Law Schools, Student Loans

Absolutely Terrible Advice About Law School

Advice columnists doom a student to unemployment rather than risk ruffling feathers.

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In fairness, if you’re writing the newspaper for advice, you probably aren’t expecting the most sage counsel. Still, these ersatz Ann Landerses really outdid themselves in giving shockingly terrible advice about going to law school. One would think an advice columnist would at least look into the merits of the questions they’re asked. It really doesn’t require all that much research to confirm the basic truths about what lies ahead for those who enter the legal profession without thinking it through.

But with the most WASPy advice ever, this paper advises a concerned reader to just ignore all the problems with going to a TTT in order to maintain social niceties….

An attorney wrote in to the newspaper concerned about a young woman on the cusp of law school:

A good friend’s daughter is applying to law school. I’ve known “Jess” most of her life, and I’m familiar enough with her academic record to know that she’s not going to get into a top-tier school…. While I don’t want to discourage Jess, I’d hate to see her end up owing $150,000 or more on a student loan that, at the salary she’s likely to be offered when she graduates, could take 15 to 20 years to repay. Should I speak up, or not?

The answer, of course, is absolutely. The full context of the question notes that Jess and her parents have no sense of the legal job market, while “Hesitant in San Francisco” here is a lawyer. That’s a huge bit of context. Hesitant isn’t trying to be a busybody here, Hesitant has actual insight that no one else in this fact pattern possesses. Why would anyone think non-lawyers would have a firm grasp on the legal market? In what other field of human endeavor do we say, “well, that guy’s an expert but I’m sure you can stab blindly and figure it out just as well”? It’s irresponsible for an expert in the field to let novices go thousands and thousands in debt without intervening to provide an informed opinion.

At the very least, just have this conversation.

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But our advice columnists, Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz of “Money Manners,” don’t see it that way:

Perhaps Jess’ parents plan to help with the tuition. Not that borrowing less makes law school a better investment on a dollars-and-cents basis.

Then why mention it? Are they writing this stream-of-consciousness?

But it may be worth it to them to see their daughter receive a professional degree, especially if it’s in a field that particularly interests her.

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Sure. But that would be stupid. This is a professional degree — and an expensive one at that — not a fun conversation starter for parents. Also this is all speculation: the parents may think it’s “worth it” to tell people their daughter is a lawyer but it’s equally likely that they honestly think she’s going to leave Bumblef**k Law School and slide into a lucrative career. Hesitant needs to find out what the story is.

In any event, what you should do is wait to see if anyone in Jess’ family asks you about law school or the practice of law. If someone does, you can encourage him or her to investigate the job offers that graduates of the schools to which Jess is applying are receiving — you can and should, in other words, point them toward reality. But it’s not up to you to tell them you think that law school is a bad investment for Jess.

God forbid someone with expertise in the field offer specific insights to people who don’t know enough to ask. Look, Hesitant is probably going to ruffle some feathers by suggesting that going to a lower-tier law school isn’t the right move at this time, but that’s a lot better than sitting silent while a poor girl sets herself up to be a barista with $160K in debt. Imagine how awful you’d feel three years from now if you said nothing and let someone with no knowledge of the market and with moreover no support group with knowledge of the market get blindsided. Hey, maybe Jess has done her research and knows what’s up. Maybe she has a scholarship. The point is we don’t know unless Hesitant asks.

Saving face with the neighbors is not more important. Go try and help! Just because these advice columnists are terrible at giving advice doesn’t mean you have to be.

Wait to be asked before offering advice on law school [Times Union (Albany)]

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