re: Is going to a ‘bad’ Law School worth doing?

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Yeah, but using this story as advice is like listening to people who eat fried chicken every day and live to 105 without serious health issues.

It happens, but not often, and it's not a good predictor of outcome. There is a small percentage of people who are smart and engaging and great salesmen (and sometimes unscrupulous) who don't need the trappings of a T1 education to outperform their better-educated counterparts.

But that's a really small % and it may take more effort/luck, and it usually traps you into a lifestyle a lot of people don't want to be in. Sure, you can make good money as a PI attorney if you're a decent salesperson and a half decent attorney and things go right. But a lot of people do not want to live life as a PI attorney. They don't want to deal with unsavory clients and insurance companies and they don't want to hustle for a living.

In short, T3 or T4 is not a death sentence, but for the vast majority of people in closes out a lot of opportunities. The number of people getting into a USAO from those schools is very, very, very small. Why put yourself in the position of having to work from the back and luck out?

Arguably the worst part is that these shitty law schools usually aren't cheap and are often more expensive than good law schools.

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I went to a 3rd tier school up in the northeast and graduated during the recession. I couldn't agree with this more. Think very carefully and the most important thing by far is to make sure you're not taking out a lot in loans. Unless you're going to a top 50 school or you have a connection and thus a guaranteed job when you get out, think long and hard about how much you're borrowing.

I make a pretty good salary and yet with my loan amount I'm barely even able to pay off interest. I actually owe more now than when I graduated a decade ago.

I honestly don't think it's worth it but that's just my opinion.

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Yeah, but using this story as advice is like listening to people who eat fried chicken every day and live to 105 without serious health issues.

It happens, but not often, and it's not a good predictor of outcome. There is a small percentage of people who are smart and engaging and great salesmen (and sometimes unscrupulous) who don't need the trappings of a T1 education to outperform their better-educated counterparts.

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Can't you say this about most career paths..like starting a business? There is risk but I think the career path depends on the person. In Louisiana, there are too many examples of Southern law grads finding success in all legal positions. In my experience, those people are fairly similar in personality and drive.

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Jimmy McGill want to law school in American Samoa.
He ended up rich. (for a while)

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fricking sorry spoiler alert bro - they just aired a new episode of Better Call Saul last night!

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When I got out of law school and after a 2 year stint with the Orleans Parish DA's office, the senior partner at the firm I wento sat me down and said," forget everything you learned in law school, practicing law has nothing to do with what you learned in law school." He was Loyola (NO) grad bottom 1/4...he was proud of that rank.

Used to laugh at the guys from Tulane or guys in the USA office who went to T1 schools. He made considerably more money AND he outperformed them regularly.

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Success stories like these should have nothing to do with a decision to go to law school or especially a law school outside the top 25 or so. These grinders who end up being highly successful lawyers despite not having elite degrees or grades are the types of people who would have succeeded at anything. I guarantee you if this guy is making 400k a year in his own practice, he would be making that same amount of money now if he had started selling life insurance straight out of high school with no degree.

At least where I live, unless you went to a T1 and T2 school, you're essentially out of the running for any federal clerkships or jobs. Good luck being an AUSA with a bottom tier law school on merit alone.

no one reads your stupid diploma on the wall so it could be from Disney world and have micky mouse on it and no one would notice

having a diploma from Harvard law with their PC standards for excellence where every stupid as a rock libtard activist gets a diploma just for being an activist is now more embarrassing then one from alabama burmingham

As a 2L at SULC, I sure fricking hope so.

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Can't you say this about most career paths..like starting a business? There is risk but I think the career path depends on the person. In Louisiana, there are too many examples of Southern law grads finding success in all legal positions. In my experience, those people are fairly similar in personality and drive.

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I don't know too much about Southern, but I'm going to guess this isn't entirely accurate with regard to all legal positions. Are there really a ton of Southern grads doing complex commercial lit and M&A and other corporate work? I'm guessing there are some, but I doubt it's common.

And sure, there are parallels to other career paths. To me, going to a bad law school and striking it big is akin to being an entrepreneur. Most will fail or settle for less than they originally wanted. A very small number will become highly successful.

But the reality is a lot of people who are paying 6 figures to go to school and spending 7+ years doing it aren't doing that so they can roll the dice on entrepreneurship. They want established roles in established areas at established firms/businesses with established pay scales and partnership tracks or stock options or whatever. Sure, they'll get outpaced by a Southern grad or two, but they're going to make more than 95% of them (or that's the plan). Higher initial investment, more consistent payoff.

I think where you fit into this also matters for what you get out of law school, too. In my estimation, a lot of the guys who are successful with billboards and legal entrepreneurship didn't get much out of law school and law school probably didn't provide much. That's because they're, at the most basic, legal salespeople. They're not finding minuscule legal loopholes or crafting perfectly authored appeal arguments. They're selling you services and utilizing someone else to provide basic legal work on a volume basis. The good ones are really good at those things, and those aren't things taught in law schools.

For others, I think they'd tell you law school did matter to them. It helped them learn to be analytical, to argue, to write. Law school doesn't teach you to practice, but I disagree that it's of minimal value. But it helps if you're going to a place that is tailored toward those things rather than a place that is tailored toward students who are more likely to hustle for a living.

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no one reads your stupid diploma on the wall so it could be from Disney world and have micky mouse on it and no one would notice

having a diploma from Harvard law with their PC standards for excellence where every stupid as a rock libtard activist gets a diploma just for being an activist is now more embarrassing then one from alabama burmingham

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You have no clue what you are talking about. No one reads the diploma if you are opening your own practice doing injury law, etc. EVERYONE reads your diploma if you are trying to work in corporate law or become a an AUSA, where the path to making a good living in law is much more probable and well defined. Also, FYI, UAB doesn't have a law school.