Matt Homann, of the [non]billable hour blog, provides some amusing thoughts on law school:

1. Law school is a trade school. The only people who don’t believe this to be true are the professors and deans.

2. Want to piss off your professors? Ask them if they’ve ever run a successful law practice.

3. Being good at writing makes you a good law student. Being good at understanding makes you a good lawyer. Being good at arguing makes you an ass.

4. You can learn more about client service by working at Starbucks for three weeks than you can by going to law school for three years.

5. Law school doesn’t teach you to think like a lawyer. Law school teaches you to think like a law professor. Believe me, there’s a huge difference.

6. You can get through law school without understanding anything about what it is like to be a lawyer. That is a terrible shame.

7. The people who will help you the most in your legal career are sitting next to you in class. Get to know them outside of law school. They are pretty cool people. They are even cooler when you stop talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities.

8. Your reputation as a lawyer begins now. Don’t screw it up (and quit bragging on your MySpace page about how drunk you got last night).

9. Law is a precedent-based profession. It doesn’t have to be a precedent-based business. Be prepared to challenge the prevailing business model. Somebody has to.

10. Experienced lawyers work with clients. Young lawyers work with paper. You like working with paper, right?

11. You are about to enter a world where getting your work done in half the time as your peers doesn’t get you rewarded. It gets you more work.

12. Except for prosecutors and public defenders, nobody tries cases anymore. Especially not second year associates.

13. You have a choice: You can help people and make a decent living, or you can help corporations and make a killing. Choose wisely.

14. There are plenty of things you don’t know, and even more things you’ll never know. Get used to it. Use your ignorance to your benefit. The most significant advantage you possess over those who’ve come before you is that you don’t believe what they do.

15. People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they think they are funny. They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true. Spend your career proving them wrong.