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We mock the fools who joined CS programs in undergrad to pursue a love of money but didn't care about computers. Why should we pity the law students? There is s

by Evbn 14y ago

We mock the fools who joined CS programs in undergrad to pursue a love of money but didn't care about computers. Why should we pity the law students? There is still plenty of work available for someone who wants a law degree in order to defend the defenseless and fight tyranny. But the market for predatory loan paperwork and anti-competitive M&A's s drying up. Those lawyers can cry into their beers with the RIAA lobbyists and the infamous buggy whip manufacturers.

rayiner 14y ago
There actually isn't. My friends from law school who sold their souls to corporate American mostly found jobs. It's my friends who wanted to defend poor people, fight racial injustice, or save the environment that had problems finding jobs. Corporate America is doing fine--it's the public sector that's really been gutted by the recession. Not that I think this is a positive state of affairs, mind you. Karmicly, those people are a lot more deserving of jobs.
- Evbn 14y ago
  I didn't mean to suggest that good works would pay well, but I guess I implied that.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    The public sector has never paid well, but now it doesn't pay at all. I know more than several people who could've easily gotten six-figure jobs in private practice that can't get $30k/year jobs in the public sector. Even if they were willing to work for free, public organizations don't even have the capacity to train people right now.
rollo_tommasi 14y ago
That's quite a nasty and vindictive worldview you've got there.
anigbrowl 14y ago
There is still plenty of work available for someone who wants a law degree in order to defend the defenseless and fight tyranny. I really like law as an intellectual discipline and (I think) I would be happy to work at it for a fairly ordinary wage as opposed to big bucks. But it's hard to study outside of a conventional school (lack of contact with other students or feedback from faculty) and fairly tough to get job of any kind and accrue experience no matter which school you go to...and although there are schemes designed to enable relatively low-paid lawyering in the public interest by reducing loan obligations, I really don't care for the idea of running up >$100,000 in debt at a fairly high rate of interest. There aren't exactly a lot of low-cost law schools and scholarships/grants are not transparent at all.

by Evbn 14y ago

rayiner 14y ago

There actually isn't. My friends from law school who sold their souls to corporate American mostly found jobs. It's my friends who wanted to defend poor people, fight racial injustice, or save the environment that had problems finding jobs. Corporate America is doing fine--it's the public sector that's really been gutted by the recession. Not that I think this is a positive state of affairs, mind you. Karmicly, those people are a lot more deserving of jobs.

Evbn 14y ago
I didn't mean to suggest that good works would pay well, but I guess I implied that.
- rayiner 14y ago
  The public sector has never paid well, but now it doesn't pay at all. I know more than several people who could've easily gotten six-figure jobs in private practice that can't get $30k/year jobs in the public sector. Even if they were willing to work for free, public organizations don't even have the capacity to train people right now.

rollo_tommasi 14y ago

That's quite a nasty and vindictive worldview you've got there.

anigbrowl 14y ago

There is still plenty of work available for someone who wants a law degree in order to defend the defenseless and fight tyranny. I really like law as an intellectual discipline and (I think) I would be happy to work at it for a fairly ordinary wage as opposed to big bucks. But it's hard to study outside of a conventional school (lack of contact with other students or feedback from faculty) and fairly tough to get job of any kind and accrue experience no matter which school you go to...and although there are schemes designed to enable relatively low-paid lawyering in the public interest by reducing loan obligations, I really don't care for the idea of running up >$100,000 in debt at a fairly high rate of interest. There aren't exactly a lot of low-cost law schools and scholarships/grants are not transparent at all.