Have you thought or considered starting your own firm, either as a sole practitioner or with a small number of other young attorneys? From your website, it doesn't seem like you thought this was a possibility. I'm curious what your thoughts are about it- is it not a good idea, and why not?

I'm a 3L who's half-considering doing this, so I'm curious to hear others' thoughts about why this is totally crazy, or not.

Thanks.

FWIW, I would have used the Alfred-Bruce Wayne quote instead:

Alfred: “Master Bruce, why do we fall down?”
BW: “To pick ourselves back up again.”

best quote in the movie IMO

hey, I was trying to bring some leivity to the talk, and the movie had just come out, so I was incorporating “pop culture.” Don't hate on Katie Holmes.

Your point is well taken, going to law school is a personal choice and not the right move for many who are enticed with inflated prospsects that are likely to not be looming upon graduation. Unfortunately, the lower ranked the law school is the more difficult time graduates are going to have in the job market. Especially, if they are at the middle or bottom of their class. Law at certain levels, is a very shallow profession in that pedigree and grades matter more than probably any other field. I mean other than law firm's what organizations can you search its members by where they recieved their degree? Not many.

But there are legions of graduates and law students who will never get those chances. Heck, half of those who graduate law school each year never practice, and you can believe a majority of that isn't by choice. That's not meant to rain on your parade, but hopefully it gives you a better sense of how bad things are, and have always been, for many lawyers (or tragically, wannabe lawyers) in this country.

Once again, we're always happy to hear that someone succeeds, but we always keep in mind that behind that shining example are legions of people with drastically diminished opportunities, and in some extreme cases, ruined lives. Law school is great for some (I think it was great for me), but certainly not for the majority.

Also, Katie Holmes? Really?

I think it is clear from my post that I am the first to concede there are problems facing the legal profession (see paragraph 5 of this post). I think if you look at my humor prints you would see that clearly as well.

I am not chipper and rosey that I am out of a job. But I still believe I learned valuable skills in law school and that there will always be a need for quality lawyers (those that have a true passion for the practice of law). No doubt it's rough out there, I would know, I've been in the job search trenches for 8 months. But if I had to do it all over again I would still go to law school. You can spew whatever discouragement and negativity you like but that's my bottom line.

American law schools produce about 45K new JDs every year. Are there ANYWHERE near this many available attorney (or law-related) jobs out there? Of course not! So what we produce are legions of unemployed attorneys strapped with six-figure student loan debts and no job prospects. Furthermore, a law degree DOES NOT make you marketable to non-law industries. You will be seen as a failure or a fool for passing up a chance “to make the big bucks.”

I simply cannot see how you can maintain any semblance of optimism in the face of all these things.

http://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com