I have the highest of hopes to have regular features on this blog. But they typically get lost in the law school shuffle. This is one that I hope will last. I’m not making any promises but it is already at least a recurring theme – if not explicit feature – in my writing here.
The theme is the journey from pre-law school to post-law school, pre-law career to law(?) career. As you probably know, I don’t work in law. I’m not a paralegal or law clerk or anything like that. I don’t work on Capitol Hill anymore or at a lobbying firm. My job is completely different than what I learn in school. At times I can use my law school skills and learning at my job but that’s very peripheral to my duties.
It strikes me that there are a number of critical questions you have to answer when you’re in this situation. Far from the least important of these is: why the heck am I putting myself through this? I haven’t resolved this question and may not until much later in school. But I did have a few thoughts today about it.
I had a fairly good talk with my boss today. As I said, I don’t work in law. I work at a company of 4 people that boxes way above its weight class in competing for contracts and projects. I’m very proud of what we do and my boss is forthcoming about my performance and hopes for what I might do in and with his company. In terms of colleagues, I couldn’t ask for better. Heck I have my own office, a great boss, I get paid well, and there’s a TV on my desk. Whenever I complain, I’m surprised Mrs. Sherpa or my friends don’t taze me. Still, it’s a constant source of frustration/stress/confusion/worry about what exactly my law school education is for. (Yes, I’m aware that time and summer experiences can help clear that up.)
Anyway, I just wanted to make sure my boss knows that I’m struggling with the question of why exactly I’m in law school and where it’s all leading, considering the fact that I’m dropping 100,000 bones on this deal and it’s basically a second full-time job for me. It wasn’t a long conversation. It didn’t solve anything. If anything, it simply reminded both of us that there’s no telling what the future will hold. But it was a bit cathartic to make sure that he knows (especially since there were a few months there where he didn’t even remember I was in law school) and appreciates how difficult a question this is for me. It’s important that he understands this as I truly respect him and value his insight.
That got me thinking though about the instant ROI of law school. There are ways that law school actually helps me right now, day-to-day in a field outside the law. I’ve mentioned some this before, but it’s getting a bit clearer for me now.
First, my ever-present typos and run-on sentences on this blog notwithstanding, I am a much better editor, at least in my estimation. Particularly with self-editing. My job involves a TON of writing and reviewing others’ work. I know what good writing is. But I always had trouble editing other people’s writing. Law school forces you to question what you’re reading (like: “what the hell did scalia mean by that?” or “souter wants the court to do what?”) because, in the law, language means something. It certainly means something in my field, but I find that professionals in the business world take language for granted – “as long as I get the gist of what I’m saying on paper, it’ll work out.” That doesn’t work for me and I’ve become hyper-sensitive to it now.
Second, this should probably be #1, but #1 is so constantly in my face day-to-day that I had to put it at the top. #2 is clarity of thinking. I like to think that I’m a decently smart guy. I get decent grades. I’ve gone to good schools. I did modestly well on the LSAT and get good reviews at work. I’m a lazy thinker though. I like to wonder about stuff and ponder it and obsess about it, but I usually just stick with my gut. As a result, thorough analysis often frustrates me and strikes me as an excuse for indecisiveness. My instincts seem to serve me well and seem grounded in some sort of values system and common sense. So, why bother to change? But law school has forced me to, what I term as, slow down and unpack my thought process. Whereas in the past I might accept my gut instinct as good enough, now I’m just as likely to ask whether what I’m thinking and saying logically makes sense. This has helped me develop better questions for clients and provide better solutions to their questions of me.
Third, and interesting in light of #2, is that I’m far less patient at work with rambling discourses about items and issues only tangentially related to the issue we’re trying to resolve. This is not necessarily a good thing. I’ve cut several people off – good people and good business partners – who started rambling on about some-such thing about what might happen if such-and-such happened. Look, by all means let’s consider different angles. But let’s get the material facts and issues on the table, solve this problem, and, if we have time, turn to that other stuff.
Look, I realize that these are things that many people take for granted. Perhaps I’m nautrally, and terribly, deficient in these skills. It’s just become so apparent to me that these are areas directly tied to law school that are becoming so much stronger.
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Good Post! I do work in a law office and let me tell you….Patience IS a virtue. I get so annoyed by people who can’t spit it out. On the weekend I listen to Handel on the Law and Bill Handel spends the whole four hours telling people to get to the point.
Good stuff. I’ve found that my thought processes have totally changed, and I approach questions and problems in very different ways from before law school. I feel that’s a fairly positive change, overall.