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By: Contributor · March 1, 2009 · Filed Under Law School · 8 Comments
This is hardly an endorsement, but rather fodder for discussion.
Probably produced by one of those “unsuccessful” lawyers.
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8 Responses to “Law School Scam?”
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I can make you a video with some scary sound and pretty pictures too. =)
Seriously though, where did all this info come from? I’m guessing since jdunderground is listed a source, it didn’t come from anywhere too credible.
I was skeptical, but the addition of Bill Paxton at the end went a long way toward elevating the video’s legitimacy.
[...] 2, 2009 by Kenny Costa In my recent blog surfing, I came across a video on Lawiscool.com claiming that law school is in essence a scam, that your paying all this money for a job you will [...]
I started to write a comment on this, but ended up writing a blog posting about it instead. (You did say you wanted to start a conversation!)My response was with three points.
1. That the Canadian and American experiences might be very different.
2. That starting salary is not an indication of how much money you will make in the long run.
3. Law school should not ever be thought of as an easy way to money. Yes you can do well with it, but it is far from garrenteed, and you have to work hard at it.
If you want to read the full blog post response, you can find it at: http://ksrcosta.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/the-economic-fears-of-law-school-grads/
Law is Cool:
Great analysis Kenny. But we do take issue with this:
We don’t make that claim at all.
Thanks for sharing though, and we’re sure our readers will enjoy your comments too.
That was an unintentional ambiguity on my part. Thank you for noticing, as I knew that your website wasn’t the one that made the video in question. I tried to clarify the point in my post to prevent future confusion.
It now reads as follows…
“I came across a post on Lawiscool.com replying to a youtube video that was claiming that law school is in essence a scam”
Hopefully that clears it up.
The video completely misses the point. A law degree isn’t about “money” or “jobs”, it’s about knowledge. Knowledge you can use to get out of speeding tickets. And, if anyone can figure a way out of paying back troublesome amounts of student loans, a lawyer can. Failing that, the video illustrates how law professors are in demand… Someone has to teach those lawyers overseas. Who better than a new grad?
Although this video is terrible there is a point there. How many of us have stats on the average salary of a person that holds an LLB/JD? Even over a life time? How many people would be turned off from law school if they found out that the chances of making more than $100,000 are 1:60 for example (made up stat). That on average you will make less than $60,000 which is a mere $5,000 per month before taxes several years down the road.
The debt load is also a good and important point
I became a lawyer over 30-years ago. It was (I think now) the end of the Golden Age of law in Canada. It was an honourable thing. Barristers took each other at their word. Your conduct was subject to an unwritten code that, when upheld, served everyone well.
Back then, firms hiring articled students did so with a view to keeping them on after their call. Many students getting on with prestiege firms went in with their minds focused on eventual partnership.
A decade later, the market had changed due to a glut of graduates. Firms still gave articles to most but the post-call retention rates plummeted. This led to some serious problems within the profession.
Too many newly-minted, inexperienced lawyers were compelled to set up shop on their own or in conjunction with others in the same boat. Without having had an opportunity to practice under senior counsel and with no clientelle, they had to take on the start-up costs and overhead of private practice.
Being cash-strapped it was not uncommon for these fledglings to take on work that was beyond their knowledge and experience. In other words, they didn’t have the luxury of doing the right thing and turning away paying work they weren’t equipped to handle. Rarely did these cases turn out well – for the young lawyer, for the client or for the Law Society insurer. This was but one adverse consequence of this reality.
In my bankruptcy practice I had my fair share of lawyers as clients. I also knew a lot of lawyers who struggled to stay afloat for years after entering the profession, a fair number of whom moved on to other fields.
What we had in the mid-70′s was an enormous amount of fun. The shifting realities of legal practice seemed to kill that off by the late 80′s.
But don’t despair. In the legal profession as in any other, the cream always rises to the top. There will always be a shortage of truly good lawyers. Getting through law school is just the beginning of a steep climb but when you reach the top you’ll find it was worth it.