1. I’m assuming that the skills we’ve acquired in law school are on their own not enough for us to earn a livelihood. We have to learn to apply these skills so as to perform a service for which we’ll get paid. If so, why not use the firm as a paid residency? Medical students have to pull 36 hour shifts without getting paid; why can’t we get our ‘hands on’ training from the firm and earn 160k in the process?

2. X years down the road, I’d like to open a private practice, set my own hours and practice a field of law that I want to practice. Does working at the firm provide a stable foundation (both financially and professionally) with which to advance those desires? If not, what other options are there?

3. Are future career options (e.g. in-house counsel jobs) more limited if we don’t land the big job at the big firm? Word on the street is that it plays a HUGE role.

4. How do we repay our loans as quickly and painlessly as possible? Does LRAP make any sense? Firm?

5. Is it possible to achieve a work/life balance while working at a big firm?

-- DavidM - 16 Apr 2008