Maybe Med School Is Less Suffocating?

I would love to be able to say, after our lengthy discussions on how to better serve ourselves than a cookie-cutter corporate law job, that I'm happily employed practicing the type of law that I choose. Unfortunately, I cannot. Having been allergic to anything remotely business-related for most of my life, I'm now learning more about mutual funds and asset management than I ever intended. The work is interesting, don't get me wrong, but it would not have been my first choice.

However, after the moments of realization that manifested themselves in my second paper, there are a number of conclusions that I have reached. I wanted to share them below, and hopefully you all feel the same way I do about at least a few.

First, and probably most importantly, I don't want to disappoint my ancestors and elder relatives, who worked so diligently and thanklessly to create this opportunity for me, by using this amazing education to sit in an office and make rich people richer. Not that those positions aren't important to our economy, but they are not as personally and tangibly rewarding as I want my career to be. At the end of the day, rather than boasting that I helped ABC company to acquire XYZ company, or that I managed Mr. Moneybag's account, I want to be able to say that I defended a whole host of people who were unfairly accused, or that I helped a certain underprivileged class of people to gain rights that they deserved. If it means it takes me an extra twenty years to pay off my loans, so be it, at least I'll be able to sleep at night.

Second, I think that law schools and firms should be blamed for a lot more than they are. The fact that law schools encourage students to make the wrong choice through fear-mongering (that is, fear of a small paycheck), and law firms pay more money per year to 24-year-old associates than my parents made in a decade is shameful. It's not simply the people that are becoming greedy, but these institutions just blow on the flames. It kind of makes me ill that this mentality has become the norm, and I was totally unaware of its toxicity until this semester.

As far as our ongoing discourse on how to achieve our ultimate goal goes, I have had a few moments of sheer terror--when I see the things that Prof. Moglen warned us of live and in the flesh-- but I've had a few moments of hope. I told my mentor at my firm about our discussions on the "golden handcuffs" and pawning our licenses. He nodded his head at a few things, and seemed a bit puzzled about others. But he did suggest that perhaps a middle-ground is doing in-house work. There's not as much working until 1am, slaving away for a faceless client and losing oneself in the bureaucracy. Naturally, the pay is less, but even after having been there for only a week, I can feel that things are a bit more relaxed and a lot more human. But there still remains the problem of choosing what you practice. Perhaps my next internship will solve that mystery.

So, although I can't quite claim victory over this conflict, I do fully intend to pick the brains of my colleagues this summer to find out what they have done and how they feel about it, what they might have done if they could do it over again, and what they wish for the next generation of law students destined to be courted and corrupted by Big Law.

-- WhytneBrooks - 08 Jun 2008