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Dreaming Law
Last night I had what may have been my first dream about being a lawyer. I'd say it was heavily influenced by the fact that I just finished reading Brush With the Law because it involved drugs, biking, and lawsuits. It also involved grading papers, so my subconscious hasn't left the old life behind quite yet. Of course, in my dream I righted wrongs and saved people from exploitation by wielding my knowledge of law like a righteous sword. Too bad it was just a dream.
Posted May 22, 2003 07:50 AM | law school
I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Having spent 42 months at a large law firm, if I had a dream about being a lawyer again, it would be a horrific nightmare!
Posted by: Tung Yin at May 22, 2003 12:58 PM
Unfortunately, that's kind of what I'm afraid of -- practicing law will be nothing like I imagine. But then, that could also be a good thing. Perhaps I'll see you in law academia someday. I could certainly think of worse things. In fact, I've often said as much to many of my peers in grad school. As a law prof, it appears you get all the perks of being an English prof w/some very important additions:
1) a real paycheck
2) cultural relevance (I'm half kidding; English profs *are* relevant, I know)
3) institutional support (humanities programs are scraping the bottom of the budget barrel and that creates all kinds of bad things for the people working w/in them, students included).
Posted by: ambimb at May 23, 2003 06:09 PM
I imagine it's different for each person, but I found practicing law to be tedious and intellectually dull much of the time, though hyperintensive and somewhat satisfying a smaller fraction of the time. Of course, this was all with an eye toward getting into teaching eventually, so at least I knew it was not permanent.
As for teaching law, well, the first year was fun pretty much the entire time except for faculty meetings and grading.
Congrats on going to law school, though. If you find you like law school, I think you'd like teaching.
Posted by: Tung Yin at May 24, 2003 06:27 AM
