Applying to a Law School and Improving Lives

I had one other primary motive for applying to law school. Everything I've said so far had to do with wanting to improve my own life. But how about the idea that a person should try to improve the lives of others.

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It seemed to me that there were two ways to fix the world's problems. You could be a star, and simply sweep in and move the masses, or you could work behind the scenes, proceeding step by methodical step.

Let's think, first, about people who become stars. Some are in music or in TV and film. Others make it by non-entertainment routes, particularly politics and religious broadcasting. Although most people seek stardom for selfish reasons, many who reach the top do become interested in trying to get the public's support for various good causes.
Lawyers don't use all those avenues. In particular, you don't see many lawyers becoming TV preachers or movie stars. Most lawyers who reach stardom do so through politics.

You often hear two comments about lawyers in the world of politics. One is that you need lawyers in politics, because much of politics concentrates on lawmaking. And the other is that law must be a good way to get into politics, because so many politicians are lawyers.

I now think, however, that those notions deserve a closer look. Accountants, realtors, and other businesspeople have long since shown that you don't need to be a lawyer to understand the laws that matter to you, and I'm sure the same is true of our non-lawyer senators. What's surprising is not that many lawmakers are attorneys, but that so many are not.

By the same token, I don't think law school will make you into a politician if you aren't already. The lawyers who become politicians might have done so even if they hadn't gone to law school. Many of those lawyers who go into politics get involved in student government during college and law school, and many enter politics not long after graduation. This suggests that they already had a plan before they started law school, and that perhaps they wanted the law degree merely to appear more attractive to voters.

I don't know whether law school can help you get into politics. There's some risk that it'll turn you into a hopeless geek, or that you'll be a mediocre law student and that your opponents will use that against you in the election.

But if you do get into politics, the next question is whether your law school experience will have made you the kind of person, in the kind of position, who will do well for other people. And there's room for doubt on that point. Will law school teach you more about honesty? What about the evidence that, during law school, law students gradually become less interested in such things as making the world a better place or going into public interest law - isn't there a risk that law school will sidetrack you altogether? You want to believe that you'll have the strength to stick with your vision, but, then again, you're fooling with your entire career here, and you don't want to be a chump about it.

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Does law school develop your political skills? It's not so clear. Consider, for example, two groups of political leaders in the English-speaking world during the past 50 years, namely, our most famous lawyer and non-lawyer politicians.

Aside from the unusual circumstances of someone like Bobby Kennedy, it's tough to come up with an impressive list of leading lawyer-politicians. You've got Richard Nixon and, well, I don't even know where you'd look to find another successful lawyer who became a famous politician. Gary Hart? Ed Meese? Aside from Nixon, the only U.S. President in the last 50 years who ever practiced law was Franklin Roosevelt, and he didn't seem terribly interested in it.

Churchill was a mediocre student. King's fame did not come from his scholarship. And Reagan certainly was no rocket scientist.

But could those guys appeal to the collective imagination, or what? Despite his impressive legal skills, Nixon in his wildest dreams never had either the eloquence of Churchill and King or the popularity of Reagan.

So let's hesitate at the notion that a lawyer who wants to do good things must start out by becoming a star. If you know lawyers and the way they operate, you know that you're much more likely to see them working behind the scenes, in government and in nonprofit organizations, handling issues and solving problems mat their political bosses simply don't have the time, interest, or training to comprehend. Without these attorneys, from Legal Aid to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), our lives would be less bearable.

This, by the way, is a perfectly valid way to make a difference. It does not do as much for the ego as being elected president, maybe, but it's still important.

I want to warn you, however, against making too much of it. Budgets, laws, and politics impose real limits that keep young lawyers from making a noticeable difference in government and other organizations. As a result, one's idealism can easily turn to frustration.

And on this avenue, too, law school can sidetrack you. Public-interest organizations, unlike private law firms, may not be able to afford to send interviewers to your law school. They also won't necessarily know, a year in advance, how many lawyers to hire for next year. This presents even the best-intentioned law student with a difficult choice: Accept a job offer from a private law firm in September of your third year in law school, and have all your job worries taken care of long before you graduate, or else "go naked" while your classmates are lining up their jobs, and hope that someone in public-interest law will offer you a job next April.

Your law school classmates may not understand how you could turn your back on the money (and, they'll say, the top-quality training) that you'd get if you went with a law firm instead of this public interest stuff. They'll tell you that the law firm will look better on your rumen they’ll say that the improved resume and the superior training you'll get at that firm will make it possible for you to get a much more important public service legal position after a few years, if you still want it at that point. And how about enjoying a little of the good life, and being able to pay off those student loans?
If that weren't enough temptation, big law firms make a point of announcing that their attorneys can pursue pro bono work while employed at the firm. Different career plans require different approaches, and your idealism may not necessarily benefit from law school.

What Makes Others Go to Law School

The things that motivated me to want to go to law school - including diversity, money, excitement, and the opportunity to do well - are not unusual. In one study, more than 500 Chicago attorneys checked off the items that described why they went to law school. Here are the answers they gave (in percentage):

• Interest in the subject matter
• Wanted to practice law
• Good background for other occupational goals
• Prestige of the profession
• Influence of family
• Prospects of above-average income
• Opportunity to be helpful to others and/or useful To society
• Uncertainty about future plans
• Opportunity to work with people Rather than things
• Stable secure future expected
• Relative freedom from supervision by others
• Influence of friend or teacher
• Like to argue and debate
• Opportunity to have an influence on the settlement Of legal questions
• Wanted to postpone military service

I'm not saying there's anything conclusive about this study. The factors listed here may be much more important for some law schools, for lawyers who are older or younger, etc. The main thing is to understand your own goals and decide whether law matches them.

In Brief: Applying to Law School
I have been negative here because I've wanted to provide a counterpoint to the overwhelming popular beliefs about being a lawyer. Everyone knows the upside: Among other things, you make lots of money and do work that's more interesting than working as a cashier at the supermarket. I've considered it important to point out some things that lawyers and law schools don't always tell you.

I have to admit, I find it refreshing to read one lawyer's description of law school admissions officers as "sales people" who produce "significant misconceptions'' in the minds of people who are applying to law schools.50 But I guess I should have known. You don't go to the Tourist Information Center and ask why the city is so ugly and mean.

My dream inspired me to work very hard to prepare for and take the LSAT and then file my applications for law schools. I was quite eager to be accepted by those schools. And when I was accepted, my future looked bright. The months between acceptance and enrollment passed quickly, and then I was a Columbia Law School student.

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