Ask a law student anything

ask a law student anything
(about law school stuff, not substantive law)

also lawfags check in
0L/1L/2L/3L/jd/esq
bored 3L in ny here

How do I file for discovery in a traffic case? It's only a $60 brake light ticket, but New Jersey pisses me off so I feel like making their lives needlessly difficult.

ausfag JD student checking in for your needs south of the equator

As a law student, how do you feel about the ongoing lawyer glut?

Lawyers are massive faggots. Check 'em.

3L Checking from CA

nice what kind of law do you want to practice

it sucks. i wish law schools moved to a med school model, where there's a higher bar to get in, but job security on the other end
as it stands, a good chunk of law grads will never practice because they can't get a job, another good chunk will be doomed to shitlaw for eternity

oh nice. i'm jealous, i'd kill to be in cali. unless you go to whittier in which case sorry Sup Forumsro

I don't, current students at Whittier should be ok. It sucks that your school is closing but this isn't the first time it has happened in the country and as long as your school was accredited when you graduated, you should be ok. You won't get your dream job right away but you can certainly still practice law.

Specialising in international law because sydney is turning into a shithole and I want to spend some time on the road

International law sounds like hell... you'll probably make some good money bc not many people will want to do that.

i'd feel bad for em even before they closed
most don't pass the bar

nice
don't go US tho, our legal job market is shit
UK always sounded interesting to me. doing a few years at a magic circle firm
or east asia. some US firms with outposts in asia pay US market. would be sick

Esq in Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and Oregon. I hate it quite a bit, at least the litigation side. The fact that you never really have control of things and even when you try to have everything set things can go wrong based on witnesses saying a wrong thing, or opposing counsel outwitting you or a very capricious judge. Good money can be had though.

that's an issue with a lot of schools currently in CA, the last July Bar had the lowest passage rate in almost 30 years. There are already rumors that this past Feb bar will be equally bad.

Does it bother you that people constantly sign virtual contracts every time they accept the terms and conditions, and never ever bother to read them?

what kinda practice has you in FL TX PR and OR? that's random

3L shouldn't exist. You learn everything you need in the first two years, and the last year is just taking specialty or bs classes and doing clinics and internships. Since all the value comes from working for someone else and learning on the job, you should just start actual work then, so that you get paid for what you do instead of paying your school to work for someone else for free.

hopefully you're at one of the better schools in ny otherwise you may be fucked trying to get a job.

Nah, fuck working in the US. London is meant to be a solid stepping stone, but I'd probs be happy anywhere in Europe

Totally agree, I spent about a year interning and learned more in a week than a semester at school. The bar is also stupid because you need to learn shit that you will never use, like if youre going into civil, you shouldn't need to learn crim, and the same backwards. I got to school in CA, it's a tier 3 school but it's well known in the area i live.

Lots of migration from PR to both Florida and Texas. Also some clients of mine set up shop expanding from PR to the Florida and Texas markets. Oregon was just because of duplicity with TX after 5 years and thought it would help me be more marketable.

(insert address of municipal court here)

RE: State v. (your name here)
Summons #: (your summons # here)

Dear Mr. (insert name of municipal prosecutor here):

I am the Defendant in the above matter and I hereby demand the following discovery:

(insert discovery demands here)

Truly yours,
(insert your name here)

Oh yeah, discovery usually costs like $30 or so.

yea fuck 3L
i cosign

yea i lined up a pretty good gig this week
thank fucking god

lawyer here. please be sure to fail the bar and find another career. we dont need ur kind

oh shit i bet trump is a boon to immigration lawyers too

MI/OH esq checking in

>disgruntled shitlawyer

practice area?

we should be esqfag

Anyone in here specialise in human rights law? Whats it like? Does it pay or is most of your hr shit pro bono?

Commercial and employment litigation. Recently started getting into IP litigation. I'm about 5 years out from lawschool

You?

med mal, crim and civil lawyer checking in

I like "fagesq(ue)"

lol. definitely an improvement

I.e., every lawyer.

impact lit

IP lit sounds fun. soft IP anyways
took a course in patent and it made me want to kill myself

ip in general is ok. boring. more interesting to write a retarded contract that no one can read except for other lawyers

Is Donald Trump a liar?

Yeah, I have begun to regret my decision to go to law school. And I am one of the "lucky" ones with a decent salary and no student loan debt.

If I poot 'n' toot on Taylor Swift, is it illegals?

If you could be a girl instead of a law student, would you?

how come

mayb

i like my beaver wet

"mayb"

Hmm, indecisive, you will have a hard life as a lawyer.

Of course not. Why would he have to lie about his penis? It's huge, and a man with a huge penis wouldn't lie about it. It's a good size, a very big penis. Crooked Hillary has such a small, crooked penis. Just look at it! If Crooked Hillary ever tells you she has a big penis, she's lying to you.

bamp for justice

dont go to law school unless you go to a top 25 school.

You will end up doing temp document review work and fantasizing, every time you have to take a piss in a jammed bathroom that smells like shit, death, and ennui, about killing everyone in the office and desecrating their corpses.

Shoulda become a dentist.

Is there a course in being a cunt?

It has been. Lots or Mexicans in Texas, Cubans in Florida and Dominicans in Puerto Rico having problems with immigration. However in my experience so far the Mexicans in Texas seem to have a higher disposition to pay the fee without trying to get lower prices.

The constant adversarial nature of our profession is grating. When you deal with clients, they're almost invariably having the worst day of their lives (no one sees a lawyer because they're having a "good day"). I imagine our colleagues in family law or criminal have it way worse. I am in civil, which is "happy" litigation. Those guys have it way worse and get paid peanuts. I have much respect for them.

The hours can be dehumanizing. We once had three one-week trials (one in Florida, two in California (I am from MI) within three months. At the worst point, I was working from 9 am till 11 pm every day for three months to prep for the trial. Then, during trial, I would work from 7 am to 3 am. At the time I had a 10-month old child. I turned 30 a few days before the last trial in San Diego. My father also passed away in the middle of all of that shit.

That was a couple of years ago now. I've gotten much better control over my docket now, and have most weekends off. I've promised myself (and my family) to never work that much again. I would rather be unemployed than without my family (or dead).

Our profession has the highest rates of substance abuse and one of the highest for suicide. Once you've been in it for a little bit, it is easy to see why.

This is anonymous, so feel free to disbelieve me, but I disagree with this. I went to a tier 3 school and make $150-$200k/year in the first five years of practice. I did graduate at or near the top of my class, however. If you work hard in law school, do well, and have above average social skills, you will be fine.

damn brutal

nice
been seeing lots of big orgs (like aclu) staffing up b/c of trump immigration stuff
i would have applied too if i spoke spanish lol

yea i hear ya
i've liked my externships but once i start dealing w real clients and have to pull all-nighters i know i'll be whistling a different tune

practice area?
that's awesome congrats

Commercial litigation and employment defense.

esqfags is it worth it to join a bar association

i'm public interest, if it matters

I mostly practice in other states (pro hac vice), so I get no benefit from the association. If you're local, I think it would be beneficial. You can network for referral sources, play politics to run for judge, etc.

no i believe you. 3rd tier middle of the pack like me, though, you've got to be very lucky to escape either shitlaw like debt collection or car accidents or doc review.

I definitely made a mistake, but if you are smarter/ better student than I was, and really know what you want to do you probably can do okay.

Retrospectively, I think I was definitely lucky compared to my classmates. Many of us did well in law school, but not everyone found "big law" jobs. I came out of undergrad in 2009/2010 during the peak of the recession. I went back to law school to delay my entry into the market. My gamble paid off, obviously. But in hindsight, there were probably better and less risky options.