did well in college can often find jobs after graduation (although it’s now much harder than it used to be). People who didn’t do well in college are often up the proverbial creek sans paddle.

What’s the solution to the predicament? Sometimes it’s law school:

I’m very happy I went to law school, and I loved the intellectual challenge and the doors it opened for me. I graduated from Michigan State Law in 2010. I make $100k plus working in a large (for the region) Detroit law firm. My practice is litigation, generally commercial litigation but with some white-collar crime as well. It is exactly the type of law I wanted to practice. I get to court with frequency, the work is varied and substantive, and the firm culture is exactly what I need to thrive and balance work with my life.

I’m happy with my decision because where I ended up is so far beyond where I thought I could that I cannot help but feel happy. When I was applying for law school, I had a huge problem holding me back — my undergrad GPA was a 2.89. Terrible. I majored in Philosophy at Michigan State, so I’ll let you imagine how seriously I pursued my overall studies versus my “extracurricular” interests. (Hint: I like video games, and late nights, and the things that tend to go along with those in college.)

My beard grew long and my ambition grew short, and I knew that some sort of grad school was in my future because, come on, Philosophy. It was either (1) PhD in Philosophy, or (2) law school. A PhD was appealing – I loved studying Philosophy, I always took those courses seriously – but I suspect the bottom dropped out of the Philosophy employment market right around 399 BC. I knew that field would be dominated by Harvard types (to a greater extent than law), and I would not be going to Harvard or Oxford. Alas, I doubted my ability to be the next Kant, so law school seemed a reasonable second choice, because I liked reading and writing about abstracts, and what is Justice if not an abstract?

My 2.89 stood in my way. It was Wanye, MSU, Detroit Mercy, or Cooley. Wayne said “no,” and I trace their fall in the USNews rankings directly to that rejection letter. Look up the timing, it’s true. Detroit Mercy said yes, and MSU said, “Okay, but full-price night-classes only for the first year, let’s see if you wash out.” Phew! I got in! I was prepared to make $50k post-law-school, and would have been fine with that. But I had a friend already out of law school who filled me in on the way of the world – it’s top of the class or bust, so you better bust your ass.

Surrounded by peers with far better GPAs and some with UofM undergrad degrees – I always wondered if they chaffed at obtaining an MSU Law degree – I buckled down to show all those pricks they didn’t know who they were dealing with. Okay, I had a chip on my shoulder, because I could tell by speaking with them that a higher GPA does not mean higher raw intelligence. My mother always said I was very intelligent, and don’t you call my mom a liar (is what I said to no one). Having yet to have proven my mother truly right, however, I slaughtered first semester, was first in my class (a fact I never told any of my law school peers, because quiet confidence is better than boasting), and had the school throwing full scholarships at me after my 1L year to prevent my transfer to UofM, and it worked (tough decision though). I stayed, made law review, became a Dean King Scholar, and the rest is history.

My story isn’t one of overcoming adversity, or an inspiring tale of rags to riches. It’s a tale of making the most of the opportunity I was given – someone in admissions at MSU Law gave me a chance, possibly because I was an alum [from the college], who knows, and I made sure not to squander it. I excelled in a way I always knew I could if only I tried and had the opportunity, and this time I tried because there were no fallback positions left for me.

I’m happy I went to law school because it was the perfect combination of intellectual challenge that I need to stay interested coupled with practical applicability. It’s not for everyone, but for some, it’s the perfect option. GO GREEN.

I’ve heard similar stories over the years of people who used law school to wash away the stench of a subpar undergraduate record. One friend of mine didn’t do very well in college, due to excessive partying, and wound up at a fourth-tier law school. He did extremely well there his first year, transferred to a top six school, did well there too, clerked for the D.C. Circuit (blessed be its name), and wound up at an elite Biglaw firm. For him, like the teller of this success story, going to law school was a Rumpelstiltskin experience: it allowed him to spin straw into gold.

Michigan State is currently ranked at #82 by U.S. News. And it has a very strong alumni network in Michigan, where it’s second only to the University of Michigan. So it’s not shocking that this happy graduate did well there and found a good job after graduation.

Let’s go outside the top 100 for our final law school success story of the day….

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