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April 6, 2008

A terrible thing to waste on the law

Friday and Saturday nights were the main event of the law school season: the musical. I had a small part (yes, yes, there are no small parts, just small actors) and I'm still trying to get the stage makeup out of the nooks and crannies of my face.

I remembered my lines, the audience laughed and good times were had by all, but the really amazing thing is that it happened at all. From a student body of a little more than 600 aspiring attorneys, there were enough (scary good) singers, actors, sound engineers, lighting techs, costume designers and other theatre types to put on a high production value show while still managing a full courseload.

Then again, nobody sits on daddy's lap at the age of five and says "I want to work in the mass torts defense group at a large law firm in an anonymous office building until I either claw my way up to the top or burn out and put out my own shingle back home." In many ways, law school is the last stop for every aspiration under the sun. Why do you think a firm that pays its first year associates $160,000 a year has to relentlessly wine and dine the perspective fresh meat?

Sure, some folks came straight from undergrad with dreams of helping the downtrodden dancing in their heads, but if you dig just a little deeper, you'll find something else entirely. Some folks killed time at jobs they weren't really interested in until grad school seemed the only way out. Others burned out. Still others found they couldn't hack it in their chosen profession. A few found that the after-college dream job wasn't as exciting and rewarding as it first appeared.

If that assessment sounds relentlessly negative, the story doesn't end that way. Two days into 1L year, former teachers, engineers and entrepreneurs can't go out for a beer without talking animatedly about the hairy hand. It doesn't take long to mint a new legal mind.

Some people have always known what they want to do. Others have to take the long route.

Posted by rj3 at April 6, 2008 12:37 PM

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