Post: #26

(03-15-2016 10:47 PM)Merenguero Wrote:  I'll add something here and I've never heard or read this anywhere. If you practice law and go to court, you will constantly be approached by people in court asking if you are a lawyer and asking for your card. Nothing good will ever come out of this. If someone shows up in court without a lawyer, there is no way in hell that he can afford a competent lawyer ever. No exceptions. Just ignore those people. Your time is too valuable. I think Hank will agree with me on this one.

Completely agree.

"I'm all out of cards. But you can look me up on the internet. Write my name down down and give me a call."

Read: Please don't call me. They usually don't.

Post: #27

"I would have weeks where I would do $3-4k of work for a number of clients and only get $1k or less back. Issues like bounced checks, ungrateful clients and general administrative issues really bogged me down. I can't spend time chasing somebody around town for $500 when I have deadlines looming over my head for clients that actually pay. Get enough people to bounce checks, all of a sudden you are talking serious money. Always get money up front. No excuses. Do as I say, not as I do."

That's the practice of law, in a nutshell.

You'll eventually make decent coin, but you'll earn every cent.

Post: #28

(03-15-2016 02:59 PM)Merenguero Wrote:  I went out on my own just under eight years ago. I spent one year not working, then five years with the worst possible job, which either directly or indirectly caused me serious, serious problems. I've posted about that before. No more than two years after I went out on my own, I was able to take care of the approximately $250,000 in debt which I had when I went out on my own. Not a dime of help from anyone. Sometimes you find out the hard way who your "friends" and "family" really are.

That is precisely my point. You worked as a lawyer for many years before going solo. I am positive that was invaluable. If an attorney doesn't know a) how to do something competently and b) how to get clients, they are screwed. You really have to have both skills.

I know how to do a couple things really well. One I actually knew how to do before law school and the other I learned during the one year I was working for someone else. I've got good referral sources, but if those dry up or the law changes for one of the things I do, things could get tough.

Post: #29

(03-16-2016 01:34 PM)PartManPartMonkey Wrote:  

(03-15-2016 02:59 PM)Merenguero Wrote:  I went out on my own just under eight years ago. I spent one year not working, then five years with the worst possible job, which either directly or indirectly caused me serious, serious problems. I've posted about that before. No more than two years after I went out on my own, I was able to take care of the approximately $250,000 in debt which I had when I went out on my own. Not a dime of help from anyone. Sometimes you find out the hard way who your "friends" and "family" really are.

That is precisely my point. You worked as a lawyer for many years before going solo. I am positive that was invaluable. If an attorney doesn't know a) how to do something competently and b) how to get clients, they are screwed. You really have to have both skills.

I know how to do a couple things really well. One I actually knew how to do before law school and the other I learned during the one year I was working for someone else. I've got good referral sources, but if those dry up or the law changes for one of the things I do, things could get tough.

I agree with all of this but there is a distinction between being trained/thought how to do things and being completely thrown in when you are working for someone else. With me, the latter was the case. I made serious mistakes at first, realized I made each mistake and never made the same mistake again. If you are taught things, there is a much better chance that you won't make the mistake in the first place and in my opinion, you can learn things much, much faster.

Post: #30

I'm a 2nd year law student at a top 20 school and from what I have seen in the legal profession thus far, I have to echo all the sentiments in this thread. There are worse things in the world, but when you compare the payout from law to other professions it often pales in comparison. Personally, I think I made the right decision because of the connections I had to the profession before coming into law school but a lot of other people will not be as fortunate as me.

To the younger guys still in college, if you are not sure what to do career-wise, do not go to law school! Studying finance/econ, working for a few years in any typical corporate job (finance, consulting, even HR), then going for the MBA at a top 20ish school is a MUCH better investment. Finance//hedge funds/investment banking/private equity basically has no cap when it comes to how much money you can make, whereas lawyers are capped out an hourly rate.

Getting into sales is also a really good decision for many, especially if you are good at talking and have a "bro" mentality. There are so many parallels between pick-up and sales that it's not even funny. A lot of my friends who were way less "book smart" than me started clearing six figures easily after a few years of (successful) sales experience. I won't start clearing six figures as a lawyer until I'm in my 30s.

That said, based on my experience as a current law student, it does seem that the law market has bounced back a bit. This is because applications have gone WAY down in recent years due to everyone wising up to how much of a $$ scam law school is... I believe that in 2014, applications to law school went down 50% across the board. So in terms of supply and demand in the legal job market, there are less lawyers coming out at this time than there were, say, 5 years ago.