re: Georgia Law School Guy

There was a time when a law degree guaranteed you a really nice life, and if you wanted to work extra hard, you could get really rich too.

Now, the market is flooded with them.

Now, you work extra hard just to keep your head above water.

Used to be, sorostitutes threw themselves at law schoolers.

Now, even they are like “isn’t that like a rough field right now?”

But at least you get to wear a suit every day.... which gets old after a couple years by the way.

Agree with most all the observations in this thread but

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But at least you get to wear a suit everyday which gets old after a couple of years by the way.

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Can’t agree with that one and Ric Flair would disagree as well.

“I see you wore your lucky suit today, and it’s a good thing too, counselor... I’m gonna put Sanchez away in a prison so far beneath the earth that you’ll have to fly to China to see his sorry arse. What are you doing after the hearing? We need a 4th on the links this afternoon.”

If you want to have fun with judges, buy a title from a European country.

When the judge reminds you to call him "Your Honor," you can then reply "As long as we're being formal, you may address me as 'My Lord'"

Get a degree in IT/CS. You'll never have a bad day

I don’t have a lucky suit because I think it’s kind of lame to wear one suit very much. In the court system people don’t notice too much but outside of that realm people seem to pay a lot of attention with respect to what you are wearing and comment on it from time to time. Here’s some random observations of mine:

I have done a lot of appellate work and it is a totally different animal. Very much toned down and I would say less adverserial. You can get in your space and not have that much contact with anyone in the outside world. Some I know wouldn’t do anything else. Others want more excitement.

For most of us in practice and litigation, hanging out your own shingle and engaging in the feast or famine practice of law is tough. Lots of clients with champagne tastes and beer budgets and always chasing money it seems. The law side of things is good but the business side usually stinks. And not to mention high maintenance clients. It can definitely wear on you after awhile. Ever get a text from a client during the Super Bowl? I have. You are depending a lot on those around you in your community to pay you. If you are in a wealthy community you may get paid more but it probably costs you more to live there and run your business. Most folks out there don’t run around with sacks of money.

Personal injury is the way to go if you want the best overall prospect to make money.

The law is vast and permeates the whole business world so you can use your law degree in many different ways and you don’t have to be in a law job per se. You can be a Senator or doctor or accountant (maybe even President) and a law degree can help you in other areas.

You usually don’t know what you want to do until you’ve gotten out of law school and gotten your feet wet.

Judging is probably the best job in the legal field for a variety of reasons but of course it isn’t all up to you to have such a job—you have to be elected or appointed.

One of the quietest students in our class ended up making millions by getting into product liability litigation and hitting it just at the right time. That’s true of many things in and outside of the law as timing and luck can play a big role in your success.

The most financially successful person I know very well is not a lawyer but is an engineer (Techie-sorry) who made multi millions not as an engineer but in a business related field. As far as the law goes it is like acting or being a football coach or anything else, there are a few who make lots of money and then to varying degrees there is the rest of us. When we were in law school some of us used to talk about having lots of time to play golf, spend a few hours in the office each week, and make tons of money (and there seems to be a public perception of that as well) and that is simply not the case in the real world especially given the number of lawyers we have in the modern era.

And for us practitioners we do wake up at night wondering if we missed a deadline or if we called the person we were supposed to, etc., and it does stay with you all the time no matter how much you may try to separate yourself from it.

One of my professors said that we would spend our whole lives in the law and, after looking back on it, would say we only knew but a very small part of the law. I didn’t learn that much from his class but he was spot on regarding that observation. And if you run across a lawyer who claims to know all things about the law it is probably a good idea to run the other way.

And as we often say, “It’s never too late to go to med school.”

Lots of good days in med device as well

There is a counter to that, though - being a lawyer, as opposed to merely having a JD, can work hard against you in finding work outside the law.

Just about every business out there fails to comply with some statute or regulation or other. I've seen plenty of times where people tried to change careers only to be told that the potential employer was afraid to bring in an attorney who might whistle blow on them. Hell, I've seen instances of landlords unwilling to rent properties for the same reason.

It's very much a mixed bag.

Suits? I'm supposed to wear a suit?

Great thing about practicing, about half the time, in federal court--I don't have hearings very often. I wear jeans and polos more often than suits. But it's sort my schtick. My criminal practice is all indigent defense and I find dressing down helps clients and witnesses relate to me.

The other half of my practice is suing abusive debt collectors, robodialers, and credit reporting agencies. 95% of those cases are in federal court. Not a lot of in court time on those. But the clients are more typically folks who I meet after-hours because they can't afford to miss work, or on weekends, or meet them at their house half-way across the state. I've met clients on Christmas, during the Super Bowl, on vacation, there is no barrier when an emergency is happening.

I wind up in court maybe three to five times a month. I get looks from other lawyers when we go out to lunch. But it's okay. We have different clients and different goals from our client relationships.

I have been successful because I am a workaholic and it gets recognized. Hanging a shingle is terrifying if you have no existing clients. I had one constantly paying one, but nothing to write home about. But people noticed my work product and I picked up more monthly clients. Then I found something I truly enjoy (suing debt collectors) and blew the barn doors off what I was doing.

Matlock, i get robodialed shite daily and it is almost exclusively sirius xm trying to get me to renew the subscription that came with my new car in 2015, and they spoof their numbers to my area code. I’ve told them multiple times to never call again, even told them I sold the car, they still don’t stop.

How can you and me get paid on this?