[Mentalist]

Depending where you study in Canada, law school might not cost an arm and a leg. I managed to work part-time while I was in law school, and the debt from my student loan was relatively modest.

That being said, I fully endorse the "don't do this unless you're sure you want to" advice. The workload can be quite overwhelming.

Law is like 90% problem-solving in my experience. It does require a very "systemic thinking" type of approach, where you must ruthlessly make all facts slot somewhere in the the system with which you are working, but essentially, it's just a different skill set.

And I was being perfectly serious, EM: generally, once you're in, the faculty will do all they can to help you graduate. But then when it comes to articling and finding a job, you're on your own again.

[Gorefest]

You know what it means when you have snow that far south, right? Winter is coming. The Others are near.

Hehe, winter is coming. All over the south. I get it now. George, you naughty rascal.

[EmperorMagus]

Puck, on 16 January 2018 - 09:22 AM, said:

Congrats, EM!

This is gonna sound cheesy, but it always makes me happy to see you get ahead and get what you want

Thanks!

amphibian, on 16 January 2018 - 03:05 PM, said:

I know the above viscerally because I was thinking "Got nothing better to do" when I went in and it took me five long years of depressed toil after law school to get a job I love. The only reason I was afloat those years was because I have a family who supported me and gave me a paying job that my very depressed self could do until I put myself back together and worked to get the job I have now.

H.D. on these forums quit law entirely and became a teacher. I have friends who quit law too and they're happier for it. I
have friends who joined the army to become JAGs because they hated their corporate worlds.

I also have friends who are genuinely happy doing what law areas they do and they're successful and well respected. I have friends who toil through and get money, but it's just a job to them. It's a big gamut of people and the debt makes the decision to go to school a very momentous one that affects the next twenty years of life majorly for most people.

I also have a couple acquaintances who were from extremely wealthy families and they don't do anything even after law school, but they have no debt and trust funds to fuel whatever stupid modeling/ singing or modern art career moves they want.

I am not you, EM. My friends are not you. You're going to find your answer, but I do urge you to not go if there's a sliver of doubt or indifference. If you don't have those things, you'll kick butt and that's great.

Thank you for the advice. It's something I've heard more than once before and thought about a lot.
I honestly can't say I have no doubts about the decision (who could?), but thankfully I live at home and the tuition for all 3 years of UBC law (without factoring scholarships) is about half the tuition of an average 'good' American law school like NYU. So the decision isn't as crippling as it would be in other contexts.

What I do know about myself is that I'm pretty good at reading and digesting long texts and I like writing - and by all accounts law involves a lot of that. Before applying, I actually read a few of the most cited legal opinions on CanLawii to see what they were like and I found them pretty interesting to read (complex and difficult though).

Mentalist, on 16 January 2018 - 03:12 PM, said:

Depending where you study in Canada, law school might not cost an arm and a leg. I managed to work part-time while I was in law school, and the debt from my student loan was relatively modest.

That being said, I fully endorse the "don't do this unless you're sure you want to" advice. The workload can be quite overwhelming.

Law is like 90% problem-solving in my experience. It does require a very "systemic thinking" type of approach, where you must ruthlessly make all facts slot somewhere in the the system with which you are working, but essentially, it's just a different skill set.

And I was being perfectly serious, EM: generally, once you're in, the faculty will do all they can to help you graduate. But then when it comes to articling and finding a job, you're on your own again.

Yeah, BC schools are mostly very reasonable in terms of tuition for Canadian citizens/residents.

I'm more worried about doing well rather than simply graduating.

[worry]

American lawyers are, like, traumatized by their student debts. It's nuts. This one couple I know are paying their prescribed minimum based on income -- and their income is healthy, if not corporate law healthy -- and it's literally not enough to reduce interest. Their debt is actually growing month to month.

[amphibian]

worry, on 16 January 2018 - 10:58 PM, said:

American lawyers are, like, traumatized by their student debts. It's nuts. This one couple I know are paying their prescribed minimum based on income -- and their income is healthy, if not corporate law healthy -- and it's literally not enough to reduce interest. Their debt is actually growing month to month.

It's real bad for many people and one thing that's scaring many is that the ten year public service loan forgiveness program may be going away under DeVos and Trump. That is going to crater many, many people and make non-profit/government service untenable for almost every lawyer. That would kill large swathes of the government and non-profit sectors (kind of the point of removing that program for the GOP).

Legal opinion writing for most lawyers is something like 0.5% of what they do in day to day life. It's also very hard to do at a high level day in and day out. That's why judges have multiple clerks writing most of their opinions.

Like most professions, most lawyers are digging into the client papers, looking up laws and opinions online, and dealing with a gamut of clients good, bad, and neutral. There's also the occasional negotiation session and a ton of "finding the next project/place where the money will come from", even at non-profits or big corporations.

I do love my non-profit job though. It's amazing and, of course, under threat by the Republican attitude towards budgets and funding programs like the Social Security Administration.

Canada absolutely has a better environment for lawyers and I wish you all the best, EM. You can do this and not lose that much sleep either. I recommend finding out whether you respond best to exams or papers and then hunt professors who have the exams or papers you respond best to. That's more important (good grades) than most subject matters of classes taken.

[Morgoth]

You guys should all just get your law degree in Norway. I didn't pay a penny for my masters.

[Macros]

Yeah but every true American knows that any form of socialism is just communism in disguise.

[Andorion]

So the new year has brought some surprises for me career wise.

Someone in my department quit and her replacement declined the job and ran away (no clue why)

This has resulted in me being promoted. While this bring a significant increase in workload, it also bring a quite satisfactory increase in pay.
Also I am working on another project. The pay increase because of this is not very big, but still significant and this is going to look really really really good on my CV. Plus I am meeting important people a lot more now which I assume will have beneficial effects in the long term.

[Brujah]

Snow Day here in the South.

[Malankazooie]

Just shouted off my deck "That crappy Aints and Scam Newton suck and will not be in the Super Bowl! YEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAW!"

My neighbors' dogs on all sides started barking up a storm. LOL!

#HowDoYouLikeThemApples #HaveFunAndSmile

[Brujah]

I think we got about 4 inches. We usually get snow once a year. Everyone scrambles to the grocery store and buys milk and bread like it's the end of times. Ha. Of course, being in true southern style, I have a 4 wheel drive truck.

[Silencer]

Posts removed, chill out you lot.

[Maark Abbott]

Morgoth, on 17 January 2018 - 09:55 AM, said:

You guys should all just get your law degree in Norway. I didn't pay a penny for my masters.

masters.

But do you obey them?

For me, so far it's the response to Incarnate, the positive comments and also the more challenging commentary (i.e. from Worry and Alternative Goose). It's really nice to be critiqued hard about the creative choices I took with this beasty.

[Tsundoku]

Silencer, on 18 January 2018 - 10:28 PM, said:

Posts removed, chill out you lot.

OK, now I'm curious.

[Itwæs Nom]

It's my prom tonight

All the people coming...

I need to get really fucked up to be able to perform in front of so many of them

Time flies by so fast

[Mezla PigDog]

Annual appraisals over. Yessiree.

[Macros]

How about a picture of one dollar?

[worry]

They say a picture is worth a ... thousand ... dollars? Hmm I may not have that saying right.

[Slow Ben]

Coffee. Black.

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 20 January 2018 - 12:27 AM, said:

Got some new coffee creamers! Strawberry cheesecake, cinnamon vanilla creme and white chocolate moacha. The 1st 2 are extremely good! The last not so much. It's way to sweet!

Had the cinnamon one with a slice of sweet potato pie topped with whipped cream. Oh my that was epic

This reads like some sort of war crime.

BK for the love of everything pure and holy, why are you putting strawberries and potatoes in coffee?

Coffee should be black, slightly thick, no milk/cream, definitely no sugar. It should have a kick that jolts your head back and causes your eyelids to fly open.