law student looking for some advice

[Xue]

Please note: I am merely posting this for information, not to argue. I know that some get angry at what I post, but I am merely posting this for informational purposes. I am not an attorney and I am not writing that things are this way or that way concerning the life of an attorney. So there's no need to get upset or whine to a moderator that what I am posting is upsetting and that I should be banned. I'm just like everyone else-I'm just trying to make it and be happy and healthy. We're all gonna die-so we might as well spread kindness and happiness and help each other. And I know that the more I learn, the less I truly know. It's true that I filed pro se, and I am thankful to the members here who have posted helpful messages to help others. But there is so much about bankruptcy that I do not know. But I have read a lot, and if I can make a contribution about what someone has written that might help someone, then that is what I would like to do. I am certainly not an expert on bankruptcy law. So I am just trying to contribute in what way I can to this forum.

I am reminded of Frank Sinatra's That's Life:

I said that's life, and as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks,
Stompin' on a dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down,
'Cause this fine ol' world it keeps spinning around

Each time I find myself, flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

I thought of quitting baby,
But my heart just ain't gonna buy it.

Each time I find myself laying flat on my face,
I just pick myself up and get back in the race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiUqfxFttM&feature=related

Now, from JJ Luna:

First letter from an attorney:

www.legalcareerchange.comThe problem is that so many law school graduates have no idea what the actual practice of law is really like.

Other than professional sports, there are no other occupations where
an educated professional is sitting opposite you, waiting to cut your legs out from under you if you make the slightest mistake. Living a whole life as an adversary loses its appeal pretty quickly. In fact, every publication from our state bar will have at least one article about alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, or suicide.

And a letter from another lawyer:

I totally agree with what you have to say about higher education in general and law school in particular. I am personally fed up with the legal profession, and I express a quintessential dissatisfaction that is almost ubiquitous among all of my friends and colleagues in the business.

I will share with you my personal thoughts. My reasons for being dissatisfied invariably differ from other dissatisfied lawyers, but the common denominator is that most are extremely unhappy.The biggest thing is that actual practice is nothing like you imagined it would be when you decided to pursue the career in the profession.

Invariably, young people, and I include myself, decide on the profession for reasons that have nothing to do with the components of day-to-day practice. Meaning, we decide to pursue these careers because of the occupational status and the idea that these careers will pay us good incomes.

We see ourselves driving the $100,000 Mercedes Benz, sitting at the austere and dignified desk, wearing $1,500 suits, and soaking up the envy and
admiration of friends, family, and members of society.


When I was in law school working as an apprentice for a law firm, one of the senior attorneys one of the senior attorneys told me to I, of course, did not listen and thought he was just trying to keep another person from entering the ranks of legal eagles and diluting the loot they all shared.

Then reality hits. You start practicing. Once the newness wears off, you realize the mistake you made.Psychologically having to take onto your shoulders problems and responsibilities that could affect the life, death, and liberty for some clients, the entire financial futures of others, is too much to bear without taking its toll on the human mind and body.Personalities change (ask my wife), and a certain degree of jaded paranoia sets in. Innocence is lost as you find yourself daily dealing with the lowest common denominators of society, witnessing all manner of perversion. Your heart often breaks when you are brought into the midst of matrimonial break up, and young children get caught in the middle.

So you put up with all of this for what? When it really comes down to it, you do it for the social prestige, for ego reasons, and perhaps money.Medicine and law produce high consumption lifestyles almost by mandate. You spend in excess of $100,000 via borrowed student loans to acquire a degree that forces you to work like a slave to keep up the image all for what?To skip college and professional school requires one to break out of the mold and acquire a new worldview.

For all these reasons, I am now plotting my escape...My wife and I are home-schooling our children, and living a quiet, discreet life is far more important living a quiet, discreet life is far more important than anything the law ever offered.

--JJ Luna's Skip College and How to be Invisible books

http://www.canaryislandspress.com/index.cfm/page/Books/index.htm

I also recommend Atticus Falcon's thoughts on being an attorney:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Law-School-Before-but/dp/1888960027

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Law-School-II-Before/dp/1888960507

Irate law school grads say they were misled about job prospects

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/08/irate_law_school_grads_say_the.html

http://gerryspence.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/defrauding-the-nation%E2%80%99s-lawyers/

We, the new slaves

http://gerryspence.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/we-the-new-slaves/

[Hairy]

HHM and NTC, thanks, I realize the lack of focus isn't optimal (to put it mildly), but in the absence of landing an actual job with an IP-focused firm, it's the only path I see that both allows me to practice some manner of law while also allowing me to move strictly into IP practice eventually.

I've found one small firm in my "target region" that has some level of patent practice mixed in with all the rest of a general practice (including commercial bankruptcy). My guess is that the lone associate there who has a technical degree is trying the same thing; none of the partners or other associates is listed as having taken the "patent bar" or having any IP interest.

I have one thought. Start your own practice and do both BK and IP, but keep the marketing for each area separate.

Thanks! That might do the trick. While looking up firms, I noticed that the state I want to work in (Washington) allows law firms to exist as LLCs, so that may help separate things too (although since malpractice liability is personal, I'm not sure how useful it is, really).

You'd applied at a wrong time. That was the time (last couple years back) when USPTO was on hiring freeze

No, Loyola was less than three weeks ago. Believe me, I've kept up-to-date on the USPTO's hiring freezes and unfreezes. They don't want to talk to me any more than Fish-Richardson or DLA-Piper do.

[Hairy]

Xue, I'm not sure what the point is to all of that. First, I already know I enjoy patent work. Second, there are a lot of students -- in many areas, not just law -- who are finding out that putting themselves under $100,000 or more of debt isn't an optimal way to start off a new career, especially when the economy is in the dumpster. Third, any law student who takes on an enormous debt load, with the only way out being to land a "biglaw" job, has really poor judgment skills -- especially if that law student is going to a low-ranked school, which that "it's all a big scam!" blogger did. (Yale? No problem. Stanford? Piece of cake. Anything outside about the top ten -- not even the top 14 any more -- schools? Not unless daddy is a hiring partner!)

In even a flat economy, I'd be fine. Unfortunately, we're heading over a cliff, and it's becoming more and more obvious that our political lords and masters are too busy helping their CEO friends grab golden parachutes and taxpayer-funded bailouts to do anything to help the peons in the cattle cars.

One of my classmates has $300,000 in student loans (multiple degrees). She's had no luck finding summer associate positions either. And she's about to get married. Every time I see her fiancee, I want to tell him he's insane for tying himself to that big of a debt rock -- better to live together, so that when she suddenly decides she wants to be a stay-at-home mom instead, she can have some slight chance of getting those loans discharged.

[Xue]

Xue, I'm not sure what the point is to all of that. First, I already know I enjoy patent work. Second, there are a lot of students -- in many areas, not just law -- who are finding out that putting themselves under $100,000 or more of debt isn't an optimal way to start off a new career, especially when the economy is in the dumpster. Third, any law student who takes on an enormous debt load, with the only way out being to land a "biglaw" job, has really poor judgment skills -- especially if that law student is going to a low-ranked school, which that "it's all a big scam!" blogger did. (Yale? No problem. Stanford? Piece of cake. Anything outside about the top ten -- not even the top 14 any more -- schools? Not unless daddy is a hiring partner!)

In even a flat economy, I'd be fine. Unfortunately, we're heading over a cliff, and it's becoming more and more obvious that our political lords and masters are too busy helping their CEO friends grab golden parachutes and taxpayer-funded bailouts to do anything to help the peons in the cattle cars.

One of my classmates has $300,000 in student loans (multiple degrees). She's had no luck finding summer associate positions either. And she's about to get married. Every time I see her fiancee, I want to tell him he's insane for tying himself to that big of a debt rock -- better to live together, so that when she suddenly decides she wants to be a stay-at-home mom instead, she can have some slight chance of getting those loans discharged.

I never wrote that you had loans. Please excuse me for posting the news link that I thought you might find of interest.

I wish you well. Perhaps you have misunderstood me.
Again, I NEVER wrote that you personally HAD law school loans. Hairy, I JUST THOUGHT that you might find the two letters from lawyers interesting. I'm so happy for you Hairy. I'm so happy that even in this economy you will be fine.

My caveat was not directed at you, so there was no need for you to take any offence.

JJ Luna writes:

Around the world in 80 hours

That’s about how long it took an e-mail exchange between two lawyers in Newton, Massachusetts, to hit the front pages of newspapers on three continents and to circle the globe via e-mail. First the story. Then the lessons learned.

In late January 2006, Dianna Abdala, age 24, a graduate from Boston’s Suffolk University Law School, went job hunting at local law firms. She landed an interview with William A. Korman of Korman & Associates. Two interviews later, she accepted a position with the firm. Then came this e-mail exchange
Both national and international news organizations called this exchange “the ‘bla bla bla’that was heard round the world.” It will go down in Internet history alongside other top e-mail gaffes such as U.S. FEMADirector Michael Brown’s “Can I quit now?” (email message to his boss while Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast) and U.S. political lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s email about his clients: “These mofos are the stupidest idiots in the land.”

And now for lessons learned: Be polite. Always. It will amaze your friends and confuse your enemies. Avoid the fifth deadly sin. “Pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall.” (Proverbs 16:18.) (Don’t you just hate those family newsletters that arrive about Christmastime? “What a year it’s been for the Barringtons! Greg graduated from Harvard summa cum laude and Elizabeth took first prize at the prestigious . . .

The E-mail Spat that Landed in Cyberspace

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=1635684

When Emails Haunt You - The Saga of William Korman and Dianna Abdala

http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/when-emails-haunt-you-the-saga-of-william-korman-and-diana-abdala/#ixzz0wygbu4Ev

Oh, what's my experience with the legal field?

5 years as a deputy.
2.5 years as a State Trooper