Dear Upwardly Mobile College Students STOP GOING TO LAW SCHOOL

This is a plague that anyone who knows me knows I complain about: College kids, especially those who come from parents who have money, are going to Law school because they have no idea what they want to do with their lives - just that they want to make enough money to be relatively rich and not have work too hard to get it. Where once people who were about their direction in life, came from money, and got an education, went to medical school, they are now choosing the "easier" or at least perceived easier future of being a lawyer. Most of the people who are going to law school today are relatively unintelligent intellectually lazy college graduates who just don't know what else they want to do. Yes, law school is hard, but the standards are lower then what it takes to get into medical school and the result used to be and is still perceived that it leads to a definite job that pays well. As such there is an increasing glut of law school graduates, which has led to many law school graduates not being hired. This (as someone with an economics degree can tell you) is great news, maybe people will stop going to law school. As a son, grandson and more, of lawyers I was so turned off by the way students get into, study, and become lawyers I knew it could not be my future. We need intelligent cutting edge thinkers whose love is the law; the execution and arguing over it. Spoiled kids who don't know what else to do only cheapen the profession and dilute legal thinking. Law Schools need to stop trading short term money at the cost of the profession they are poorly training people for. For now this article is a start: And yet, here we are. Wandering from LSAT prep to McKinsey Q&As to Teach For America informationals, we’re looking for something: a paying job, any job. A benefactor. The problem is, our personal passions do not give rise to prepared professions. Our myriad talents do not seem to converge upon one—or more importantly, one lucrative—career. As such, we’ve lapsed into months-long lamentations about our accursed lacked of direction. Simply, we have no idea where we’re going. It hasn’t always been this way. Long before we were “without direction,” we used to be called “well-rounded.” The scatterplot of interests that’s plaguing us now once got us into college. Back in those days, we were overachievers, full of belief in the beauty of our dreams. Never mind the obvious: that we never had a plan for making those dreams come true. “Rule the world” (or save it) was a perfect answer for all who asked: What do you want to do after you graduate? The I-bank/Law School/Med School Model of Success posits three options: 1) To try to make lots of money now. 2) To go to professional school now and try to make lots of money later. 3) To try to make lots of money now then go to school and try to make even more money sooner. In desperation almost, we’ve begun to subscribe to this Triumvirate Vision of Success. We artists and actors have begun to think that maybe marketing’s not so bad. Consulting has become a seductive lesser of evils, second only to the catholicon that is Law School. It’s the validation sticker we’ve worn for years to explain (or excuse) our interests. When people ask, “What are you studying?” our answer has always been two-fold. First, the program (“History,” “Theater”) and then the plan: “But I’m going to law school.” How quickly the confusion (“Gender Studies?!”) gives way to “Aha!”’s of comprehension. Of course, now that the day is upon us, we must appraise the master plan. The most fickle among us (myself included) seek solace in the Apply-and-Defer-Approach. Gifted scholars, dancers, teachers, poets—we know we don’t want to be lawyers. But in the name of appeasing parents, perceptions, and Pell Grants, we log onto LSAC. Here’s the thing. If you: a) Are going to law school because you’re not going to medical school, b) Are going to law school because you’re smart and don’t know what else to do, c) Imagine law school as an extension of your liberal arts education, please reconsider. Going to law school with no interest in legal practice is much like fulfilling all the pre-med requirements without any inclination to become a doctor. Unless you truly adore math and science you’d have worked too hard for too little. To sum DON'T GO TO LAW SCHOOL do something else for goodness sakes. RSS