Lawyer & Law School Megathread #12: Started Out Barrister, Ended Up Barista

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Lawyer & Law School Megathread #12: Started Out Barrister, Ended Up Barista

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

You should take me off the list of Potential Mis�rables and put me on the list of Class of Never. You can make my blurb something like "Found a job doing what everyone who goes to law school to get into public policy wants to do."

# ¿ May 7, 2010 00:35

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 05:05

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Linguica posted:

HAHAHAHAHHAHno

Seriously though, you should put me in the OP as being able to answer why you don't need a JD to do public policy work.

# ¿ May 7, 2010 02:11

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

ewr2870 posted:

Wow. Even more than I thought:

wah wah poor me a white with no privilege

# ¿ May 18, 2010 01:28

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

ewr2870 posted:

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I was very happy when TyChan cried racism over an innocuous comment as it meant that I could note empirical data regarding the effect of affirmative action in the admissions process because, of course, I'm still very upset about AA despite being at HLS and having a BigLaw job. Even though AA hasn't affected me at all and I recognize that I was lucky to grow up white and middle class, I still don't appreciate dumbasses with lovely reading comprehension implying that I'm a racist.

You assumed that a dude who had lovely SAT scores and was placed on academic probation during college but got into a T14 was a URM.

If that's not racist as gently caress then I don't know what is.

# ¿ May 18, 2010 02:13

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

ewr2870 posted:

Then clearly you don't.

Let me give you a hint.

There are a million other possible reasons that could explain why a person who did poorly on the SAT and was placed on academic probation during college could have got into a T14. Perhaps he studied his rear end off and got a 175 on the LSAT. Maybe he had two bad semesters that forced him onto academic probation but got straight As after that.

But you didn't consider any of those factors. You assumed the person was a minority because in your mind there's no way that someone with poor SAT scores and academic issues in college could get into a good law school without being a minority.

You're pretty racist dude, I don't know how else to explain it to you.

# ¿ May 18, 2010 02:19

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

evilweasel posted:

Then you don't know what one is, yeah.

If he has bad test-taking abilities, it's reasonable to assume he didn't knock the LSAT out of the park, if he was placed on academic probation, it's reasonable to assume his GPA wasn't stellar.

That means it's likely he had some other "in" and URM is a reasonable guess.

It's not racist in any way because you're not linking his grades or his intelligence to his race in any way: you're linking the fact that he got in despite them to it.

Without the "got into a T14" it's racist to assume that, with that it's not. If you consider that racist, I don't know how you deal with that chart in the first post.

1. There are any number of mitigating factors that may explain why he did poorly on one standardized test taken before 2005 and did better on one taken recently.

2. I know a number of people who did poorly their freshman and sophomore years in college, were placed on academic probation, transferred to a different school and ended up with high GPAs. The same thing happened to me. I got put on probation my freshman year and graduated magna cum laude. The point is that poor performance in the beginning of your academic career doesn't necessarily bar you from going to a good law school.

3. The factor linking this person's situation to race was ewr2870 saying:

ewr2870 posted:

URM? Or are law schools finally getting really serious about the UVA softball tournament?

His assumption was that because a person didn't fit his initial profile of a person who would make it into a T14 school, there must be some other mitigating factor. That could be true. He could be a legacy, or famous, or any number of other things that might make this T14's admissions department choose him over someone else. But ewr2870 went with the guy being a URM.

That's pretty loving racist.

# ¿ May 18, 2010 02:29

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

boston goons, just had anna's. it was delicious.

tacochat itt

# ¿ May 18, 2010 23:44

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Roger_Mudd posted:

I smell a Lost replacement on ABC called "The rules of the road".

Dibs

For real though, I bet if you wrote a good enough pilot, a show like this would easily get picked up. You can have the lawyer/trucker defend other truckers in court while also having crazy adventures on the road. It would be a cross between Northern Exposure, Over The Top, and Generic Lawyer Show with a Dust Bowl/Depression era feel to it, and I bet it would be ridiculously popular.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2010 21:08

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Roger_Mudd posted:

I poor my heart out to you guys and don't even get a single reply?

That's it, I'm turning this car around.

Eh, VO narration is a pretty weak device, especially to open a pilot. Plus, I think it speaks to the condition of the economy if the lawyer gets downsized rather than fired for cause.

I'm seriously considering making an attempt to write a pilot. I'll post what I come up with for feedback.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2010 20:37

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Roger_Mudd posted:

What's your arching serialized plot then if not "the case"?

It can be something as simple as adjusting to his new life on the road. My take on the show was less about a conspiracy or serialized drama and more closely related to Northern Exposure and the "fish out of water in a new life with weird people and crazy situations."

But you know, I pictured it as a 30 minute show like Sports Night where it's funny, but it makes you think.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2010 02:53

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

amishsexpot posted:

This might be a little too E/N for some of your tastes, but I have to share the insanity I have to deal with --

My mom called to ask me how the Fordham Student's day went yesterday, and I told her it was somewhat interesting but I just couldn't get "excited" about learning law because I just am not interested in it and never really have been.

She of course cried and made vague suicide threats and said, "I can't believe you are still having these doubts after all this time."

I got pretty worked up during the call and told her that I felt like she and my dad were controlling my life through guilt and manipulation and that they have consistently stood in the way of letting me explore psychology as a career. She said, "Law school is the only right thing to do, and you are too old to do anything else. You have to do this for your future and no one actually likes their job. You'll probably end up hating psychology if you do it. Also I guess you think we are horrible parents and never did anything good for you, and you're probably right. We're terrible parents and I am not controlling, but this is one thing you have to do. If you feel like you've been controlled for 25 years, you should be controlled for 3 more years and just go to law school. After you're done you can do whatever you want, but you need to do this."

She then went on saying that anyone can be a psychologist (this is based on her experiences working with social workers at her work -- which of course is totally different) but not everyone was smart enough to be a lawyer. And that this is something I needed for my future to be happy.

I went on to tell her that most of the lawyers I know from work (I probably know at least 50) are unhappy, single or divorced, workaholics (not by choice), bitter, and drug addicts/drunks. My mom responded by telling me to quit my job immediately to get away from the "negative" environment. I asked her if she knew any lawyers at all, and she avoided answering the question.

Pretty much 99% of lawyers I know say that they went to law school because they couldn't think of anything else to do with their lives, and that it was the worst, worst, worst reason anyone could go to law school. Then they beg me to not go to law school.

I feel like I'm so hosed. If I stay a paralegal my entire life I'll be bored out of my loving mind and will feel like I never applied myself. If I go to law school, I'll be miserable, poor, lonely, overworked and unfulfilled. If I get a PhD, I may be poor, in school for the rest of my life, and still unhappy.

So what other options are there? Which is the least lovely option?

Adar - I'd love to meet up with you and your wife, as well as any other goons who will smack me with a wooden paddle and tell me what to do.

Business - thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

At this point I feel terrible for upsetting my mom to the point where we were both in tears. And I don't feel any more confident in my idea to pursue a PhD. I've come to this point with my parents several times over the past 7 years and it always ends with me trying to smooth the conflict over by lying and saying I'll go to law school and then delaying. At this point I'm going to be 35 and still deferring and complaining to goons that my life is horrible.

gently caress everything, seriously.

You're 25, work a job that gives you a comfortable, debt-free living, and you're worried about your life? C'mon, do you really want to go to law school and take on $100k in debt for the possibility that you might get a job that pays a little more but is more mind-numbing than what you do now?

Figure out what it is that you really want to do in life and go make it happen. You're not poor, you seem like you're probably pretty smart, and I'm sure you have ambitions. Make your own way and succeed or fail on your own terms.

Like Petey said, your parents aren't worried about you, they're worried about how they'll look, so gently caress 'em. Life is too short and there's too much to do in the world to worry about how other people want you to live your life.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2010 03:07

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Holland Oats posted:

I had a great childhood and parents who love me and I'd never allow them to have anywhere close to the kind of control and influence over my life that Amish does. Am I a bad son?

No, that's normal.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2010 08:03

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

gvibes posted:

Ugh. Coming from someone who has had some of this foisted on me, it is impossible. There are literally like 20+ different statutory and regulatory regimes, and a lot of them are state-based, so they vary. Does this include HIPPA? Also, a bunch of this stuff isn't really regulatorily enforced, it's more best practices. Ugh guh.

Just a brief list of some of the privacy laws/regs I've had to deal with:
HIPAA
GLBA
state breach notification laws
state insurance regs (e.g., NY insurance regs 169 and 173, IIRC)
FCRA
Massachusetts and Nevada information security laws/regs
Safeguards Rule
COPA
FTC Act
There are probably some banking-specific state or federal regs I haven't had to deal with yet

You are completely hosed. What are they asking you to do?

Add FERPA to the list

# ¿ Jul 2, 2010 23:24

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

entris posted:

Hahaha.

Also, WoW is the perfect metaphor for BigLaw: endless grinding and to get the good stuff you have to collaborate with a collection of other people who may or may not like.

To be fair, that's pretty much a metaphor for life.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2010 14:21

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

poofactory posted:

She's got pretty thin skin to be scared of a judge like that. I can't even count the number of times a judge has yelled at me or opposing counsel for some really stupid poo poo. I've also had one judge lay down a bullshit motion ruling and then have another judge insinuate I was incompetent for not winning the motion. That's life.

Your idea that there is "no loving way it could be done right now" is completely inaccurate. I am mentoring one recent law grad and she opened up a practice just after graduating with less than $50k in the bank. Do you realize that malpractice insurance is dirt cheap (couple hundred/month or less) and you can find office space for under $500/month or share an office with a firm for less. You can run a practice for less than $2k/month depending on how you advertise.

But wtf do I know about it. You guys seem to have so many reasons why it won't work. I'm sure you're right.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that most people posting in this thread who are in law school are going to graduate with less than $5k in the bank.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2010 17:47

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Petey posted:

The only reason I'm still thinking at all of law school is if I were to get accepted to HYS and decided that it was the best way for me to pursue an academic or policy career. That path becomes less likely by the day. I was recently elected to the board of a small, but influential, nonprofit because of some social media tools I had built their organization; I'm pursuing my interest in policy and advocacy on the side, and making good connections, while getting paid at my real job as well.

Seriously Petey, if you want to do general, socio-economic based policy work get a Masters or a PhD in one or more of the following:

Sociology
Economics
Econometrics
Statistics
Urban Planning
Public Policy

There truly are like a few thousand people in the entire country that make actual policy decisions. Everyone else who works in public policy, such as myself, works on the evaluation and research end of things. To be honest, I feel like it's more fulfilling anyway. Making policy decisions feels like a "finger on the button" sort of thing where the amount of information you have is severely limited. From my perspective, the research we do gives me a wide perspective on the interventions, the policy options, and the actual results of the experiments.

If you're seriously interested in doing policy work, feel free to ask my anything, but I can tell you that like 10% of the people at my company have a JD and almost none of them needed it to do the work they're currently doing.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2010 01:29

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

entris posted:

god those tacos look awful. Where is the cheese? Where is the delicious red salsa? Why so many gross rear end onions?

You disgust me.

Petey posted:

hungry enough where it pushed me over the edge and I went and got a carnitas burrito from anna's - dirty rice, carnitas, jalapenos, pico de gallo, and lettuce, flour tortilla.

would've taken a picture, but a) they steam their tortillas so they are soft and stick together when rolled and b) too hungry to not eat it.

Go to Tacos Lupita outside Porter, their tacos are so goddamn good.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2010 21:20

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

JimTheSarcastic posted:

Jumping in a shark tank with blood on the water...

I've been considering applying to law school next year (and would start presumably in fall 2012) with thoughts of practicing oil and gas law. I have several years of relevant experience as a petroleum "landman" (analyzing real estate title and writing title reports for purposes of leasing, curing up title issues, etc.) and actually really enjoy the work. I know that at least some oil and gas attorneys do primarily high-level work that is similar to (though obviously more challenging than) the work that I do now.

Unfortunately, the work I currently do isn't likely to last beyond the next couple years. I'm not sure whether the legal work I'm interested in will last beyond that, but it is certainly something I plan to really analyze before deciding whether to apply in the fall. If it is feasible at all, I would already have a lot of networking and recommendations built up through my clients over the past 6 years of title work.

Note: I wouldn't go into debt for a law degree for any reason whatsoever. This thread has taught me that much at least. Fortunately, I have options on that front.

Add "in Alaska" to your post and you might actually stand a chance of becoming gainfully employed out of law school.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2010 16:34

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

ewr2870 posted:

You have to live in Cambridge. It's cold and dark. The food sucks* and the locals are rude, unfriendly people.

as a local to the boston metro area, let me just say get the gently caress out

# ¿ Dec 25, 2010 00:54

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/lgl/2190429044.html

# ¿ Feb 1, 2011 03:50

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Petey posted:

hey guys I posted about this awhile ago but it's finally live http://burgermap.org please contribute every little bit helps god bless

had a pretty bomb rear end burger last night at christopher's in porter.

andouille & beef burger with tomatoes, onions, and roasted red peppers

# ¿ Feb 19, 2011 14:42

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 05:05

Blinkz0rz: May 27, 2001; MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS

Petey posted:

https://sjobs.brassring.com/1033/as...269_5341&gqid=0

Feel free to send around.

lmao at a 48k, 1 year fellowship, job that requires a jd and 3 years of experience

# ¿ Apr 20, 2011 13:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Lawyer & Law School Megathread #12: Started Out Barrister, Ended Up Barista