Good luck finding a job out of law school

[Ned Hamford]

Yup

[charby]

Also seems like its not longer a job interview and you get hired, instead you take part in internship then maybe you get hired by the company.

[Ned Hamford]

Also seems like its not longer a job interview and you get hired, instead you take part in internship then maybe you get hired by the company.

Well, given the market they can string folks along. Max Work for Min Pay, always more where that came from, and no worries about getting a bad rep for the practice because that is what everyone is doing.

[T.O.M.]

I had diner with a friend from law school last week, in town for a meeting.  He's an intellectual property lawyer.  Passed the patent bar, got hired by a big company.  He's now a VP in the company.  He said that the IP area is growing as fast as the tech field is growing.  Not just in-house jobs working for the companies, but also firms paying IP guys to work to protect their product as well.  It also appears that, for those so interested, cyber crime is also a growing field.

Maybe the changing tech has eliminated some old jobs (writing will and other documents) but is creating another field altogether...

[MillCreek]

^^^ I had so many people tell me that with my science background, I should have gone into IP.  When I looked at it, I thought it was dreadfully boring, but if you can properly write up a scientific patent, you are apparently worth your weight in gold.

[230RN]

Remember the old joke "A small town that can't support one lawyer can always support two."

Took me a while to catch on to that one. Too true to be funny, though.

[T.O.M.]

^^^ I had so many people tell me that with my science background, I should have gone into IP.  When I looked at it, I thought it was dreadfully boring, but if you can properly write up a scientific patent, you are apparently worth your weight in gold.

Agree a thousand times over on the boredom aspect.  My friend said that the job itself is pretty monotonous, but leaves him with time and money for his hobbies...

[RevDisk]

I had diner with a friend from law school last week, in town for a meeting.  He's an intellectual property lawyer.  Passed the patent bar, got hired by a big company.  He's now a VP in the company.  He said that the IP area is growing as fast as the tech field is growing.  Not just in-house jobs working for the companies, but also firms paying IP guys to work to protect their product as well.  It also appears that, for those so interested, cyber crime is also a growing field.

Maybe the changing tech has eliminated some old jobs (writing will and other documents) but is creating another field altogether...

If you have no soul, correct. The amount of effort, bribery, unethical behavior, et al that has gone into protecting Steamboat Willie is nauseating. Patent trolling is another key growth IP industry. Basically, sucker the patent into getting a patent that should not be issued in the first place, and sue everyone that's actually productive. Patent troll mills are virtually never actual producers.

To give you an idea of how scummy the field is, the RIAA tried to sneak "work for hire" changes into Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999. Another wonderful IP lawyer was Mitch Glazier. He added substantive language into the final markup of a "technical corrections" section of copyright legislation. In English, he used the spelling or grammar changes section of a bill to stripping artists of their copyrights and gave them to the record labels. Then got immediately hired on by the RIAA as a Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Legislative Counsel.

There are a handful of ethical positions in the IP legal field. Submitting patents and copyrights, etc. Defending against patent trolls. The filthy lucre is on the side that'd make Rod Blagojevich blink at the audacity of their depravity.

[tokugawa]

My daughters boy friend, after graduating with a four year degree in Medieval History and astonishingly, not finding a job, has decided to go to law school and study "environmental law". 
 And apparently borrow the money to do so.  This did not seem like a good idea to me. Oh, well- . I mentioned my opinion but all they stuff they read must be rah rah .

 Once the government gets half the young on the student loan hook, the opportunities for turning the hook into a lever seem endless. Hey, kids, just do what we want for a few years and we will erase that pesky loan!

[Scout26]

My daughters boy friend, after graduating with a four year degree in Medieval History and astonishingly, not finding a job, has decided to go to law school and study "environmental law". 
 And apparently borrow the money to do so.  This did not seem like a good idea to me. Oh, well- . I mentioned my opinion but all they stuff they read must be rah rah .

 Once the government gets half the young on the student loan hook, the opportunities for turning the hook into a lever seem endless. Hey, kids, just do what we want for a few years and we will erase that pesky loan!

And just look at those spiffy Black Uniforms !!!

[41magsnub]

I know a couple of folks with law degrees that ended up doing licensing compliance for Oracle and IBM.  They make good money, but that might just be the most boring and thankless job I can imagine.

[RoadKingLarry]

The invisible hand isn't so harsh.  Change in Ethics/Practice which outsourced a 1/3 of jobs, Gov Loan Nonsense, and Nefarious Academic Institution Practices. 

And the common ingredient in all those problems is that they were created by lawyers.

[230RN]

I guess a lot of them are out scouting for "side effects" of various Rx drugs and procedures. I've sure noticed an uptick in that kind of TV commercial... "If you or a loved one has suffered <fill in blank> or died from taking or doing <this or that>, call me."

Must be a pretty lucrative variation of ambulance-chasing, and they don't even need a car.

It may ultimately devolve into, "If you or a loved one are taking any prescribed drugs or undergoing any procedures, call me, the <Pit Bull, Tiger, Big Fist (pick one)>, at (666) KLondike 5-6661, and let's talk."

I mean, everything has possible negative side effects, right?  After all, the drug companies have lawyers writing the exhaustive "side effect" disclaimers to protect their drug-producing asses from any side effect... right?

Which brings us back to the joke about the town that can't support one lawyer, but can support two.  

Terry, 230RN