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Law in Contemporary Society
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I found this campaign (http://firmlyrefuse.tumblr.com) at Harvard to get students to think about why they are choosing to work for firms to be interesting, particularly given the themes of this course and our conversation today about grades.
Grades for me have served to stand-in for concerted thought as to what I'm actually doing here. I have convinced myself that if my grades are good enough, I'll have options because a strong transcript resonates across different realms of employment (this is essentially the point Ben made today about the fear of having paths foreclosed). No matter what it is actually decide I want to do with my practice, I consoled myself that having a strong strong transcript wouldn't be a detriment. Probably that's true, at least in bureaucratic employment fields where such factors matter, but focusing on grades has meant that I've spent little time thinking about my purpose in earning this license. This makes it more likely that I'll funnel into EIP, because it's easy and because I haven't really thought about what I would do instead. Grades aren't the only reason I haven't set about designing an alternative, but they are a part of it.
-- JessicaWirth - 17 Apr 2012
Thanks for sharing the tumblr site, Jessica.
I came to law school because after working for 3 years in a corporate immigration law firm, I realized I wanted to be my own boss and be able to do something more meaningful with my life and career. And because this career I have in mind has nothing to do with working at a law firm, and I would actually like to avoid that path like the plague, I don't have much of a problem not letting my grades consume my interest or affect me that much. I also didn't know before coming to law school that there was such a competitive grade culture - I guess that was lack of research on my part - and thought (and still think) of grad school as more of a personal learning experience, rather than a competition. Perhaps I'm lucky to have come in with that mindset from the start.
My personal views on this matter are:
1) It's not worth it to work for an employer that works you to your bone, with no expression of gratitude (unless you can consider a high salary as gratitude, which some people might), and where the job has no sense of meaning to you. It really isn't. But maybe that's something people can only understand after they've experienced it. And I don't see why people as bright as CLS graduates should be okay with that.
2) I always get slightly offended (perturbed?) when people say they will receive training at a big law firm, then move on to public interest work (this is more in reference to some of the stuff on that tumblr site). I think that's insulting to the public interest field. What exactly, that you learn at a big law firm, is transferable to the public interest field, which is so different? Work discipline? Ability to manage many cases? And people think public interest lawyers don't cultivate these skills in their work? Obviously, these people haven't observed a day in the life of over-worked public interest attorneys.
Sure, maybe keeping options open is important. But I think we need to think about what options are worth keeping, and I feel like many people should have gone through that decision process when they decided to apply to law school.
I for one, have no problem not going to EIP, because I really, really, don't want to go anyway.
-- AgnesPetrucione - 17 Apr 2012
Grades are our security blankets, especially for the younger ones of us. For the past twenty-something years, we’ve pushed to get the top grade, because that’s what mattered to the admissions committee of a college or law school. And suddenly, in our first year of law school, Eben suggests that we abandon this familiar system, so well engrained in our synaptic configurations. Of course we’re going to be afraid.
The school does not really provide any way for us to evaluate our ability to cover the costs of our loans outside the context of a large firm or the LRAP umbrella (does it?). Any evaluation that does not circle around the secure, familiar concept of grades seems risky and unfamiliar. So I guess the question I have is, how do you go about finding out how you would cover your loans if you don’t pawn off your license to someone?
-- KirillLevashov - 17 Apr 2012 |
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