I believe my opinion as to whether it is a good idea to go into the legal profession differs from that of most of the posters here and quite possibly from that of most of the legal community. I wrote in another post that I don't regret anything I have ever done. This is entirely true. If I could go back to high school or college in the same years in which I was in high school and college, I would definitely not have changed my decision to go to law school. If I were in high school or college now, as opposed to many years ago, I may not make the same decision which I made. I am basing this on my observations that the legal market for new law school graduates seems to be far worse and much more competitive than it was when I was just starting out. Because I entered the profession when I did, I was able to get my foot in the door pretty easily and make some of the contacts which I needed to make in order to be successful when the time came to start my own practice. If I were entering the profession now, or three years from now, or seven years from now, I believe it would be much more difficult and may not be worthwhile. A better idea may be to get a college education, which I believe everyone should get, and focus on starting a business.
It is often discussed how saturated the legal market is and how many highly qualified attorneys at major law firms burn out after a few years or even less than that. What is not frequently discussed is that many people who have excellent credentials are simply not functional and may not be successful in any setting. The world is full of people who are extremely impressive on paper, but have no real talent. There are things that the college that a person attends, the LSAT score that a person receives, the grades a person earns, the law school that a person attends, and the bar exam do not begin to measure. Don't get me wrong. There are thousands, if not millions, of lawyers in the world, Barack Obama included, who have excellent credentials and have the other qualities which are needed to be highly successful in the world and who capitalize on their abilities. There are also plenty of those people who are simply not functional. There are many top trial lawyers who are either sole practitioners or at small firms who have less than top educational backgrounds who are multi-millionaires. Those people are making the most of what they were given. I equate this to a guy who has looks, intelligence, is successful, both financially and in other ways, but is completely unsuccessful with women. In my opinion, guys like that are not functional. We then have Roosh, who I believe by his own admission, is not a male model, does not have GQ style, and whose financial circumstances would not lead him to be confused with a member of the Kennedy family anytime soon. He does, however, have some qualities which make him successful with women, some qualities which have nothing to do with looks, money, style. He is making the most of what he has which is what I believe I do in a professional sense. My resume is very average or even below average, but I am much more successful than many people who have top credentials.
Quote: (09-29-2012 09:58 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:
According to a poll by the American Bar Association, lawyers were asked if they could do it all over again, and choose whether or not to go to law school, 50% said no, they wouldn't go to law school.
I read a statistic similar to this in the past. I don't doubt for a second that it is accurate. I also read a statistic that a much higher percentage of Hispanic lawyers than non-Hispanic lawyers whould choose to go to law school if they could do it all over again. I'm sorry to bring race into to this discussion, but I believe it is relevant here. Almost 100% of my clients are Hispanic and that has been the case for almost the entire time I have been practicing law. The lawyers with whom I associate are all either Hispanic or are fully fluent in Spanish. Among them, there may be a higher percentage who like what they do. There are some areas of the law which have more growth than others. Patent law has been discussed above. My field is providing bilingual legal services to Hispanic clients. In my opinion, this is a hot area of the law and will be for years to come. I am fully aware that this particular market has become saturated in recent years, more in some cities and states than others. In my opinion a fully bilingual lawyer who is competent, hard working, and who treats people well will have a bright future, not only now, but for many years to come. There are parts of this country which are dying for bilingual lawyers, two which come to mind are the Atlanta area (specifically Gwinnett County) and North Carolina. There are many, many underrepresented Hispanic people in those areas.
I stated in another thread that I plan on retiring pretty soon at a very early age. This is entirely true. I do not plan on retiring because I am dissatisfied with my legal career or I think I made a mistake by going into law. I plan on retiring because I would like to move to a warmer climate with better talent and concentrate on my favorite hobby of approaching topless girls on Miami Beach. I spent a full week of every month doing that last year and I obviously believe that it was time well spent.