How do I decide if I should go to law school?

Question

I think I want to be an attorney. A lot of people in my family have been and I'm interested in intellectual property but I dont know if I should go to law school. Its a big commitment. I might fail. How do I decide?

Answer 1

the most definitive way to determine whether you're law school material is the lsat.

if you score well on it, then you should absolutely go. even if you're a little indecisive about it, your brilliance will make up for it.

if your score is unimpressive, then you should seriously consider something else. that's not that you wouldn't make a fine attorney. it's that you would have a much more difficult time getting into law school than other candidates.

among the data i've seen, the lsat is really the definitive factor for a lot of schools. even if you don't decide it's what you want to do, a year at a top school would really serve you quite nicely.

so take a practice lsat at www.lsac.org . see if it's what you're looking for and go from there.

Answer 2

If you are interested in intellectual property, it is best to major in some technical subject, like physics, chemistry, computer science, biology, or engineering, for example, so that you are eligible to prosecute patent applications before the Patent & Trademark Office (you don't need a technical background to litigate a patent in court, but it might help – a patent prosecution specialist is a paper lawyer that rarely goes to court, while a litigator specializes in live questioning of witnesses in front of a jury in court). You don't need a technical background for copyright or trademark law, but having a BS degree in a technical subject will give you something else to do in case that you change your mind and don't go to law school after all. Besides, you can get a job with the USPTO with a BS degree in a technical subject, and the government will pay for your law degree if you work there for more than two years first.

Don't major in "pre-law". That seems like a waste of time. Major in something that you like instead, even literature or psychology, since you will make better grades that way, and you will have something else to do if you change your mind about law school.

How to decide what to do? I couldn't tell you. Try taking a Briggs-Myers test. To be honest, law school is designed to be painfully boring, so that most people will drop out. Trademark law seemed to be really easy; copyright law seemed to be confusing since congress keeps changing the law and different laws apply to different media made at different points in time, with patent law being somewhere in-between (but it is rather easy too). Keep in mind that “easy” can mean “boring” over the course of your career as you become proficient at what you do.

When you are in law school, don’t pick a certain course just because it will be on the bar exam. You will learn all of the law that you need for the bar in a bar preparation course that you will take after graduating from law school anyway (mandatory if you want to pass the bar). So try to take courses that you think that you will like so that you can keep up high grades. High grades means that you will have an easier time finding a job once you graduate, and you will have more choices.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Talk to your family members who are lawyers. Ask them what they like and dislike. Ask them what they spend most of their time doing. If that sounds fun or interesting, go to law school. If it sounds boring, there are many other professions out there. In the case of intellectual property law, you have to be able and willing to spend a lot of time drafting documents and looking through schematic drawings.

Answer 4

All I could say would be

"Good Luck To Ya".

If this is truly - What you want to do?

Then go for it.

I personally don't have much "affection" for lawyers.


This Old Dawg wishes the best for you at whatever you under take.