The Decision: Sometimes It's Just Not Worth It

Should this person really go to any law school?

We started The Decision series with the goal of helping people who were committed to going to law school, one way or another. Obviously, many people who go to law school shouldn’t. But we try to look at these choices as binary, instead of opening the field on all the other things an aspiring law student could do with his or her life.

I’m going to break that protocol here. As Denis Leary might say, that’s because I’m an adult and I can do whatever I want. Here is our subject’s story. I’m calling her the Scarecrow.

I’ve worked at Google for the last 4 years on a legal team [handling IP and privacy issues]. I did well in undergrad from a good school but didn’t knock it out of the park on my LSATs (taken twice) thus my options are as follows:

Santa Clara – $30k scholarship with a 2.8 GPA minimum ($90K over 3 years). Tuition is $48,690.

Pro: Great regional reputation, Hi Tech Law institute, great placement in the Valley with BigLaw, great laid back culture + beautiful campus
Con: #109 ranking, possibly inflated statistics, would have to move from my rent controlled apartment in SF to the South Bay, thus taking a big increase in rent

UC Hastings – $10k Merit scholarship with 3.0 minimum, $5k Ken Olivier scholarship with no minimum ($45K total over 3 years). Tuition is 48,335 for in-state.

Pro: Better ranking than SCU (#54), great location in downtown SF which means no moving, more impressive reputation in SF
Con: super competitive culture, has been slipping in the rankings, not as great Hi Tech Law placement as SCU

It’s not an option for me to re-take the LSATs considering I’ve already taken them twice. It’s also not mandatory that I go this year, seeing that I have a good job and all. I’ve been rejected from Berkeley and am on wait list at Fordham.

I have some stock that by the time I leave Google will be worth ~$30K which I plan on using to cover living costs at least for the first year. I have a fiance who is currently happy living in the Bay but we will eventually move back to NYC in a few years since we’re from there to raise a family. I want to know that I could even get a job there. I

I’m super stuck here between rankings, job prospects & scholarship.

I’m going to take this one solo. Scarecrow already has a good bone. She’s worked at Google. If she dresses that experience up right, it’ll help her work almost everywhere else.

But not as a lawyer. Often, people who work for lawyers in a support capacity come away from the experience thinking two things, one of those things is true, the other is certainly not.

* “I’m just as smart as that jackass lawyer, but I just don’t have his stupid piece of paper.” [True]
* “If I just had any old law degree, I could be hired as the lawyer instead of support, and make a ton of money.” [False]

It is frustrating to feel like you are good enough to be promoted to lawyer, as if that’s how it worked, but feel blocked by your lack of a stupid degree. This phenomenon is best explained in the Wizard of Oz (the original) when the Wizard tells the Scarecrow:

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Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven’t got: a diploma.

If you feel like the only thing separating you from the career of your dreams is a stupid piece of paper, you’re willing to do almost anything to get that piece of paper. WHICH IS HOW THEY GET YOU. Neither of these schools is going to set her up well to be an IP attorney at freaking Google. That’s a lotto ticket. Even a dollar spent is unlikely to net a return. “Hi-Tech Law”? What is that? That’s not a thing people are hired to do. She doesn’t have an advanced technical degree, so she’s not going to be working on patents. Having an IP practice is great, but you don’t mortgage your future because you think that Google is going to hire you to write their privacy policy.

And that’s because Google (or whatever tech giant company you want to think of), does what everybody else does: hires lawyers who are friends or are recommended by their outside counsel or venture capital overlords. Nobody gets a job straight out of law school at Google. That’s not how it works.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that there are actually a lot of lawyers at Google with Hastings degrees. Hastings is a fine school (though expensive). But in between Hastings and IP work at Google is a lot of time at Jones Day or Orrick or whatever the hell Biglaw firm you can think of. And that’s where dreams go to die. Even if you can get that job, it’s not “Hi Tech Law.” It’s high-paid drudgery… that you have to do REALLY WELL to even have a shot at what she’s talking about.

That’s why I’m breaking protocol: It’s not because Hastings or Santa Clara are so bad that nobody should ever go there. There are jobs in the tech world that are intellectually rewarding for non-lawyers. The Scarecrow was supposed to learn that he didn’t need risk his life helping some white girl to get what he wanted.

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