Thanks for Ignoring the Warning:
Hello, Dumbass.
Nearly three years ago, on August 25, 2010, I warned you about this stupid venture. In the closing paragraph of that entry, I specifically stated: “if you are not from a wealthy family AND are not strongly connected to the legal industry, DROP OUT OF LAW SCHOOL AFTER FIRST SEMESTER IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE TOP 5%-10% OF YOUR CLASS.”
Ninety percent of you dolts did not land in the top decile of your cohort. But you feel that you are a “special snowflake.” So the odds don’t apply to you, right?!?! Evidently, you are immune to reality.
David Segal’s NYT Piece, Published on January 8, 2011:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Since you have enrolled, articles about the law school scam have appeared in several major publications. The strongest piece was printed in the New York Times, on page one of the Sunday Business section. David Segal authored an epic story entitled “Is Law School a Losing Game?” It appeared online the night before, and has since been cited countless times. I am sure that many of you saw and read this stinging indictment against U.S. law schools. Check out this excerpt:
“In reality, and based on every other source of information, Mr. Wallerstein and a generation of J.D.’s face the grimmest job market in decades. Since 2008, some 15,000 attorney and legal-staff jobs at large firms have vanished, according to a Northwestern Law study. Associates have been laid off, partners nudged out the door and recruitment programs have been scaled back or eliminated.
And with corporations scrutinizing their legal expenses as never before, more entry-level legal work is now outsourced to contract temporary employees, both in the United States and in countries like India. It’s common to hear lawyers fret about the sort of tectonic shift that crushed the domestic steel industry decades ago.” [Emphasis mine]
Let’s look at the timeline. If you enrolled in an ABA-accredited diploma mill in Fall 2010, then you had just completed your first semester of “legal studies” when Segal’s piece was published. You had ample time to drop out before the start of the second semester. Even if all of your grades had not been submitted, you had certainly received some of them. When it became obvious that your ass was not going to be in the top ten percent of your class, you should have been prudent - and dropped out immediately.
Law Lemming Pathology:
http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2012/05/special-snowflake-syndrome-and-spirit.html
On May 25, 2012, Paul Campos provided a breakdown of a lemming’s psychology, in his entry “Special Snowflake Syndrome and the spirit of capitalism.” The author points out a Top Law Schools thread, where a tool from California will choose between HofStTTra and Cal We$TTTTern. Take a look at this excerpt:
“Veteran TLS commenters will be sure to inform this misguided soul that attending Hofstra at sticker or Cal Western with a $15K per year "scholarship" (really a cross-subsidized tuition discount) is a horrible idea under almost any possible circumstance. The original poster may well then resist this advice, by making some combination of the following claims:
(1) I plan to work exceptionally hard in law school and finish in the top 10% of my class.
(2) After killing it in my first year I will transfer to a much better school.
(3) I have met several very successful lawyers who graduated from Hofstra/Cal Western.
(4) If I'm only making $50K a year as a lawyer after I graduate I can go into this government debt forgiveness program that I've heard about, and after all $50K is just a starting salary.
(5) There are a bunch of special circumstances about me that make my situation different from those of most people who have my entrance stats.
In other words, statistical extrapolation doesn't really apply in my case, because I'm not a statistic.” [Emphasis mine]
Conclusion: In the end, most of you willingly chose to ignore the advice of recent law grads, younger attorneys, the Bureau of Labor Statistics job outlook for lawyers, NALP employment summary reports, common sense, etc. Now, you are strapped down with $110K-$180K in additional, NON-DISCHARGEABLE debt - because of your foolish decision. The fact remains that Congre$$pig$ will not bite the corporate bankster hands that feed them. Hell, even Dick Durbin - as a sitting U.$. senator - admitted that“the banks own the place.”Your student loans will not be dischargeable in your lifetime.
Before you enrolled in law school, you were aware of the burdens of student debt. You also chose not to read the David Segal piece, “Is Law School a Losing Game?” The New York Times also ran Segal’s follow-up series on “legal education.” When you did not land a summer internship after your first year, you should have realized that law school was not for you. Now, if you are “lucky,” you will end up practicing toilet law. Yes, who doesn’t want to take on crushing debt, for a chance to represent broke-ass, fundamentally dishonest clients?!?!