Baltimore Business Daily

How hard is it to find a job for lawyers?

I've been considering law school for a while now (junior in high school) but i'm not sure if there is a demand for lawyers these days or not. I'm mainly worried about the difficulty of finding a job. If it helps at all i'm planning on majoring in criminal law.

Public Comments

1. I e-mailed this response to a girl a couple of days ago it might help. I just completed my first year of law school: Well I just finished my first year of law school and I was totally taken by surprise. I majored in Culinary Management as an undergrad, decided a MBA was a dying easy to obtain graduate degree and went for labor law. First, almost everyone in my law school (Mass. School of Law, www.mslaw.edu) is on financial aid, very few people I know can afford it. The joke is after the first year of law school you're in too much debt to go into any other profession. My G.P.A. was 3.8 and it really doesn't matter now. I took the LSAT twice, did amazing the first time, bombed the second unfortunately they take your average score. As a result I went to a school that doesn't require LSATS as they have their own entrance exam. I can practice in 65% of the states immediately, but the others I have to wait a certain time frame (usually three years). So it worked out well especially having such a different under graduate degree. As for journalism, it's a whole new style of writing, but if writing is your strength you are 1/2 way to becoming a great lawyer. The other half of course is arguing (I'm always right ;-)). My first year I didn't work until my second semester. Law school is far more than a full time job. My second semester I started at 20 hours a week down to 8. It's hard. But if you can survive your first year, you can survive the other two. The rule of thumb is the first year they scare you to death, the second is they work you to death, and the third is they bore you to death. It's a lot of work, and 150 pages is light reading, but after your first semester you become a pro at briefing cases and getting in a strong study group. However, if you don't do your work there is no way you can wing it!!! Teachers are hard on students in class, and outside are pretty cool (they all think they are the teacher from the movie "Paper Chase"). I went to law school thinking I was going to go into Labor Law, law school is different you don't really declare a concentration, your electives is where you mold your area. You can't pick electives until your second year. After my first year I really love Criminal Law and found I hate Property so I can gage my electives to that, but most also choose their electives around the bar exam. As for not going to school immediately after undergrad is pretty normal. Many of my fellow classmates are in their 30's and I (23) am considered very young. So that's not really a problem so long as you do your work. I don't know many who haven't been able to get a job after graduating unless they aren't searching. I know people who have failed the bar exam three or four times and got really great jobs. Lets see what else, litigation. Some people really have it and some people just don't. I pride myself on being court room savvy, but I have some friends who are very timid. They are the best at researching, finding things on Westlaw and Lexis Nexis and are just as valuable. In fact few lawyers actually every go to court. A good example of this would be a school attorney. They do all the research, write contracts, and have a slim to no chance of ever going to court. My Writing & Legal Research teacher told us she only went to court one time her whole career and was with so many other attorney's it never mattered anyways. I guess my only other piece of advice is, if you over analyze everything and love to argue (written or vocal) you'll be a great lawyer! If you decided to go, get as many study aids as you can (Black Letter Outlines and Case Notes are like a bible!). Really research the schools you apply to, and if you decided to take the LSAT, courses are great. Almost no one has the money for law school (and I live in Boston/Cambridge with Harvard) which keeps us all in debt. But if you're teetering on yes or no (and more no) then don't invest. Sorry this is long winded, but it's what I do! So Good luck!
2. is this a joke? worry about college, not law school. by the way, getting a lawyer job is easy, but getting a lawyer job that pays more than 50K a year is extremely difficult. only a very small percentage of lawyers are well-off. most are deeply in debt and unemployable