I live in an Eastern-European shithole bogaloo country. I graduated a fairly prestigeous high school with excellent grades, and my matura exams were also all As. I'm planning on studying economics or finance at a Scottish/German uni next year. After that, I have trying to live my American dream, and take a shot at a top 50 law school in the US. Law looks my thing, I love to talk, debate, and write. However, I've heard too many horror stories about how dumb it is to try a career in law.
bump before I go to sleep, hopefully someone'll see it
Kevin Rodriguez
If it’s what you like, then I say go for it. I also live in a European shithole country (mediterranean, not eastern). I was also a bit unsure about what I wanted, but since I’m OK at public speaking and good at reading and writing, I ended up choosing Law. And I’m liking it so far, it’s hard but not as hard as people make it out to be as long as you’re fairly dilligent and smart. Also don’t think you’ll get to debate in classes - I think that’s a pretty big misconception for people who want to study Law. All you will do is listen to the professors and answer their questions.
I can only give you my perspective as a first-year student, which admittedly isn’t very helpful. Hopefully some actual lawyer can elaborate some more on actually building a career in Law
Dylan Robinson
2L here. I started at a meh school (rank ~100) and transform to a top 10 - 20.
Growing up, family friends and the internet always told me not to worry about law school unless I was going to an absolutely top tier school because it wasn't worth it. In hindsight, this advice was absolutely worthless. If you're comfortable with an upper middle class income ($150 - 250k), any ranked law school can easily place you there. It is much more difficult to break into the top 1% of incomes coming from a lower ranked school.
The advantage of top tier schools like the one I transferred to is far greater selection of on-campus interviews and school reputation, which is only actually important if you want to teach or become a federal judge or cabinet level civil servant.
>Law looks my thing, I love to talk, debate, and write.
This is me, and I excelled at law school. I genuinely loved my first year. That said, there wasn't much debate--plenty of talking and writing.
I'm taking a first year course (conlaw) at my new school that was taught as a second year course at my original school. Here, the average intelligence level of the students is higher and the professors are more well known in their fields. At my previous school, courses more difficult and the professors stricter. Here, it honestly comes off as if the professors are honestly walking on eggshells. This isn't all that surprising though--for instance, I'm conservative and I could have friendly conversations with friends at my old school on subjects we disagreed on. Here, most days in conlaw include students either openly or under their breath shit talking anyone espousing views right of bernie. Black students speak up to tell the class that "you need to check yourself before opening your mouth." There is no debate. The professor and other students self censor themselves.
That said, if you want to return to Eastern Europe, a US law degree would look great on your resume
Landon Miller
>transform transferred*
Lincoln Edwards
How well would knowledge in US law transfer to Eastern Europe?
Jayden Sullivan
>How well would knowledge in US law transfer to Eastern Europe? Law school teaches you to critically think/analyze in a legal mindset, it doesn't teach you practical application of the law. That knowledge is gained over the course of your career.
I imagine much of the basics of contracts law, the organization of business entities, perhaps some property law will be helpful. Upper level courses like international business transactions, international arbitration, etc. could be very useful.
It really comes down to what do you want to do?
Do you want to stay in your comfy homeland, or do you want to move elsewhere?
If you want to stay there, get into the best possible law school you can in your home country. Afterwards, you can always get a LLM at a top tier law school in the US if you need it or want to get into more international work.
Idk about Eastern Europe, but an American law degree almost seems like a barrier to entry for high level Chinese law firms. The LLM programs here are loaded with primarily Chinese students from top schools like Renmin and Tsinghua who need US credentials to get into top firms in Hong Kong & Beijing despite having law degree(s) from the top Chinese universities.
Also a thought, maybe a law degree from another civil law country (france, france, france, maybe austria) would be of value.
Hudson Richardson
you barely speak english. you do not attend a top law school.
Zachary Baker
Actual OP here, I've just woke up.
First of all, thanks for your answers. Second, I do not want to return to this country ever again. I despise the locals, and the government is slowly turning this place into a totalitaristic country, so I'd like to get myself, and my family out as soon as possible. I'd like to work in the US if I end up pursuing law, or Austria/Germany if I go for an IT/Finance route. Third, I have a couple of questions, since you guys seem pretty knowledgable about the topic.
What undergrad major should I choose? Does it matter at all?
Is the LSAT the only thing that matters when applying to law school?
How much debt am I going to have to take on? (Keep in mind my heritage, I might even have to get a loan for my living expenses, because my parents are not going to be able to help me out at all).
How easily am I going to find a job after graduation?
I'm asking easily google-able questions like the last one, because wherever I look,, I either find pissed off people talking about how they have 300k debt and are doing spellchecking for a big law firm for 40k a year, or people who are very satisfied and well paid lawyers, and I don't want to become the former, but I don't know whay distuinguishes it from the latter.
Cameron Gray
>going to university >in the US >as an international student I can't think of many things that are financially more foolish than this.
Ian Gonzalez
Its a good career in what type of law you get into. Like representing banks is lucrative, but legal courts over sueing other citizens and shit can be costly.
Adrian Harris
How come?
Gavin Butler
>US university fees are basically an arm and a leg >even more if you go to a school with a good reputation >throw in the need to, you know, live
And you say your family won't even be able to help. You're going to end up in a LOT of debt for MANY years
Jack Gray
I thought I could squat those 10 years out since I'm used to the lifestyle because of my Eastern-European heritage that most Americans would call poverty.
Joseph Martin
Don't underestimate the impact that'll have on your studies. Also even the shittiest of living conditions is going to cost you money - money you don't have - on top of your tuition fees.
Grayson Brooks
Should look for scholarships. another possibility is do undergrad in your country then masters in us. More scholarships available
Grayson Murphy
Okay, I did some math, and I realized you're right.
Now in Europe, how do I get into corporate law then?
Christopher Taylor
Better Call Saul!
Liam Martinez
Why not study law and become a lawyer in your own country? The anglo corporate culture is cancer.
Jeremiah Edwards
There's horror stories for literally every career path. If you're comitted to becoming a lawyer, go for it.
Elijah Torres
look at your life from death. would u regret not being a lawyer? rejection is better than regret
Lucas Williams
My country is being turned into a dictatorial regime. When it's not being fucked by the government, it's being fucked by megacorporations, who moved in after the communist collapse, and pay 1/5th of the salaries of Western countries while we're doing 70% of what Western countries are doing (mainly due to poor infrastructure and still bad planning on a national level. I also dislike the people quite a bit. I won't try to explain why.
I probably would, but I am subscribed to the idea, that you'll enjoy whatever you are good at. I just think I'd be a pretty damn good lawyer.
Chase Reed
Poland?
Kayden Wood
>I just think I'd be a pretty damn good lawyer Lawyer here. All the other lawyers I've met who thought this are arrogant, have an inflated sense of self importance and are generally mediocre lawyers because they don't know what practice is really like and are just informed by what they see on TV and in movies.
Anthony Rivera
Eh, I was just trying to convince myself out of all people that I'm this sure about this stuff.
Jordan Hill
You don't have to be sure about this. You're just out of high school, you can study what you want, and go back to law school if you decide what's what you want to do.
Camden Reyes
I work in marketing for a global law firm, the lawyers are treat like rockstars and rightly so. The heavyweights make more in a couple of hours than I do a week. Do it, OP. The only downside is you'll not have a minute to yourself, the place I work literally has an underground hotel for when people work so late they can't get home.
>My country is being turned into a dictatorial regime
Delusional liberal zoomer detected. I seriously wish you underage shits would live in an actual dictatorial regime for a while, just so you could know what are you talking about. No, the opposition being fucking retards and failing every election in a row is not dictatorship. Not letting migrants in is not dictatorship. A party winning that you dont like is not dictatorship.
Levi Fisher
>The heavyweights make more in a couple of hours than I do a week. Don't confuse lawyers' charge-out rates for their pay.
Benjamin Jackson
Whatever, I'm sure you know more about this than I do, but I don't like to get paid shit for the hard work I do.
Thanks. To get into international corporate law, do I get a law degree just whereever, or is there a specific route to get there?
Jeremiah Evans
No matter how you look at it they all have more money than God.
