Law in Contemporary Society

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LindaMuzereSecondPaper 5 - 08 Aug 2012 - Main.LindaMuzere
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Reflections

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(First year of) Law School

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<		First semester I was under the naïve impression that law school was about learning; maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I was spoiled by my liberal arts education at U Chicago and, after working in operational finance for a few years, I looked forward to returning to an environment in which I could learn something new every day. I had unwavering confidence in my decision and I was happy to work diligently because I knew why I was here.
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>		First semester I was under the naïve impression that law school would teach me how to become a lawyer; maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. After my liberal arts education at U Chicago and working in finance for years, I looked forward to returning to an environment in which I could learn something new every day. I had unwavering confidence in my decision and I was happy to work diligently because I knew why I was here.
 But by November the warm weather had barely cooled and I was already being asked to consider where I wanted to work the following summer. By second semester the rhetoric went from internships to law firms, and I found myself planning two years in advance for a career path I wasn’t even sure I understood. As the emails from Career Services changed, so did my perspective.
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<		Successful law students fall into roughly one of two categories: 1) natural geniuses and 2) very bright people who work obsessively hard. But in a grade fixated academic environment and job market, actual learning is filtered out by the distraction of a single final exam. If you don’t want to risk someone else getting the job that you may potentially want, you’d better figure out which group you belong to.
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>		Successful law students fall into roughly one of two categories: 1) natural geniuses and 2) very bright people who work obsessively hard. But in a grade fixated academic environment and constricting job market, learning how to be a lawyer is filtered out by the distraction of a single final exam. If you don’t want to risk someone else getting the job that you may potentially want, you’d better figure out which group you belong to.
 I did.
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<		Law school is not about learning; it is about getting jobs. I can acknowledge that a JD is a professional degree and that people go to law school with the expectation of getting a legal job. To an extent, one cannot fault Columbia for providing a service and filling that demand. But for all the reasons we discussed this semester, I think we can agree that our school chose an irresponsible and destructive way to go about it. Law school helps students get jobs by breaking us down without even teaching us how to be good lawyers; what a shame.
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>		Law school is not about learning with the goal of becoming a great lawyer; it is about learning with the goal of getting a job. I can acknowledge that a JD is a professional degree and that people go to law school with the expectation of getting a legal job. To an extent, one cannot fault Columbia for providing a service and filling that demand. But for all the reasons we discussed this semester, I think we can agree that our school chose an irresponsible and destructive way to go about it. Law school helps students get jobs by breaking us down without reinforcing the skills of good lawyers; what a shame.
 I like learning law but I don’t like (Columbia) law school. So why continue?

Revision 5r5 - 08 Aug 2012 - 09:00:12 - LindaMuzere
Revision 4r4 - 01 Aug 2012 - 04:26:11 - EbenMoglen
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