Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Law Questions

You asked about becoming a lawyer.

Great idea, but this is the wrong forum for career guidance.

Try other forums such as your school counselor, your local bar association office, your local library, bookstore or online bookseller, craigslist careers discussion list, and so on.

Regards,

Roger

Re: Law Questions

The law's a wonderful profession. It's also a big and diverse profession. There are a thousand paths you can take to get to the law, and thousand paths you can take once you're a lawyer.

The keys to success aren't any different in the law than anywhere else: be diligent, creative, inquisitive, and dedicated, and strive for excellence in each and every thing you do. And if you don't love what you do, do something else.

You're young. Most people don't know what they want "to do" until college at the earliest, and you shouldn't limit yourself to "legal" preparation at college. Build your personal foundation and explore your interests. A solid education in the arts, history, language, literature, mathematics, politics and science will serve you far better (in life and in law) than doubling up on prelaw.

Secondary to that personal foundation, focus on keeping your grades up and building a resume that includes substantial work towards the betterment of society and substantial leadership responsibilities. Law schools (and later employers) don't ever see "the real you," they see the you "on paper." Some people think they can fake the "on paper" without doing much in reality, so they take only easy classes and they create "leadership" positions in name only. Sometimes that works in the short term, usually not. It rarely works in the long term, and it's never part of a life worth living.

There's no top college or law school or company or firm. There's what's available to you and what you make of it. Even if you go by someone else's "ranking," there are plenty of people who went to "bad" colleges, "bad" law schools, and "bad" firms and still ended up being "successful" even by those other people's standards. But don't judge yourself that way; judge yourself by your own standards. Did you do the best with what was available to you? Are you always striving to make yourself a better lawyer, better citizen, better person? Are you happy with the type of work you do? Are you happy with your balance of work and the rest of your life?

You've got plenty of time to get involved with all kinds of bull about personal and professional "status." You won't always have time to take a class on ancient Egypt, or join an improv comedy group, or spend six months in Spain, or all the other freedoms of youth.

You are what you do, so do your best. The rest will take care of itself.