ambivalent imbroglio home

« High Cost of Law School | Main | Columbia »

February 02, 2003

Law School Motives

Liable points to a great little piece at Law.com about why people go to law school. Does it seem a bit odd the way the people in the article seem to see the study of law as something that will give their lives definition and structure? It's almost as if these people are hoping law school will save them from something. Law school as salvation? What do we need to be saved from? Ourselves? Why would law appear to be salvation? Do other professions attract people for reasons like this? Hello Freud, am I just projecting here?

What's awful about a couple of these people is their cynicism; they haven't even started law school and they've already convinced themselves that whatever horrible shit they have to do (i.e., defend lead paint companies or tobacco companies or corporate polluters or whatever) won't matter, either to them or to the world. The opening sentence sums it up brilliantly:

For all the bites I have taken at the law, I always maintained the belief that most of that tar-mountain called What's Wrong goes back to the attitude some people take when first entering law school, attitudes whose implicit cynicism will shape the next three years instead of the growth-oriented converse.

Now doesn't that just make law school sound like fun? Yikes.

I guess I'm most like "Charles" who explains his decision to go to law school this way:

"The point of a J.D. is the sudden power it brings you. I have to work from the inside. … It doesn't matter whether I'll feel satisfaction or believe in what I'm doing. Don't you see? It's war. War. This hell has succumbed to the blasé; people will dismiss this article like any another hollow statistic. Well not me. I didn't dismiss a thing. Feeling bad accomplishes as much as feeling nothing. I'm not even going to waste my energy hoping someone reads my words and gets inspired. Everyone knows what I know, knows it goes on around the world, everyday, right ... now. I knew it, too. But I saw it, and that made all the difference."

Read that again: "Feeling bad accomplishes as much as feeling nothing." And yes, the point for me is the "sudden power" that comes with the J.D. When I look at the world and how power moves through it, it seems to me that, in my current position, my ability to act is fairly limited. However, as a lawyer, many new avenues should open. So instead of just feeling bad (or angry) about how screwed up the world is, I hope I'll be in a better position to do something about it. But right now I think I need to quick jump down off my high horse before I fall off and break something. Part of me is that crusader, but another part is the one looking for structure and salvation. And even as I admit that I know the joke's on me if I'm looking for the law to save me. Sheesh, you'd think I would have learned the foolishness of that lesson when I got my first speeding ticket at age 16!

Maybe that will be my new mantra: Feeling bad accomplishes as much as feeling nothing. Feeling bad accomplishes as much as feeling nothing. Feeling bad accomplishes…

Posted February 2, 2003 09:38 AM | law school


I think you've hit it right on -- having the letters behind your name might open the door, but what you choose to do once you go through that door makes the difference. Believe me, when I entered law school in 1991 I had lofty aspirations of the fast-track law firm lifestyle, but the real world intervened, and now I find myself very happy to do corporate work for an industry that some people find loathsome (pharmaceuticals). For me, though, the point is to work somewhere where you feel that you can make a difference, and a lot of the time what other people think about that doesn't matter any more.

Posted by: Heather at February 2, 2003 12:17 PM

I'm in law school because I'm a masochist.

I'm in law school because I tried the accounting thing, and the routine isn't challenging anymore.

I'm in law school because I finally got grades good enough to get me here. Of course, I had to spend thousands on an MBA first, but it was worth it.

I'm in law school, and the stress of a full-time job and part time law school is killing me.

I'm in law school and........I love it. And I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Am I sick or what?

Posted by: greg at February 3, 2003 12:36 PM

I agree -- if you feel you're making a difference, you can do and enjoy a lot of things you might never have thought you'd do or enjoy. But right now, I have only a vague, speculative idea of how a JD might bring that power to make a difference. It would be great to hear more from you (or anyone else) about the "power" of a JD and ways you've found to use it. What door(s) did the JD open for you?

Posted by: mowabb at February 3, 2003 06:38 PM

And yes, Greg, you *are* sick, but perhaps in an understandably and at least potentially healthy way.

Posted by: mowabb at February 3, 2003 06:40 PM

Oops! That link is supposed to go to the comments for this post at Law Is Fun.

Posted by: mowabb at February 3, 2003 06:42 PM

about   ∞     ∞   archives   ∞   links   ∞   rss
This template highly modified from The Style Monkey.