I wonder what will happen when JDs begin to involuntarily default on their massive student loans in record numbers. If you have $150,000 in student loan debt but cannot find a job, you will probably end up defaulting on your loan even if you do not want to. Sadly, that might also result in disbarment and the complete loss of the value of people’s college educations since it could prevent them from obtaining a law license in other states. It’s Kafkaesque.
@esqnever – I’ve been considering law school since graduating from undergrad almost five years ago. But the exorbitant debt has always stopped me in my tracks. Being one of the fortunate, and rapidly dwindling, number of people who graduated with a BA without any debt, the idea of crushing student loan payments in my future is not altogether enticing. If I’m going to go bankrupt in my future, it might as well be experimenting and creating value by becoming entrepreneurial.
Thank you for the video. I just got my first acceptance letter to a Top 50 law school (though not T14), and considering that even grads from T14 schools are having trouble landing high-paying jobs, this is yet another wake-up call to law school novices like me. Unless I get a T14 acceptance, I will have to turn down these acceptance, since it seems the legal market in this country is going through a permanent correction. I guess setting up my own business is not looking too bad.
This is what makes it more depressing for law school grads. People everywhere seem to think we all want big firm jobs with big salaries. I have no desire to work in a big firm; it doesn’t matter. I would gladly take a job that pays $20K at this point. You are just contributing to the misconception there are plenty of law jobs out there–we “spoiled rich kids” just don’t want them. My father drives a school bus and my mother is a homemaker. So no, I am not a “spoiled rich kid.” And I have no job.
The fact that you are not committed to some Corporate Advocacy Conglomerate responding to its main client, The Devil, is, to a certain extent, the equivalent of having tremendous assets at a spiritual level. So keep the videos coming and consider me your fan!
esqnever – Realize that poverty is to a certain extent liberating… Have you some place to eat? Well, then it can’t be so bad, certainly not so much as to justify being bitter. Sooner or later what you learned will come in handy, even if not lucrative.
Hey! Congratulations on an excellent video… I think it is about time people in the U.S. recognize that the myth of “merit pay” as dictated by the ever so “fair invisible hand” of the market is nothing but right wing propaganda. MANY PEOPLE WORK MUCH FOR LITTLE… let’s start the list with teachers. Fear not credit bureaus! I am currently in Law School and if it doesn’t pay off the student loans, then some Bankruptcy Court will have to hear my elegantly concocted pro se plea.
Um, I went to law school in Manhattan (and did average) and work at a small firm *in Manattan,* and I don’t make nearly $80K. Since I’m neither spoiled nor rich and I support myself, in my first year of practice I had to couch surf because I couldn’t afford the apartment I had lived in working part time and living off student loans. I have friends who did very well in school who, like myself, have to earn outside income to make ends meet because we’re all in about $180K of debt. #realitycheck
Yes, I made this video because I’m “only” going to make 80k a year.
Tell you what, if you find a small firm job anywhere that pays anything near that for an entry level position, post it here. If you do, I’m sure that firm’s fax will literally melt due to the volume of responses.
Sorry, my friend, small firm jobs are going for around $35k these days. You’re luck if you can get $50k. Not exactly worth three years of LS and six figures of debt.
I can’t understand this obsession law students have with “big law”, heaven forbid they end up at a small firm with starting salary of a mere 80 fucking thousand. Law students are a bunch a of spoiled rich kids who have no idea what the average person makes in this country. They think they have a God given right to make 200K a year.
15 Responses to A Law School Carol Part 1
Whippersnapper7
December 28th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I wonder what will happen when JDs begin to involuntarily default on their massive student loans in record numbers. If you have $150,000 in student loan debt but cannot find a job, you will probably end up defaulting on your loan even if you do not want to. Sadly, that might also result in disbarment and the complete loss of the value of people’s college educations since it could prevent them from obtaining a law license in other states. It’s Kafkaesque.
davekaveh
December 28th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
so sad
davekaveh
December 28th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
haha
pdruiz2005
December 28th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
@esqnever – I’ve been considering law school since graduating from undergrad almost five years ago. But the exorbitant debt has always stopped me in my tracks. Being one of the fortunate, and rapidly dwindling, number of people who graduated with a BA without any debt, the idea of crushing student loan payments in my future is not altogether enticing. If I’m going to go bankrupt in my future, it might as well be experimenting and creating value by becoming entrepreneurial.
esqnever
December 28th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
@pdruiz2005 – Glad to hear it! Trust me, you’re saving yourself a lot of future anguish.
pdruiz2005
December 29th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Thank you for the video. I just got my first acceptance letter to a Top 50 law school (though not T14), and considering that even grads from T14 schools are having trouble landing high-paying jobs, this is yet another wake-up call to law school novices like me. Unless I get a T14 acceptance, I will have to turn down these acceptance, since it seems the legal market in this country is going through a permanent correction. I guess setting up my own business is not looking too bad.
jmk96
December 29th, 2009 at 1:28 am
This is what makes it more depressing for law school grads. People everywhere seem to think we all want big firm jobs with big salaries. I have no desire to work in a big firm; it doesn’t matter. I would gladly take a job that pays $20K at this point. You are just contributing to the misconception there are plenty of law jobs out there–we “spoiled rich kids” just don’t want them. My father drives a school bus and my mother is a homemaker. So no, I am not a “spoiled rich kid.” And I have no job.
eltarot
December 29th, 2009 at 1:41 am
The fact that you are not committed to some Corporate Advocacy Conglomerate responding to its main client, The Devil, is, to a certain extent, the equivalent of having tremendous assets at a spiritual level. So keep the videos coming and consider me your fan!
eltarot
December 29th, 2009 at 2:09 am
esqnever – Realize that poverty is to a certain extent liberating… Have you some place to eat? Well, then it can’t be so bad, certainly not so much as to justify being bitter. Sooner or later what you learned will come in handy, even if not lucrative.
eltarot
December 29th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Hey! Congratulations on an excellent video… I think it is about time people in the U.S. recognize that the myth of “merit pay” as dictated by the ever so “fair invisible hand” of the market is nothing but right wing propaganda. MANY PEOPLE WORK MUCH FOR LITTLE… let’s start the list with teachers. Fear not credit bureaus! I am currently in Law School and if it doesn’t pay off the student loans, then some Bankruptcy Court will have to hear my elegantly concocted pro se plea.
ptothegizzo
December 29th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Um, I went to law school in Manhattan (and did average) and work at a small firm *in Manattan,* and I don’t make nearly $80K. Since I’m neither spoiled nor rich and I support myself, in my first year of practice I had to couch surf because I couldn’t afford the apartment I had lived in working part time and living off student loans. I have friends who did very well in school who, like myself, have to earn outside income to make ends meet because we’re all in about $180K of debt. #realitycheck
esqnever
December 29th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Yes, I made this video because I’m “only” going to make 80k a year.
Tell you what, if you find a small firm job anywhere that pays anything near that for an entry level position, post it here. If you do, I’m sure that firm’s fax will literally melt due to the volume of responses.
Sorry, my friend, small firm jobs are going for around $35k these days. You’re luck if you can get $50k. Not exactly worth three years of LS and six figures of debt.
AMattDavidFilm
December 29th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Almost 7,000 views. Great job in breaking through the ABA’s code of silence.
jacobins3000
December 29th, 2009 at 3:44 am
I can’t understand this obsession law students have with “big law”, heaven forbid they end up at a small firm with starting salary of a mere 80 fucking thousand. Law students are a bunch a of spoiled rich kids who have no idea what the average person makes in this country. They think they have a God given right to make 200K a year.
unperson102
December 29th, 2009 at 3:53 am
nice!