thoughts on a PE attending Law School..

I have just recently begun researching this and I see you are correct about that. Based on what I have seen, EE, ChE & ME are the "hot" eng disciplines for the patent attorney route. I would like to practice as both an attorney and PE somehow. Do you know any attorneys who may be willing to talk with me about this?

like others have said, think very long and very hard about doing it. its a massive commitment in both time and money.

i graduated in 2011 from law school and i'm giving serious consideration to heading back to school for a petroleum engineering degree.

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This is the path patent attorneys take.

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Yeah, and there's a decent niche practice for construction law and a PE will have a leg up on focusing on large swaths of products liability (either plaintiff or defense).

The patent bar is pretty exclusive, but a B.S. is required to sit for the exam, so it screens out the political science, english and history majors who ended up law school (Ace Midnight raises hand on the "B.A. in history?" question.)

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Patents

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I am no expert on this line of work, but from what I know it seems to be centered to large cities and large firms. Also, I think a lot of the litigation takes place in DC. I could be wrong about those points, so I'll defer someone more in the know. But those are things to think about.

Additionally, God bless anyone who wants to do that type of work. I got a BS in Comp Sci and thought along these lines. Patent work may be for some people, but it is not for me. Writing/applying for patents seems mind numbing. I can't imagine litigating the nuances of patents can be that fun either. I took a IP course in law school and knew right away it was not for me.

Environmental work seems like you may be tied into either large firm/large city work or government work. Nothing wrong with these lines of work, just research and know what you are getting into.

Others have probably warned ahead of me and I will warn that you need to think really long and hard about what a law degree is going to cost, what you are going to do with it and whether you would be remotely happy practicing law.

I like practicing law, I don't love it. It is a respectable way to earn a living and there is a high ceiling even for solo practitioners who are willing to get after it.

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for you who have attended, is it reasonable to think I would be able to do some private consulting while enrolled?

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while classes are in session, especially your first year, i wouldn't count on being able to work much, if at all. you could do consulting in the summer, but that is when you are going to be busting your arse to get your foot in the door at a firm, if that's what you want to do.

i actually worked my whole third year, but my grades were pretty much shite at that point, so i wasn't really trying to protect an impressive GPA.

I would take a few practice lsats and see what kind of schools you could get into. if your last is high enough and you have some good softs, I'd try to get a full ride from a tt/ttt.

as far as working, most schools won't even let you work as a 1l.

i'd say your undergrad degree is almost entirely irrelevant for law school.

For TheOcean, what is a tt/ttt?

drinking and whoring are not a concern. I have gotten most of that out of my system (drinkin at least).

Tier 2/3. Tier 1's usually are tough to get scholarship money from.

Like I said, take a few practice LSATs and see where you're scoring. If you can realistically get in the mid 160's, then you could snag a full ride to some tt/ttts. Law applications/LSAT #s are down across the board. Schools are scrambling to fill classes.

TTTs are mostly regional schools. They aren't "crap," but if you're looking to finish middle of your class or worse, don't waste your money. If you're going to bust your arse in law school, then focus on money and loans.