3 Recommendations For The Law School Graduating Class of 2015

Financial and professional advice for new law school graduates from columnist Shannon Achimalbe.

Today, I want to talk to the Class of 2015, the first of the new crop of graduates who went to law school because they really wanted to be lawyers. Almost all of you will be working in Biglaw or Spitlaw, clerking at the federal court or the food court, or simply unemployed starting your own solo practice. To you, I would like to impart some advice that I hope will help you financially and professionally.

Everyone should apply for PAYE or PSLF. Let’s first address the 100,000+ pound invisible elephant sitting silently on the commencement stage, right next to your law school’s CFO. Many of you have six-figure student loans but will have to live on four-figure monthly incomes. A few but growing number will be mortgaged with over $300,000 in debt. Just about everybody I know who has this level of debt has resigned themselves to paying their loans for the rest of their lives.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you have federal loans, you can enroll in one of two alternative income-based repayment plans: Pay As You Earn (PAYE) or Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Everyone should apply for one of these programs, even those earning large salaries. The worst that can happen is you don’t qualify and get placed on a fixed-term payment plan. If you are eligible, your student loan payments will be lower and you have more control over how and when they are paid. You can pay more than the minimum, save, or put the excess into an investment or retirement account. If you lose your job or switch to a lower-paying job, your monthly payment amount will be reduced accordingly.

But most importantly, enrolling in PAYE/PSLF starts the loan forgiveness countdown. Trust me, a year, five years, twenty years will go by faster than you think.

You may get some blowback from people who think you should pay back what you owe, honor contractual obligations, and not shift the burden to taxpayers. Ignore them. Don’t take seriously a lecture from someone who paid a fraction of the tuition and living expenses you did. These people would burn their ethics books to keep themselves warm in their hovels if they were in the same position you are. These people are just butthurt because PAYE/PSLF was not available to them.

Pass the bar exam on the first try. This sounds obvious but I don’t think anyone can stress enough the importance of passing the bar exam the first time. If you pass, you might keep the job you were lucky enough to get after graduation. If you fail, you wasted time and money, and your job may be in jeopardy.

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Don’t put yourself in a position to make excuses. A common one I hear from people is not having adequate time to study because they have to work full-time to pay the bills, and have to take care of family. Look, we understand your struggle and your sob story may get you some sympathy likes on Facebook. I know you are working eight hours per day, and studying another eight hours at night. But if you are getting less than 100 questions right on your practice MBEs, and the answers to your practice essay questions look like this, then you either need to spend less time at work or forget about being a lawyer.

To the students feeling demoralized because their alma mater has not adequately prepared them for the bar exam, you shouldn’t be depending on your school in the first place. The classes you took in law school are useless for practicing law. The career development office is just as useless. While your school wants you to pass the bar exam for its own interests, you stand to lose a lot more if you fail. So don’t rely on your school’s bar review program to do the studying for you. If you are still feeling down, listen to Joe Clark’s epic speech. It worked for me.

Always look for better opportunities. Your first job will not be your last. In most law firms, there is a good chance that you will be let go within your first two years. It is very likely that you will be let go after five years. So it is very important that you are in a position to move elsewhere under your terms. Keep an eye on hiring trends and talk to a recruiter once in a while. Also, do things to make yourself stand out and look attractive to competing firms.

Of course, if you work at one of those unicorn firms where everyone treats you well, you enjoy working there and provide value to the firm, then by all means stay. But even then you should stay vigilant because events outside of your control can also affect your professional future. Recessions happen, a malevolent jackass can become your boss, and key people may leave, retire, or die.

Next week, I want to address the strange and draconian law school grading system, particularly from low-ranked schools like the one I attended. If your school has strange grading policies, please tell me about it.

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Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached at sachimalbe@excite.com.