This isn't a specific question, but I've received several reader submitted questions in the past basically asking what the social life in law school is or can be like. Read my response below...

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Updated 2/27/2007

The National Law Journal is reporting that BAR/BRI (see previous post) has settled one of its class action suits. BAR/BRI and Kaplan (the other company accused of participating in anticompetitive behavior) agreed to pay a total of $49 million to settle the case.

Students who took the BAR/BRI over the past decade will be due $125 dollars. It's unclear how this will, if at all, affect those of us who plan on taking BAR/BRI in the near future.

Update: It looks like some of the lead plaintiffs in the BAR/BRI suit are not happy with the proposed outcome according to a law.com article...

• "Within the memo and in separate interviews, [co-plaintiff Loredana] Nesci and co-plaintiff Lisa Gintz . . . said they would do everything in their power to get the settlement revoked. Failing that, the two have indicated that they will ask the Central District of California to disgorge legal fees from their attorneys for alleged breach of fiduciary duty"

Interesting. Nesci's quote:

• "'Not that money is everything, but if it's supposed to represent something that you've been working on for like two years, that pretty much sucks,' Nesci said."

Full articles available here and here.

Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a nice summary of the settlement and the controversy it has caused here.

The New York Times did a nice write-up on the BAR/BRI suit here.

This Wall Street Journal Law Blog post discusses how great it is to be a 2L in law school right now. Indeed, big law firm salaries for starting associates are rising and it appears that most firms are hiring more associates than ever. Combine that with the drop in law school applicants from two years and a year ago and things are looking good for a lot of 2Ls.

But I think the most interesting part of the post is the comments. A few students from second-tier schools are pointing out that they don't have a lot of opportunities.

I think that's the hardest part that I have seen at a second tier law school. The divide between the top 15% or so of students and the rest of the class is pretty obvious. Most outside of the top 15% are completely shut out of even interviewing with even one big firm during on campus interviews. Firms are very picky about how deep into the class that they are willing to reach at second tier schools.

So while law review students at average schools and even low to middle of the pack students at elite schools may have offers rolling in from OCI, everyone else is left to find a job on their own. A job that is probably not going to pay close to six figures.

Would a more accurate post title be "Good Times for 2Ls at Elite Schools and/or 2Ls at the Top of Their Class?" In my limited experience, yes. But that is a rather long title.

I think many of those comments by the shut-out 2Ls are indicative of the frustration many 2Ls at non-elite schools feel when they know several people, probably a few who are friends, who are will start out with a six-figure salaries while the ones without those opportunities may not even get an interview for that type of job.

But if you're going to a non-elite law school, you just have to understand that this is the way it is. And you need to know that before you make a decision to attend a second-tier law school. There is a good chance you will not have a $100,000/year salary waiting at the tail end of law school. There will still be other opportunities. The fact that more people, overall, have opportunities with big firms means that there is less competition for the non-big firm jobs.

Just understand that law school at a non-elite school is not a ticket to an automatic six-figure salary. Also know that you may have to watch on as your classmates and peers from other more highly-regarded schools will have those type of opportunities while you look on and have none.

Ave Maria, founded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, is moving from Michigan to Florida. Link

On the heels of the news that a paralegal was caught practicing law successfully for several years without a license, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by a law school professor which cricized law schools for not preparing students.

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has more details and comments.

A good roundup of the issue at Law.com-Inside Opinions.

Professor Orin Kerr of Volokh conspiracy has a nice post about how to write a law school exam answer. It gives some nice insight into what a professor wants to see on a law school exam.

The examples of good vs. bad answers are rather helpful. You always hear that a good exam answer comes down to writing a good analysis, but this actually demonstrates what is meant by that.

Law School Academic Suport Blog offers five tips for students to stay mentally healthy.

Rick Lax, DePaul law student; law school blogger; and aspiring author, has some pretty good posts on his lawschoolblogger.com blog. Among others, I like his comments on study groups.

My thoughts on study groups below...

I don't recommend Kevin Boonear Siangchin's technique for getting into a top law school: Leaving cryptic notes and money on Law School Admissions Council (LSAC...the organization that oversees the LSAT) workers' cars in an attempt to bribe them into selling you a copy of the LSAT. (Link)

If you need loans you will most certainly be filling out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year of law school.

The Consumerist, a consumer dvocate blog, suggests that you fill out your FAFSA soon. This is smart advice.

A bit of a continuation of my last post. Looks like the big firms here in Chicago are following suit with starting salary increases for their first year associates as well.

Here is a post from Balkanization talking about the effect of high associate salaries at elite firms on legal education. A couple of important points...

• "A similar table for non-elite law schools (outside the top 30 or so) would likely show that only 5% to 10% of graduates enter these [top 250 firms...ie, the high-paying firms] firms, and for many schools the percentage is much lower."

I agree with his assessment. And that goes back to the point in my last post. Your chances of finding the $100,000 salary if you don't attend an elite school is dramatically small.

He goes further to note that the high cost of most legal education:

• " forces graduates to take the corporate law firm route, . . . as a means to finance the cost of law school. . . . Many students come into law school with different aspirations, and later decide to go to law firms to pay off their hefty loans."

He also cites students at lower reputational schools as being the losers in this system:

• "Many students at non-elite law schools are not doing well. As indicated earlier, only the top 5% to 10% of graduates from non-elite schools obtain the choice corporate law jobs (with a much lower percentage at many schools). The remaining 95% of graduates will earn substantially less initially (many in the $50,000 to $70,000 range), and over their careers. These lawyers mainly serve individual clients or work in government positions. When adjusted for inflation, their pay has decreased in the last couple of decades (see Heinz, Urban Lawyers 2005), while loan payments have gone up.

I also echo the below sentiments:

• "non-elite graduates pay almost the same amount for a law degree but have significantly lower expected earnings. Law school may still be a sound investment for these graduates, but not necessarily for those who had a solid earning potential before entering law school, and not for older students."

Students who have a miniscule shot at these high salaried jobs are paying as much in tuition as those with a decent shot. But those with little hope of a big paying job may not be aware of that fact coming into law school that they are not likely to land such a job. So those two groups mentioned (older students, those with high earnings potential) should think long and hard about borrowing as much money as it takes to pay for law school in most cases because they could end up in a worse situation after law school than before.

He also mentions the scholarship disparity problem.

• "There is another nasty twist. Many of the top students at non-elite schools—the ones with a decent chance to land corporate law jobs—get substantial scholarships (which schools use to lure highly credentialed students to boost their rankings), while those lower in the class often pay full price. As a result, the students who are likely to earn far less subsidize the education of the students who will earn a great deal more."

Read the whole article though. It's a good comment on how the big law firms' hiring practices could affect you, not to mention the entire legal community.

Once again we are witnessing a sort of bidding war between large firms in New York to see who will give incoming new associates the largest salaries. Simpson Tacher & Bartlett recently raised the starting salary of their newly hired associates to $160,000. As soon as this was announced several other firms followed suit. This brings me to a reader submitted question I've been meaning to get to:

• Law School is a big investment. What's the likelihood that I will be able to find a high-paying position after graduation?

When one firm raises its associates' starting pay, like clockwork, several others follow and, again like clockwork, the media picks up on it. So we see many articles like this: here, here, here, here. I think this gives some people thinking about law school an unrealistic idea of starting salaries.

WHO PAYS THESE LARGE SALARIES?
First of all, only the large firms pay salaries in the vicinity of $100k (probably those that employ at least, say 250 attorneys). Medium/small firms jobs, solo practitioners looking for help, public sector/government jobs, or other public interest jobs will not pay close to the large numbers you've seen thrown around recently ($150,000+). You'll find salary information on a lot of those big firms here.

THE PROCESS
A large majority of people who graduate with these high paying jobs actually got their foot in the door at a firm by participating in on campus interviewing (OCI) during their second year fall semester. During OCI, firms come to the school and interview 2l's for what is known as a summer associate job.

Students who are hired as summer associates work in the summer between 2nd and 3rd year of law school and get paid at basically the same rate as a full-time associate. It's virtually a trial run from what I understand. If you don't screw up the summer associate job, you're probably going to be kept on as an full-time associate after your third year.

And yes, I know what you're saying...since law firms that pay the big bucks mostly interview and hire during 2l fall semester, how can they consider 2nd year and 3rd year grades? They don't for summer associates. That's why first year grades are crucial. I realize this doesn't make much sense. Welcome to law school.

HOW HARD IS IT TO GET THAT KIND OF SALARY?
Secondly, it's very tough to land a large firm job. Because of the cost of law school, many students are looking to pay off their loans as quickly as possible. So many, many students are shooting for the big firm jobs during OCI or otherwise.

A person generally must have some sort of balance of the following in order to land a job that pays that sort of cash: 1) attend a highly regarded school, 2) have a high class rank, 3) have connections.

As an example, my school is in the top 70 law schols schools according to the US News and World Report. There are some big firms that don't even bother coming to my school. Very few out of town firms.

But of the ones that do interview on my campus, most will not interview students outside of the top 15%, 10%, or even 5% in terms of class rank. Sometimes law review is a requirement. And even if you meet certain criteria, you are not gauranteed to nail an interview and get a high paying job.

So you can imagine that the lower ranked the school, the more restrictive interview requirements firms will have for that school and the less likely certain big firms are to even interview at that school.

Now if you attend, say, a top 20 school, your chances become much better. Big firms from all over are more likely to interview up on your campus and much less likely to rely on strict interview standards.

So this is what it comes down to if you want one of the big paying jobs: Do well (grade wise) at a highly reputable school, do extremely well at somewhat reputable school, or have a parent/relativ/etc. whom you know will be able to get you one of these jobs.

IN CONCLUSION
I wrote this post partly because I read this person's post here. Now, I do not endorse his views and I think they are too negative in many respects (I posted my response in the comments of his post). It seems to me that this person had a good life as it was, but saw these sort of $140,000+ starting salary jobs, left that job in order to pursue law school, attended the best law school that would take him, but couldn't put full effort into law school. And now he, by his own admission, is very bitter about the whole law school process.

He didn't realize just how tough and competitive jobs in law school are. And as someone thinking about entering law school, you can't fall into the same traps he did. With so much uncertainty about where you will end up grade-wise when matched up against many people who are of basically equal intelligence as you, it's not very smart to enter into most law schools with the idea that you will be one of the few who end up with a 100k salary immediately.

If you feel like your future depends on landing a high paying job right after graduation and you don't have a chance of acceptance at an elite law school, you have to know there is a huge risk that you won't get a big firm, high-paying job. It's even riskier when you consider the cost of most law schools.

It's not easy to land such a job straight out of law school. But that doesn't mean that there are not other opportunities after graduation. It also does not mean that you will never have a shot at a high paying job down the road. For those who don't get the big firm job, it's more like the real working world: start out with a lower salary and work your way up.